Holt villagers' lives caught in song (From Wiltshire Times)
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Holt villagers' lives caught in song
8:55am Wednesday 31st October 2012 in Trowbridge By Adam Care
Damian O’Connor and Julia Clark, front, with Emelia Prosser, Tizzy Robinson-Gordon, Freddie Oliphant and Henry Rowe performing in Holt! The Musical
A Wiltshire village has taken to the stage, for a sell-out performance of an-all singing, all-dancing take on modern rural life.
The show was written, choreographed and performed by people from the village of Holt. Holt! The Musical ran for four performances in the village hall last week, with more than 400 people coming to see the comic take on life in rural Wiltshire.
The show was written by Holt resident Amy Jarvis, and performed by a cast of adults and children from the Holt Dramatic Society.
Helen Robinson-Gordon worked backstage on the show, which starred her 11-year-old daughter Tizzy. She said: “It went very well, the audience on the last night was fantastic, and given it was a brand new project from people who aren’t doing it for a living day in day out, it was really well received.
“It’s a good way of bringing local people together to do something they enjoy for the benefit of the community.”
Director Tim Mason said: “The Holt Dramatic Society really is a community project. There were lots people from the village who are aren’t actors who came along and helped with front-of-house and other things.
“There was a cast of 24, but also at least another 25 people from the village who came along to help out in some way.”
Choreographer Jackie Drake, said: “We did have people coming in from outside of the village as well. We were concerned some of the jokes were in-house jokes, but people still seemed to get them, as the script spoke to real life concerns.”
The cast was made up of experienced actors with the society and several newcomers.
Dominic O’Connor has been involved in the last three productions by Holt Dramatic Society, and played teacher Tim Fouler who moves from London to find love in the village.
He said: “I’ve never taken the lead in a play before, and haven’t sung in a musical either, with three solos and a romantic duet each night.
“It’s about somebody coming new to a village like Holt. “A big part of the storyline is how the new resident copes with the pressure and the requests to do this and that, which I think is a good reflection of how life is in a village like this.”
