We’re delighted to continue our Club of the Month feature, which aims to shine a light on the many wonderful clubs, groups and organisations we have in West Lothian.
This month we’re highlighting The Livingston Players, who have been staging exciting and critically-acclaimed productions for over 50 years.
As our pictures show, they’re currently rehearsing their production of Legally Blonde – based on the hit movie starring Reese Witherspoon – and tickets are now available.
The Livingston Players were founded in 1971 by Keith and Maggie Uttley and Jan Caine, who came to live and work in the new town and were looking for something to entertain themselves and their new community.
The group is a registered charity and the committee is made up of 10 adult members and two youth members who all work hard on a voluntary basis.
They aim to mentor and grow the company from within.
Secretary Pam Murray said the Players’ goal is to provide quality theatre for the public of West Lothian.
She continued: “Our first productions were in the old mews theatre and were a play called Wanted One Body and the musical South Pacific.
“We currently rehearse in Livingston United Parish Church, Carmondean Community Centre, Fells Rigg in Livingston.
“We have since then performed 52 musicals from Oklahoma and Brigadoon to Nine to Five and Sister Act and in excess of 100 plays from Calendar Girls to Stepping out and Beyond Reasonable Doubt to the Steamie.
“We have won several accolades for our plays and sets.
“We gave £7000 which we raised during Calendar Girls to a cancer charity – mostly from selling our own tastefully nude calendar!
“Some of our founding and initial members are still active with us and we unveiled a plaque at Howden Park Centre at our AGM in June to honour them and those members who are no longer with us.
Maggie and Keith were instrumental in encouraging Livingston Development Corporation to change the Mews theatre to a new theatre and thus the Brian Duguid auditorium at Howden Park Centre was created. We continue to have a fantastic relationship with the theatre.
“We have a membership at the moment of 102 which ranges in age from 13 to people in their 80s and plan to perform two plays and a musical each year.
“To ensure the longevity of the society, in 2017 we encouraged a larger youth membership by producing the youth version of Les Misérables.
“The youth company has gone from strength to strength and, after Les Mis, have performed Grease, West Side Story and are returning post-covid to perform Legally Blonde in September.”
Pam said the company responded well after covid, rescheduling its January 2022 performance of The Steamie to January 2023 and had a sell-out five show run of Sunshine on Leith in May of this year.
She continued: “Along with the rest of the country we had to comply with covid regulations which made the rehearsal period quite stressful at times but we are sure that anyone who enjoyed our sell out performances of Sunshine on Leith would not have noticed any difference to our normal standard of performance.
“We continue to flourish and already have plans in place for 2023 into 2024 productions.
“Our Showstopper Group are performing cabaret-style events and are hoping to expand this part of the company looking for new opportunities to perform for the public.”
Legally Blonde is being performed at Howden Park Centre from September 7 to 10 at 7.30pm.
The cast is made up of youth members who range in age from 13 to 21. Some of them also performed in Sunshine on Leith – they have had a very busy summer!
Legally Blonde tells the story of Elle Woods and the love of her life Warner, who breaks off their relationship to further his political career and head to Harvard Law School.
Elle is determined to win back Warner’s heart and against all odds makes it to Harvard to study law – her college degree was in fashion merchandising !
Unfortunately they assume she is too blonde to make the grade as a lawyer but she perseveres, works hard and in the end gains the accolade she deserves. This show has a lot of heart.
This is a toe-tapping, energetic show full of humour where good prevails in the end and, most importantly, a starring role for Roxy (the Players’ prop lady’s dog) who plays Elle’s dog Bruiser.
Tickets are available from Howden Park box office on 01506 340700 and are £16/£14 (concession Wednesday only)
Follow the group on Instagram @Livingston_Players and Facebook @Livingston.Players or they can be contacted via email Livingstonplayers@gmail.com
● If you’d like to take part in our Club of the Month feature, please email debbie.hall@reachplc.com
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