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REVEALED: Our Cinderella cast

Our brilliant cast for this year’s CINDERELLA pantomime can now be revealed. Who’s coming to have a ball with us?

First up is the absolutely fabulous HARRIET THORPE from, errrr, Absolutely Fabulous and loads more besides. Harriet will play the Fairy Godmother this Christmas and can’t wait to cast her spell on Stafford.

Then there’s our very own TOM VAUGHAN as Prince Charming. Fresh from ROMEO + JULIET where he met a sticky fate as the Prince of Cats, will Cinderella have a happy ending for Tom? (Hey, we can’t give away the plot already!)

AYA ELMANSOURI is our Cinderella; a ‘stunning new talent’ with the voice of an angel and a huge personality to match. We can’t wait to see Aya make her Gatehouse debut.

Next up is the hilarious RICKY K, who won the heart of the nation on Britain’s Got Talent and is sure to repeat the same trick in ST16 as Buttons.

Then there’s the multi-talented ALLAN JAY as the all-singing, all dancing, all-wisecracking Dandini, who makes sure everyone goes to the ball.

And finally, we’ve saved the ugliest to last – its JASON SUTTON and WILL PEACO as the Ugly Sisters (Boo! Hiss!). Will they give Cinderella time off to go to the ball? Will they charm the handsome prince? Will that glass slipper ever fit? What do YOU think?

Tickets are flying out for this spectacular pantomime, which runs from December 9-31. Group discounts are available and schools are welcome to give us a call to arrange a magical trip to the Gatehouse. Call 01785 619080 for details or book here

 

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Visiting Programme Call Out

The Gatehouse Theatre is doing an open call to find professional theatre companies, independent producers and individual performers around the UK and beyond who are touring professional shows in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

We’ve been open since 1982 so know a huge number of companies and our team regularly scouts new work. However we, of course, still miss finding out about some amazing shows until it’s too late.

If you’re a professional theatre company or an independent producer and you’d like us to find out more about your work then we’d love you to get in touch

Every year we programme hundreds of shows and events across a range of theatre spaces – from our front of house piano bar area for 50 people to shows for our 140 seat MET studio and our 535 seat main house theatre.

We’ve been open since 1982 so know a huge number of companies and our team regularly scouts new work. However, we of course still miss finding out about some amazing shows until it’s too late.

Our Venues

We have two venues that we’re mainly booking for; the main Gatehouse auditorium (535 seats) and The MET studio (140 seats).

Both have excellent sound and lighting facilities and generate fantastic atmospheres.

As an organisation we’re also interested in small-scale work that could tour and work in other spaces across the region.

 

 

 

Guidance Notes:

These notes are specific for this call out – we may do other calls in future for community companies, artists, actors, creatives or co-producing.

What we’re looking for…

 Work that is professionally touring

 Companies where everyone is paid at least Equity minimum

 Touring in 2023 and 2024

 Work that isn’t touring but might extend its run to tour to us

 New co-producing relationships

 All genres… Theatre, music, comedy, spoken word, Evenings With…, burlesque, dance, gig, jazz, family work, podcasts, talks and tribute acts.

What we’re not looking for…

 Unproduced scripts
 Shows currently with no attached creatives
 Clairvoyants
 Pitches

Please send all submissions to Tim Ford C/o tim.ford@freedom-leisure.co.uk

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AYA IS OUR CINDERELLA

Stafford Gatehouse Theatre is delighted to announce AYA BENYAHYA will play CINDERELLA in this year’s spectacular Christmas pantomime.
Aya, a successful singer/songwriter who has featured on BBC Music Introducing will be making her Gatehouse debut in the pantomime, which runs from December 9-31.
She said: ‘I’m sooo looking forward to playing Cinderella at the Gatehouse this Christmas – it’s like a Fairy Godmother granted my wish! It’s a dream role, in an amazing theatre in a beautiful town that I’ve heard so many good things about.
‘I’ll be scrubbing up on my cleaning skills and polishing every pumpkin I can find to get ready for the panto. I can’t wait to meet everyone (even my Ugly Sisters!).
‘Hopefully as many people as possible will have a ball at the Gatehouse – we promise to have you back home by midnight!’
Theatre manager Tim Ford said: ‘We are absolutely thrilled to have Aya as our Cinderella in Stafford.
‘She has so much stage presence and charisma and we know audiences are going to love her – just like Prince Charming does.’ Producer Matt Brinkler said: ‘Aya just blew us away in her audition. It was one of those moments when we all just stood back, looked at each other and went ‘wow!’.
‘We are delighted to have snapped her up because she is going to be a big, BIG star and we cannot wait to introduce her to the people of Stafford.’
The Gatehouse is looking to set another new audience record with CINDERELLA and almost 4,000 tickets have already been snapped up.
Marketing Manager Keith Harrison said: ‘After everyone had such a great time with SNOW WHITE last year, people are buying their tickets earlier than ever. It may be August in sunny Stafford but Christmas will be on us before we know it, so don’t delay – book your tickets today.’
Contact the Box Office on 01785 619080 or book online here