Wow! What a ride this has been. This has been the best stage production by StageOne by far with many laughs and unexpected gags, jokes and pranks including surprising Wishee Washee with his happy birthday, visual gags by Abanazer, and the presentation to the Director. We were in condition tonight. The audience enjoyed this performance and so did we. This was a classic tale of love conquering all boundaries and good triumphing over evil.

Another excellent performance by StageOne with so many laughs we lost count with plenty of booing of vile Abanazer. The audience enjoyed this performance and so did we. We are back again for only one more fortune transforming and ruining performances. Just who are these invisible, silent and deadly ninjas?

Another excellent panto performance by StageOne with lot more laughs, and booing of vile Abanazer. We really enjoyed this performance and are happy the audience all enjoyed it too. And oh my, we are back again tomorrow for a double whammy of fortune transforming and ruining performances. Will Abanazer ever get hold of the magic lamp and rule the world?

We had a great start to our panto shows with lots of laughs and some humorous moments. We really did well and put on a great evenings entertainment. Of course we will be doing it all over again tomorrow. Oh yes we are! Oh yes we are!

This week Malcolm lead an exciting workshop where we discussed directing and observed Malcolm direct members in performing three sketches. StageOne also had a guest leader, Ian who is the resisdent organist for Folkestone Methodist Church. StageOne has a fun time singing their hearts away to some classics such as "Consider Yourself" and others.

On Sunday 18th Decemeber StagOne performed 3 Christmas themed sketches at the Christingle service at Sandgate Road Methodist Church. The sketches included "The Tone Deaf Angel" (a parody of X Factor) where the Angel Gabriel auditions for a Angelic Throng and fails miserably. There was "The Twelve Days of Christmas" where a choir start the well know song of very well and start changing the verses to simulate how we can all get caught up in hustle and bustle of preparing for Christmas and forget the real meaning of Christmas. Finally, there was "Camel Crash" where a traveling sales rep who is staying overnight in Bethlehem retells us about of a ugly camel pile up on his way into the town and brags about how he sold three kings some gold, frankincense and myrrh to replace broken new baby gifts. This is brought to a abrupt end when he finds out he can't have his donkey parked in its allot space because of a couple and a baby, and that a parking attendant is looking at the donkey and issuing a ticket.

On Saturday 19th November StageOne took part in the D.I.Y concert at the United Reformed Church, in Folkestone.

The concert had a large turn out and had a wide variety of performances from professional young dancers, singers and musicians and StageOne.

StageOne performed two sketches. The first was a sketch written by Dave Hopwood and was a retelling of the parable of Rich Fool in Luke 12:16-21. The second sketch was written by one of the members of StageOne and has a funny twist at the end.

StageOne took part in the Churches Together Folkestone All Saints service on Sunday 29th October and dramatized a few verses of St Pauls letter to the Colossians.

It was a lovely evening service with lots of people coming along and joining in the singing lead by a brilliant music group and choir.

On Sunday 29th october StageOne took part in The of Word of the Lord at the United Reformed Church, in Folkestone.

It was a fascinating immensely display. It comprised of extracts from readings and psalms from the Old Testament and the New Testament.

StageOne also read a variety of proverbs, the Beatitudes, the Condemnations of Hypocrisy, and New Testament teachings.

Today members of the Aladdin Pantomime 2012 cast had their frist full read through of the script. We were told it was a laugh a minute and it was with many many puns, innuendos and plays on words. More than I realised myself. It was very hard to control our laughter as other cast members read their lines without trying to laugh. I can definetely say the script is one the best we have had for sometime.

StagOne will be rehearsing more or less immediatly through the Februray. And what a show we have in store!

On Tuesday Michael Hale lead another play reading workshop where we began reading another comedy / farce play called The Government Inspector, by novelist Nikolai Gogol.

Plot Summary

The corrupt officials of a small Russian town, headed by the Mayor, react with terror to the news that an incognito inspector will soon be arriving in their town to investigate them. In the rush to cover up their considerable misdeeds a report that a suspicious person who arrived two weeks previously from Saint Petersburg and is staying at the inn. This person, however, is not an inspector; it is Khlestakov, a foppish civil servant.

The officials learn that Khlestakov has been charging his considerable hotel bill to the Crown, the Mayor and his crooked cronies are certain that this is the dreaded inspector. For quite some time Khlestakov realize that he has been mistaken for someone else. Meanwhile, he enjoys the officials' terrified deference and moves in as a guest in the Mayor's house. He also demands and receives massive "loans" from the Mayor and all of his associates. He also flirts with the Mayor's wife and daughter.

