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NEW FARNHAM REPERTORY Actors' Company

News of NFRC's actors

2005

David Gooderson

NFRC character actor David Gooderson has adapted The Wind in the Willows for the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. David is well known to Farnham audiences, having acted in nearly all the company's shows.

Spettigue (Charley's Aunt), Worcestor (Henry IV Part 1), Dr Gibbs (Our Town) and as Davros in the BBC's 1979 Dr Who series, Destiny of the Daleks.

David co-wrote his adaptation with David Conville for last year's Regent Park season, where it smashed the Open Air Theatre's box office records. The Wind in the Willows is back again this year from 2 - 27 August - a real holiday treat for the family.

Booking details are at www.openairtheatre.org or ring 08700 601811.

Dennis Chinnery

Local professional actor and a favourite with New Farnham Repertory Company audiences, who is also an accomplished painter.

Follow this link to read his story

A/AS English Literature students at Alton College, Hampshire, were treated to a rare private performance on 12th January 2005 of "Pro-Patria", a compilation of literature from the First World War, presented by WJ Productions, members of the New Farnham Repertory Company.

As a central component of their study of A level English Literature, students were extremely fortunate to have this lively introduction to the texts and atmosphere of the time. Performed and devised by Simon Cole and Victoria Newlyn, with additional material from Paul Kessell-Holland and Nicholas Scrivens, the poignancy and tragedy of the Great War became clear to all who witnessed the excellent production; it will have provided rich food for thought in the weeks to come.

Students will now follow up this experience with the annual two day visit to war sites around Ypres and the Somme. This reinforces background knowledge which was gained when students visited the Imperial War Museum in the summer before going on to a performance of R C Sherriff's play about trench life, "Journey's End".

Reprinted from the Alton College website.

Brenda Longman, pictured below as Mistress Quickly in the NFRC's 2003 production of Henry IV Part 1, has been recording an audio of version of BBC's Dr Who.

She plays Pandora, the evil spirit and erstwhile time-lord imperiatrix, in the Gallifrey series (Gallifrey is where all the Doctors hail from). She was released by the evil Darkel (Linda Bellingham) and feeds off people's minds.

Brenda says that Romana (Lalla Ward) and Leela (Louise Jameson) triumph in the end and shut her back up in her metaphorical box, which is a Matrix projection of some kind (Don't ask!) with the help, naturally, of K9 (John Leeson).

The new audio CDs are available from distributors such as BBC and Amazon.

2004

Maurice Thorogood, shown here as Dan Pegotty in the 2003 NFRC production of David Copperfield, was directing in the summer and winter.

He worked on the Summer Youth Project for Clear Channel Theatres at The Beck theatre in Hayes, Middlesex, directing 100 young people in a production of Annie Get Your Gun.

At Christmas, at the Civic Theatre, Darlington, Maurice directed Cannon and Ball in Peter Pan.

Simon Cole, pictured here as Hotspur in the 2003 NFRC production of Henry IV, was in a show at the Landor Theatre in Clapham.

Simon starred in the title role in Shakespeare's Richard II for a three week run in the spring.

Simon's next appearance was at the open air theatre at Greenwich, as Benedick (yet again, the main man!) in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, alongside NFRC actor Robert Gray.

Ben Warwick, here with Victoria Newlyn in the 2003 NFRC production of David Copperfield, appeared in Noel Coward's The Marquise at the Richmond Theatre.

Ben was playing alongside Kate O'Mara and Michael Jayston. The play ran from 5 - 10 April.

Robert Gray, is having a busy year. He has completed a commercial for Sony Playstation that will be shown worldwide. He does not yet know if it will screen in this country, or if he wants it to be (he appears nude).

He appeared in the film Closer which starred Jude Law and Julia Roberts.

He played the doctor in a production of Macbeth at Southwark, and in April was in Let's Talk Sex at the Greenwich Theatre.

Robert also appeared at the open air theatre at Greenwich, as Verges in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, alongside NFRC actor Simon Cole.

Anthony Allgood (left), here pictured as Douglas in the 2003 NFRC production of Henry IV, has been two brand new shows: one at South Hill Park as the devil in a new musical called The Damnation Game, and the other at the Phoenix Theatre as one of four actors performing a revue entitled "Hants Very Much", a celebration of Hampshire, with sketches, songs, poetry and extracts from literature.

Anthony is pictured here just before despatching Nigel Morley (on the right), who was briefly appearing as Sir Walter Blunt before dashing off to edit this website.