Update regarding Coronavirus COVID-19

Nunsense, Pastiche News, Shows

It is with regret that Pastiche announce that due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus, we have taken the difficult decision in the interest of the safety of our cast, crew, musicians and audiences to postpone our upcoming production of Nunsense: The Mega Musical.

We will be sourcing alternative dates with our theatre and still fully intend to bring this wonderful and funny show to you – our nuns will be back and funnier than ever!

We apologise for any inconvenience or disappointment this decision will cause but hope very much that you understand and come and support us later in the year.

If you have booked tickets through Pastiche’s Box Office, we will soon be in touch to discuss your booking. If you have booked your tickets through the Compass Theatre Box Office, they will be contacting you as stated on their website.

All at Pastiche wish you well during this unprecedented time – keep washing your hands and keep yourselves safe.

Statement regarding Coronavirus COVID-19

Nunsense, Pastiche News, Shows

Pastiche are monitoring the advice of Public Health England (PHE) in relation to the COVID-19 virus extremely closely and consider the health and safety of our cast, crew, musicians, staff and most of all audiences as our top priority. At present, it has not been advised that events are cancelled in the wake of the virus outbreak and as such, in true theatrical form, at present the show must/will go on until we are advised otherwise.

We are continuing to operate in Business as Usual mode and will be putting in steps to ensure that PHE advice such as hand washing can be fulfilled at The Compass when we perform. Should any further advice be issued by PHE, we will follow this advice to the letter and will announce any changes via our website and Social Media channels.

We look forward to performing this very funny show to audiences and hope very much they will come to support us and London’s Air Ambulance, the charity selected to benefit from this production.

Announcing Nunsense’s chosen charity – London Air Ambulance

Charity, Nunsense, Pastiche News,

With 30 days to go until our production of Nunsense: The Mega Musical opens at The Compass Theatre, we at Pastiche are very proud to announce that our chosen charity for this production is London’s Air Ambulance.

Founded in 1989, the aim of the charity is to save more lives in the London area (within the M25) through providing rapid and cutting-edge medical care to those who need it most, be it a fall from height, knife or gunshot wounds or incidents on the roads or our public transport systems.

The London Air Ambulance are able to perform open heart surgery, blood transfusions, give general anaesthetic and carry out life saving procedures in situ, meaning their actions save lives.

The Air Ambulance almost solely rely on donations to keep the service running for the 10 million people they serve – having to raise upwards of £8 million a year to be able to do so.

We were proud and honoured to visit the Air Ambulance at their Central London base recently, meeting members of the team and going up to (the very windy) 17th floor roof of a London hospital to see the Air Ambulance for ourselves and learn more about how the charity works and operates.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that all of us who went were extremely humbled to meet the heroes (a word they don’t like to use themselves) who run this vital service and to find out more about this wonderful charity.

We hope to raise as much money as we can to support this service – you can help us do so by making sure you book to see Nunsense!

Happy New Year from the Little Sisters of Hoboken!

Uncategorised

Happy New Year!

Now that we’ve ‘Tackled the Temptations’ over the festive period, rehearsals are back in full swing. Now lets ‘Turn up the Spotlight’ on Hoboken!

Hoboken is a real place! Nunsense and the Little Sisters of Hoboken are (fictitiously) from none other than Frank Sinatra’s birth place. Hoboken is a real New Jersey city situated on the Hudson River and is home to four Catholic Churches – so our Little Sisters have lots of company for Bingo nights! Brooklyn, where Sister Robert Anne is from, is just the other side of Manhattan Island. The Little Sisters of Hoboken are working hard in rehearsals to give a wonderful performance of ‘Nunsense’.

 

New President of Pastiche appointed

Pastiche News

Following Pastiche’s Annual General Meeting, which was held on Wednesday 15th May, we announce the appointment of Mr Brian Coles as Pastiche’s third President.

The role of President is an honorary one and they are the titular head of the company. The position was previously held by our founding Director, Jean Hobson until her passing in March 2019. Before Jean, Pastiche’s first President was Alan Hobson.

