🤩🤩🤩👏👏👏 A big thank you to all those who our first show at Witcombe and Bentham Village Hall, Out of Focus by Peter Gordon, and donating to our chosen charity.

With your kind contributions and some of the money from ticket sales, we are excited to announce that we have been able to donate £400 to MacMillan Cancer Support. 🎉🎉🎉

Macmillan Nurses are specialist cancer nurses who can help you to understand your cancer diagnosis and treatment options, and support you through your cancer experience. As well as having information and support services for you, we also have many services which can help your family and loves ones.

👏🎉 Wow! What a fabulous 3 nights!

A wonderful turnout on each of the 3 nights. What a warm welcome to Witcombe. A massive thank you to all of you who came out on such cold evenings. We hope you all enjoyed it.

Thank you also for your generous donations to MacMillan nurses. We will let you know how much we raised once we have finished counting it.

A really fun production directed by Ian Clark. Congratulations to everyone involved. 🎉👏

While we finish clearing up and having a little celebration we will be finalising plans for our next events, so watch this space. 🎊

If you are interested in getting involved with the group in any capacity, we welcome new members so please get in touch.

Thank you 🤩

Come along and enjoy an entertaining evening this week from Wednesday 17th until Friday the 19th January at Witcombe and Bentham Village Hall.


The play synopsis:

Helen has arrived at the Church Hall with her troupe of terrorising Brownies in tow. Kath and Bob arrive ready for their planned badminton game amidst their own marital quarrels about Bob’s secretary Linda, who also arrives ready to play, with ladies’ man Wayne not far behind. David and Sue show up for the big game even though Leonard insists he has booked the hall for an illustrated talk on steam locomotives and Evonne is certain she has arranged for the rehearsal of her very first pantomime. Confusion reigns until everyone finally unites for a common cause, the production of the pantomime. Over the coming weeks, alliances are formed and switched as they all battle against the odds and the opening night nears. Bob and Kath’s marital troubles continue, with Linda in the middle. Helen, in between staging walk-outs, is in pursuit of David, although he only has eyes for Sue. Wayne is out to impress anyone who will listen, while Leonard rapidly bores everybody into submission. Events finally culminate during Leonard’s talk at the final night party, when Evonne finds her confidence, Helen her come-uppance and everyone else receives their just desserts.


Enjoy our comedy play with friends or family while supporting us in our new venue. The doors will be open from 7pm and when we will be selling tea, coffee and mulled wine. Refreshments will also be available in the interval with the additional treat of cake.

We can accept card payments but prefer cash if possible. Don’t forget to bring some change for our retiring collection to support MacMillan Nurses.

Tickets will be available on the door or call 01242 520388 to reserve your seat or alternatively book on Eventbrite https://bit.ly/CCOutOfFocus.
Performances start at 7.30.

We look forward to seeing you there and hope you have a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Please share this with your friends and family to help us publicise the event. Many thanks 🙏

Introducing Ian Clark, Director

Ian has been an integral part of the group for many years both on and off stage, so will be a familiar face to our returning audiences. He has taken part in acting, directing and set building, but also for a large part of his time with us being part of the committee. Ian is our group Secretary and has put in a lot of work to enable our move to Witcombe amongst other things.

When did you join The Curtain Callers (formerly Churchdown Players)?
It was 1995. We went to a reading of a play, supporting our two girls who were interested in being cast and somehow, without auditioning we ended up with parts.

What is the first show you directed?
I can’t remember the name of the play, it was for The Single Act Play Competition, hosted by the Gloucestershire Drama Association at The Kings Barton Theatre in Gloucester. We got a creditable mention but the judges were very critical of us having a coffee table perfectly square on to the audience, never again. We then took the play to several venues as part of other entertainments.
My first full play was Mistress and Masterpiece in 1999. Most memorable for a bright ginger wig one of the male cast members had to wear and the large painting on the set of Janet posing naked on a chaise. We still have the painting in our loft.

What has been your favourite show to direct?
I don’t have to pause to consider this answer. By far and away the best play/production I have been involved with is Present Laughter, by Noel Coward. We did the show in 2014 and I had the most perfect cast, some of whom have asked whether we could do it again. Maybe, if I could learn all those lines again. Someone who had been involved in amateur dramatics for a very long time and whose opinion I respected very much said after one show, “We saw that play a couple of years ago whilst on holiday and it was awful, we weren’t looking forward to this evening. We saw a totally different production. One of the best things we’ve ever seen”. High praise indeed. It was just great in every way, very funny and it raised the game for everyone involved. At the time I wanted the performances to go on and on.

