Thank you Brasense for your support!

As rehearsals continue for our March production of Calendar Girls, the members of the cast who need to strip off for the crucial (and hilarious) scene where the charity calendar is photographed are thinking about eating salads, exercising - and underwear.

Sara, of Brasense, can't help us with the first two - but she has provided the six main characters with some super, nude, almost invisible undies. And we are very grateful.

It's a very important part of the show that no-one in the audience actually sees anything they really shouldn't. We're determined to avoid the 'wardrobe malfunctions' that it seems other amateur theatre groups have suffered around the UK.

As the name suggests, Brasense is a company that specialises in ensuring that women achieve a perfect fit from their bras. But in this case she has sourced some knickers that are like the ones worn by glamour models - and we feel very glamorous as a result.

If you think you could be among many, many women across the UK wearing a bra that's not really comfortable and doesn't give you the shape and support you really need, have a look at the Brasense website - http://www.brasense.co.uk - and read about the service they can offer.

Brasense is based in Measham, Derbyshire - and we're also happy to welcome them as a Corporate Patron of Little Theatre Company.

Two Calendar Girls struck down by Puppy Love

It's been an exciting week for two of our calendar girls - mum and daughter Elaine and Caitlin - who had a surprise meeting backstage with Donny and Marie Osmond after watching their show at Birmingham's LG Arena.

On Twitter, Marie had invited audience members who 'followed' her to tweet her their seat number about half an hour before the show started - and Elaine did.

She was shocked speechless when about three number into the show Marie announced from that stage that the winner of her Twitter competition was Elaine.

The pair were ushered out of their seats in block 14 and taken to the two seats in the middle of the front row where they watched the rest of the show. They were given a backstage tour at the show's interval and afterwards met Donny and Marie for pictures, autographs and a quick chat.

Elaine was a MASSIVE Osmonds fan in the 70s and has seen most of their recent UK tours since 2007. She is still recovering from the shock.

Marie tweeted the picture of her with Elaine and Cait to her 87,885 twitter followers and also shared Elaine's comment that she was glad she'd been moved to the front or she wouldn't have seen Marie's fabulous shoes! Fellow Calendar Girls will know Elaine does love shoes! (Sadly, she herself was wearing practical and rather ugly sensible trainers on the night to cope with the ice in the arena car park).

Elaine (Miss January on our calendar) plays 'Ruth' in our March production of the play Calendar Girls. Caitlin appears in the calendar's December group shot and plays 'Elaine' in the show.

If you are a fan of Twitter, you can follow Elaine at @Ellajp and the Burton Calendar Girls @LTCCalendarGirl

Burton Belles, and a bit of burlesque

As you know, the play Calendar Girls - which we are performing at Burton's Brewhouse from March 12-16, 2013 - focuses on the WI.
We loved visiting Egginton WI last year to talk about our experience of creating our own charity Calendar Girls calendar.
Next month, on February 13, we're talking to another WI group - this time the Burton Belles who meet in the town centre at the St John Ambulance HQ.
The Burton Belles are also turning out in force to come and see opening night of our play in March.
So we were thrilled to see them getting a mention in an article in the Daily Express about the changing face of the WI.

You can read the full article here.

Burton Belles are a great example of a modern WI and the feature refers to one of their events - a Burlesque dance evening. 

The Burton Belles website is here - and I'm sure they would love to see any ladies of any age at a future meeting to find out more about their group.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support. You may have seen that this week we past the £1,250 mark with our fund raising for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. Our fund raising will continue through to the end of March 2013. 

If you'd like to help you can:

• Text 'BCGS90 £1' to 700700 - to donate £1 to our fund. It will go straight to the charity and you'll even have an opportunity to add gift aid if you wish.
• Visit our JustGiving page at http://www.justgiving.com/BurtonCalendarGirls to donate any amount safely and securely online.
• Buy a calendar for just £5 - find out how on our How To Buy A Calendar page.
• Buy a ticket for one of our shows in March. There will be a chance to donate any loose change in collecting buckets on the bar or buy a ticket in our nightly raffle where prizes on certain nights will include signed pictures donated by the professional cast of Calendar Girls. Tickets for the play can be bought via the Brewhouse box office - call in person or ring 01283-508100 - or book online at http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/littletheatreco. There's NO booking fee.

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.

Happy New Year - from Miss January

Here's hoping that 2013 is a wonderful year for you all.

'Miss January' had a bit of a shock when she realised that she was now actually on peoples' walls! After all these months of planning and preparations since the photoshoot last summer it's still a bit of a surprise to realise it's now a reality.

If you haven't got a calendar yet - the great news is that you can now buy one for just £5 in our January sale.

Or, if you would just like to recognise our courage and support the wonderful charity that is Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research you would be very welcome to make a donation at our Just Giving page.

We are thrilled that we're now very close to raising our first £1,000 - but we have set an ambitious target of £2,500 by the time we reach the end of our show week when we perform the play Calendar Girls at the Burton Brewhouse from March 12-16.

We do have some more fundraising events planned for early 2013 and you'll hear about them here on our blog.
If you still want a calendar, email elaine@little-theatre.co.uk to arrange when and where to collect one if you are local to Burton. Or they can still be obtained by mail order if you live further afield. Find out more on our How to Buy A Calendar Page on this blog.

*You can support out Just Giving Page - it's safe and secure and the money goes straight to the charity - at http://www.justgiving.com/BurtonCalendarGirls

Instructions now available if you want to crochet a Calendar Girl

There's been a flurry of interest from people who want to crochet a calendar girl.

So we've now made the instructions - created originally by Tilley Bancroft of Red Door Studios - available for ANYONE to obtain from us.

All we'd like in return is a stamped addressed envelope - to send your instructions back to you without us incurring any postage charges - and a small donation to our ongoing fund for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.

You should post your stamped addressed envelope to:
Burton Calendar Girls
87 Meadow View
Rolleston-on-Dove
Burton-on-Trent
Staffordshire DE13 9AL.

You can either enclose a small donation - whatever you can afford - or you can make a small donation online safely and securely at our Just Giving page - http://www.justgiving.com/BurtonCalendarGirls

We'd LOVE to know how you get on - so do leave us a comment on the blog.

Happy crocheting!

Rehearsing - and crocheting

Rehearsals are now underway for our March 2013 production of Calendar Girls - the play - at The Brewhouse in Burton-on-Trent. I haven't forgotten that I promised you casting news, and that will follow.

Crcoheting calendar girls is also underway - with mixed results.

Our photographer, Tilley, who also appears in our October shot, has recruited her mum to the cause - and she's doing brilliantly.

Other people have made a promising start....

But the end result in this case was a rather over-sized and (frankly) deeply unattractive crocheted 'girl'.

If you know the play Calendar Girls it may come as no surprise that THIS delightful diva was created by the lady playing 'Ruth' - she of the handmade fancy dress costume etc... who means well but never quite manages to win any prizes.

She's now on crocheted doll number 2 which looks good so far..... I think she's learned from her mistakes, and maybe the canine encouragement helped.

If you would like to join the 'crochet a calendar girl' drive we can send you out some instructions in return for a small donation to the cause.

You can donate to our fund for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research easily and quickly online at http://www.justgiving.com/BurtonCalendarGirls Any small donation this festive season would be welcome.

You can also buy one of our calendar for just £8 - if you are able to collect one in person from us in Burton-on-Trent - or we can mail them out for an additional charge to cover postage and packing. See our How to Buy A Calendar page for more information.