Saddleworth Players ready to look Glorious

DELPH is many things – one thing it certainly is not is anything like New York.

But director Pauline Walsh, the Saddleworth Players’ cast and particularly the set designers hope to bring the Big Apple to the theatre at Millgate Arts Centre, through the ‘worst singer in the world.’

For they are responsible for putting on the comedy Glorious, the true story of Florence Foster Jenkins, who was a huge star in the 1940s.

And the challenge of transforming the stage into not one but several landmarks is being handled with aplomb.

“It’s not just transforming the stage in Delph into New York,” said Pauline. “It’s transforming it into a New York apartment, a New York sound recording studio, the Ritz-Carlton hotel and Carnegie Hall!

“I’ve designed the set with the set designer and the leader of the construction team. We looked at things together.

“We haven’t got a space big enough to include the Ritz-Carlton and Carnegie Hall, so we have to be creative with lighting to produce different looks and atmospheres.

“We’ve also got building work going on behind the stage, so it’s been a question of everybody understanding what everyone else needs to do.

“We’re plodding along quite nicely, using the space we have in a fair way and the show will go on.”

Glorious, which opens on Saturday, February 10, will see Sue Ratcliffe take on the role of Florence, who became known as ‘the first lady of the sliding scale.’

With audiences laughing, she paid little attention to her critics, instead she was surrounded by a circle of devoted friends who were almost as eccentric as she was.

And the comedy takes the audience from Florence’s charity recitals and extravagant balls, through to her bizarre recording sessions and an ultimate triumph at Carnegie Hall in this hilarious and heart-warming comedy.

Featuring eight other Saddleworth Players, it promises to be a super show.

Now as curtain up approaches, Pauline is putting the final touches to what will be seen on the Millgate’s stage.

And as the ‘tapestry’ takes shape, she cannot wait to show the results of her and others’ hard work.

She added: “I was asked to do this one. I tread it and quite liked it, so I said yes.

“It’s been done by other societies but I’ve never seen it done. You can take the script by Peter Quilter and you can do what you want.

“You can follow him letter for letter or you can do your own thing. I feel you have to do your own thing as you’re dealing with a stage that wasn’t Peter Quilter’s original stage.

“My opinion is you do with it what feels right as a creative person. I adapted it for our stage, the space we have, the people we have.

“I feel I’ve done the best I can with it to make it work for Saddleworth Players’ on the Millgate stage and it’s looking pretty good.

“It’s not so much nerves but excitement. I’m very excited about directing it, even though there’s a lot to pull together.

“It’s not just the actors on the stage. It’s the lighting, the sound, the stage managing, all those other people who help you pull the whole thing together.

“It’s very different to being on stage but it’s something I like to do. It’s tricky but it’s very exciting and it’s very creative and I love that.

“It’s like pulling little threads together to make one big tapestry. It’s not always a laugh a minute but because I love it so much, that doesn’t matter.

“It’s the end result that matters and that we get the best from the people that matter, in every respect.

“And I have good people around me who are working very hard with me. It’s going very well. It’s all falling into place, despite the building work!”

*Glorious starts in the theatre of Delph’s Millgate Arts Centre on Saturday, February 10 at 7.30pm and runs until Saturday, February 17, with no performance on Monday, February 12.

Tickets cost £12 for adults and £6 for under-18s and can be booked by clicking: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/millgateartscentre/glorious-by-john-quilter/e-ebjpzm.

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