NEWSLETTER Monthly News & Info
JULY 2002
I can reveal that the theme for this year’s float will be Camberwick Green, Chigley & Trumpton.
Material
has already been purchased and is with the float in the Coopers field. Please watch for announcements as we will soon be starting
work.
The floor of the main hall is due to be sanded and re-sealed in the last week of July. All ready for this year’s Carnival events.
Please note we have obtained dispensation from the Bouverie Hall committee so that the audience will be allowed to smoke after all. However, as in recent years, the front three tables will be non-smoking.
KIT THOMPSONMany of you may not have met Kit but her involvement and unstinting support for PVADS goes right back to its formation in 1930 when she was only 14 years old.
Only a few weeks ago, I spent an evening with her and our two Vice-Presidents, Sylvia Palmer and Dulcie Kunkler, to discuss the history of the Society and to note memorable moments (and many amusing incidents!) from the past. Kit had so many stories to tell I could have filled a notebook talking to her on her own!
o The cancellation of the first night of the Autumn Play in 1936 at only half an hour’s notice because of the abdication announcement by Edward VIII.
o How she used to stand on a table backstage at the old Bouverie Hall in River Street and prompt through a hole cut into the scenery, but without being able to see the action.
o And how Cinderella’s coach was built so large that it wouldn’t fit through the flats – it was left on stage and covered with a sheet that was whipped off at the appropriate time!
There were many other stories but my lasting memory from that evening was the amazing vitality and enthusiasm that she had for amateur dramatics at a time when there was little income and none of the sophisticated sound and lighting that we enjoy today.
Kit will be greatly missed by us all and our thoughts are with her family at this time.
Pete Bond - Chairman