A short snippet of video taken at this weeks HAG Rocks! session. What a great sound!

What a day! The sun shone on the righteous the entire Hartley Wintney Village 2012 Festival and the crowds turned out in force!

David Walton and Gary Comerford set up our ‘pitch’ in some challengingly windy conditions, but as soon as the festival got off to a start it all settled down. We were well represented this year: HAG Youngstars featured in the procession as the equine event for the Olympics theme. The crew managed to field TWO pantomime horses – an exceptional feat considering the fact that sun had shone throughout, the heat must’ve been unbearable.

HAG Rocks! choir belted out three great tunes across the site at 2.40pm (earlier than advertised – you should have seen the ‘muster rush’!). It was a proud moment for the choir and HAG members – their first large event with a thousand eyes watching. The crowd enjoyed the choir and many enquiries were taken on the stand afterwards.

Hundreds of leaflets were handed out by Sue Molyneux, Iain Eggeling and myself. Antonia Demetriadi managed to raise a good deal of money with her and William’s (her son) Darts Game on the HAG stand – the prizes were all donated or made by her – a sterling effort indeed and one I hope other HAG members will be inclined to help with in future as we were very under-staffed.

But, all in all, it was a day to cherish, a day to show the community that HAG is for everyone – on-stage or off, and above all a day of community and friendship.

Now with extra peril!

William Shakespeare’s classic (are they ever anything else?) A Midsummer Nights Dream is being staged by Hartley Arts Group’s HAG Youngstars next month. The group was started in autumn of last year and, under the tutelage of Francesca Nethercott, has gone from strength to strength and offers the talented younger members of the community an outlet for their performing creativity. So it’s with great excitement that they are already staging their own production – at The Victoria Hall! Tickets are just £5pp and the play goes live for one date only – Wednesday 11th July 2012 at 7:30pm. Please come along and support the stars of tomorrow.

Thursday 7th June and the first piece of real production on FRANKENSTEIN occurred. The audio recording of the play was undertaken with the cast – the first time all of them have got together (bar one!). We’re off and rolling on this VERY exciting production. Stay tuned for updates as we go along…

Well, there go Gilbert & Sullivan. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in their company and will be left with a lasting impression. Thank you to the show’s author, Andrew G Marshall, for writing a musical play that everyone enjoyed. Thank you to every single member of the audience who came to see us, your support is greatly appreciated.

So now it’s strike the set and prepare for our next production which is in advanced preparation – it’s going to be a real treat!

As a celebration of Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee we played a short video tribute before our final performance of Modern Major General. We thought you’d like to see it too.

Tonight we stage our final performance of Modern Major General. After many, many hours of being involved in the world of contemporary Gilbert & Sullivan we say a bombastic goodbye to the tunes we’ve come to know (most nights) and love. It’s been a true celebration of british musical oeuvre during these Jubilee celebrations and we’re planning on going out with a song and a dance – mainly because that’s what’s in the script.

Audience reaction has been overwhelmingly positive; people remarking that the show was much better than they’d expected. The mix of G&S and modern lyrics was a real test of our confidence – we could easily have staged a well-worn musical but we felt that MMG was just the right celebratory piece to bring to the Victoria Hall – a mix of historical and modern day sensibilities. So, with one eye on the future and one eye on what the audience want to see we say ‘thank you’ to those who came to watch – we really wouldn’t do it without you!

Juliette, Keith (beard) and Jo pose for the camera backstage during our first week of performances – and WHAT performances! We were graced with the pleasure of having the show’s author in to watch us on Saturday evening and he came backstage to congratulate us all – thank you Andrew!

We’ve only got three more performances left and we’d really like you to see one of them and experience a unique evening in the heart of Hartley Wintney. Lots of hard work has been put into a fantastic new musical play with lots of favourite Gilbert & Sullivan songs to get caught in your head. We promise you it’ll be a night that you’ll be glad you came to see – come and support us if you can!

We’re performed the show twice now and we’ve had some really lovely reviews, amongst them; “I am so glad to have had the chance to see it” and “It was absolutely brilliant”.

There are four more performances to go (Sat 26th May, Thurs 31st May, Fri 1st June and Sat 2nd June – all at The Victoria Hall 7.45pm). It’s a joyful evening out in sunny Hartley Wintney!

Here’s a song from the show – Juliette (as Jo) sings. Enjoy! (With thanks to the show’s author Andrew G Marshall).

Here are the ten changes in the spot the difference quiz in the show programme on sale now.