A NEW musical theatre group which held its first meeting only two weeks before lockdown last year is relaunching with plans to stage its first production in December – a year later than scheduled.
Teesdale Operatic Society is the brainchild of Dawn Trevor, who directed The Castle Player’s production of Alice in Wonderland, and fellow musical theatre fans Adele Tyler and Joanne Wall.
There was a huge amount of interest when they launched the society, hosting their first open meeting in March, but the pandemic stopped all of their plans to perform their first production – Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
With restrictions relaxed, the society is hoping to get back on track, relaunching with an open meeting on Sunday, August 15 between 1pm and 2.30pm at the Methodist Church Hall, in Barnard Castle.
Ms Tyler said: “When we first launched it was only two weeks before lockdown. We were planning to get people together and then do fundraising in the summer and then hold our performances at The Witham in December, but we had to alter our licence for Joseph and haven’t been able to get together since.
“We have been waiting and waiting to do something.
“We decided to go straight into starting again with Joseph because we’re only five months away from our performances at The Witham on December 9-11.
“The first meeting is for people to come along and find out about what we are doing and then we’ll get into auditions.”
The meeting is open to everyone who would like to be involved in the production from cast to behind the scenes crew, including children aged 11 years and over. Children younger than 16 will need a parent or carer to be present.
She added: “We had so much interest and people were really excited. It was awful being locked down. But this will be fun and hopefully lots of people will come along and lots of other people will want to come and see Joseph in December.”
For more information on the society and to register interest in attending the meeting email info@teesdaleoperaticsociety.co.uk