Following this, the village's Jewish and Old Believer merchants arrive and begging Khlestakov to have the Mayor dismissed from his post for they are sick and tired of the Mayor's demands for bribes, Stunned at the Mayor's rapacious corruption, Khlestakov states that he deserves to be exiled in chains to Siberia. Then, however, he pockets still more "loans" from the merchants, promising to comply with their request. By now the Mayor is terrified that he is now found out and pleads with Khlestakov not to have him arrested.

Khlestakov announces that he is returning to St. Petersburg, having been persuaded by his valet Osip, that it is too dangerous to continue the charade any longer. After Khlestakov and Osip depart, the Mayor's friends all arrive to congratulate him. Certain that he now has the upper hand, he summons the merchants, and vows to squeeze them for every kopeck they are worth. However, the Postmaster suddenly arrives carrying an intercepted letter which reveals Khlestakov's true identity—and his mocking opinion of them all.

The Mayor, after years of bamboozling Governors and shaking down criminals of every description, is enraged to have been thus humiliated. He screams at his cronies, stating that they, not himself, are to blame. While they continue arguing, a message arrives from the real Government Inspector, who is demanding to see the Mayor immediately.

Members of StageOne attended the Holy Trinity Pet Service on Sunday 25th September and performed two musical puppetry acts as part of the service. The puppet show consisted of a pop group of cat puppets called Cool Cats with brilliant hand made props. They gave an excellent performance and was applauded by parents and children alike.

On Saturday 17th Septemeber StageOne put on their second mini revue combining a marvelous four course meal with entertainment in between each course. Its was a very successful evening with equally brilliant performances by all the members

Performences included The Cool Cats puppet show with Adam, Shelly and Dana, a sketch by Ray Roe that was performed as it would be on the radio, jokes with Roger, and a sketch with a twist with Sue and Malcolm.

StageOne will be holding another open day in which StageOne will showcase some of their work and what they are about. StageOne will perform a variety of presentations and a four-course fish and chip supper is provided. There is a choice of fish, sausage or pie, and chips will be available, with a range of starters and desserts to be offered on the night.

There will be a drinks reception from 6.00 with performances starting at 6.30pm.

Full details available on our website.

This week we had a brilliant Mavis & Ray special where we all participated in a sketch written by Ray and performed with as if it was broadcast on the radio. Characters spoke and mimed any actions and sound effects were included, including the opening and shutting of doors and many more.

This workshop was followed by a very searching StageOne quiz which jogged the memories of both teams with questions about Treasure Island, The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew, key drama skills and some trickery questions. Next year it will be harder.

This week we will have another brilliant comedy workshop with Roger. Roger had brought with him a variety of comedy books and biographical books including Tommy Cooper and Spike Milligan. Roger invited us to debate what types of comedy particular comedians focused on. Examples included slap-stick, paradying, innuendos.

Following Roger, Adam led his first Shakespeare work shop and intorduced us all to Othello and talked abit about the play and the plot, and characters. The plot essentially involves a charcter called Iago trying set up Othello because he go passed over for promotion. We read through the first two scenes and immediatley got a feel for what Iago was up to. We will continue to look at the play abit further.

Last Tuesday we were entertained by David as we enjoyed taking a second look at the opera CARMEN and marvelled at the wonderful custumes and actions that feature in this fast'moving operatic drama. The thriliing atmosphere created by this opera can only be longed for as we produce our own plays and pantomines!

We also had a session on IDIOMS led by Roger - it was fun thinking about all sorts of everyday expressionswe often take for granted - but have no idea of their original meaning or intentions - as a a result much laughter emanated! Are you at the tip of the iceberg; speechless or wear the tousers!?;do you talk the hindlegs off a donkey? or are you the man in the street? Is a bird in the hand worth two in the bush and do you call a spade a spade? Well - it's all as broad as it's long even if you're barking up the wrong tree! Even if you're as dumb as a post, would you pull the skin off a rice-pudding? Then we all sang Here we go round the Mulberry Bush and considered who Simple Simon was - a person dear to the Chairman's heart!

Thank you and everyone who came and supported StageOne and to those who helped at yesterday's S.1. fund-raising event. We will know the total proceeds by Tuesday. It was very enjoyable and the weather was good, though abit chilly. Some people thought we were part ofthe Folkestone Trienniel - whow!

Alice In Wonderland Themed Coffee Morning (Sat 2nd July 2011)

This Saturday, StageOne will be holding a coffee morning in the theme of Alice In Wonderland. Appearing once again will be many of the cast from the Alice In Wonderland performance seen last in February. Look out for that white rabbit!

