SUMMER PRODUCTION 2008:
Dennis Potter's "Blue Remembered Hills".
Performance: 4 - 6 June at the Gulbenkian
Theatre.
Tickets: £10 (Concessions: £8)
To book tickets for this performance online, click the Gulbenkian Theatre
logo above, or HERE
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Sarah Gooch is about to embark on her directing debut for the
Players and will be staging Blue Remembered Hills by Dennis Potter
from Wednesday 4th to Friday 6th June.
Set in the West Country during the long summer holidays of 1943,
the play centres around a group of seven year old children, all
played by adult actors. The children’s games, fighting and
relationships reflect their understanding of the adult world and
the war around them. The play is a deceptively simple tale, ending
in tragedy, and was originally shown on television in 1979.
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Rehearsing for Blue Remembered Hills |
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Jim's fallen out of his pram again. |
This job has its perks. Oh yes! |
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Just another day at the office..... |
.... and another. |
The characters are as follows:
- Peter – the bully of the gang
- John – fair minded and a challenger to Peter
- Willie – easy going and everyone’s friend
- Raymond – gentle with a stammer
- Donald – an abused child, a victim, a pyromaniac
- Angela – pretty and bossy
- Audrey – plain and angry
The Cast:
As Peter:
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Ed Clark
Actor: Justin, in Roleplay;
Tom in The Accrington
Pals; Peter in Blue Remembered
Hills
Ed has played a variety of roles over the last few years and keeps up
his skill set in a number of other disciplines, including singing and
sports, making him a very useful member of the Players and to others,
including film and tv production teams etc. |
As John:

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James Newberry
Actor: Goldberg in "The
Birthday Party" ; John in "Blue
Remembered Hills"
Until April 2006, James (Jim) had spent the past 20 years or so on an
acting break between career engagements, latterly running his own management
consultancy, training and coaching business, People
Scope.
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In his first acting life - primarily for the Cambridge University Players,
at Uni in Birmingham, and the Goodrich Theatre, Putney - he got to play
in different stuff: including a panoply of Shakespeares (Much Ado, As
You Like It, Merchant of Venice, Hamlet), Beckett (Krapp's Last Tape),
Bennett, Simon Gray, Pinter, Edward Bond, Athol Fugard et al.
In late 2005, Pinter's the Birthday Party - in all its non-sequitury
weirdness - re-appeared and he started again....
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As Willie:
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Sid Moon
Actor: Willie in "Blue
Remembered Hills"
Blue Remembered Hills will be Sid's first shot at straight acting (if
you forget the school nativity play). He did not start performing until
he passed 50 when he played the part of a miner in the community opera,
"Promised Land" as part of the Canterbury Festival
in 2006.
It was there that Sid met Sarah, the Director for Blue
Remembered Hills and John Rye who plays the part of Donald in this
production. Last year Sid and Gill, his wife, had great fun being part
of Canterbury Players Palace of Varieties
show.
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of Canterbury
Players for the warm welcome they have given us and the friendships we
have made within the society."
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As Raymond: Samuel Stolton
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Samuel Stolton
Actor: Raymond in "Blue
Remembered Hills"
Samuel has held a passion for acting, theatre and film for many years,
and prior to joining the Canterbury Players, has taken up roles such as
Jimmy Porter In John Osborne's 'Look Back In Anger' in which Samuel portrayed
the classic 'angry young man' to critical acclaim. Samuel is a keen musician,
actively playing the electric and acoustic guitar. He also likes to keep
himself busy by learning Italian, reciting Shakespeare, writing poetry,
scriptwriting, and playing a number of different sports. Samuel plans
to pursue a professional acting career one day, and is very grateful for
all the help that The Canterbury Players have offered him.
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As Angela: Laura Brown
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Laura Brown
Actor: Angela in "Blue
Remembered Hills"
Laura has adored performing for as long as she can remember and grabs
at all opportunities of ‘Treading the boards’.
Laura has trained in musical theatre since the age of 14 with the Kent
Youth Theatre and the BRIT School of Performing Arts before gaining a
variety of credits to her CV. These include leading roles in professional
pantomimes at the Marlowe Theatre, tremendously fun summer seasons singing
and dancing in holiday venues, and show cases at the London Palladium
and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
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Her most recent credits include:
Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of OZ’, Shelby in ‘Steel Magnolias’
and the title role in ‘Cinderella’ with the Up The Creek pantomime
society.
Performing as Angela in ‘Blue Remembered Hills’ will be
Laura's debut production with the Canterbury Players. She is grateful
for the opportunity to perform with such a talented group of actors and
she would like to thank the cast and crew for welcoming her so warmly. |
As Audrey: Katherine Durio
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Katherine Durio
Actor: Audrey in "Blue
Remembered Hills"
Katherine has been dancing, singing and acting since she could walk.
Many lessons later, an acting degree from Bretton Hall, a post grad at
The Bridge Theatre Training co. and Katherine's CV has roles ranging from
Sandy in Grease to Viola in Twelth Night. Professional work also includes
Mae in Anthony Minghella's 2003 film Cold Mountain. Having had the taste
for the big time Katherine is now happily living in Wye and working with
The Canterbury Players. Audrey in Blue
Remembered Hills is Katherine's first role with the company and she
will make her debut directing for The Players later in the year with Much
Ado About Nothing.
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As Donald: John Rye
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John Rye
Actor: Donald in "Blue
Remembered Hills"
John has always loved the stage, appearing in Gypsy at the
Erith Playhouse at the age of ten. He took lead roles in university productions
of Fame:The Musical, East, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
He also directed successful performances of Bouncers and an adult pantomime.
John moved back to kent after graduating in the summer of 2005 and is
now working far too hard as a teacher at Chaucer Technology School. Recently
he has worked with the Really Promising Company in their shows Promised
Land and Kentish Tales, through which he has met Sarah Gooch
and Sid Moon. He has also worked with Yellow Brick Road productions in
a very well received performance of 100 last year.
John would like to thank the Players for their warm reception and he
is looking forward to successful future productions.
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Director:
Stage Manager:

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Liz Findlay
Actor: Play It Again Sam
Stage Manager (The Birthday
Party, La Ronde, The
Accrington Pals, Gosforth's
Fete, Play It Again Sam,
Fallen Angels, Blue
Remembered Hills.)
Liz joined the players in 2005 as prompt for Roleplay, rose to the position
of chief of teapot bearing and has been stage managing since then in Pinter's
"Birthday Party",
Ayckbourne's "Gosforth’s
Fete", Schnitzlers "La
Ronde", Whelan's "
The Accrington Pals" and Woody Allen's Play
It Again Sam in which she also took the part of Vanessa.
Liz is trained in Fine Art and has exhibited locally. She designed the
posters for Fallen Angels
and Blue Remembered Hills.
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Reading the final poem, from A. E. Housman's "A Shropshire Lad".
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Tony Johnson
Actor
I made my acting debut in the first year at Grammar school, when I was
cast as the Virgin Mary in a Nativity play. The embarrassment of this
put me off acting for about twenty years, until I joined the Charing Guild
of Players with the proviso that I would play only male roles.
This seems to have worked reasonably well for the last 40 years, with
a couple of best actor awards sprinkled amongst the fifty productions
I've appeared in since. |
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