09/07/09
A huge thank-you to everyone that came to the annual general meeting at St Marys.
Barry Callander stepped down as Chairman and Ian Robinson took over the role.
Cassandra Moon stepped down as Secretary and Darren Houghton took on the job.
We also welcomed Mick Keenan as a new committee member.
Message from Ian Robinson the new CADOS Chairman
Some of you may be surprised to see me up here - well, you're not the only one!
First of all, I'd like to thank Barry for his Chairmanship over the last few years. Now he's not got the hassle of running the place, I look forward to seeing him give his all on stage. In fact, I'm looking forward to seeing all of our great talent do their thing - and, rest assured, I have no desire to act, sing, or direct. And I definitely won't be dancing.
For those who don't know me, I first started helping out CADOS about 20 years ago, when I operated the lighting desk, and did some set-painting and went on to design some programme covers. 10 years ago I joined the Chorley Film Society committee, and have been part of the expansion of that group. I've helped get over £20,000 of grant money and seen audiences reach all-time-highs. Last year I won a Marketing Award from the British Federation of Film Societies. For a few years I've been doing the design work for CADOS, designing most of the posters and the new look. Since I joined the CADOS Committee I have been involved with the 75th Anniversary Party, bookings, and marketing. I've only performed on our stage once and that's how it will stay!
Instead, while all these brilliant people are doing their brilliant thing on stage, I'm going to focus on getting the building up-and-running, and making it a great place for CADOS to get creative. I want a friendly, welcoming environment where people can get on with the thing they joined up for - and, hopefully, have fun at the same time. Sometimes it's just seemed like hard work, so I want to bring back some of the social elements so it becomes a great place for all of us to hang out.
The enforced closure of the building could have done us a world of good - when fully re-opened, it will be a brilliant place and I'm looking forward to seeing how the new space works out. We can rehearse 2 shows at once, or free up the stage for set-building without losing a rehearsal night. Watching our shows, especially Raise The Roof last week, I'm always really proud of everyone on stage and at last we can have a building to be proud of too.
We're very privileged to have such a great venue at our disposal, so let's make sure we look after it (and the people in it). I know there have been concerns from members about feeling left out so I'm going to look at ways to improve how our membership works - if there's some things we should be doing differently, if we can provide perks and better value for money. If people want to be on stage, we've got to give them more opportunities to do so. We've all got to make sure we respect each other and communicate any concerns without resorting to annoying people.
However, it's all give-and-take. I expect members to do their bit in helping run the place - whether that's telling people how brilliant we are, or helping us put up sets and working on the bar. The more that help, the more fun it becomes and the better it is for everyone. At the moment it's the same few people doing lots of things, so I'm not sure we can carry on with people who just want to be on stage. So, feel free to speak to any of us about helping out and we'll work things out together.
I'm going to look at how other theatres (both professional and amateur) work, and see if we can apply anything to us. Just looking at ways to make this all easier - most of us are doing this in our spare time, so anything that cuts the hassle will be good. I'm also going to be working with the council and funding bodies to see what help we can get, and I'll be meeting up with local businesses to see if there's ways to improve our profile.
Some of you may be thinking I'll be showing more films or just filling the place with outside bookings. This is not going to happen, but it is necessary that we provide a wide-ranging service to the town and increase our income to pay for all the repairs and renovations. I want Chorley people to know they can get a good night out at Chorley Little Theatre, and for that message to spread to other towns so that people from Bolton, Preston, Wigan, etc. automatically think of us as a place to come. I hate it when people phone up asking what's on and all I can recommend is a play in 4 weeks. But I love it when new people discover us, and then keep coming back.
So there will be some comedy, some music, a few different shows, and regular films on a brand-new fabulous projector all to keep us ticking over and put us on the map. We receive a lot of goodwill from the people of Chorley and we must repay that by providing things they want, and making them welcome.
And right at the heart of this all will be CADOS - each show will be an event that I want the whole town talking about. We have such great people here, and I want to show them off. The phrase "Amdram" does us a disservice, especially as so many of our former members are now working in the industry. Everything we do is something to be proud of, so let's shout about it. We've got a great mix of old and new actors, fabulous singers, and lots of talent backstage too. Putting on a big production every 6 weeks or so is quite an achievement and the upcoming season will provide many different types of shows, and lots of new challenges that I'm confident we'll meet and overcome. I look forward to watching them all!
Hopefully, we can put on a few smaller things along the way, giving some members more to do and develop their skills. And I'd like to see CADOS go beyond the confines of the Theatre one day - maybe doing something at Chorley events such as the picnic in the park.
But basically, all the creative people can carry on being creative and I'll try and put some things in place so we worry a bit less about leaking roofs and can just enjoy ourselves.
There have been a lot of upheavals in the last few months so I'd like to thank Karl for organising the great show we just put on and Mike Taylor for making sure we had a building to put it in. Thanks to the rest of the committee for working their socks off to get things back on track, and thanks to all of our families for putting up with us - especially my girlfriend Estelle who's been dashing round town giving out flyers and telling everyone we're open again.
Thanks also to Malcolm for bearing with us, and to the staff of the Chorley Guardian and Chorley Citizen for generously promoting our stuff. And, especially, thanks to all of you and our audiences for being so patient.
Don't forget to pick up a brochure seeing what's coming up. Stones In His Pockets and Rent tickets are available right now, everything else soon. And I hope you come to Jimmy Cricket on Saturday - he's been enormously supportive of us, and we need to support him back. It's going to be a great show.
Anyway, I think that's me done for now. If you ever need to contact me, I'm easily reached by phone, text, e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, and even old-fashioned mail. Feel free to speak to me about anything, anytime.
Cheers.
Ian