National Theatre Tour 21 January 2017

Saturday 21 January 2017 saw a sparkling, frosty day and a tour of the National Theatre on the South Bank near Waterloo by some 20 of our members.

The creation of a National theatre was first proposed in 1848 by a group including Charles Dickens but not finally realised until the 1960s for various reasons.

We were all decked out in high visibility jackets and then our guide, Natalie began the tour.  The National comprises of 3 theatres - the Olivier with 1600 lilac toned seats (his favourite colour), the Lyttleton which is mid sized and the 400 seater Cottesloe, now renamed the Dorfman for a very generous benefactor.

The National aims to put on 25 new plays a year in addition to the more well known favourites, plus live broadcasts to various cinemas and theatres.  We were astonished to hear there are around 1000 employees including artists, high tech sound studios recently completed and of course, workshops where carpenters make scenery and stage sets. It usually takes between 4-7 hours to strip a stage, rolling massive sets and backdrops using industrial looking pulleys and hooks but the fastest was 1 hour.

All in all a fascinating glimpse of theatre life and well run tour.

Programme 2017

January

Meeting 10th - Board Games
Table Top - Unwanted Gifts
Outing 21st - National Theatre Tour

February

Meeting 14th - Time for You on Valentine's Day
Table Top - Jewellery
Outing 22nd - Royal College of Needlework Tour

March

Quiz 1st - White Hart Pub (Fundraiser)
Meeting 14th -Curiosities of the City of London
Table Top - Raffle
Outing 18th - Florence Nightingale Museum

April

Meeting 11th - Air Ambulance Trust
Table Top - The Garden
Outing 22nd - Bletchley Park

May

Meeting 9th - Business Meetings & Flower Arranging Demonstration
Table Top - Toiletries
Outing 20th - Great Compton Garden

My Life and Work as an Opera Singer

On 3 November, Elizabeth Key our newest member and a full time member of the Royal Opera House Chorus since 2006 gave a talk as part of the Eltham Arts Festival at Eltham Library.  She gave a brief history of when opera started and introduced to this country before telling us more about her life. Born in Mansfield at the age of 12 auditioned for the Cantamus Girls' Choir studying with Pamela Cook MBE who was a great inspiration and influence, giving her opportunities to tour abroad and appear on TV/radio.  When 19 she was accepted at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland studying for 7 years before joining the Royal Opera House. Her work schedule of some 200 performances per year which comprise of singing, acting and dance along with rehearsals and not forgetting the commuting! seems hectic but Elizabeth still finds time to be involved in numerous other musical projects.  A most inspiring young lady who says 'do the very best all of the time' which she certainly does.

I Spy Eltham High Street

Earlier this year we were approached by Eltham Arts Festival to participate in their 2016 event and after some discussion we devised a walking quiz of Eltham High Street which involved planning a route, compiling questions and spending time checking out the finer details.  A non member was asked to try this out and make any comments.  It was then time to design the entry form and arrange printing.  At the start of the festival on 29 October we delivered our leaflets and collection boxes to Eltham, New Eltham and Cold Harbour libraries and members also handed them out in Passey Place.  The quiz runs until 5pm 18 November when entries will be collected, checked and the winner announced at the finale on 20 November at the White Hart Pub, Eltham.  Members below handing out leaflets -

Theatre Trip 3 October 2016

Kay Johnstone and Sylvia Moore organised our first theatre trip, they chose The Commitments which opened at Bromley Churchill Theatre on 3 October 2016.  11 members signed up some time ago for this outing and were delighted with the choice.  It's a musical based on the book of the same name by Roddy Doyle which tells the story of a promoter, Jimmy Rabbitte who wants to organise a soul group in Dublin from a mixture of amateur musicians and friends, their rise to popularity which eventually leads to destroying their group and the members moving away.  The show featured 20 soul classics which judging by the clapping and foot tapping most people seemed to remember.  At the end the actors/band performed some of the songs from the show with the audience standing up and joining in. Everyone agreed it was a great show and look forward to our next excursion.

 

 

What a scorcher

On what must have been the hottest of the year so far, 13 WI members met at 10am in Eltham then drove to Sevenoaks to visit the Riverhill Himalayan Gardens.  A short journey arriving just as it opened, first stop was for refreshments before strolling around.  We had missed the spring collection of rhododendrons, azaleas and bluebells but just in time for the scented Rose Walk, we soaked up the sun in the re-landscaped Walled Garden with its box edged vegetables, grass sculptured terracing and fountains, the area was being set up for a wedding that afternoon which was a beautiful setting with views across the Weald of Kent.  Our visit coincided with the ForumArts National Sculpture Symposium and we were lucky to see artists at work on their sculptures throughout the Gardens.  Some of us despite the heat climbed to the view point looking at the Kent countryside before heading back down to the café where we had lunch before setting off home.

 

 

 

 

 

What a great achievement!

Recently one of our members, Chris Page completed a 50k walk from Sittingbourne to Eltham in aid of Demelza charity.  As a volunteer she saw the walk advertised and suggested to her son who was about to celebrate his 50th birthday that he might like to do the walk and she couldn't let him do it on his own! The walk took 12 1/2 hrs including a lunch break and Chris said how exhausting it had been and would not be attempting this again.  Our congratulations to her on this wonderful achievement.