The Phoenix has risen from the ashes.: Charity Event in Llay

Extracts from the souvenir programe:

An evening of Stage and Screen

The proceeds of this event go to BUZZ-AH!

Buzz-AH! is a Mold-based amateur performance arts group created to encourage people with and without disabilities to participate on an equal basis in the arts.

It aims to empower, encourage, enhance and educate while creating a regular opportunity for its members to have enormous fun together! Buzz-AH! brings joy and good will to the community it serves, and to all who attend its performances.From small beginnings in 2002 it has grown to a company of 35 active members (roughly 50% with/without special needs) with a professional musical director and a choreographer preparing and delivering an annual show to enthusiastic audiences of hundreds.

THE ORGANISER

Below is a statement from Jo Woodward - about how and why this event came about.

"I first became involved with Buzz-AH! almost three years ago, after being invited along to the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod’s Inclusion event to ‘look after the bags and coats’ by their Musical Director, Leslie Churchill Ward. I think secretly she had me there under false pretences, knowing full well I’d be completely, hopelessly captivated by this wonderful group of performers…

I was given such a warm welcome that within minutes I felt like I was with old friends. As I sat in the summer sunshine (yes, really!) watching Team Buzz-AH! do their stuff, I realised that this was what life should be all about. Everyone just getting along, pulling together to achieve a fantastic end result. The word ‘can’t’ doesn’t appear to exist in Buzz-AH!’s world. Celebrating Difference? More like ‘What Difference?’"

As their signature performance of Take That’s ‘Shine’ came to a rousing close, I made a commitment that one day, when the time was right, I would give something back in recognition for how these amazing people had made me feel through the power of Performing Arts.

THE HOSTS

STEVE DAVIES

Steve Davies is a producer, director and actor based in Wrexham. His last stage appearance was as Widow Twankey in Aladdin alongside Gareth Thomas at The Stiwt in Rhos. As a director he most recently produced and directed The Vicar of Dibley for Tip Top Productions at The Forum Studio Theatre in Chester. In the past twelve months he produced West End to Broadway for Theatretrain at The Forum Studio Theatre in Chester, produced and directed You Decide for Tip Top Productions, also in Chester and took pupils from his Theatretrain Schools to perform in License To Thrill at The Royal Albert Hall in London. His latest large-scale production was A Sixties Christmas for Theatretrain that was performed at the Stiwt Theatre, Rhos in December 2012. As well as his theatre work Steve has continued to work in television with three appearances in Channel 4s Shameless last year as well as ITVs Home Front, a TV pilot, Living The Dream, and Camelot Lottery’s Olympic themed TV advert.

KATE SALMON

Kate is a professional actress who studied an MA in Music Theatre at the prestigious Central School of Speech Drama, London following a degree in Drama at Bretton Hall Drama School and a Degree in Music and Sociology from the University of Liverpool.

After graduating with an MA Distinction, the past two Christmas seasons saw Kate playing Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk and Wendy in Peter Pan in Manchester for Pendle Productions. January 2012 saw Kate make her professional Musical Theatre debut playing the roles of Kate and Sharon in the UK tour of Girls’ Night opposite Eastenders’ Gillian Taylforth.

Other credits include Prince Charming in Cinderella, Mrs Durbeyfield in the musical revival workshop of Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Gudrin in the UK premiere of Sigrun’s Firewritten by Stephen Clark (Zorro, Martin Guerre and Love Story), Andy in Stepping Out (Forum Studio), Betty in The Full Monty (Clwyd Theatr Cymru) and Principal Vocalist in Live at the London Palladium (London Palladium).

As well as being a trained singer, actress and dancer, Kate also holds a PGCE in further education and has taught for Theatretrain for many years teaching all three disciplines.

THE PERFORMERS

GRESFORD HANDBELL RINGERS

Gresford Handbell Ringing Team has been in existence since 1975 when George and Norah Randles, both eminent tower bell ringers at All Saints Church, decided to purchase 3 octaves of handbells from the Whitechapel Foundry, London. This was following an ancient tradition which began in the 1600s when the first handbells were cast in Britain ad quickly became popular among tower bell ringers for playing both simple tunes and practising change ringing. As the available range of handbells increased, the art of tune ringing was developed to such an extent that handbell teams or choirs were formed separately from tower bell ringing teams, playing more complicated musical scores using large numbers of bells.

