The Full House drama group celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. But that was not the start of drama productions in this village. Indeed, the villagers of Llanmadoc seem to have enjoyed making a drama out of a crisis for some years.
Lynda tells of the early days of villagers providing entertainment for the harvest suppers, the earliest in living memory was held in the St Madoc Christian centre on bails of hay! During the mid to late 1960s that developed into performing pantomimes on a regular basis. Lynda remembers that they ran coffee mornings to raise funds for the costumes and Hilary remembers Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Mary Poppins all being performed in the old village hall with its pot-bellied stove keeping the audience warm.
One memorable year the audience left the hall to discover that a heavy blanket of snow had covered the village, and the cast were forced to find a generator to provide power for the next night’s performance. Jack Spence was the man responsible for producing and directing in those days and when he left the village the pantomimes dropped off.
But at a time when there were many children in the village, the summer shows performed by (mainly) children continued. Hilary remembers the children performing Sound of Music and taking their vocal performance to Gorseinon Hospital to raise funds for the Round Table.
During the 1980’s the tradition of providing entertainment after the harvest supper continued. But in the age of Private Eye and satire, Wilma and Ann Legg started writing skits based on characters in the village which proved to be “enormous fun”. Wilma remembers in particular a performance of Poldark with Mark Mead as the leading character, and a Miss World contest with amongst others, Randolph as Miss Germany! As Wilma puts it, their performances were deliberately saucy, but only in the context of those times, they were still family shows. Many of the older members of the village will remember the ‘Allo ‘Allo skit based on characters in the village as well as Steve Parry (“an absolute star”) as Buttons.
By 2000 Laurel had been directing plays for a number of years, both locally and nationally and was keen to bring amateur dramatics back to the village. The first production was two short plays: Between Mouthfuls and Gosforth’s Fete. The latter was particularly popular because it reflected the history of carnivals and fetes within our village. That original cast of Geoffrey Chamberlain, Lynda Jenkins, Garry Henderson, Mike Bristow and Gwen and Quentin amongst others put on such a performance that both cast and audience loved, a more formal am dram group was guaranteed to be successful. And so it proved.
Over the years we have discovered that the locals seem to enjoy comedies, farces and murder mysteries so that is what we have concentrated on.
Over the years another popular format has been either two short one set plays or a murder mystery with a hearty meal provided by the cast at the interval. Last Panto in Llanmadoc in 2022 was the last example of that.
But in 2020 the group took the brave decision to bring pantomime back to Llanmadoc. The stage was set, the lines were learnt…and then Covid struck. Which in some ways was lucky because it gave the team another year to perfect the staging and hone the singing skills. By December 2021 the hall was completely transformed into a ballroom for the production of Cinderella.
But the success of the pantomime was such that locals demanded the re-establishment of the pantomime tradition in Llanmadoc. Pantomimes are extremely time consuming and energy sapping for all involved so it was agreed that we would continue with pantomimes every other year and put a simple production on in the fallow year. So followed Aladdin, with the oldest lovers ever to play the parts, and who can forget the genie’s magical production of a palace to save Aladdin’s skin.
More recently the drama group has involved themselves in events other than traditional stage productions. A spooky ghost walk through the village on Halloween allowed members of the cast and crew to dress up and scare those brave enough to follow the trail. And combining with the choir to perform excerpts from Under Milk Wood.
The actors always get the glory, but to put on any production involves a huge number of people working behind the scenes. So even if you don’t fancy treading the boards there’s plenty of opportunity to get involved.
Director
The Director is responsible for “the creative vision and overall execution of a theatre production, guiding actors and collaborating with various creative teams to bring a script to life.”
We are extremely lucky to have Laurel Davies as our director. Laurel studied Music and Drama at Aberystwyth and then became a drama teacher. She did that for 25 years before becoming an headteacher but remained Chief Examiner of Drama for WJEC. She became the self-appointed Director in 2000 and has led the Full House drama group ever since.
Stage Manager
In a theatre setting a Stage Manager (SM) “supports and organises all the different teams involved in the day-to-day running of a theatre production from rehearsals right through to performances and then post-show. They liaise and communicate with the full company and organise each team to ensure the smooth running of a production. During a show, they are in charge of everything and everyone on the stage”.
In the context of our small village drama group, the stage manager role is simply a dogsbody who does, or co-ordinates the doing of, all the odd jobs that don’t fall within anyone else’s domain. They include: finding suitable scripts, ordering scripts, paying license fees, organising rehearsals, booking the hall, taking notes of script changes and blocking, liaising with set designers/builders and the costume team, designing and printing of programme and tickets, advertising, photography and video and clearing up afterwards! So if you don’t fancy being on the stage, but want to be involved, Jan G will always find a job for you.
Set Design & Construction
Unlike large theatres, Full House works with limited stage and backstage areas. For each production the set team work with the Director to design the sets, and then build them from scratch, using the cheapest materials available – wallpaper, curtains, and painted scenery can create magical landscapes.
Unlike the actors, the set team are working year round, spending Monday mornings constructing and decorating the sets for upcoming productions. Jan G generally comes up with “impossible” ideas that her boys – Ivor, Adrian, Garry, Peter, Ian and Garry somehow manage to construct. So if you are a builder, or have any DIY or artistic skills you will always be welcome in our “men’s shed” on Monday mornings.
Stagehands
In our recent production of Wizard of Oz, there were 17 scene changes. It is the stage hands who move the scenery, open and close the curtains on cue (hopefully!) etc. Working in a very confined space they produce miracles of transformation within the few seconds that the Director allows us.
Costumes & Props
There is no room for storage of costumes and props in our Hall so we are grateful to our friends at Reynoldston Village Hall for the loan of many of our costumes. But the chances of them having all the costumes we require for each production is slim and we rely on two incredibly talented seamstresses to create or adapt the remainder of our costumes.
Elizabeth and Sue have done an incredible job slaving away at their sewing machines to create endless curtains and costumes – the flying monkey costumes are a recent highlight. In addition we can call upon Eleanor’s artistic skills in making many of the props – from rabbits to crows, lighthouses to castles.
Lighting & Sound
Finally, the technical crew. Ian and Rhian work with the Director to take their cues for lighting changes and sound effects throughout the performances. It can be high pressure work to ensure the whole production comes together, but both have been doing this job for a number of years now.
Look out for more innovations and traditional productions from the Full House Drama Group over the next 25 years.
If you are interested in joining us, either as cast or crew, please contact Laurel Davies on 07377 544299.
