WE DID IT!!!

Well, what a week we had at The Brewhouse in Burton-on-Trent last week.

Virtually every seat was sold for Little Theatre Company's six performances of Tim Firth's play Calendar Girls and the feedback from our audiences was fabulous. They laughed, they cheered, they burst into spontaneous applause and they shed a few tears too - moved by the story of Annie and John Clarke (Matt Bancroft and Vicky Fryer) and Annie's fiesty friend Chris (Heather Ratcliffe).

But there was plenty of comedy too - from the hapless Ruth (Elaine Pritchard) and her doomed efforts to create still life with fir cones and fancy dress for the summer fete, and her mismatched badminton night with WI Chairman Marie (Carol Brown). And who will forget guest speaker Brenda Hulse (Sonja Wardle) and her talk on the history of broccoli, Lady Cravenshire (Sarah Spencer) and her ponderings on the architectural origins of Knapeley Church and of course retired schoolteacher Jessie (Bethan Waite) irate at being asked to arrange flowers for a landowner's wife and her encounter with the excruciatingly patronising beautician (Caitlin Pritchard)?

When it came to "SCENE SIX", the calendar photoshoot itself, the ladies all agreed it was less stressful in the end than managing fast backstage costume changes and remembering a host of props. Single mother and church organist Cora (Vanessa Birch) showed off a tattoo (but it was temporary) and photographer Lawrence (Daniel Tunks) had the audience in stitches as he finally realised Jessie was his old school teacher. Trophy wife Celia (Hannah Mason) stirred him to anger when she moved his carefully arranged composition of buns - leading to one of the most eagerly-anticipated lines each night (sometimes we could hear members of the audience join in with Chris to announce): "We are going to need CONSIDERABLY bigger buns".

The girls got lots of support and help in the photoshoot scene from other members of Knapeley WI - Joyce  Pike, Jodie Durbin, Jane German, Kay St Clair and Dawn White.

Finally to complete the cast we had Liam (Rob Tunley) tasked with shooting a washing powder commercial with the girls, and Rod (Mark Pearson), Chris's long-suffering husband.

But last week was also about us striving to reach our challenging target of raising £2,500 for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research - and, WE DID IT!! As I write, the total on our Just Giving Page stands at £2,649.89

It was thanks to a lot of people that we made this impressive total.

...Thanks to all those who donated raffle prizes - including The Mug Tug, in Barton-under-Needwood, who also surprised cast members with specially created, hand-painted jugs at the after-show party!

...Thanks to those who staffed the raffle stall in the Brewhouse bar at each performance selling raffle tickets and taking donations for our calendars and our crochet calendar girls.

...Thanks to the audience members who gave so generously.

...Thanks to Sarah Spencer - who was the Burton Calendar Girls finance chief throughout and sat up after each performance last week counting coins and texting the latest total to the girls.

..Thanks to the cast of the UK touring production of Calendar Girls who donated an autographed calendar and other memorabilia as raffle prizes.

...Thanks, of course, to the uber-talented Tilley Bancroft of Red Door Studios whose vision for the 2013 calendar we shot last summer made it such a beautiful piece of work.

...Thanks to Sara of Bra Sense and make-up artist Sheelagh  Powell who generously gave up time and products.... and all those who sold calendars for us.

There are also many, many thank you's associated with the play itself:

• Our amazing director John Bowness 
• Soundtrack supremo Peter Clemson
• The hard-working set crew who built Knapeley Village Hall for us
• Musical director Jack Hawkins
• Karen Hailstone for continuity
• Ben Yeomans for lighting
• Katie Haywood - and the cast - for props
• Geoff Thompson for photography
• The BADAC volunteers who staffed the bar each night
• Janet Plummer and Pam Anderson for selling programmes and staffing the coffee bar
• Little Theatre Company's private and corporate patrons - who help make our productions possible
• Brewhouse box office staff who stayed calm under a deluge of phone calls trying to get last minute tickets.
• The Burton Mail for pre-show publicity.

