12.06.2007
THREE CHEERS - The Palace Theatre is open for business again. Many of you will have seen the refurbishments when you visited on the open morning or attended the AGM. For those of you that have not seen the interior yet – make a point of going along to see how your money has been spent.
Some 150 of you attended the Open Morning on 24 th February and greeted the alterations with delight. Comments of “wow – what a difference” “fantastic” and “super décor” were to be heard all over the building. The aubergine walls and purple curtains certainly have impact. There was much trying out of the new seats and admiration for the enlarged bar facilities
The Friends have also managed to facilitate some back stage work in redecorating the dressing rooms, but there still remain many improvements to be made in this area. But GOOD NEWS, we have been instrumental in obtaining a grant of £25,000 from the Foundation for Sport and Arts – this to be used to create the promised “Black Box” in the Badminton Hall, and to install showers, additional toilet facilities and a kitchen backstage. Unfortunately these funds, although promised, did not become available in time for the re-opening of the theatre, but this work will go ahead as soon as the funding is in place. Your committee are delighted that their efforts in submitting a bid to the Foundation for Sport & Art are bearing fruit, and we are anxious now to see a transformation in these areas to match the fantastic improvements to the auditorium.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Our Annual General Meeting on 29 th March was just a little bit different this year. Richard Bearne our chairman opened his report by saying how delightful it was to be in the new auditorium, and how proud we could all be of the contribution the Friends had made to the refurbishment. He went on to say
“We have reached the £75,000 target which was the contribution requested of us by the council towards this project. More than this we gave ourselves a target of £100,000 for the Regeneration Appeal so we could contribute to further improvements not included in the main project. Many of you may know that we have achieved this by securing a grant of £25,000 from The Federation for Sports and Art thanks to a determined effort by our secretary Marion and by our Patron Kevin Bishop who both deserve our sincere thanks.
So in a way tonight is a real turning point for the Friends. The truth is that a theatre like this can only survive with significant community support. There is still uncertainty as to who will be running the venue in the long term, but whoever does run it will only succeed if they are supported by the people of Torbay. My feeling is that we need to build on our successes and as a group continue to support the Theatre both financially and practically. The grant from the Federation for Sport and Art will bring the backstage areas up to an acceptable standard and significantly improve the Badminton Hall but there will always be more that needs to be done to keep the Theatre up to scratch: A new sound system is needed for instance and equipment will always need updating and replacing. The high standard of décor we see here now needs to be maintained and it is to these sorts of projects we will need address ourselves. The hope is that the Friends can remain a social organisation to which it is a pleasure to belong, because it is as a group that we retain the most power to support the Theatre and spread the word.”
He continued by thanking all those who had contributed to the success of the various social events that had been held throughout the year. These events had enabled us to keep the social side of the Friends alive and to keep our fundraising efforts going.
In conclusion he said “I think my principal message to you this evening is this: We’ve got a really good thing going here and if the membership wants it, it can continue to grow and prosper along with the Theatre it supports and become a permanent vibrant part of Paignton life.”
George reported a very healthy bank balance; it had been a very good year for fund raising with two donation of £10,000 – one from Industrial Waste Management and one from Matthew Pritchard, grandson of Agetha Christie. There had also been a donation of £1,000 from the Paignton Freemasons and several bequests of £100 which had made a grand total of £23,411 donations during the year. Fund raising from events had also been successful. Ann Vosper’s half-marathon this year had raised £346; the Strawberry & Cream afternoon £221 and the Gala Ball and Auction had raised £5,835 – George said that the Gala Ball evening had been a resounding success and the auction had been greatly helped by the wonderful prizes contributed by Kevin Bishop; he expressed his thanks to Kevin and to all those who had contributed prizes. He went on to thank all those involved in the organisation of the evening, not least Anne and Jill who had gathered together some 40 or so prizes to make the auction an interesting and fun event.
He concluded his report by saying that as we were now about to hand over a cheque for £50,000 to Torbay Council this would virtually empty our bank account. He explained that we have a Bond with Standard Life which will mature in June, and this will enable us to pay the remaining £25,000 to the Council to fulfil our promise of £75,000 towards the refurbishment. However once these monies had been paid we are back at the beginning again as far as funds are concerned and we now needed another round of fund raising to replenish our reserves and to enable us to move forward in the next year and beyond.
We are all aware that although the theatre has been refurbished and looks fantastic there is still much that needs doing behind the scenes, and he was sure that the Friends would be instrumental seeing that these projects would be fulfilled.
