Stage musicals compilation coming up from the Lavant Players.

Kathryn Wignall is masterminding a stage musicals compilation evening for the Lavant Players.
Lavant PlayersLavant Players
Lavant Players

A cast of 30 will bring A Million Dreams to The Lavant Memorial Hall on Friday, January 31 and Saturday, February 1 – a chance to follow your dreams on a musical journey through numbers from well-known musicals including Oliver!, Barnum and Wizard of Oz.

“The Lavant Players asked me to create an entertainment to rejuvenate the group basically,” Kathryn says. “This is very much a community-based project. We have got some past mem-bers and we have got some new members. We have got some children from Lavant Primary School and people from other groups in Lavant, and the thing has just grown.

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“It is a stage musicals compilation show. It is all based around a girl called the Dream Maker. This girl becomes the Dream Maker and she leads everyone on a journey. We go over the rainbow; we have dream your dream and broken dreams and so on. This started in the summer. I knew a few people that were interested in it, but I didn’t know how many or whether they would turn up. But they did, thank goodness! I chose music because I knew the people and that they could do it and would enjoy it and I chose people that would be able to work together. I just create and sit and think and work out the order so that you get a bit of a flow and a link between the songs.

“It has got bigger! And that to me is a positive. People having come once have come again, and they have responded to what we are doing. They didn’t do a show last year and they came to me and asked me to do something. I just thought that a compilation would be a good way of getting people involved, a lot of people, rather than a stage show which would just be a few people. I wanted to get more people involved and to try to get new people in.”

Kathryn was convinced she had retired after a lifetime working with shows; but she said yes and is loving it. Over the years she has worked with CAOS, Hayling Island – and also the Lavant Players before.

“I used to be in amateur shows when I lived in Watford, but you get to the stage where you are no longer the front row of the dance chorus, but I have always enjoyed creating things.

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“In one way, it drives me mad because it is always there. You have got to solve these problems and create these ideas to make it work. And you have got to take the cast through it. You get people from all walks of life all coming together for various, different reasons, because they want to dance, because they want to sing, because they want the company, for whatever reason… and you have got to create something with them.”

The reward is watching the show on the night: “You feel proud at what they have achieved. Years ago I used to teach, and I like to feel that the people in the production have found something in it, that they have gained something from it. I want to feel that they have had a good experience and have improved or grown even if they are perhaps unaware of it. But you are also thinking ‘Well, if I do that again, I might do that differently.’ You are always thinking. You are never self-satisfied. That’s that drives you…”

Performances are Friday, January 31 at 7.30pm and Saturday, February 1 at 2.30pm and 7.30pm at Lavant Memorial Hall, East Lavant, PO18 0AH. 01243 816581.

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