FROM THE CHAIR                                                                                                   SUMMER 2008

 

Writing this message to you brings home to me the progress we have made since we purchased the building in February 2006. Our consultants (Headland Design Association) are nearing completion of reports on the Conservation, Access and Audience Plans, which will advise an interim Business Plan. The Trustees are working hard with the help of officers of Lancaster City Council and the North West Development Agency to put together capital funding for the interior restoration. As I informed you in our last Newsletter, the government is making available to coastal resorts £45 million spread over 3 years. We have already sent in our expression of interest and hope to hear if we have been successful soon. Also our application for Heritage Lottery funding will be submitted by the 1^st September this year.

NOTICEBOARD

 

Friends Shop

The Friends shop sells a range of gifts and souvenirs as well as being a point of contact between the general public and the Winter Gardens restoration project. If you can spare a few hours to join the team of volunteers who staff the shop, especially on weekdays (Tuesday to Friday) or Saturdays, please contact Evelyn (see Contacts below).

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Sponsor a Plank

You can still contribute to the theatre’s floor fund by sponsoring a plank. Planks cost £10 carrying up to 2 names or £20 for a whole family. Names are kept in a register of sponsors and you receive a certificate as acknowledgement. Planks can be sponsored at the Friends shop.

MORECAMBE’S TOWERING AMBITION (Part 1)                                                       Stephen Jones

 

110 years ago and one year after the opening of the Winter Gardens, plans were laid for another, very different building at the other end of the promenade.

 

In November 1898 Morecambe Tower Company Ltd issued a prospectus outlining its intention to build an imaginative new tourist attraction.

 

‘This company has been formed for the purpose of constructing … a tower upon a scale somewhat in excess as regards attractiveness, and different in construction to the towers of Blackpool and Paris; also for the erecting in conjunction therein a Pavilion, Concert Hall, Restaurant, Arcade, Café Chantant and Eastern Bazaar and also 22 lock up shops fronting to the promenade; and also for the provision and laying out of ornamental gardens.’

DOWN MEMORY LANE AT THE WINTER GARDENS                       Valerie (Baulard) Rogerson

 

My husband Howard and myself came to live in Morecambe 2 years ago. We both came on regular visits with my family and friends in our childhood and teenage years. Howard came from Morley near Leeds, and I lived in Kendal, where I lived from the age of 10 years until going to teachers’ training college. My aunt used to bring me to Happy Mount Park and then to have tea in the Midland Hotel, looking out of the window onto the sea. Howard came to visit relatives who moved here in 1929!

 

I have spent 40 years of my life as a professional singer, and remember with great affection coming to compete in the singing classes in Morecambe Musical Festival in the Winter Gardens. The huge space was somewhat daunting, but it was a wonderful experience, all adding to my eventually singing for my living.

 

The Friends would welcome more volunteers willing to be in attendance at the theatre to guide and oversee visits by the public.

We are looking in particular for :

   -more volunteer staff for weekend openings.
 
   -volunteers willing to staff the Friends shop for a few hours in the week.

   - additional staff willing to spend a few hours overnight supervising one of our
      popular Paranormal Investigation nights when organised groups
     come ghost-hunting!

   - The Friends would especially welcome volunteers qualified in first aid .

If you would like to help please contact the Chair, Evelyn Archer on 01524 422180 or any committee member or trustee. Thank you.
 
                                                                    

Dear Friends

 

Since the December newsletter things are continuing to move forward at a steady pace.

The Friends are pleased to inform members that the pantomime which was performed over 3 days in January by Limelight Productions was a huge success. Even though the theatre was cold and people were advised to bring along a blanket to keep them warm, it did not deter people from giving us their support and has given every indication that this support will continue when a fully restored Winter Gardens opens its doors once again.

NOTICEBOARD

 

Memberships and Life Memberships

Please note that memberships are now due for renewal. The rates are £10 for individuals, £15 for families and £8 for senior citizens. Life memberships of the Friends of the Winter Gardens are also now available priced at £125 for the under-65s or £90 for the over-65s. Please contact Mike Archer (see Contacts list below) for details.

Back in 2003, the Friends received a wonderful letter from Eric Irving in Florida posing the question of whether Julie Andrews (now, of course, Dame Julie) had ever appeared professionally at the Winter Gardens. Eric wasn’t too sure about that, though as you’ll see from the extract from his letter below, she certainly sang in the theatre

MADAM BUTTERFLY

PUCCINI

 

Lieutenant Pinkerton (U.S. Navy)…………………………………..ROBERT SYDNEY

Goro (a Marriage Broker)……………………………………………ROBERT SCOTT

Sharpless (the American Consul)…………………………………….OTAKAR KRAUS

The Imperial Commissioner…………………………………………MARTIN QUINN

The Bonze (Uncle of Cho-Cho-San)………………………………APPLETON MOORE

Yamadori…………………………………………………………...MARTIN QUINN

Kate Pinkerton……………………………………………………….BETTY SAGON

Suzuki……………………………………………………………….RUTH ABBOTT

Butterfly (Cho-Cho-San)…………………………………………..JOAN HAMMOND

 

Conductor - - VILEM TAUSKY

 

Cast list for a 1946 performance at the Winter Gardens by the Carl Rosa Opera Company.

 The company also presented Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci that same week.