The Small Crowds who braved the elements to head to Nelson Bay Gardens to watch the performances of ‘Hands Up!’ declared it to be “quite good”.
The show, which had a cast of professional actors, directors, writers, designers etc. who vastly outnumbered the amount of members of the community who took part was made possible by grant funding of over £225,000, awarded on the basis that it was a project to encourage the community to take part in theatre.
Producer Maureen Mortice said “We all had a great time putting on the show and it’s fair to say that without all the funding I secured from seven different sources it wouldn’t have been anywhere near the success it was.
Our select audiences of several people all commented on how professional it was. Which is hardly surprising when you think how much money was spent on it.”
Maureen is now going to be working on securing further funding for a new community production for 2024, which she is hopeful she will be able to hold in Smalltown.
She told SomersetClive “I’m working on a new angle for next year. ‘Hands Up! On Ice’ will tell the story of a small group of people who are rescued from a sinking project which vanished without trace after spending a vast amount of money on a doomed idea.
As they spiral deeper and deeper into the abyss they are saved by a man and his bottle of Albanian Whiskey, who persuades a group of local dignitaries that the idea was brilliant but must never be mentioned again.”
Maureen said she hopes the new show can also be held in Nelson Bay Gardens and hopes to be able to freeze the goldfish pond to stage it.