HAODS - For the best entertainment in live theatre, together with top quality drama - amdram at its best, Henley Operatic & Dramatic Society has it all. Performing at the Kenton Theatre, Henley-on-Thames, NODA award winning HAODS musicals and plays are renowned for excellence.

HAODS are spaced out in latest offering

Article from http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/news.php?id=683660

HAODS’ Return To The Forbidden Planet, playing at The Kenton Theatre until Saturday, is great fun — two hours of pure escapism to a galaxy far, far away.

This rock ‘n’ roll musical takes Shakespeare’s The Tempest as its starting point and fuses it with the Fifties kitsch sci-fi flick, Forbidden Planet (itself loosely based on The Tempest), in a camp comedic caper as we accompany the crew of US Starship Albatross to the planet D’Illyria and encounter marooned scientist Dr Prospero, his beautiful daughter Miranda and faithful Robot, Ariel.

HAODS is a strong supporter of the Kenton Theatre and we bring to your attention the following opportunities it offers: 

Kenton Friends

Have you taken the opportunity to become a Kenton Friend? We now offer three membership levels with different benefits. To find the one that suits you why not visit our website www.kentontheatre.co.uk , you can print an application form or alternatively pick up a leaflet from the Foyer. Your Friends can also receive the same benefits that you do, why not get them to join too!

Mailing List

Would you like to know what is on at the Kenton, but missed the programme distributed via the Henley Standard? Don't worry, you can register to go on our FREE mailing or e-mailing list, either by picking up a leaflet in the Foyer or going to our website.

The Graduate - A Revue - Kenton Theatre 17th - 21st March 2009

The following review was written by Julie Huntington as an independent revue of one of The Henley Player's recent productions. The Henley Players have a number of HAODS members and we believe this article will be interesting to all our members...

"...Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to speak with you again..." The haunting music of Simon and Garfunkel instantly transports us back to those heady days of the 60's when women burned their bras, thousands marched against nuclear power and the baby boomers were rebelling against the world with flowers in their hair and weed in their mouths offering free love to anyone who asked for it. After the austere years of the war, the world was in revolt.

Then came The Graduate.

This 1967 iconic film starring Ann Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman, just like the petulant child trying to break away from his parents' influence, also flew in the face of convention in an attempt to shock audiences into taking notice. And shock it most certainly did. Ranked the 7th greatest film of all time* , it is hard to believe that this enduring film is 42 years old, yet the subject matter is probably still just as controversial even in these liberal times, the younger man seducing a woman old enough to be his mother. (Click read more to read on...)

Fiddler Article- Henley Standard Week ending 17^th April.

Have you ever heard a bump in the night that has sent you diving under the duvet, shivering with fright? Well, stand by to be scared out of your witts by the ghostly goings on in Fiddler on the Roof at the Kenton Theatre, Henley-on-Thames next week!

Henley Amateur Operatic Society have pulled out all the stops to ensure the character of Fruma-Sarah, played by newcomer Carolina Turrini, the dead wife of would-be suitor, Lazar Wolf will leave you with haunting memories! 

Our Festival Play is to be a delightful comedy Happy Birthday Me by our President, Simon Williams.  This is Simon's adaptation, to meet Festival Rules, of his full-length play Laying the Ghost, . The action takes place in a Retirement Home for Actors.

Rehearsals are now under way - preparing to perform at the Drama festivals: the Kenton 5th to 9th May; Corn Exchange, Wallingford 8th to 13th June; Unicorn, Abingdon 1st to 6th June.  

Director  Nansi Diamond

Stage Manager  Chris Tapp

A sad note for all thespians, Sir John Mortimer died on 16 January 2009, aged 85 after a long illness. Mortimer was best remembered for creating a barrister named Horace Rumpole, whose speciality was defending those accused of crime in London's Old Bailey.

John Mortimer was a patron of the Burma Campaign UK, the London-based group campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma, and was the president of the Royal Court Theatre having been the chairman of its board from 1990 to 2000. Mortimer was a character in every sense, being a local to this area and a long-standing member of HAODS.  He was well known at the Kenton for supporting their shows and emptying the bar of champagne! He will be sadly missed.

Send us some news to appear in this news section!

This site is a CMS system and what this means it is comprised of news items just like a newspaper. Each section is a news item with its own category name. You create the content, assign it a category and it appears in the right place automatically. If you have any news you want to appear, type it up, try not to use any fonts or colours, keep it as simple as you can. Send it it to Ioan and he will publish it. Send pictures separately and not inside a word document. For your information a word document is probably the worst type of document  to send us as they are full of extra gibberish but we'll accept virtually anything. We prefer it if you could cut/paste in a notepad document and send us that, it is simple and easy to use.

You can now submit articles/content directly to Ioan using the "submit an article" link on the left hand side menu.

If you have regular content then consider becoming an author/publisher for the site, we will grant you access and you can then write copy for the editor to approve and publish.Contact Dean Beedell or Ioan to request access.

It may not have escaped your noticed that a prominent page on our new site is the diary and calendar area. This area is meant to promote the society's day to day activities as well as being a handy tool to see what's going on today, this week, this month &c.

