The Roses' Christmas Chronicle

The Roses’ Christmas Chronicle Dear Friends, We are so pleased to share all our news of The Roses past, present and future with you in our newly launched Roses Chronicle!

We’ve had a busy and brilliant season! We kicked off with our ‘Feel Good Festival’, a celebration of community creativity, with hundreds of local people taking part in workshops and groups including choir, line dancing and West End musicals. It culminated in a wonderful community showcase that launched our new ‘Get Involved’ department that will run workshops and creative clubs throughout the year. Check out what’s coming up later in the chronicle.

We were nervous going into our autumn / winter season, after the omicron covid-varient hit so hard last year. But we’ve had an unbelievable season, culminating in our best-ever selling panto, our traditional-ish take on Snow White. It is thrilling to see so many of you come back to live performance and embracing the wonderful antidote to the national newsfeed!

In 2023 the excitement continues as a lot of work we’ve been doing behind the scenes comes to fruition: Roses Young Creatives, our expanded youth theatre, will run auditions for their summer show for the first time in 4 years; a new look brochure has launched, followed by the launch of a new website.

We are also having our bar refurbished with a new look and installing a kitchen to expand our food offer. On top of all that we’ve just launched an intimate screening room that will be home to our cutting-edge independent film programme, as well as host private viewing and events. With your help we hope to give our backstage a lift too, to provide a home from home for our visiting artists.

Whether you are after a night out, a new group or an opportunity to support your local community we have it all in bucket loads and everyone is welcome. Read on to find out more!

With best wishes to you for Christmas and the New Year from all of us here at The Roses.

Buck Up Backstage!

We are fundraising for a new backstage area which is accessible and inspiring for our Roses Young Creatives and Professional Artists. More information about the project including our running total can be found on our website at www.rosestheatre.org/support Help Snow White make our house her home this Christmas!

We’re thrilled to have Snow White move in with us this Christmas. She’s a lovely lodger, who’s fabulous at cooking and cleaning, and reading us bedtime stories. We’re hoping she stays forever! Unfortunately, she’s not totally thrilled with her new home and is threatening to move out to a lodge in the woods. We need your help to make her stay!

What’s the problem? Our backstage area is firmly stuck in 1974. It’s an asbestos filled, falling apart, damp, and drab space, with zero wheelchair accessibility. Our shower has an asbestos ceiling panel and abysmal water pressure. Our sinks leak, and we can’t open our storage cupboards. It’s more evil than our Evil Queen Malvina!

Snow’s not the only one who’s upset. Over the last few months we’ve massively expanded our activities. This includes starting a monthly creative club for children with autism and launching Roses Young Creatives – our pioneering reimagining of the youth theatre, giving young people the opportunity to make feature films and theatre with renowned artists. We’re also expanding our work with disabled professional artists, with some really exciting projects happening next year, and welcoming more schools and community groups than ever before.

We desperately need your help to renovate our backstage area so we can welcome ALL artists, and provide our community with a space they deserve.

The utterly lovely Snow White has provided us with her ultimate wish list to make our backstage the perfect place for our talented creative community to live. Including everything from a lick of paint to asbestos removal, our full list is included overpage and every penny makes a difference!

Cast Cabaret

WED 28 DEC 8.30PM The cast and crew of this year’s pantomime, Snow White, present a fundraising cabaret evening with all proceeds going to The Roses’ Buck Up Backstage campaign.

Join us for a very special evening of entertainment as our talented company showcase the range of comedic and musical talents that have been wowing audiences in Tewkesbury this Christmas.

Tickets: £15

Snow’s List Snow White has provided us with her ultimate wish list to make our backstage the perfect place for our talented creative community to live. Below is just some of our Christmas Wish List - every penny will make a difference!

Item

Cost

Paint

£35

Shelving

£370

Fold away desks

£117

Large mirror

£60

Lightbulbs x 30

£240

Painter

£500

Iron

£30

Ironing board cover

£5

Stacking chairs x 60

£7,200

Stacking tables x 10

£1,500

Clothes rails

£90

Clothes hangers x 30

£50

Clothes hooks

£5

Costume covers

£5

Shower

£150

Shower tray

£200

Shower doors

£513

Shower head

£20

Shower accessibility handrail

£70

Bathroom tiles

£250

Toilets x 2

£398

Sinks

£587

Taps

£309

Plumbing installation

£600

Plug sockets x 20

£300

Bathroom lock x 2

£30

Light switches x 10

£100

Electrical installation

£800

An Interview with Maurice Gran We are lucky to have Maurice Gran, who is best known for co-writing tv sitcoms ‘Birds of a Feather’ and ‘Goodnight Sweetheart’ as our writer for pantomime this year. He was kind enough to sit down and share some of his wisdom with us...

