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Tread the Boards celebrate double success at the
Bedfordshire Drama Festival!
"Present
Day" was local drama group Tread the Boards entry
into the Bedfordshire Drama Festival. Written by
our very own Shirley Jones it proved to be a great
success and we are very pleased to announce that
the group won two awards! Ian Nutt, who played
Tony, won the Best Actor Award for his "spontaneous
and genuine portrayal" of his character, and
Shirley Jones (Chair of TTB) won the prestigious
adjudicator's award for her excellent script. The
festival adjudicator was Colin Dolley of GODA
(Guild of Drama Adjudicators). Colin is a newspaper
and theatre critic and a freelance director. He
adjudicates across Europe.
Following
on from our success we are pleased to announce that
we are going to be performing "Present Day" during
July 2008. A brief synopsis:
"As
three households prepare to celebrate special
occasions, they are unaware of how their lives will
interweave with dark and tragic consequences..... "
On
12th July we will be performing it at the Ellen
Petitt Memorial Hall in Woburn Sands, and on the
18th and 19th July at the Madcap Theatre, Creed
Street, Wolverton. We will also be complimenting
this piece with another production - details to
follow in two weeks. Please keep your eyes on our
website www.tread-the-boards.org.uk for further
details.
The
photo is of Ian Nutt, who played Tony and won the
Best Actor award, and Shirley Jones, Chair of Tread
the Boards and script-writer, who won the
prestigious adjudicator's award for her excellent
script.
Vikki
Morton
Publicity
Officer
Tread
the Boards
JANET
SHELLEY RECEIVES MBE FOR SERVICES TO CONSTRUCTION
INDUSTRY
Janet
Shelley, founder and managing director of Women
Builders Limited, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire has
been awarded a Member of the Order of the British
Empire (MBE) by Her Majesty The Queen for services
to the construction industry.
Janet,
who created Women Builders in 2003 following her
own desire to qualify in plastering skills,
realised the increasing potential to encourage more
women into the construction industry and the
difficulties women face in securing training and
job placement in what is recognised as a
male-dominated industry. The company largely
employs a female workforce that provides a
construction and maintenance service in the Milton
Keynes, Buckinghamshire and North Oxfordshire
areas.
"My
aim is to provide skills training for women who
want to pursue a career in construction as well as
those facing a career change or whose circumstances
justify the necessary skills to carry out their own
home maintenance tasks," says Janet Shelley. "Armed
with these skills we can make a real difference to
the equality of opportunity for women; a skilled
worker is after all a skilled worker, regardless of
gender."
The
company's training school is located at the
Bletchley HQ where "Jobs for the Girls", a
programme of six-week training courses in building
maintenance, new build, carpentry and plumbing are
carried out followed by work placement in local
construction companies. Janet achieved support from
the European Social Fund to make this training
provision which is free to students.
Women
Builders is supported by the Construction Industry
Training Board (CITB) and SummitSkills, the Sector
Skills Council for Construction through which
employers have a direct route to influence
strategic planning for skills and
training.
"We
receive calls from women all over the country who
need our facilities but we are unable to help them
all," states Janet. "We hope to expand our training
and construction services with the goal to being a
national service provider."
Janet
Shelley, a 42 year old mother of two from Mursley,
Buckinghamshire is the current Chair of Women and
Manual Trades (WAMT), an organisation promoting
women in the trades through education and example,
and is Vice Chair of SummitSkills, Careers and
Diversity Interest Group.
Janet
Shelley's achievements as a woman entrepreneur and
her support of women interested in entering the
building trade has led to her appointment as a
Women's Enterprise Advocate by the South East
England Development Agency. She joins a select
group of female entrepreneurs who are being
recruited to act as role-models for other women and
to promote the benefits of being in business. This
group will help raise the profile of women's
enterprise and its importance to the South East
economy.
The
company has made many successful partnership
arrangements with national brands during its few
years of trading including Makita, of Milton
Keynes, Buckinghamshire, the UK arm of the global
professional power tool manufacturer, who provide
market-leading power tools for the Women Builders
training facility.
Janet
Shelley comments on the award of her MBE: "This is
a very exciting honour which I have achieved with
the help of many contributors and organisations and
I never forget how important these relationships
are. Four years ago I was successfully employed in
IT, knew nothing about construction, and now it's
my life. I want to share my ambitions with other
determined women. It's been a major learning curve
but I am proof that women do have a place in the
construction industry."
