Sandy Mitchell, also known for many years as Chuckles the Clown (now retired); is very capably managing
our posters and programs for this production.
It can be a lot of work, if you get too enthusiastic like me, but it's a whole
LOAD of FUN, and you get to meet a lot of very nice people. And you party, if you so choose!!!
Preparing the program is one of her favourite community theatre jobs. However, like many of our active Members,
Sandy prefers to Act; when there's a part for a middle-aged Brit!
She also participates as Assistant Stage
Manager (including for this production), as a Member-at-Large of the Executive and tries (quite admirably) to keep
an up-to-date record of our wonderful volunteers. Sandy also organizes the Bedford Players' Telephone Committee,
prior to a performance; to notify those of our Patrons without internet access, of our upcoming production.
She rounds out her volunteer activity by managing the four emailing lists we have, forwarding and sending out
messages as required, throughout the year. Sandy is quite an example of a highly active member!
When you attend a play performed by a Community Theatre, such as Bedford Players,
Dartmouth Players, or TAG, and rightly praise the talented performers at the end of the play, just spare a
moment for those equally talented volunteers who you don't see. We call them our 'Backstage Stars', and
that's what they are. Without them there would be no Community Theatre. Why not join them?
To produce the program, Sandy finds a little bit of desktop publishing knowledge is very useful; as is artistic
flair, and a lot of patience! It helps to have a good software program that allows you to juggle, and re-juggle,
text and graphics. Sandy uses PageMaker 7.0 and finds a good scanner is very helpful. Preparing the program starts
prior to a performance. As soon as she can get a copy of the script Sandy can start work on the basics. Once
the performers, and production team, have been cast she requests them to write their own bio and gives them a
deadline, which inevitably passes and then she has to start chasing people!
It takes quite a number of hours, but that's because I'm a picky perfectionist! The first programme takes
the longest, because you are starting from scratch, but subsequent ones should be quicker because the layout is
already done. However that wasn't the case for the Maggie's Getting Married programme, my second, because we
were fortunate enough to have an overwhelming number of Sponsors to be entered into the programme. This required
adding an extra double page, and lots of scanning and reproducing of business cards. It also meant I had to think
of more content to fill the extra space left.
Sandy's advice to anyone interested in joining Community Theatre: Talk to us, we
love meeting new people! Visit our website and look at all the people it requires to put on a production. They
number far more than the ones you see on the stage. So, even if you aren't an actor, there is sure to be a role
for YOU. Don't worry, you won't be expected to commit to every production.
Sandy's years of clowning took her to many places in Canada, USA and England. While she has actually enjoyed all
the parts she's had the good fortune to be cast in; she assures us that none can really compare with looking out
onto a sea of shining, smiling, awestruck children, as they eagerly wait for you to amaze them with magic, or make
them roar with laughter, usually at your own expense!!! Sandy has this anecdote to share: My favourite stems back
to my twenty years of clowning as Chuckles the Clown. I was busily face-painting a young child at a birthday party
in a dark and somewhat dingy basement when, all of a sudden I felt this hand groping around my ...err... upper
extremities!!! Imagine my horror, being a female clown. However, as I turned to confront the perpetrator, I
was pleasantly surprised to see the four year old Birthday Boy running to his mother shouting "Mummy, mummy, the
clown IS REAL"!!!
As 'Sandy Mitchell', friends suggested she might have a good chance of getting a part in the play being auditioned at Bedford Players. They were right and Sandy was cast in The Murder Room in 2004. She has joined those friends in continued participation with us ever since and has kept her hand in, when not engaged directly in a Bedford Players' production, by participating in productions at Dartmouth Players. That may be why she says she spends her time outside of Community Theatre in sleeping! Of course, that would be when she is not running her business, walking dogs, going to the theatre, traveling, swimming, golfing, playing Scrabble or kayaking...