A WH cancelled

In this blog usually we post about the new theatrical productions based on Brontë novels, we try to be as exhaustive as we can. But we know that some amateur productions usually escape to our attention. This time we report the cancellation of an amateur production of Wuthering Heights that was scheduled to begin today April 4 in The Norbury Theatre, Droiwitch Spa, Worcerstershire, UK.

The reasons? Read this post in the Norbury Theatre forum and you will understand it :

Wuthering Heights is hard to produce with no cast. Like most amateur theatres the Norb is getting low turn outs to auditions, and those that do turn up are loyal, excellent performers but usually too old for the parts! (No new problem really, I recall a previopus Norbury operatic and musicals 'juvenile lead' who had to be persuaded to continue to take the parts without audition when no one below the age of 60 turned up!) The problem is so many people work away from their home town and work long hours, being able to say several months in advance that they will be free to arrive at the Norb at 7-00pm and go on stage at 7-30 severakl nights in a row becomes impossible - so they don't audition. With all the labour saving devices, commuinications devices, etc etc the one thing people don't have anymore is time! One would have thought with every second teenager you come across doing 'Theatre studies', 'Media studies' or 'Drama' at school/college/uni we would have plenty of available talent... but no. That is why maybe we are seeing more 'brought in shows' like the fothcoming 'Victorian Tales'. Trouble is how do we get people to hear about the shows - they don't look in the papers (not that there has been anything in yet about that particular show as far as I know) and they don't notice posters....although I do see the odd person stopping and reading the one on the noticeboard I have outside my house!

At the BrontëBlog we want to encourage the task of so many amateur theatrical companies that with hard work and many hours of dedication (and no wages) try to bring some theatre to local audiences. We know how hard it is.

Categories: Theatre, Wuthering_Heights