Kingsley Players Youth Theatre gear up for their 2021 programme

After a year of cancellations, Kingsley Players Youth Theatre is now setting its sights on 2021 for its return to the stage, and already have a new programme of productions in the pipeline.

The Players are hoping to perform Evan Placey's Prounoun, a challenging play about love and gender, in February, followed by Alice in Wonderland in May.

Secretary, Jake Powell, said: "Our production of Alice was meant to be performed in May this year, but due to COVID our rehearsals were cut short in March.

"When we do start rehearsals again, I am hoping we are able to meet in person. Kingsley Community Centre, where we rehearse and perform, have worked hard to ensure that they are COVID secure, and we will work alongside them to make sure that our rehearsals our safe for both casts.

During lockdown, the Kingsley Players held weekly play readings with members over Zoom, before beginning to plan their 'In Your House' season.

"An online performance had been in my mind since April, and initially I did want to revive our production of Chatroom by Enda Walsh, which we performed last year and for which we won Best Youth Production at the Cheshire Theatre Guild awards in May," said Jake.

"Unfortunately, we couldn't get the rights to perform this particular play, but we did get the performance rights for Epic Love & Pop Songs by Phoebe Eclair-Powell, which was performed by two of our award-winning actors, Eva Lemmy and Ben Mather-Dodd.

"The rest of the 'In Your House' season included 'Shakespeare in Lockdown', which was a collection of speeches and scenes from some of Shakespeare's most famous plays, and 'Lockdown Voices', where we invited our members to perform something that they have been working on during lockdown.

The pieces ranged from dance to songs to poetry composed by the Youth Theatre members themselves, and gave contributors a chance to share their talents with the public.

Kingsley Players Youth Theatre are always keen to welcome new members. They will be holding auditions for Pronoun very soon, and you can find out more on their Facebook page, or by emailing [email protected].