Spokesperson
for Makita UK, Andrew Helby, Marketing Manager,
says: "As a responsible power tool manufacturer we
are serious about the raising of construction
trades skills and standards and with the Women
Builders organisation being a close neighbour it is
even more appropriate that we work closely to help
Janet achieve her ambitions. We are proud of her
achievements."
www.womenbuilders.co.uk
Young
Offenders' Art Show
Carolyn
Vale at Madcap worked closely with Maxine Cork and
Rob McCafferty from Oakhill Secure training Centre
in setting up an art exhibition made up of young
offenders work. The following is an adapted version
of the press release in MKNews April 18
2007
Artwork
by residents of the city's young offenders
institute was showcased to the public in April of
this year. It was the first exhibition of its kind
nationwide. It was hosted here at Madcap in
Wolverton and featured painings by 12-17 year olds
who are undergoing rehabilitation at Oakhil Secure
Training Centre (STC).
The
work on Display was selected from a range of
projects completed by young offenders within
Oakhill's art classes, based on their own choice of
themes and subjects.
It
was UK's first external STC art exhibition.
Oakhill
art teacher, Rob McCafferty said:"We are extremely
proud of what the young people have achieved and
this exhibition showcased a range of interesting
individual pieces that stand up to the finest
education establishments in the country.
"Many
of these youngsters hae missed years of school and
often feel threatened by a classroom and education
and this exhibition is a real achievement for
them."
At
the opening night, guests enjoyed refreshements
catered and served by the young people through the
Oaks Restaurant , a development of Oakhill's food
technology department.
The
High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, Amanda Nicholson,
said:"The work on display is positive, lively and
entergetic and demonstrates what can be achieved
through positive rehabilitation programmes within
secure training centres".
The
art and food tehcnology departments at Oakhil are
part of a programme for young offenders, which aims
to provide education and life skills to enable
troubled young people to successfully reintegrate
within society.
Some
of the art work from Oakhill
The
High Sheriff of Buckingham
The
mayor of Milton Keynes
Art
Therapist, Trevor Jeavons
MK
Citizen submitted the following article to their
newspaper.
From
Madcap to Broadway
By
Sally Murrer
A
play written by a busy mum to snatch a few minutes'
peace from the children could be set for the
biggest theatrical success story of all – on
New York's famous Broadway. And no-one is more
surprised than the mum herself, Louise Roche, who
launched 'Girls' Night' herself seven years ago
after scraping together the cash to hire
Wolverton's Madcap Theatre. She rounded up a bunch
of friends as actors and her husband Mark Randle, a
schoolteacher, stepped in as director. "It was all
a bit scary. I had three kids under four and we had
no money and even less time. But we really wanted
to put the play on stage," said Louise, who lives
on Downs Barn. The resulting production was given a
rave notice by the Citizen at the time and reviewer
Lee Scriven even said it was destined for a higher
stage. Shortly afterwards Louise and Mark made the
brave decision to hire Milton Keynes Theatre. All
we had was the money for a deposit. We had nothing
to actually pay for the production," recalled
Louise, who used the same cast of friends as
actors." The play was a sell-out. Since then the
couple
have
set up their own company, Goodnights Entertainment,
backed by former theatre chairman Sir Peter Thomson
and Girls' Night has successfully toured regional
theatres all over the country. But Louise and Mark
never dreamed it would hit the States until
recently, when an American producer suddenly made
an approach. "He'd been surfing the net for shows
to suit a female audience and he noticed Girl's
Night was being staged at Wimbledon. "He didn't
know London very well so he presumed Wimbledon was
a top West End theatre!" said Louise, who has since
written eight more plays.
"He
flew over to see the play and loved it. Before we
knew it he'd bought the rights and was planning to
stage it in Arizona."
Mark, who has now quit teaching to work full-time
for Goodnights Entertainment, was asked to direct
the production and is currently in Arizona
preparing for the opening night next week with four
of the original Madcap cast. Pre-booked sales are
excellent. "Then, out of the blue, the producer
said he wanted to take Girls' Night to Broadway,
possibly as early as June," said Louise."It all
seems like a dream. "For a play to go from Madcap
Theatre to Broadway is just incredible. "We can
hardly believe it ourselves!"
Published
Date: 26 April 2007 MK Citizen page 1
Good
Luck Louise from us all at Madcap. We hope we have
contributed to your success in some small
way.
Fairtrade
Fiesta brings World Music to MK!
Milton
Keynes boogied to music and dance from around the
world at the hugely successful Fairtrade Fiesta at
MADCAP in Wolverton on Friday 9th March.
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