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Site owned by St. Giles Pantomime Society. Pontefract.

Constructed and maintained by Roy Gunson, last up-date 9th February 2010

The Snow Queen

publicity photos

Puss in Boots 2009 n

Archive Photos

Visitors since April 2005

The Prince of Wales

visits Pontefract

Lucy Holmes

the Athlete

Sleeping Beauty 2008

Swinefleet Memories

      There is nothing like a Dame

My first encounter with a Pantomime Dame came when I was 3 years old and I must say it wasn’t a very pleasant experience. I was living in Selby at the time and I had been taken to see the annual pantomime being performed by the St Mary’s Catholic Players and I can still remember running from the theatre (or rather St Mary’s Church Hall) screaming.  I was later told that this reaction was prompted by the appearance of the Dame (being played by a man) on stage. I was absolutely terrified.

I thought that this event had scarred me for life because subsequently I hated pantomimes and couldn’t bear to watch such popular post-war characters as old Mother Riley and Norman Evans (whose act was made up of him appearing as a woman chatting to an unseen neighbour ‘over the garden wall’)  Indeed any act which involved a man dressing up as a woman left me cold. I could never watch Danny La Rue or Paul O’Grady when he first appeared as Lily Savage (although I later came to admire and enjoy the character). The one exception to all of this was Dick Emery and for some reason I did find his female impersonations very funny.

Fast forward now to 1980 when my wife Barbara and I appeared in the chorus of our first St Giles Pantomime (Pinocchio). Our daughter Claire was a sunbeam in that show and we were persuaded to join to support her. I must say I enjoyed the experience and agreed to join the chorus the following year for Cinderella. The rehearsals were again very enjoyable until one day immediately before Christmas when it was announced that Joe Stafford who was playing one of the ugly sisters had to leave the show because of work commitments. This of course came as a shock to everyone but I assumed that he probably had an understudy – how wrong I was!

You can imagine my shock and horror when at the end of that fateful rehearsal I was approached by the producer and asked if I would consider taking over from Joe. My immediate reaction was ‘You must be joking, there is no way that I will dress up as a woman’: Then the emotional blackmail kicked in “the show will have to be cancelled” etc, etc. I should explain at this point that I was asked to take the part because I had some experience of Amateur Dramatics and learning lines  it was felt that I would learn the part in the remaining 3 weeks before the show went on. After much soul searching I agreed to help out thinking “it’ll only be a one off and I will be back with the chorus next year” – how wrong can you be! I must say that I had tremendous help from Bobbie Greatorex, the other ugly sister and also from the rest of the cast and the producer Maureen Webley. Without their support I could not have done it.

One result of this was that my phobia was cured and I would begin to appreciate the genius of Arthur Lucan (Old Mother Riley), Norman Evans and others.

It is now 27 years later - I am still playing Dame and because of my early childhood experience, I know how young children can be affected by the sight of this strange character. Consequently I try to make my performance more sympathetic to the youngsters in the audience whilst also trying to appeal to the oldies.

ERIC ARUNDELL- Dame Fanny Frankfurter in The Snow Queen.

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ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Friday 23 April, 2010 at 7.30pm at St. Marys Community Centre

Included on the Agenda will be Elections for Officers of the Society and Committee members. Including the following roles; Treasurer & Secretary

i) Asst. Treasurer

ii) Membership Secretary

iii) Social Secretary

iv) Publicity Manager

v) Child Protection/Health & Safety Officer

vi) Ticket Secretary

vii) 3 x Committee Members

Please forward any nominations for Committee places or Officer positions to Joanne Sykes prior to the AGM in order that Ballot Forms can be prepared.

Email: jomallards@yahoo.co.uk

Thank you

The Management Committee

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