Ron Drew's Theatre Page

Ron Drew's Theatre Page

Reminiscences

THE WESTOVIANS TAKE ME ON BOARD

The early 50’s saw me in the WESTOVIANS at the Pier Pavilion theatre group in SOUTH SHIELDS and I was introduced to serious acting. However my failing memory allows me to remember only a few highlights. Even in those days the memory was never good which made learning lines a serious problem. For those of you with a similar problem today don’t be put off from taking a small part. There’s a lot of pleasure to be had in taking these bit parts. The experience of the moulding of a character into some-one believable, albeit with very few lines, can be very rewarding.

There were two shows in particular that I remember, however. One was ‘The Matchmaker’ in which I played one of the two drunks. The other drunk was Ted Forrester who, like me, more often than not played small character parts in the Westovian and SSAOS productions. Ted and his brother Alec taught me most of what I what I learnt in crafting a character.

Another Westovian show was the vehicle for my one and only major part. It was as 'Widow Twanky' in "ALADDIN". This pantomime was produced in early 1958 in the St Aidan's Church Hall - the first home of the Westovians. It was the first of the pantomimes which became an annual event from 1965 for which the Westovians are now renowned. I wore two very large Christmas Tree glass baubles as ear-rings - and I still hang one of them on our tree at home each Christmas! The lyrics and music of "ALADDIN" were by Vera Segal and the book was by Heather McPhee and Chislett Ging as they were called at that time.

Heather and Chislett married shortly afterwards and Heather Ging was often seen on the credits of programs from Tyne Tees TV having moved into the realms of television production. Joe Ging (as he later became known) remained active with the SSAOS for many years. He was an asset to the Society when he became curator of the, now defunct, Music Hall Museum that was tucked away in a corner of Sunderland Empire(qv). He then became the keeper of the Folk Lore Museum in Newcastle until shortly before his death in the mid 1990's. He also recorded many of Eric Boswell's modern local folk songs including this one which Joe sings with Marion Aitchison - 'Y0U'LL HAVE TO SETTLE DOWN'.

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