Sky Arts Stage Struck
Update at 20th September 2011

As many of you will know this summer we entered the Sky Arts Stagestruck Competition. This is a documentary/reality TV programme to find the best amateur theatre group in the UK.
About 70 companies entered and all had to submit a five minute filmed piece from a list of major plays. We chose The Blasted Heath scene from Macbeth, with a very definite twist. During the summer the 70 were whittled down to 20 and then, in late August, the final eight were chosen with BLT being one of them. You can see our audition piece, plus all the other finalists, on the Sky Arts Website http://www.skyarts.co.uk/theatre-drama/article/stagestruck-the-finalists/

The next stage of the competition is that we have been given a short scene from The Cherry Orchard to perform. We are busy in rehearsals with that at the moment and the television production company have been up to Bingley several times to record our progress. We also have been assigned a celebrity mentor, the actor and director Richard Wilson, probably best known to a lot of people for his portrayal of that old curmudgeon Victor Meldrew in One Foot in the Grave. At the time of writing we are expecting Mr Wilson to spend the day with us at the theatre on Friday 23rd September.

Then, on Saturday 8th October, we will travel down to the Derngate Theatre in Northampton to perform our Cherry Orchard piece. Anyone is welcome to come down to Northampton to see the play offs. Details from J. Scott

If we are successful we will be in the final four with a Shakespeare round to complete. The ultimate prize is that the winning group will get the opportunity to stage a full production for at least one night at the Gielgud Theatre in London’s West End.

This is a great opportunity for BLT and hopefully will do a lot to raise our profile at a very important time. Thank you for all the support people have given to date.

I will try to keep up to date information on the notice board but if anyone would like to find out more and maybe get involved then please contact J. Scott on 07751532307