Remembering Evelyn’s Plays

As the summer season begins to emerge at last, I have been thinking of Evelyn’s plays and of theatre groups which have been preparing for festivals and pre-summer performances. It was always a massive relief when the after-show parties could take place and the nerves and uncertainties experienced over the previous weeks and months immediately evaporated without anyone even noticing!

And so we are at that point in the calendar year now, where many groups will be wrapping up their hard work in readiness for another season starting with the auditions and rehearsals in the late summer or early autumn.

It was at this time that I am sure Evelyn was working on plans for the upcoming year; for many years she was a producer for both the Paisley Players and Quintus theatre groups. Later she joined Johnstone Phoenix Theatre Group and also directed musicals for Johnstone High School. She would collaborate with choice of material, and then have to plan the activities ahead of the time when auditions took place and rehearsals would start in earnest. At this point most of the team would be fresh and eager to take on their roles, while Evelyn had already invested several weeks poring over scripts creating stage directions and stage sets in order to guide everyone’s efforts towards final performances.

Although I didn’t venture into theatrical pursuits to the same extent, I witnessed a lot of rehearsals and I was very aware of the camaraderie and the investment that each person needed to ensure the success of every performance of every production, and their efforts were much appreciated by Evelyn.

At this time, I am sure many amateur dramatic groups are considering what performances they may be making in the 2024-2025 season; Evelyn’s plays are listed on this website (link at the top of the home page) and are well worth taking a look at, especially for festival one-act plays , or Scottish-interest plays. See https://petersfraserdunlop.com/clients/evelyn-hood for more information.

To all theatre groups across the country, I hope you have had a good season and enjoy a restful summer. To the stage directors and producers, I hope you enjoy your planning for the upcoming year.

Simon Hood