Jill Roberts was fortunate to join Gresford Handbell Ringers in 1989, becoming musical director in 1990 when Norah Randles retired – since then the team has steadily increased from 8 to 17 ringers and the number of handbells now covers 5 octaves. We perform a wide range of musical genres, from classical to popular music, to a large variety of audiences. The team belongs to the National Society of Handbell Ringers of Great Britain, and meet together with other teams in the North West region for a rally twice a year. In addition to this we are always busy practising for and giving concerts at W.I. meetings, garden centres, weddings, garden parties, restaurants (many thanks to Alan at the Golden Lion in Rossett who gave us a generous donation when we played Christmas Carols there in December!) plus numerous charity performances in residential care homes, Nightingale House, church concerts and other fund raising events.

Although well never become one of the 7 Wonders of Wales like All Saints Tower bells, we all thoroughly enjoy playing handbells together and sharing our love of music making with so many people around the Wrexham and Gresford area.

RICHARD AARON DAVIES

Musical Director, Broadway Collective

Originally from Old Colwyn, Richard is a freelance performer, composer and director based in the North West studying at the University of Manchester.

Earlier this year, Richard conducted the massed voices of Acquire and Wrexham’s Cantorion Rhos in a performance of a special arrangement of his own work Paris and Helena Meet.

He and some friends, all young musicians from North Wales, brought the Broadway Collective together as an experiment in music making and to play new arrangements of much loved music for a slightly unusual and abnormal ensemble! This evening is their debut performance.

DHUGAL FULTON

Recorders

Dhugal is an accomplished and well-rounded performer, musician, singer and actor living in Wrexham. He also teaches recorders and violin.

Dhugal graduated in 2007 from the prestigious East15 Acting School with a Postgraduate Diploma. Credits include Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (touring); Ronnie in Frozen Assets (short film), Freddie in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Forum Theatre), Mr Snow in Carousel (Gateway Theatre) and Jesus in Godspell (Yale Studio), as well as some voice-over work with Pier Productions and Sidekick Productions.

Having been a supporter of Buzz-AH! from the beginning, he is thrilled to be performing alongside them this evening.

ACQUIRE

Acquire is a mixed-voice community choir formed in June 2010 by Musical Director Leslie Churchill Ward. Originally an experimental project, Acquire has taken off! We now have approximately 60 members ranging in age from 15 – 80+, including singers with strong musical and performance backgrounds as well those who don’t read music or have never sung in public. Our members diverse personalities and backgrounds, combined with Leslie’s American roots, are truly reflected by our repertoire which includes musical theatre, pop, jazz, original compositions & arrangements – you name it! Through our music Acquire has built a strong sense of community and inclusion. We look forward to welcoming new members and always share many laughs in our rehearsals. As Leslie always tells us, “If its not fun, what’s the point?!”

In our first two years Acquire has performed at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Rhuddlan Castle, The Marble Church, Faenol Fawr, Bodelwyddan Castle, Prestatyn Parish Church and placed 3rd in our category at the 2011 North Wales Music Festival at Venue Cymru. Acquires Jazz Choir has also performed at private functions such as weddings and garden parties.

Acquire endeavours to support our community and members in any way possible – we have previously helped raised money for Buzz-AH! by performing last summer in A Grand Night for Singing, and on our own have raised money for North Wales Flood Fund and St Kentigern Hospice.

THEATRETRAIN

Theatretrain was established in 1992 and has 100 schools across the UK and Ireland. It concentrates on two processes—learning skills in the performing arts and performing those skills to an audience. Our weekly classes of dancing, acting and singing also offer valuable developmental skills about teamwork, discipline and confidence building. Each school is split into three age groups; 6-9s, 9-12s and 13-18s and each group receives an hour class in each discipline.

Theatretrain’s difference from other schools is that we give our pupils plenty of opportunity to perform so that they don’t just come along to classes and have fun each week, they also have an end product to be working towards to show off the skills learnt.

Its no wonder that we’ve earned our reputation as the company that loves to perform. We give our pupils plenty of opportunity to take the lead in Theatretrain’s own productions both locally, in regional theatres and in London’s West End. We believe that its important to give our pupils the opportunity to show off their skills as often as possible, whether its in a play, a musical or a song & dance show and over the past 7 years we have been involved in many productions throughout the UK ranging from local performances in The Stiwt Theatre, Wrexham and Forum Studio Theatre, Chester to regionally in The Palace Theatre, Manchester and nationally in The Royal Albert Hall and the O2. Recent Theatretrain productions have included Honk!, The Golden Pathway Annual, A Sixties Christmas and License to Thrill to name but a few.

Theatretrain Schools in this area are owned and managed by Steve Davies. We meet during term time on Saturday mornings in Chester, Mold and Wrexham, and also on Friday evenings in Chester.