About the company

We are a small company founded in 1965 and perform and rehearse at the Ritchie Memorial Hall in Chandlers Ford. We put on four productions, including a pantomime, each year and participate in the one act play competitions staged by Totton Drama Festival and the Eastleigh Drama League.

Our anniversary cake, made and decorated by member Jan Bradshaw.

Joining a drama group is not just about "treading the boards"; putting on a play needs a wide variety of skills and usually more backstage and front of house staff than there are cast on stage! Here are some photographs of what goes on backstage taken at technical rehearsal for a recent production.

Rehearsals

Dress rehearsal for panto 2000 "Sing a song of sixpence"

We rehearse on Tuesday evenings at 7:30 in the Ritchie Memorial Hall. In addition the cast will meet at one member's home for further rehearsal as necessary, usually on Thursday evenings.

While the current play is rehearsed on stage, there are other activities taking place in the Green room. These include play reading or production of short plays, which we perform in residential homes or at charity functions.

Costume

Creating costumes is a major task and we are lucky to have two members who love this aspect of theatre. There are examples of their work throughout these pages. Most of us lend a hand with finishing costumes and sourcing materials, and anyone who likes to sew will find plenty to do.

Helping the community

A free performance of every production is given to an invited audience from Chandlers Ford and nearby towns. Groups receiving an invitation are all disabled or senior citizens organisations.

We celebrated the Millennium with a Gala Charity Night during our pantomime in January. As a result, we, with our audience's help, have been able to give some £350 to children. Firstly, we paid for new tyres for a young man's outside wheelchair. We donated the remaining £250 to the Children's Hospice, Naomi House, whose representative attended our April production to receive a cheque.

You can find out more about Naomi House here.

We are currently working hard to raise additional funds towards fitting out the new Green Room, which we hope will be built early next year.

What the papers say

Click on this link to see the reviews and photo gallery of some of our recent productions.

Socializing

It's not all work and no play! Chameleons enjoy an active social life as well, starting immediately after rehearsal with a well earned visit to our local pub. We celebrate the end of every production with a party after the last night, although this is a relatively quiet affair as we have to be up early the next morning to strike set. Throughout the year, we have car treasure hunts, quiz nights, bowling evenings, go out for an Indian or Italian meal together, barbecues, and more parties. The reptilian chameleon may be a shy and retiring creature, not so the Chandlers Ford species!

Left: a photo from our party after our pantomime

Right:Janet and her daughters ready for our New Year Party to celebrate the millennium. We like dressing up, so here are a Women's freedom fighter, Lara Croft, Lolly and a Goth!.

In addition, we enjoy seeing how other companies perform; we attend many local groups to see a wide variety of plays and shows.