Taking place at Sandgate Road Methodist Church from 10am until 2pm. Tea and coffee and light lunches will be served.

Will you descend through the rabbit hole?

This week StageOne continued the Stomp workshop and with losts of work built up a routine. Lots of thanks to the leaders of the workshop. We will be putting all are work with Stomp to god use at the Holy Trinity Fair this Saturday.

This week StageOne had a very interesting Stomp workshop and we all learnt lots. Most of us did not play a musical instrument in our spare time, however we all did very well thanks to the leaders of the workshop. We finished this workshop off with a medley of different beats and actions and formed an interesting piece. Stomp continues next week.

This week StageOne began reading Don Juan. The story of Don Juan ("Don Giovanni" in Italian) is a legendary, fictional libertine or rogue whose story has been told many times by many authors. Some of the best known works about this character are Molière's play Dom Juan ou le Festin de pierre (1665), Byron's epic poem Don Juan (1821),
and "Don Giovanni", an opera composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte.

The story of Don Juan is that his is a rogue and a libertine who takes great pleasure in seducing women and proposing to marry them and in most versions of the story enjoys fighting the men to whom the women are already committed. The rogue does not believe in anything, God included and does get what is coming to him, as warned by one of the many women his seduced.

Don Juan is used synonymously for "womanizer", especially in Spanish slang.

The edition we read was by Molière' and translated by Neil Barlett . Book ISBN 1840024399

Today we welcome our newest member, Sophia. StageOne had yet another brilliant Core Skills workshop with Sue. StageOne took part in some interesting exercises and rehearsed two sketches the group have been been working on.

Today StageOne had another brilliant Core Skills workshop with Sue. With just a few random objects from home and a little imagination, each member was able to create a character based on two objects chosen at random. Members also divided in to two groups and each performed a mini sketch based on the objects they had chosen.

This week we finished with our reading of Oscar Wilde's comedy, "An Ideal Husband" and we got to find out that it all ended happily for all the main characters. Mrs Cheavley did not succeed in her blackmailing campaign and as far as we know got what was coming to her.

In the great morning sunshine and a rising red sun many people gathered together at the ampetheatre in the Leas in Folkestone
to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus in the Sunrise service. StageOne acted out an extract from St. Matthews Gospel Chapter 28 Verses 1-19.
John Simpson reprised his role of Jesus, Shelly Homles and Sue Roe played the women, Paul Robbins played the Roman Guard(s), Adam Grannell played the Angel (his first Sunrise service). Roger played Pilate. Narration was by Malcolm Robertson and Adam Freeman. There was some beautiful music combined with cool sea air and bird song. Wonderful.

StageOne will be performing the Resurrection Of Jesus, according tho the Gospel of St. Matthew in the Sun Rise Service this Sunday. It will tak place in the very early hours of Sunday morning in the ampetheatre on the Leas. John Simpson will once again portray Jesus, with Adam Grannell making a debut as the Angel, and Sue Roe, Shelly holmes, Roger Smith, Malcolm Robertson and other helpers.

This week we had a interesting Inside/Outside workshop. Although we were thin in numbers because of members attending Spring Harvest is Minehead, four of us ventured out into Folkestone and observed people's mannerisms, behavior and so on. Examples included people double parking their cars in Sandgate Road, gathering in the chippy for fish and chips, enjoying the nice weather outside the local pub or guest house. Some of this we were able to act out back at base.

Some good examples to look out for are people on their mobile phones and how they talk so loudly for all to hear, people out shopping and how they behave, how cashiers great and serve you at Sainsbury's, finally drivers. Coming back to Ashford this evening, I noticed that junction 12 and 13 had cones barring the far side lane and so leaving 1 lane for us all to use. Once the cone stopped, 2 cars immediately gathering speed and sped past me and the car in front.

This week we continued with our reading of Oscar Wilde's comedy, "An Ideal Husband" and we were introduced to the political maneuvering and the blackmail faced by Sir Robert and the horrible Mrs Cheveley. Its an exciting read with a lot of conversation between charcters.

This week we had a very informative work shop on Shakespeare lead by Shelly. This week we continued examing phrases used in all of Shakespeare's plays. Last time we looked at phrases in the English modern language which come from Shakespeare and are used in every day life. Examples include "One fell swoop", "Wild goose chase", and "Seen better days". It surprising just how much is from Shakespeare.

Our workshop today looked at phrases attributed to Shakespeare, but are not actually his own. Examples included
"Et tu, Brute? ", "Laughing stock", "The dog will have his day", "Out of the question", "The Naked Truth" and more.