Key society members will be inserting entries into the calendar as and when the membership provide information on forthcoming events. Modifying and keeping the diary up to date is currently the responsibility of Ioan Harvard

The upshot is that we need information from you in order to populate the calendar so if you have a social event or important 'happening' to advertise then please let us know so we can put it in the diary for you.

Using this calendar in this way has a very useful side-effect, it happens to help promote the site through search engines such as Google. Google loves dynamic sites whose information is changing all the time, so by adding your event to the calendar you are helping the site's rankings.

News item excerpt from the Henley Standard

I WISH Henley Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society all the best with their production of Titanic The Musical, which will be staged at the Kenton Theatre for a week next month.

The casting of the musical has thrown up a remarkable coincidence. The captain of the RMS Titanic was E.J. Smith, who will be played by Tim Sloane. Paul Cockfield plays his second officer, Charles Lightoller.

This is the second time that Tim has had a Lightoller under his command. He served in the Royal Navy and, in the Seventies, commanded the submarine HMS Orpheus. His first lieutenant was Tim Lightoller, grandson of Charles.

News item excerpt from the Henley Standard

MEMBERS of Henley Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society (HAODS) have something to celebrate as rehearsals hot up for its next production, Titanic The Musical. The society’s last big musical production, West Side Story was awarded the National Operatic and Dramatic Association’s coveted Kathleen Oyler Cup for the Best Company Show in the Greater London area.

The cup was presented at the society’s recent AGM by NODA representative Henry Hawes following its acceptance by representatives of HAODS at the NODA London conference. Titanic The Musical, which was the winner of five Toni awards in 1997 including Best Musical and Best Score, promises to be an even bigger production with its cast numbering 45 in total. Society chairman Terry Rymer said: “It is a fascinating tale that always seems to intrigue all ages. The music is absolutely brilliant and musical director Tim Cumper is already bringing out the best in all of us.

“The music and lyrics are by Maury Yeston, who I have heard will be visiting a relative in Henley at the time of our production. We are hoping that he will come along to see our show, which has put us all very much on our mettle. This will be another show to remember

News item excerpt from the South Oxfordshire Courier

"When news of a musical version of Titanic was first rumoured to be opening on Broadway, it become the butt of every joke in town. However, when it finally opened in 1997, it was acclaimed by some of Broadway’s most notorious critics and went on to win five Toni Awards including best musical and best score – the musical was yet another amazing success for composer Maury Yeston, whose previous musicals, Nine and Grand Hotel had both garnered a whole raft of awards on Broadway. Nine is shortly to be released as a movie. There is somewhat of a local connection too, as Maury Yeston has deep ties with this country with several close relatives living in Henley.

News item excerpt from the Henley Standard

REHEARSALS for Henley Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society’s next production, Titanic The Musical are well under way, with the cast becoming more and more immersed in the fascinating story of the great ship’s infamous sinking.
With each week that goes by another local connection to the tragedy is discovered, and our picture shows Paula Silver, now aged 79, who plays a stewardess in HAODS’ production, sitting beside Titanic survivor Henry Etches, then aged 73, in his garden in Bournemouth in 1965. Henry was a young crew member when the Titanic sank, and his character is being portrayed in the production by Andy James.

HAODS chairman Terry Rymer said: “It is a fantastic production and a challenge for us fitting 50 cast onto the Kenton stage, especially when we have the ship actually sinking. The music is absolutely wonderful, and we can’t wait

We currently don't have a history section but we are looking to expand this feature of the site. The website has a comprehensive area listing old shows but there is a big gap between the most recent shows and those last captured on the 'old' site. What we need to complete this gap is articles, reminiscences and information from any show that you are familiar with.

Please be active in sending us whatever information you have so that we can publish it and keep it on the site forever.  The sort of things we are looking for would be old programs so that we can scan them,cast lists, photographs of old shows and any other memorabilia that  can be scanned and put on the site.

Also, if you have any anecdotes or funny stories I am sure we can accommodate them.

Please send your contributions to The Editor

You can now submit articles/content directly to the editor using the "submit an article" link on the left hand side menu. 

Life can be difficult married to a Shrew, as Tim Harling, who plays Petrucio, suitor to Katherina in Henley Operatic Society's outdoor production of Taming of the Shrew, has found out - for Grainne, who plays the waspish Kate, has been married to Tim for almost four years and a more devoted couple you want not want to meet. However, Grainne commented that it was quite scary how the character was seeping over into real life, whilst Tim secretly confessed that he was storing up some of Petrucio's methods for controling the acid-tongued Kate just in case Grainne got out of hand in the future!

Once again, HAODS pull off a tremendous production of one of Shakespeare's most famous comedies with all the drama and innovation that they are renowned for and is directed by award winning director, Michael Huntington. Picnics are welcome, but the opportunity to partake of a three course dinner in the Boathouse is also available. .(See our supplement "Strictly for Entertainment" for further details)

Taming of the Shrew ran from 16th - 19th July 2008

Show & Picnic option Only tickets - Call 01491 573887

The Boathouse Experience - Three Course Dinner & Show tickets - Call 01491 574157