Lights, camera, showtime
Preparations under way for awards revue show
THE company of performers in the 27th annual 2017 Clover Showtime Awards Revue, A Grand Night for Singing, are back at the Charlo Primary School Hall for the final sequence of rehearsals leading up to the show’s opening night on Monday, January 23 at the Little Theatre at 7pm.
Clover Dairy Products is again the naming sponsor for the revue and the company’s national senior promotions officer, Milly Kemp, will be visiting Port Elizabeth for the main awards evening on January 27.
The show is being presented in the greatly refurbished Little Theatre for the 11th year and the Port Elizabeth Musical and Dramatic Society (Pemads) will be collaborating in co-presenting the stage production.
A Grand Night for Singing, devised and written by Bob Eveleigh, has Marlene Pieterse as director with Wayne Hughes returning as musical and vocal director. With the revue featuring a separate troupe of six dancers, their routines and all other choreography will be staged by Siobhan Day, making her bow in a Showtime revue after several Showtime Award-winning years at both senior and junior school levels.
Rocky Mann and Lance Bright again function as technical consultants, with Mann also designing the lighting.
The music for the revue is by Richard Rodgers in collaboration with Lorenz “Larry” Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II.
It has a core cast led by last year’s Showtime debutantes Shannon Hubbard and James van der Merwe, supported by new Showtimers Abi Ranwell, Amber April, Kayla Mathiesen, Isabella Rosochacki, Kerry-Lee Jeffrey, Kyrah Lloyd, Kyla Smith and Arthur Daniels.
The dancers are Britney Shaw, Gia Smith, Kayla Auld, Rachel Parker, Skye Phillips and Ma-Bell Muller.
Also back after a break of a year will be a group of Charlo Primary School pupils, this time made up of Anneke Pienaar, Dané van Dyk, Kaylin Roberts, Lea Carelse, Lené Scheepers, Meagan Vogel, Dillon Roberts, Jared Doubell and Sam Vos.
Tickets for the awards nights on January 24 (juniors) and January 27 (seniors), are R70 and the performances on January 23 and 26 are private houses for senior citizens’ residences and the combined high schools Collegiate, Pearson and Alexander Road respectively. For the two public nights, on January 25 and 28, tickets are R70 for adults and R50 for senior citizens, students and children.
Vouchers are obtainable from company members at slightly reduced pricing of R60 and R40.
Usually, with Clover Showtime bookings, any form of voucher or invitation letter is only exchangeable at the Computicket box office at the PE Opera House, but with that theatre closed until January 19, this year booking can only be done, regardless of type of reservation, by emailing beveleigh@centrestage.co.za Bookings open tomorrow. Showtime is again supporting the Animal Anti-Cruelty League so anyone attending the revue is invited to bring along pet food to deposit in a receptacle in the foyer.