Why have you chosen to direct ‘Out of Focus’?
It is a new start for the drama group. It was sad having to leave Churchdown after over 60 years but we had no choice. If we had stayed the group would have folded because of unaffordable financial costs.
Moving to Witcombe poses a risk on many levels, the biggest being can we build a new audience? We hope some of our previous audiences will make the move with us but it is critical that we draw in new people from Witcombe and the surrounding areas. To that end, we needed to choose a play that we are confident we can stage, that we know is popular with audiences and we felt a comedy is more likely to attract new people.
In 2008 we staged Out of Focus in Churchdown and it was very well received. Peter Gordon, the author, knows how to get a good laugh, the play has pace (if we get it right) and its bright and uplifting. Just the thing for a dark, chilly January evening.

Is there anything you would love to direct, given the opportunity?
Nothing springs immediately to mind as an unfulfilled ambition. As I’ve mentioned above, I would love to have another go at Present Laughter. It was so good, my fear would be not achieving the same heights again.

Do you prefer to act or direct?
It depends entirely on the play. I get as much pleasure and satisfaction from directing as acting. There’s something about finding a play, getting a cast and bringing the whole thing to the stage.
At the same time, acting is great, it just depends on the part. Recently playing Sherlock Holmes again was wonderful, I loved being in Blithe Spirit, Cider With Rosie, Darling Buds of May, Home is Where Your Clothes Are, Allo, Allo and many others. Sorry to mention it again but – Present Laughter gave me the chance to direct and act. Maybe that’s the answer, do both.

Introducing Martin Giles

Martin is the last of our group’s new additions. Although he is new to us you will read below that he may be familiar from other groups. We hope he enjoys the production and look forward to seeing him in action.

How long have you been with The Curtain Callers (formerly Churchdown Players)?
This is my first production with The Curtain Callers so I would say that it's been less than 6 months

Have you been in any other drama groups?
I have done a few proper productions and have performed with The Rococo Players, Promenade Productions and a group who performed at the Cheltenham Playhouse but have since disbanded. Beside these groups most of my on stage life has been in short plays at my church community.

Can you remember the first production you were in and who you played?
Two answers here. My first proper am dram performance was in The Three Musketeers in which I played 3 parts, Dartangians father, Constances husband and Buckingham’s man servant. My first performance as an adult was at church playing a character called Percy, an effeminate Knight in King Arthur's round table, that part I got when I stood in for the directors son at a read through of the script.

What has been your favourite character that you have played?
So many silly answers to this one but I think it would be one of the many villains played over several short plays at church. It's a choice between Captain Hook or Mad Max, a slightly over the top Mexican bandit leader.

Is there a specific production you would love to be in?
I love musicals as well as plays, I think maybe Into The Woods or a stage production of The Greatest Showman

Who do you play in ‘Out of Focus’ and can you tell us a little about your character?
I play Leonard Trotter. I think Leonard is best described by saying he is an enthusiastic but bumbling educator with a wealth of interesting but unfortunately useless information to share.

Introducing Malcolm Webb

Malcolm is another long term group member. As well as acting roles, if you have been to any of our musical variety shows or seen Churchdown Male Voice Choir you will have no doubt heard him singing. In recent years Malcolm has not only done some amazing work on our set design and build including Santas Grotto and the Hound of the Baskervilles set performed at Churchdown Community Centre, but also built storage solutions to maintain the props and set.

How long have you been with The Curtain Callers (formerly Churchdown Players)?
For about 15 years, during which I have appeared in Variety Shows. My favourite part was the role of 'Captain Bertoreli' in 'Allo Allo'.

Have you been in any other drama groups?
The Cotswold Players in Stroud and The Cotswold Savoyards.

Can you remember the first production you were in and who you played?
My first role was 'Prez' in 'The Pyjama Game' at the Cotswold Playhouse.

What has been your favourite character that you have played?
It was 'Doolittle' in 'My Fair Lady' at the Everyman Theatre with the Cotswold Savoyards.

Is there a specific production you would love to be in?
I enjoy the classic musicals and operas. I would love to be in productions like 'Showboat', 'Porgy and Bess' and 'Carmen'.

Who do you play in ‘Out of Focus’ and can you tell us a little about your character?
I play David Wright a Police Officer who has turned up to play a table tennis match and becomes far more involved than he expected…..in more ways than one!