Brian has been a member of Pastiche for many years, firstly joining us on stage and then more recently as Pastiche’s Treasurer until he stood down from the role at the Annual General Meeting.

We are pleased to announce that Michael Wright has been elected as Pastiche’s Treasurer.

All at Pastiche congratulate both Brian and Michael on their appointments.

Jean Hobson

Pastiche News

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Jean Hobson on 3rd March 2019.

In 1997, Jean founded Pastiche with Jean George to raise money for good causes and to have fun through performing.

Jean was Pastiche’s first Director, directing a total of 28 productions starting with The Boyfriend in 1997 until her last production at the helm (Kiss Me Kate) in 2011, before passing on the directorial baton to her daughter Roma. During that time, Pastiche raised just under £49,000 for multiple charities. Using our productions to raise money for local and national causes was a founding ethos of the company – something we as a company are very proud to continue to this day. 

Jean, along with Jean George and many other helpers, created many of our costumes during our first fifteen years. The standard of her work was often praised by not just our company and audiences but also reviewers in the local press.

Jean was a one woman recruiting team for Pastiche. She had a knack for spotting talent in individuals and getting the very best from them, often giving the individual the confidence to step foot on the stage for the first time or become involved in the theatre. It’s not an exaggeration to say that every one of us involved with Pastiche are here due to her belief in us. 

When Jean retired from the company, the number of company members (past, present and indeed future) who gathered at a surprise leaving event for her was testament to the impact she made on the local theatre scene.

Even after retiring from the Director’s chair, Jean continued to keep a close eye on things at Pastiche, succeeding her husband Alan to become President of the company. Jean provided support and inspiration to Roma during her tenure as Director and continued this when Olivia succeeded Roma as Director – something we know that Olivia has cherished. She continued to attend rehearsals and performances to see how things were going – always watching from her usual seat in the Compass auditorium. We were honoured to dedicate her usual seat to her in 2017.

All at Pastiche will miss Jean very much and will continue to ensure that her legacy of our company lives on.

We send our love and best wishes to all of Jean’s family at this time.

Pastiche enter two week countdown to a Musical Masterpiece

Charity, Musical Masterpiece, Pastiche News, Shows

Pastiche are beavering away on their upcoming production of Musical Masterpiece, which opens to the public in two weeks time (Thursday 4th October) at the Compass Theatre.

Featuring songs from famous shows and films, Musical Masterpiece features something for everything including a tribute to Musical Theatre giant Andrew Lloyd-Webber as he celebrates his 70th birthday later this year. They are also collaborating with some great online mixing services to produce a piece for the epic final act.

As always, Pastiche will be raising money for a worthy cause with our production. This time we will be donating to Meadow High School based in Hillingdon.

Meadow High School is a very large Secondary Special School that caters for pupils with complex learning needs. The school was built in 1966 for 90 pupils and 30 staff but over the years has grown to house 240 pupils and 120 staff. The school is about to have a significant rebuild to bring it up to modern specification. The money raised by Pastiche will be used to purchase equipment which cannot currently be accommodated in the old building.

Meadow is a second home to Pastiche as they very kindly provide us with rehearsal space. We are thrilled to be raising funds for this wonderful school.

Tickets are on sale now either through our own website or through the Compass Theatre Box Office

Pastiche donate almost £600 from Wild, Wild Women

Charity, Pastiche News, Shows

A cheque for £595.56 was presented by Olivia Holburd, Director of Pastiche Musical Theatre to Relate North West London. The money was raised by audiences of our recent production of Wild, Wild Women at the Compass Theatre at the end of March 2018.

Relate are delighted with the funds raised by Pastiche and offered a heartfelt ‘Thank You’ from everyone at Relate.

The amount raised during Wild, Wild Women now takes the total amount raised by Pastiche to over £57,000! We now hope to break the £58,000 barrier with our upcoming production of Musical Masterpiece at the Compass Theatre in October 2018.