What made you want to write a pantomime?

My very first theatrical experience (like most people’s) was going to the panto. I don’t know whether it was Mother Goose or Dick Whittington or one of the other favourites, but I do remember that at some point a flying saucer landed onstage and an alien stepped out with a cup of tea. This enabled one of the other characters to say, “Haven’t I told you not to drink tea out of your saucer?” which amused me enormously, and in fact still does. It also showed me at an impressionable age that you can do anything in panto if it gets a laugh. Fast forward sixty years and I found myself a trustee of The Roses, where the success of the annual panto is crucial. So when a fellow trustee – the talented actor director Nick Wilkes – suggested we cowrite a brand-new panto featuring King Arthur (who we decided had ruled Tewkesbury) I was more than up for it.

Where do you get your ideas from?

Ideas for my TV comedies can come from anywhere – sometimes it can just be a scrap of overheard conversation. With panto it’s relatively easy as you’re usually working with a well-established tale, like this year’s Snow White. But because everyone knows the basic story, it allows us – again I wrote with Nick Wilkes – to bring the show up to date, so we have child labourers rather than dwarves, a Snow White who wants to go to university, and the wicked queen has a “smart” mirror to tell her she is “the most beautiful in the land.”

What is your favourite part of writing generally and/or when writing pantomime?

Most writers claim they don’t really enjoy writing, they just feel compelled to do it. Happily I do enjoy the craft, especially when ideas flow. There are times when I’m staring into space wondering if I’ll ever have another amusing thought, but those dark moments are rare.

With pantomime part of the fun revitalising stories that sometimes have become stale in the retelling, but even better is when the show is staged and you can watch a talented cast bringing the script to life, often adding extra lines and bits of “business” to enhance the experience. With Snow White we had the bonus of an amazingly talented bunch of children, who were asked to sing, dance and deliver dialogue toe to toe with the professionals, and who did it all with style and confidence.

Coming Up Roses We have some exciting new groups at The Roses, for young people aged 5–25 years old our Roses Young Creatives explore drama games, improvisation and devising with industry experts at Tewkesbury School. Sessions are affordable and social!

We’ve also partnered with Mindsong to offer our new Sing 2 Remember Sessions, starting on Thursday 12 January, 2–3.15pm at Tewkesbury Baptist Church, then fortnightly ongoing. These sessions are free and include tea and cake.

To see our full programme of activity check out our Spring Brochure.

Fundraising Friends of The Roses We are looking to develop a new group where people from across the community can come together to fundraise for us by planning and hosting events.

From raffles for renovations to cabarets for creatives we are open to all ideas. We can promise copious cups of tea and tremendous fun as well as a front row seat to all the action.

For more information about how to join this group please contact Grace End at grace.end@rosestheatre.org. For full details about membership please see rosestheatre.org.

Creativity Corner Behind the scenes at the Roses our office team are quite the creative bunch so we thought we would start our own little creative corner to share with you what we have been up to. Today we are sharing our Director Jess’s favourite Christmas Recipe...

Ingredients (Makes 9)

Method

For the dough: • 180ml milk • 2 ¼ tsp yeast • 50g granulated sugar • 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk • 60g butter • 375g flour • ¾ teaspoon salt For the filling: • 500g dark brown sugar • 1 ½ tbsp ground cinnamon • 60g butter, softened For the cream cheese frosting: • 4oz cream cheese, softened • 3 tbsp butter, softened • 150g sugar • ½ tsp vanilla extract

1. Combine warm milk, yeast, sugar, egg, egg yolk and melted butter.

2. Stir in flour and salt with a wooden spoon until a dough begins to form 3. Knead the dough into a ball until it is slightly sticky then allow to rise for 1-1.5hrs.

4. Transfer dough to floured surface, spread softened butter over dough, leaving a ¼ inch margin on one side.

5. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon and rub into the butter.

6. Tightly roll dough up, placing seam side down making sure to seal the edges of the dough.

7. Cut into 1inch sections with a serrated knife or floss. You should get 9 large pieces.

8. Place cinnamon rolls in a greased 9x9 inch baking pan, cover and let rise for 30-45 minutes.

9. Preheat oven to gas mark 4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until just slightly golden brown on the edges.

10. Allow them to cool for 5-10 minutes before frosting.

11. To make the frosting: Combine cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth and fluffy.

Spread over cinnamon rolls and serve immediately. Enjoy!

Image & recipe: www.ambitiouskitchen.com/best-cinnamon-rolls