Again it was surprising what people thought was Shakespeare's own phrases. However, as we all do today, Shakespeare used the popular sayings of the day.

In the second half, we had Matt lead us in a Script Writing and Consequences workshop. We were divided into to two groups of five. Each group were given five characters, five props, five locations. Using these each group had to make a script an try to incorporate everything. It was very hard to do but also humerous. We had notable impressions of The Doctor, Darth Vader, The Archbishop of Canterbury, and more. The Doctor got caught in a hurricane and Lord Vader was attending council meeting and apologising for his Star Destroyer miss firing and causing a big hole in The Leas in Folkestone. The captain of the ship was not so lucky.

This week Ray and Mavis lead the StageOne group in a mixed sketch acting and poetry work shop in which we had to use all our skills and knowledge.

We began by listening to a short peom, read my Mavis. Then we had the same poem with only the first four lines. Our task was to add as many more lines as we could think of. The results were very interesting.

After the break, we had to choose a situation from a small selection and in pairs act it out. The rest of the group had to guess what it was we were doing. Examples included moving a heavy item of furniture, trying on cloths and some very hilarious examples too.

This weeks comedy workshop looked at contemporary comedy and examined examples found in televison such as Family Guy, Futurama, Coming Of Age and Lunch Monkeys. Examples in radio included Dead Ringers, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, and others. We also had a look at some examples of stand up comedy including established names such as Catherine Tate, Michael Mcintyre, Peter Kay and Alan Carr.

The group discussed what Stage One could learn from such examples. One important point raised included not using foul language in a comedy routine was many comedians seem to. Other points were getting audiences to participate in the sketch, respecting the audience, picking the himourous material with care, using the radiculous and parodying that audiences will easy relate to such as the news, antics and phrases by politicians past and present.

The group finished the workshop with a version of "Just A Minute". With some repetition, hesitation and deviation the group talked about particular topics including what they know about Fred, a made up name and person by the way, how to make a stew, my favourite comedian, their first day st school, and why they had to visit the physiatrist, and others.

It was fun for all from start to finish with added sound from Adam's computer and noisy items brought specially.

Amazingly three of the group were able to talk without being challenged for a full 50 seconds topped by one member achieving a full minute. WOW!

This week is another lon awaited comedy workshop with Roger Smith and Adam Grannell. We will be exploring what comedy is and taking a lokk at some of the contempory comedy outthere today both on TV and radio, and how we can apply some of the knowledge into out drama on stage. But thats not all!

We will also have another exciting workshop with Ian and exploring singing on stage and looking back at some of the singing skills used in the Alice In Wonderland Production.

Pictures from the performance of Alice In Wonderland featuring the wonderful cast. Pictures include those from taken during the show, pictures of the cast and some pictures taken during rehearsals.

See stageone.org.uk 

We had a really enjoyable work shop with Sue focusing on alittle bit of dance or movement and actions and then doing actions to certain hymns found in the methodist hymn book. We looked maainly at the "Give Me Joy in My Heart" hymn. Other hymns could have actions and movement made to me. Previous examples of this sort of thing have been shown at the D.I.Y concert in 2008.

This is the third and final trailer for the stage performance of Alice In Wonderland by Stage One taking place in February 2011, at Sandgate Road Methodist Church, Sandgate Road, Folkestone, Kent. Enjoy.

We are all getting ready for the Alice In Wonderland production. We have a great cast and brilliant costumes. Our opening night is this Thursday. Break a leg everyone!

Tuesday 15th February 2011

This week we have another exciting workshop focusing on improvisation, another core skill for drama with Shelly. Each workshop is fun as we improve on ways to react to something happening on stage or to something that is said to us. Such skills will be useful for the Alice In Wonderland production.

Following on from Shelly's workshop, John will be leading a workshop on stage lighting. The Alice In Wonderland production will be a very good demonstartion of what we have learnt and our experiences from two previous productions.

Tonight we started reading Oscar Wilde’s comedy “An Ideal Husband”. This, as we quickly discovered, bears a very strong resemblance to today’s world even though it was written in 1895: corrupt politicians, scandal, people living out of touch with society etc. With a cast including many female parts, and only 1 female member present tonight, this did mean a little artistic licence with the gender of the parts being read! Although it starts off being a little condescending and not exactly showing an immediately likeable set of characters, we soon got into the parts and started to enjoy the way the play sees past their pretence and the real character comes through.

We had a really exciting Core Skills workshop today with Sue. We practised how to present a message to the audience buy using only our faces, expressions and our actions.

We also read and acted out a sketch called The Rich Fool, by Dave hopwood. This sketch is based on teh parable by Jesus. See the Gospel of St Luke 12:16-21.