So, the adventure is finally over. Thank you for following our blog. Our JustGiving Page will stay open until the end of March 2013 to enable any late donations to be gathered in and then we'll be organising the handover of the money to the charity which is fighting so hard to cure blood cancers.

Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research has always been associated with the play since the real life calendar girls of  Yorkshire began fundraising for a settee for their local cancer ward following the death of the real John Clarke. Who could have imagined where that decision was going to lead?

Although there's such an important and serious point to the fund raising we have had so many laughs along the way with our photoshoot and last week's shows. I hope we brought a little sunshine into your life too.

Curtain up on Calendar Girls in Burton

Tonight is opening night of Little Theatre Company's production of Calendar Girls - and among the break-a-leg messages is a special one from Tim Firth who wrote the play.

You may remember we told you about Bethan Waite (who plays retired school teacher Jessie in our production) meeting Tim last October at the Frodsham Literature Festival - if you want a reminder of that story - CLICK HERE.

Well, today he's sent us a message via a mutual friend to say: "I hope they have a great week. Tell them to let me know via my website if they have time!"

So, despite last minute nerves, the girls will be stepping out bravely with a spring in their step at The Brewhouse in Burton-on-Trent.

Pictured above: left to right: Hannah Mason as Celia, Vanessa Birch as Cora, Heather Ratcliffe as Chris, Bethan Waite as Jessie and Elaine Pritchard as Ruth.

Donate £1 by text - it's so easy

Today we've decided to take advantage of a free service that Just Giving makes available when you have a fundraising page - as we do at http://www.justgiving.com/BurtonCalendarGirls

Vodafone - for no extra charge - allows you to set up a 'donate by text' service.

So if you can afford to give just £1 to our fund for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research you can now text "BCGS90 £1" to 70070 and VOILA! you will have automatically donated £1.

We know that everyone has to think about every £1 these days - but even if a few people can afford it, it will help us towards our very challenging target of raising £2,500 by the end of the week of our play of Calendar Girls in March.

Tickets for the play are already going fast with lots of requests coming in for group bookings - so don't delay if you want to see the girls live on stage in the brilliant, funny, sweet and sad play by Tim Firth.

Tickets can be booked in person at the box office of the Brewhouse, or by telephoning 01283-508100 or by booking online at http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/littletheatreco

Calendar Girls, the play, runs from Tuesday March 12 to Saturday March 16 at The Brewhouse, Union Street, Burton-on-Trent.

Playwright Tim Firth supports Burton Calendar Girls

Bethan Waite, one of the brave ladies in our calendar, took a trip to Frodsham Literature Festival where she had the good fortune to be introduced to Tim Firth - the award-winning writer of the play Calendar Girls.

Tim is patron of the festival, known as Weaver Words, and was more than happy to chat to Bethan about his play, Little Theatre Company's production of it in March 2013 and our current charity calendar project.

Bethan said: "I asked him, 'Please write more plays with such wonderful parts for women in' - and he said that was one of the reasons that he wrote Calendar Girls in the first place."

He also co-wrote the screenplay for the 2003 film which starred Helen Mirren and Julie Walters.

Tim's own website is being very generous in its support for the hundreds of amateur productions of Calendar Girls going ahead in the coming 18 months.

The evening after Bethan met Tim and his wife, the Firths were going to the amateur premiere of Calendar Girls which took place in Grassington - the village where the real Womens' Institute did that first naked calendar.

He told Bethan that was definitely the ONLY production he would be going to see. His mother was due to appear in an amateur production, he revealed - but he wasn't even planning to watch that.

Tim did sign a couple of good luck messages for us which we'll add to the front of house displays when we stage the play next March. Meanwhile, remember to keep an eye on our How to Buy A Calendar page here to see how and where you can buy your own Burton Calendar Girls calendar for yourself, a friend or a relative as an unforgettable Christmas present.