Work ongoing at the Bannister Chapel

Members of the group have been hard at work over the past few months helping to organise the group’s costume and props storage areas at the Bannister Chapel in Shuttlewood.

The chapel is the group’s largest asset, and acts as both a storage facility for scenery, props and costumes, and as a venue to allow items of scenery to be built and painted prior to relocation to the Assembly Rooms ahead of the group’s shows.

Hats and garments labelled and boxed ready for future shows

Dawn Blackburn, Lesley Seaston and Angela Mitchell have been busy organising, sizing, cataloguing and cleaning the costumes, hats and other garments owned by the group to enable these to be identifiable for use in the group’s productions, while a donation of cupboards has allowed the props storage area to be extended to allow small props (especially china, bottles, glasses and ornaments used in plays) to be safely stored for ease of discovery.

The hard work being undertaken allows the group’s assets to be used to their fullest, helping to minimise unnecessary cost by purchasing items which we may not realise the group owns or are unable to locate.

Work to organise the group’s props well underway thanks to the donated cupboards

The organisation work has been undertaken in conjunction with maintenance work to the building itself as part of the group’s programme of investment for repairs and maintenance to the building to enable it to remain fit for use.

There is still plenty of work to do – with four shows a year it’s difficult to find time to do it all!  If you are interested in helping the group we would be happy for volunteers who can work with us – please let a member of the front of house team know if you are interested.