This week we have another exciting workshop focusing on the core skills for drama and workshop for improvising with Sue.

Each workshop helps us remember the basics of how to perform on the stage and how to handle yourself when something does not go as expected. As of writing, I remember oen of the most basic things is "never turn your back to the audience", and "don't walk infront of another person when moving about on stage".

Dave has already introduced us to the opera Carmen from our last workshop. This week we watched the first act of the Epic film which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Malcolms special workshop was on stories and skteches that had a twist to them. A good example was a couple discussing discipline regarding what we all thought was a young child taking their time about going to bead and it being a chore for one of the grown ups. It then turned out right at the end that the person being discussed was a grand parent.

Representatives from Churches Together in Folkestone and all Folkestone Churches are invited to the two workshops on Tuesday 26 April so that a meeting of minds can occur to consider ways in which StageOne can support local activities.

Tuesday 18th January 2011

Dave will be leading another workshop looking at Opera. We will also have a special workshop lead by Malcolm. We don't know what he has in store for us. Its a secret!

Also, representatives from Churches Together in Folkestone and all Folkestone Churches are invited to the two workshops on Tuesday 26 April so that a meeting of minds can occur to consider ways in which StageOne can support local activities.

This is the second teaser for the stage performance of Alice In Wonderland by Stage One taking place in February 2011, at Sandgate Road Methodist Church, Sandgate Road, Folkestone, Kent. Enjoy.

See StageOne.org.uk/aliceinwonderland for more information.

Here are the times for the performances of Alice In Wonderland taking place at Sandgate Road Methodist Church, Folkestone

Thursday 24th February

• 7.30pm

Friday 25th February

• 7.30pm

Saturday 26th February

• 2.30pm (Matinee)
  
  
• 7.30pm

This week finished reading the play An Enemy of the People by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. We have already read the first two acts and enjoyed reading about the struggles of the play's protagonist, Dr Stockmann, who wants to do the right thing but is threatened by social intolerance, corruption and supression of free thinking of the people in charge and systems in place.

This is the first little teaser for the stage performance of Alice In Wonderland by Stage One taking place in February 2011, at Sandgate Road Methodist Church, Sandgate Road, Folkestone, Kent. Enjoy.

See StageOne.org.uk/aliceinwonderland for more information.

Today StageOne performed 3 Christmas themed sketches as part of the Christmas Free Style service at Eastling Village Hall. We certainly made everyone laugh.

Our first sketch was about a tone deaf angel who was auditioning to part of an angelic throng in the style of X Factor.
Who else but the Angel Gabriel

This sketch was following by a shepherd going to a psychiatrist about some visions.

The final sketch was about a sales rep who wants to have his company donkey parked in a designated parking spot in the stable of the inn he is staying in and can not understand why the stable is full. While this is happening, his donkey is given a parkig ticket and clamped.

We thank the people of Eastling for their very warm welcome. We enjoyed ourselves very much.

We will be taking part in another Shakespeare workshop this week. We will be reading through another piece of work by Shakespeare and also act part of it out. So far we have looked at the following plays; Twelfth Night, The Taming Of The Shrew, and also A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Find out more about Shakespeares plays here >>

In today's workshop we also looked at a selection of phrases used in today's english language which were coined by Shakespeare. Such phrases included "Forgone Conclusion" (MacBeth), "Full Circle" (King Lear), "Good Riddance" (Trolus & Cressiola), "Seen Better Days" (As You Like It), "Laid with a trowl" (As you like it) ,"Blinking Idiot" (Merchant Of Venice), and "Eaten out of house and home" (Henry IV)

In the second half of the work shop we had a poetry workshop were we read Wildred Owens "DULCE ET DECORUM EST" and other peoms by Carol Ann Duffy.

As part of the evening service by parishioners of St Andrew's Methodist Church in Folkestone, members of StageOne performed a sketch called Jack And The Dreamstalk, a pariody of the Jack And The Bean Stalk story. It concerned a young lay-about called Jack who who gradually climbs the career ladder and gets too big for his boots.

All members did very well and we got some laughs as a result of our actions.

Another singing workshop with Ian covering the very basics of singing which can help you the stage. Ian's advice has been really helpful and has can help with speaking and acting parts out on stage with regard to making yourself heard.

We also have our first workshop about Opera, with David. We will be looking at a small selection of Operas.

We had a very very exciting singing work shop with Ian. It just proves that we can infact sing, though some say they can't.

We also looked at Operas including Carmen, Aide and the Magic Whistle and became familiar with some classical music numbers. Very interesting.