August 2006 Newsletter

THE 2006 PRODUCTION

What a great time we all had with the production this year. ‘STEEL MAGNOLIAS’ was just the right play for us; a great story with well rounded characters in very real situations. From the day the play was cast, we felt we had a winner. Choosing the cast from a very fine group of actors left us having to leave some excellent talent in the wings. That so many first-rate actors responded to the audition notice indicated a lively interest in Pilgrim. Our thanks go to Helen Goudge, Florencia Iriondo, Jannelle Bish, Lynn Webster, Susan Hargraves and June Britton for their fantastic portrayals of the ladies of Chinquapin Parish.

Without the expertise of our loyal lighting guys, Dave Powell and Des Hudson along with help from Lisa Inman, we would not have a show. These folk give us their time and talent to design, install and operate the lights. This year, they again gave us their best.

The set was designed and constructed by Peter Carr with help from Neil Lobb and Glen Wallace. (Any one wanting to purchase some slightly used Venetian blinds?) Bruce Weston did the décor and the costumes were by Gwyneth Glover who went to an enormous amount of trouble to secure clothes from the 1980s. Backstage was managed with calm by Mary Boyd who must be Auckland’s favourite stage manager. Ryan Stevens was with us again, this time to fire the gun as well as all the other tasks he undertakes for Pilgrim during a run. Neil & Kathy Lobb were our welcoming and efficient Front of House team.

What’s been happening?

In their relentless search for exciting new material, the director of Steel Magnolias and the Deputy Chair of Pilgrim Productions have recently returned from a Hawaiian cruise to check out on board shows and possible future venues. They report that with a stunning 2000 seat purpose built on board theatre, a million dollar lighting budget to splash a Broadway standard cast of singers and dancers plus a magician and comedian, with state of the art laser lighting, we too could thrill our audiences. It was a grueling trip for them both but they stayed all the courses at the many dining options and checked out the poolside deck chairs before attending the nightly shows. Not only did they do all this for Pilgrim but they also planned an end of year script for a Christmas performance. Is there no end to the amount of work these two will accomplish to assure Pilgrim maintains its place in the Auckland theatre scene?