At our AGM on Monday 1st July we had the usual busy evening with the 'business' part of the evening followed by a preview of the remaining productions to come this year and the announcement and preview of the 2025 season.
AGM
The meeting kicked off with the announcement of a lifetime membership award to Ros Brogan: highly appropriate as we lost Denis exactly a year ago to the day of the AGM.
In his final treasurer's report (he's standing down after some 15 years in the post!), Kevin Roychowdhury told the meeting SDS is - as has fortunately been the case for some years now - in excellent shape financially with a very healthy bank balance. Having served in recent years as chairman and secretary Malcolm Holister completes the 'three card trick' of holding all three official committee officer positions at various times as he'll be taking over from Kevin as treasurer.
Otherwise, the general committee has a few changes with Sara Knight standing down as secretary and from the committee itself to be replaced by Lorna Hollister who is returning to committee action after a couple of years away. Tim Strugnell is also standing down. Two members are joining the committee for the first time: Sarah Harvey Wade (who also makes her directorial debut in the 2025 season) and Jenni Ribbitts who joined us late last year when she made her onstage debut for SDS in Cinderella.
Otherwise the committee remains unchanged with Adam Webster continuing into his second year as chairman and the other committee members also carrying on.
Another lifetime award was announced for long serving SDS and Quay stalwart Richard Fawcett who has clocked up the best part of 40 years as an SDS member since his debut in 1986. As Adam told the meeting, Richard has acted and directed for the society regularly over the years across a diverse range of plays from the likes of Harold Pinter, Joe Orton, William Shakespeare, Alan Bennett and many more - not to mention several pantos as a director and performer. He's also served as chairman and treasurer previously.
Along with Denis Brogan, we also lost another long standing SDS member in Liz Norman in the same month (July 2023).
Play Preview
After a quick bar break where everyone present (we hope!) claimed their free drink courtesy of the SDS committee, we reconvened to learn more about the rest of the 2024 season and what's coming up further down the line with the announcement and preview of the 2025 season.
Andy Smith previewed our July production Pygmalion - BOOK NOW - and Helen A previewed the November production Swive and the auditions to come a couple of days after the meeting. Finally for 2024, Adam and Amanda Webster previewed their self penned pantomime for Christmas 2024, Scrooge's Christmas Carol with auditions to come later in the month.
2025 season
Our programme of plays for 2025 was announced with previews of the following:
The Hotel Room - written by Ashley Burgoyne and directed by Sarah Harvey Wade who is making her directorial debut for the society.
Pressure - a World War II drama concerning the D-Day landings written by David Haig and to be directed by Joseph James who also makes his directorial debut for SDS.
Constellations - a highly original 'sliding doors moments' drama written by Nick Payne and to be directed by Darryl Crawley.
Value Engineering: Scenes from the Grenfell Inquiry - a gripping play written by Richard Norton-Taylor with Nicholas Kent concerning the enquiry into the Grenfell Tower disaster of 2017 to be directed by Mike Fahie-Wilson.
Playhouse Creatures - a drama set at the time Charles II reopened the playhouses and women appeared onstage for the first time: written by April de Angelis and to be directed by Helen Arbon.
N.B. The 2025 pantomime is being programmed separately from the main play season and will be announced in due course.
More details of the 2025 season here.
Many thanks to those able to attend.