This is my first ever foray into acting! I am a frequent theatre-goer, but have never performed before, not even at school! So I decided to push myself well and truly outside my comfort zone and auditioned for Murder, Margaret and Me. Much to my surprise I got the part! I then spent a few days wrestling with every fibre of my being that was saying don’t do it . . . but here I am, playing […]
We moved to Saddleworth from the midlands just over three years ago and after finding our feet . . . we found the Millgate Theatre! At that first visit I realised that I had sung on that very stage with my bluegrass band probably 10 or more years previously. So, it’s been a while! I loved the first play we saw and was fortunate to bump into the leading lady a few days later who […]
I’m excited to be making my directorial debut at the Millgate Arts Centre with the production of Murder, Margaret and Me by Philip Meeks. In the early 1960s, two national treasures, Agatha Christie (played by Gill Barham) and Margaret Rutherford (played by Lisa Kay), were the creative force behind one of British cinema’s most successful franchises. But the Miss Marple films were almost never made. Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie didn’t want the world renowned […]
What a treat, to be involved in the production team of the opening play of our new season at Saddleworth Players! Albeit, in a different role than Millgate regulars will know me as! I’m usually found donning a black T-shirt and being the Director of SPY Theatre (Saddleworth Players Youth Theatre). I’m also owner of Act One Theatre School in Uppermill, where we teach over 200 children a week at my beautiful studio, in dance, […]
Hi! I joined Saddleworth Players after I had auditioned for Curtain Up! as Betty and was very surprised to get it. I have loved live theatre since first going to Oldham Rep (as it was then) at age seven or eight with my auntie who worked as a volunteer there. I sat watching the pantomime and loved every minute. In the 70s I was a volunteer at Playhouse 2 for quite a long time and […]
Hi, I’m Siobhan Ebden and in the comedy Curtain Up! I play Pam the first wife, mother of Teresa and daughter in law of Betty. Pam is not always a very easy character to like though she is great to play as she has a sharp wit and some fantastic one liners. I’ve been involved with Saddleworth Players for a few years, with some smaller roles in a couple of plays and open days. I […]
I have long been a supporter of Millgate Arts Centre and Saddleworth Players. Having been a member of Oldham Lyceum players for many years and volunteering on the bar occasionally, I appreciate how much time, effort and energy goes into each production. Many years ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing author Louis de Bernieres on the Millgate stage as part of a fundraising event for Delph Library; another example of how volunteers are so vital […]
Curtain up! is a hilarious comedy of five women who inherit equal shares in an old dilapidated theatre and plan to bring it back to life again. The females try various fund-raising schemes, but their most ambitious idea is to hold a concert featuring local talent and the world-famous star, Liza Minnelli, who agrees to appear for no fee. However, plans go awfully wrong, when they hear that Liza Minnelli has cancelled. It is a […]
The play is set in a ski lodge in France where Daniel Corban has just reported that his newly wedded wife has been missing for 10 days to the police. The Chief Inspector seems unhelpful but promises he will investigate for him. Seconds later the new local priest, Father Maximin, exclaims he’s found his wife and brings her to the chalet. However, Daniel claims he’s never set eyes on this woman before. As the story […]
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford: two of the deadliest arch-rivals of all time. Born in the same year (though Davis swore ‘Crawford is 5 years older than me if she is a day’, the two fought bitterly throughout their Long and brilliant Hollywood careers. The women worked together only once, in the classic thriller Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? in which their violent hatred of each other as rival sisters was no act. In this […]