What an interesting play for Saddleworth Players to choose to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their moving into Millgate Arts Centre. With a big cast of 23, it is an opportunity to use their range of actors from Seasoned Seniors (who had been in the first plays at Millgate) to Aspiring Apprentices and those in between. Equally it is an opportunity for the crew- set, costume, props, lighting, visuals and sound- to show their creativity. […]
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 […]
Wednesday 6th September 730pm in the bar We’re please to announce a play read through / audition notice for our fourth show of the season Murder Margaret & Me . The show is directed by Sue Borg and is on from 13th- 20th April and you’ll need to be available for rehearsal 6-8 weeks before show week. Murder Margaret & Me by Philip Meeks Knit one, bash two. Genteel ladies involved with violent murder […]
Review of Bette & Joan I’ve just had the pleasure of catching the new Saddleworth Player’s performance, Bette and Joan, at the Millgate Art Centre in Delph. It is directed by Melvyn Bates and stars Rachel Harrison and Tracey Rontree as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford respectfully. The action of the play takes place in Hollywood during 1962, at the height of the Hollywood actresses renown feud. It takes place in the background of the […]
Opening Night Review of Silver Lining
Carol Davies is directing Saddleworth Players latest show Silver Lining by Sandy Toksvig… here are her thoughts… When I first read Sandi Toksvig’s ‘Silver Lining’ I was in no doubt that Saddleworth Players should do it. I laughed through my first reading of it and I laughed two years later through the cast read through. Putting it on stage though was an entirely different matter. Shakespeare wrote about ‘the two hour’s traffic of our stage’ […]