Make ‘Em Laugh 2 was performed in The Women’s Hall, Billingshurst on November 14th, 15th & 16th 2024 - with a cast of 18.
The show, directed by Sue Pollard, included comedy sketches written by Ted Gooda: Night at the Theatre Part I & Part II.
The community folk opera Beware the Mackerel Sky was performed in Lancing College Chapel on the 27th and 28th April.
Hosted by the Bernardi Music Group in association with the Yehudi Menuhin School and Lancing College, the smugglers’ folk opera brought together school choirs, community choirs, a large string orchestra and professional opera singers, and featured over 400 performers.
Trailer for Beware the Mackerel Sky with interviews with creative team, including Andrew Bernardi, Chris Hussey, Emily Barden, Steve Dummer and Theresa Gooda
All About Horsham report on Beware the Mackerel Sky
Beck and Calling,
a one-act play
by Theresa Gooda
(writing as Ted Gooda),
was produced
by Billingshurst Dramatic Society
in April 2023.
Billingshurst Dramatic Society was proud to present a brand new one-act play which explores the story of the women who ‘vanished for the vote’ on the night of the 1911 census - including Billingshurst's very own suffragist sisters, Ellen and Edith Beck.
As part of the larger movement towards women's suffrage, a number of women were united in their determination to boycott the census because, 'if we don’t count then we won’t be counted'. The drama explores what might have happened in the Beck household on census night, at a time when great courage would have been needed; not just to break the law for a political belief, but to do so in such a close-knit community as Billingshurst, where the ripples and repercussions of such action would have had great consequence.
The historical setting will resonate for a contemporary audience in a political climate where sometimes the staunchest defenders of the status quo are those who are worst affected by it.
Grave Encounters was an adaptation of five ghost stories for the stage and was performed at the Women’s Hall in Billingshurst in December 2021.
Theresa writes:
I’m always on the lookout for interesting narratives with strong female characters and unusual twists. In adapting for Grave Encounters I worked on stories by two of my favourite nineteenth century authors: Elizabeth Gaskell and Kate Chopin. My favourite of all the characters was Saki’s sassy Vera in The Open Window.