Audition Announcement!

The Company is proud to present Jessica Swale’s Olivier award winning comedy “Nell Gwynn”. It’s 1660, the monarchy is back, pleasure is in vogue and you can even see a woman on the stage. The play follows Nell Gwynn’s meteoric rise from orange seller to mistress of the king as she navigates the bawdy world of restoration theatre and the treacherous royal court.
This is an amateur production presented by arrangement with Nick Hern Books.

Auditions for Nell Gwynn will be held on the following dates

• Tuesday 9th November, 7.30-10pm, The Red Deer
• Thursday 11th November, 7.30-10pm, The Rutland Arms

All welcome, including Company newcomers - we always like to see new faces! You only need to attend one session. No prior preparation necessary although if you’d like to learn a bit more about Nell before auditioning then here’s a very helpfully timed podcast
If you have any questions please do not hesitate from getting in touch! We’re also on the lookout for crew members so please get in touch if you’d like to learn a new skill.
Available roles -

• Nell Gwynn - F20s/30s - real star role, comfortable with romance and singing
• Rose Gwynn - F20s/30s - Nell’s sister
• Nancy - F age flexible - dresser in the theatre company and Nell’s friend
• Old Ma Gwynn - F50s/60s - Nell’s mum (actress can be doubled with Queen Catherine)
• Queen Catherine - F age flexible - married to Charles II, speaks entirely in Portuguese (actress can be doubled with Old Ma Gwynn)
• Lady Castle-Maine - F age flexible - current mistress to Charles II (can be doubled with Louise de Keroualle)
• Louise de Keroualle - F age flexible - Charles’ beautiful French mistress. Speaks entirely in French (actress can be doubled with Lady Castle-Maine)
• King Charles II - M 30/50s
• Charles Hart - M30/40s (some flexibility) - leading actor and Nell’s first lover
• Thomas Killigrew - M age flexible - actor manager of the theatre company
• Edward Kynaston - M age flexible - actor
• John Dryden - M age flexible - playwright
• Lord Arlington - M age flexible, Charles’ advisor
• Ned Spiggett - M age flexible - actor

Erin Whyte and Alice Ravencroft (directors) x

The Company's 2022 season

Nell Gwynn by Jessica Swale
February 16 to 19, 2022 at The Drama Studio
Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
June 8 to 11, 2022     at The Drama Studio
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
October 28 to November 1, 2022 at The Drama Studio

WHO PULLED THE TRIGGER?

 

The Hollow by Agatha Christie

You can buy your tickets now at https://thecompanysheffield.co.uk/boxoffice/

Showing Wednesday to Saturday 20th - 23rd October at The Drama Studio, University of Sheffield. Show starts 7.30pm, tickets £9.50 (£7.50 concessions).

More information on our website.

This amateur production of “The Hollow” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk

Sign up to be part of our Dore show

Message from the production team: Thanks for everyone who has filled out the form! We’ll be working on picking pieces and casting over the next couple of weeks so will be in touch (🤞) early April with a cast list and parts.

The form is now closed

We’re now formally starting casting our summer show at Dore (Wednesday 7th July 2021)!

Please fill in this form if you’d like to be involved (even if you’ve verbally expressed an interest already).

Please make sure you respond by next Wednesday (24th March).

AGM

To all Company Members,

Hope everyone is keeping well. It’s that time of year again where we need to think about our AGM. For obvious reasons this year will need to run a little differently so we will be holding an online AGM on the 1st March at 7.30pm (zoom link will be sent closer to the time).

The AGM is open to all members and is a chance to update everyone on our progress this year, decide how membership/production fees will work in the upcoming year, discuss any other business and hold elections to the committee.

The following positions will be up for election. If you are a member and would like to nominate yourself for any one of these roles then please contact any committee member or email secretary@online.thecompanysheffield.co.uk. Nominations are open right up to the vote itself so you can nominate yourself on the night if you prefer. If you’re unsure or would like to have a chat with current committee members about what the roles entail then please get in touch, we’re always keen for new faces on the committee!

Accountant

Responsible for financial oversight of The Company including Box Office

Artistic Director

Responsible for maintaining artistic standards for our productions and supporting production teams

Chair

Responsible for overseeing the committee

Secretary

Responsible for organising meetings and keeping minutes

Company Representatives (x 3 posts)

Act as a liaison between members and the committee to raise any concerns

We will also be appointing associate posts (wardrobe manager, technical manager, PR/social media co-ordinator).

