2020: The Algarveans’ Year Ahead!

I’d like to wish all our members and friends a very happy and peaceful new year! 2019 was an exciting year for our drama group and I look forward to reporting on all we achieved at the AGM in March.     

It gives me great pleasure to share with you some of the plans for The Algarveans in 2020 to inspire you to continue to be involved with entertaining The Algarve in the year ahead.

The 2020 Shows

We are already rehearsing our first production of the year “A BUNCH OF AMATEURS” by Nick Newman and Ian Hislop. This show, directed by Paul Kloegman will be staged as part of the Lagoa Camara’s Humorfest comedy festival at the Carlos do Carmo Auditorium in Lagoa on 27th to 29th February 2020. The brilliant comedy filled with many laughs tells the story of fading Hollywood action hero Jefferson Steel, keen to boost his faltering career who arrives in England to play King Lear in Stratford – only to find that this is not the birthplace of the Bard, but a sleepy Suffolk village. Instead of Kenneth Branagh and Dame Judi Dench, the cast are a bunch of amateurs trying to save their theatre from developers. Jefferson’s monstrous ego, vanity and insecurity are tested to the limit by the enthusiastic am-dram thespians. As acting worlds collide and Jefferson’s career implodes, he discovers some truths about himself – along with his inner Lear!

Following on from the success of our first studio show last year “A Bench in the Sun” at the beautiful Convento do Sao José in Lagoa, Jim Landis will direct “LETTICE AND LOVAGE” by Peter Shaffer which sees curtain up from 18th to 20th June 2020. This wonderful gentle multiple award-winning comedy was made famous by Dame Maggie Smith. As one newspaper describes it, prepare yourself for “An Evening of Enchantment and Delight”. Read Through and Audition dates for this exciting production will be in March. Keep watching the website and Facebook for dates.

We return to the Carlos do Carmo Auditorium from 26th to 28th November 2020 with our biggest production of the year and one of the best-loved stories ever written “A CHRISTMAS CAROL” by Charles Dickens. One ghostly Christmas night, cold-hearted businessman Ebenezer Scrooge gets the fright of his life, discovers the truth about himself, and learns to love his neighbour. This exciting and colourful production will be directed by Frank Remiatte.  

We anticipate this being a big cast with lots of opportunities for our growing membership. More information about the show will be available later in the spring. 

AGM and Lunch 2020 at Big Reds Alvor

We look forward to welcoming you to our AGM where we can review and celebrate the success of  2019 and catch up with your Algarveans’ friends over a splendid lunch. Full details will be circulated 

in the very near future

Naked Theatre 2020

Hot on the heels of our first Rehearsed Play Reading of “Two” by Jim x Cartwright at Carvoeiro Tennis Club in the Autumn we are pleased to announce that we are planning to run more of these events in 2020. We begin in April with “Quartet” by Ronald Harwood. Full details and dates will be available soon for those wishing to get involved or attend.  

Finally….

Our membership at the end of 2019 reached nearly 100 people – the highest it has ever been – and our little theatre group seems in good health and looks forward to the next decade with artistic optimism. 

Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing you get involved in whatever way appeals to you most.  

Chris Winstanley

Chair