Calender Girls - Fabulous Concealment

I think the painting activity was really to keep the cast quiet but the stated aim was to produce some Sunday school style pictures to decorate the church hall set of Calender Girls.

The other craft activity the cast and crew have been involved in is varnishing sticky buns. The play calls for a big pile of buns and buying real ones could prove expensive. Instead they bought some cheap bread buns, varnished them so they keep better and then covered them with icing, using a glue gun for the shiny sugar look.

Good enough to eat?

The pile of buns is used for 'fabulous concealment' the phrase used to describe the scenes depicting the photo shoot for the calender. Although all the ladies are naked, various items are used to ensure that their modesty is maintained at all times.

Director Aidan Moran described how he built up the confidence of the cast in playing these scenes by starting off with them fully clothed, moving on to dressing gowns and then underwear before being fully undressed. Stage manger Emma Walsh protects the actors privacy during rehearsals by ensuring that doors are not left open and no stray men accidentally wander in. Assistant director Shi Sur took on the job of checking from various points of the auditorium that nothing could be seen that shouldn't be.

The amateur rights to perform Calender Girls have been released for the first time this year in an attempt to establish the record for the highest number of productions of one play in a single year. A percentage of the performance fees paid by each theatre is going to Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. To raise more money Aidan has photographed and had printed calenders showing members of the cast in various theatre situations employing the same fabulous concealment technique used in the WI calender. This calendar had been made jointly with the cast of Woodley Theatre who are performing Calender Girls later in September. Copies of the  calendar will be available for sale.

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Coming up -

Calendar Girls by Tim Firth, 13th - 22nd September 2012, Progress Theatre

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead by Tom Stoppard 15th - 20th October 2012, Progress Theatre

7th Annual Write Fest 14 - 17 November 2012, Progress Theatre

Details of all our productions and auditions can be found on our website.