7.02.2007
Here we are embarking upon another year with the Friends. It is now 5 years since we started out on the journey to regenerate our lovely theatre – well we are getting there. As you all know we have reached our initial target of £75,000 and a BIG cheque will be handed to the Council at our March AGM. This is going to be a good evening and an important one for us – so please do try to come to the 2007 AGM on Thursday 29 th March. The venue is THE PALACE THEATRE. Yes we are back at home. Although the theatre does not open until April we have been granted permission to use it for our AGM; it is an opportunity for the Friends to see the new auditorium and to see where the £75,000 we have raised has been spent.
14.11.06
Ann Vosper – Half Marathon By Ann Vosper
The weather for this year’s Dart Vale Half Marathon was dull and chilly, and far more comfortable to run in than last years heat. This year I completed the run in 2hours 31 minutes – my best yet – and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
My husband Alan was at the start to see me off and cheer me at the finish line. Unfortunately Marion could not be there this year, but special thanks go to Friends’ chairman Richard and to Peggy and David Head who braved the chilly weather to wave me off and to cheer me home. Over the past three years you have helped me to raise some £2,000 for the Palace Theatre; so a very special “Thank You” to all of you who have supported and sponsored me.
Footnote from Marion: We take our hat off to Ann – another great effort and a super personal best of 2.31. A big round of applause and a big thank you to Ann.
I do have one or two sponsorship forms for which I have not yet received the donation also some of you may well still have sponsorship form and money out there to send in. Now that Ann has completed the event please do not forget to send in the donations c/o Marion Smith, 42 Laura Grove, Paignton, TQ3 2LP
The Gala Ball
The Gala Ball which took place on Saturday 21 st October was a great success. Everyone who attended had a fantastic evening and the auction raised £3,000. Anne Hunter and Jill Farrant did a superb job on the collecting of “lots” for the auction, and the icing on the cake were the donations from Kevin Bishop who organised tickets for “The Sound of Music”, “The Royal Variety Performance”, Breakfast with Terry Wogan, and for the opportunity to meet Andrew Lloyd Webber, tour the Palace Theatre in London, and to see the performance of “Spamalot”. There were also very generous donations from Cameron Mackintosh with tickets for “Avenue Q” and “Mary Poppins”; and we are grateful to Sandra Downing for facilitating this.
The auction attracted a lot of attention and the response from those present was very exciting. The grand total of £3,000 made during the evening is a great start to our second phase of the campaign. We are grateful to all those who contributed to the success of the evening, and of course to ROK who sponsored the band - High Society - for the ball.
Rossiters Charity Evening
Our thanks to Rossiters who offered us a charity evening at the store and gave us a donation of £250. Our various activities on that evening raised a further £100. Unfortunately the weather was not kind to us and the turnout was disappointing; however those that did attend had fun on the Friends stalls, and picked up some bargains at the same time.
We are grateful to those members who “manned” the stalls -
Mary Wellens, Dianne Wood, Tony Taylor and committee member. However special thanks must go to Anika Hamilton
16.09.06
The Friends have just received the promise of a £10,000 donation from the Agatha Christie family as a gesture of goodwill towards the theatre. This brings their fund raising to £75,000 which is the sum they have committed towards the present renovation project.
They are now embarking upon Phase 2 of their fund raising – to contribute a further £25,000 towards the additional work required to the backstage and adjacent areas of the building. There is an exciting programme of events planned for the autumn/winter including a gala ball & auction, a children’s Christmas balloon race, sponsorship for a half-marathon being run by one of their members plus participation in the Rotary “Big Walk”.
19.08.06
Our Thanks go to Industrial Easte Management Services who presented us with a cheque for £10,000 at the end of their annual display on Paignton Green. IWM bring their conference and display to Paignton every year, and each year they make a donation to one of the town's 'courses'. This year we were the recipients and we do thank their management team for this very generous donation.
On Touesday 18th July the vice-chairman, Anne Hunter and Marion Smith had a great day out. The Mark Lodge No. 586 of the Paignton Freemasons celebrated the centenary of their concsecration meeting and the Friends of the Palace Theatre were invited to join them. The Masonic Halkl in Courtland Road was designed by a local architect, and a past master of the Torbay Lodge, Mr George Soudon Bridgman who also designed the then Paignton Public Hall, now of course the Palace Theatre. But the connection does not end there... The first meeting of the Mark Lodge in 1906 took place in the Paignton Public Hall. After a tour of the Theatre and celebration lunch John Eaton, the Deputy Provincial Grand Master in charge for Mark Masons presented a cheque for £1,000 to the Friends Regeneration Appeal Fund, together with a commemorative picture of George Soudon Bridgeman.
For more information please contact - Marion Smith
The Treasure, Friends of the Palace Theatre, c/o 42 Laura Grove, Paignton, TQ3 2LP.
Telephone 01803 409617
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