In order to run for a committee position or to vote you need to be a paid member of The Company ahead of the AGM. Due to having to postpone multiple productions this year we haven’t been collecting membership fees. We are hopefully moving to an online system for this to streamline this process in the next couple of weeks. If you would like to remain an active member of the society then a link will be circulated closer to the AGM to allow you to make this payment. Due to the current situation we are not expecting you to pay in full, we’re asking for a small payment (exact amount up to you but we suggest £5 or under) - we will ask you to pay the rest once we’re back on stage.

Please also get in touch if you have anything you wish to raise at the AGM - we’re keen to make sure that all members have the opportunity to have their voice heard.

Finally the committee would like to thank you all for your support this year. It’s definitely been a challenging year for all of us but we’ve still managed some great successes and we couldn’t do it without our members!

Lots of love,
The Company Committee

Accessing The Company's website from older Android phones

The Headlines:

If you use an older Android phone or tablet, specifically one that has a version of Android older than 7.1.1^[1] then at some point next year thecompanysheffield.co.uk will stop working for you. This is because older Android phones will no longer recognise The Company's website as being secure. Unless you use Firefox mobile. 

Why?

The organisation we get out secure certificates from, Let’s Encrypt, is making changes to their hierarchy. This is the route your browser follows to ensure that there is a chain of trust from the website you are accessing up to a list of trusted organisations it or your computer already knows about. They are doing this for two reasons, the first is that they have now been operating for long enough that they are trusted in their own right (when they started another certificate issuer vouched for them) and to reduce the amount of your data allowance is used checking that a website is secure. It is because versions of Android older than 7.1.1 don't trust Let’s Encrypt outright, but only because they were vouched for by someone else that the site will stop working on those phones.

Why just Android?

It isn't really just Android, but Android is by far the biggest group of users this will affect, and even then that translates to only a tiny number of people who visit our website. The problem is that Android devices are far less likely to have been kept up to date with the latest updates that other phones or tablets or laptop/desktop computers. The large numbers of different devices made by different manufacturers, that means there is a lot of choice out there, also means it can be a bit pot-luck as to if any specific one keeps being updated. Unlike Windows based computers there is no direct route for operating system updates to be pushed to users, they all go through the phone manufacturer. Apple have the devices as well as the operating system under their control so older devices tend to be more up to date. Just for completeness I should mention Windows Phone^[2]. There. We expect there might be a few odd cases on the edges, but for most of those people they know where they are at and why.

What is special about Firefox?

Unlike most browsers, especially on phones, Firefox on mobile^[3] keeps its own council on who to trust rather than relying on the list built into Android and it is up-to-date so it trusts Let’s Encrypt. It currently works on Android 5 (Lollypop) or newer devices, so I am sorry to say we have no work around if you use an older phone than that other than to suggest you use another device.

What are the specifics?

The long answer is in this blogpost from Let’s Encrypt. There is also an even longer detailed explanation on the changes.

---

^[1]Unfortunately this doesn't line up directly with the dessert based codenames Android versions were given until recently. 7.1.1 was an update to “Nougat” that came out December 5, 2016
^[2]I'm sorry I don't know if you still get security updates, maybe ask cortana?
^[3]We're not getting any money to promote them, they have just been highlighted as a way to work around the problem. As the person you usually ask for IT support for help if you aren't sure if it is right for you.(Hi mum!)

Announcement

As the peak of the coronavirus is due in the next few months according to government reports, the Committee has taken the difficult decision to postpone our Summer play, “Dad's Army” until Spring 2021. We still intend to perform “Murder on the Nile” at the Civic Centre in Dronfield in October 2020 (with a few cast changes) — we hope to see you there. Please take care of your health over the next few months.
The Company Committee.

Help Wanted

Can you help us improve our website?

We are currently in the process of updating our website and need some help filling in the gaps.
If you read our list of past productions one of the things you may notice is that the shows at the bottom of the list haven't got pages linked to them. Then if you click through you'll see that the information we have listed for each production varies.
We would like for every show to have its own page with a full cast and crew list, some photos, and whatever other information that is to hand. We are looking through our archives for what we already have but there is always room for more.

How can you help?

You might have any programmes from past shows and the time to type up the contents.
If you haven't got the time to do the typing but can upload a picture for someone else to transcribe.
Transcribing images into text.
You took rehearsal or show photos and would like to select a few.
If you directed a show and have your "director's bit", cast list or other info to hand.

If you want to help contact tony@thecompanysheffield.co.uk