Photos from Kim

Our photographer was Kim Sheard, and if you'd like one, two, or more, have a look at her website. Enter PP Showcase July 09 in the box provided, press "Next" and a gallery of shots will magically appear! Same as last time, there are both the shots taken during the tech time and the shots from the show itself.

All anyone needs to do to purchase prints or digital versions, is simply send Kim an email including the photo reference number (which should look something like "DSC_3110"), the size of print wanted, and the number of copies (if more than one) or simply stating they would like digital copies. They should also include their postal address.

Prices for people wishing to have personal reminders of the evening are as follows:

**Standard 6x4 prints cost £6.00, 9x6 are £7.50. Anything larger can be quoted as desired. (postage costs are £1.50)

**Digital copies can also be supplied via internet transfer and cost a base fee of £3.00 with each desired image in both high (print)and medium (email) resolution formats costing £5.00.

If any photo is going to be used as a promotional aid for any person or company, the fee per photo (to be provided digitally in high resolution format and medium web resolution for ease of further use) is £10.

Should someone purchase £15 or more, a complimentary group photo of their choice (6x4 print or file transferred electronically) will be added to their order.

After the Showcase

The showcase is over, and what do we think? The first man to quote is our producer, Tim Gambrell who sent the following email the next morning:

"I would like to thank you very much for all the hard work, blood, sweat and tears that went into creating an excellent Showcase last night. From the writers who wrote and the directors who directed to the actors who acted and the front of house ladies who front of housed, you all gave a great deal and the results were clear to a very large and satisfied audience.

I feel it was a very fitting way to close P-P for the summer and I hope you all feel, despite the limitations under which we have to work, that the end result was well worth it".

Exactimundo! I was slightly startled to get this email. Hadn't Tim been the one to thank the most? He'd produced it, and keeping all these egos and personalities and three different pieces all shipshape can't have been easy. I'd have thought it would have been easier to produce a real show. We had an hour and a half get in, remember, for three pieces.

So thank you, Tim!

What about the rest? Well, one of the pieces was mine, Love Me Backwards, so I'll write about that. I was thinking about this yesterday, and I've had a production and a number of readings over the years, but I'd say this was the best representation of my stuff I've ever seen. I didn't feel like I had to apologise for things I didn't believe in, and I didn't feel that any of the changes reduced it. All the direction improved it.

Yes, it was a very hot night, and turning on the fans at the interval did mean that some at the back didn't hear every single word. Nonetheless, I am very grateful to P-P for making this possible, and for Jennie Scott who directed it, and for Nick and Paula who acted.

Postman's Park

Next Tuesday brings us several FREE performances of Postman's Park produced and directed by our very own Ellie Zeegen, under the auspices of The Actors Temple. The event runs from Tuesday 28th July - Sunday 2nd August down at St Pancras Crypt on Euston Road.

If you like it, you can donate at the end!

Sixteen

The first performance of Sixteen by Helena Thompson is tomorrow, with a press night next week, and there's another four weeks after that. It's a site-specific piece of theatre, at the Kensal House Estate, and is FREE!!!

Moreover, if anybody fancies working as an usher on the production, there's a deal going that if you do all the performances you'll get £300 all in, starting tonight. So get your bid in immediately if interested.

Dreamcoats and Petticoats

Term may be over till the summer, but the shows just keep on coming. Opening today is the musical Dreamboats and Petticoats, with a book written by our presidents, Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, at the Savoy Theatre in the West End. You can get two for one preview tickets until the weekend. So, book now.

The Showcase

Okay, everyone, term isn't over. We aren't at the Horse and Groom this week, but we are at the King's Head, Islington. The fun starts at 7.30.

We have:

Colin Dicker by Dylan Davies

Walking on Water by Kara May

Followed by an interval, and then

Love Me Backwards by Peter Briffa

Lots of beautiful acting, gallons of inspired writing. And pretty reasonable direction too.

It's the usual two quid a head, though "industry" gets in free. If you want to bring a guest, please email Peter Thompson.

Hope to see you there.

Safe House

Remember Safe House? It first featured in the programme four years ago, then it made the 2006 showcase at the Soho Theatre, and now comes its long-awaited and long-deserved theatrical debut, at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden as part of the Camden Fringe Festival. It shows for a week, with six performances from August 18 to the 23rd, at the excellent hour of three o'clock. So you can get drunk before the show, sober up for an hour, then hit the bar for some hair of the dog afterwards.

As the blurb explains:

"Everybody enjoys a drink but nobody enjoys an alcoholic.

In a spectacular drama of kindness, cruelty and cocktails, Johnnie Othringshaw struggles to clutch at reality with a mind so disconnected that his past becomes inseparable from his present. Good job he’s got a sense of humour..."

It stars such P-P luminaries as Niall Spooner-Harvey, Chris Prior and Victoria Johnston, and is directed by P-P actress and former soap starlet, Sue Dawson. It is, of course, written by Eamon McDonnell.

Be there.

Competition Time!

It's that time again. Ten short scripts, all submitted anonymously. It's the chance for all newbie writers and actors to strut their stuff before a sophisticated and discerning audience, battling the street noise outside and a much-loved barmaid going about her everyday chores.

The theme is "The Mouse, the Bitch and the Bathrobe".

Who wins, you decide!

Best of Enemies

Monday brings us two short plays by two new P-P writers.

First, is Shattered, by Susan Hodgetts, which comes in at a punchy ten minutes. Then there's Best of Enemies, a comedy, by Julia Collier. Julia's already done some acting with us. This is her first play.

I don't suppose it's got much to do with David Niven. But we all like a nice photo, don't we?