Where's Jack? Week three on the leek hunt

I don't know about you, but it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas isn't it? Unfortunately for me, Jack still has my magic leek so instead of conjuring my Christmas shopping this year, I'll have to do it online. Only slightly less magical, I suppose. 

The scamp is still hiding from me, but well done for guessing where he was last week - the beautiful Ancient High House. Did you know King Charles I once stayed there? 

But enough wittering, the Stafford Gatehouse team and I still need your help retrieving my magic leek. 

Jack is hiding in a new Stafford location this week and if you can help us guess where, you'll have a chance to win two tickets to this year's rock 'n' roll panto. 

Here's the riddle:

The bricks are old, the windows are stained, 
This building was restored when King John reigned.
You can hear its voice from the tallest tower,
The quarters, the halves and dead on the hour. 
This place is a sanctum, not just for pigeons to perch
In honour of St Mary stands this impressive... 

Do you have an idea where Jack is? Comment below with your name and e-mail address to submit your answer - it's that easy.  The winner of the third pair of tickets will be announced this Friday afternoon.  Good luck everyone!

After the winner is announced, they will be contacted by our press and marketing officer, Emma Hogan, via email, for further details on claiming their prize. 
To find out more about this year’s rock ’n’ roll panto, visit 
www.staffordgatehousetheatre.co.uk.

Behind the scenes of Panto with Katie Pritchard

Katie Pritchard

It's all go here! We have just finished the second week of rehearsals for Jack and the Beanstalk.  All the music and scenes have now been covered and this is the exciting stage where the show really starts to take shape.

The lovely Katie Pritchard who plays Gemima, the Giant's Wife, has written a guest blog about how rehearsals are going. For a sneak peek behind the scenes read on...


Katie Pritchard:

Rehearsals for this years' Panto are well under way! There are so many hit tunes in this show, it's sure to be a success! Although, often a nightmare to try and learn some of the complex vocal lines and harmonies:




But, on the whole, we're all having an absolute blast learning these absolute classics. So far, my favourite song of the show has to be "Higher Ground", but I may be biased, because I get to sing the song with Laura and Izzy. It feels wonderful to sing it with all the girls!

I've also tried to make myself chief tambourine player, so I have tried to get it into every song that I'm not playing saxophone on...wish me luck...I'm not to sure if our lovely Musical Director, Craig, is too happy about my one-woman tambourine mission?! Who doesn't love a tambourine eh?!

That's us there, trying to learn our harmonies on "You Could Be Magic".

Choreography is proving a task and a half with full on cow-ography going on, courtesy of Verity and her wonderful work! And saxography is looking super snazzy! So hopefully we can get that all up to scratch for the show! It's very hard to play a sax solo whilst doing a full dance routine, but we have all had fun trying!

But the highlight for me personally has to be my scene with the giant. I've not yet had the chance to stand next to Craig while he's in his full giant's outfit, but it looks set to be more than double my height! I really can't wait for that! However, walking around the stage in my outfit is proving very difficult - I fell over three times yesterday during our rehearsal. Oops.

I can't wait to get on stage with all the set and scenery and see it all in action. I hope the audience enjoys the show as much as we've enjoyed making it! :-D

Jack and the Beanstalk opens on Thursday 10th December and runs until Sunday 10th January. You can find out more or book your tickets by clicking here or by calling our friendly box office team on 01785 619080.

Don't forget to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for all the latest panto gossip. You can also use #staffordpanto to share your panto fun with us!

Where's Jack? Panto competition week 2

Hello again, Fairy Aubergine here! Thanks for all your help finding Jack. You were right, he was looking right down at us at the Stafford Gatehouse Theatre!

As you know, our pantomime rehearsals are top secret, but Jack has managed to sneak a peek at this year’s performance! To teach him a lesson, his tickets for this year’s panto are well and truly confiscated! 

Instead, I’d like to give the two tickets away to someone more deserving, so if you can help me find him again, you could win a free pair of tickets for this year’s rock 'n' roll panto!

He’s left us another clue, here it is...

In this ancient house where royalty once stayed,
Some say it’s haunted, but I’m not afraid!
Built on the high street it’ll catch your eye,
It’s hard to ignore ‘cause this town house is high.
It dominates the skyline with its fine Tudor frame,
But can you give this building its name?

If you think you might know the answer to this week’s riddle, comment below with your name, email address and answer to be in with a chance of winning.

We will announce the winner on Friday afternoon and our press and marketing officer, Emma Hogan, will be in touch via email to arrange getting your panto tickets to you.

More information on this year’s rock ‘n’ roll panto can be found here.

Five lessons learned from fairytales

Aside from provoking an irrational fear of red apples, spindles and gingerbread houses, fairytales have taught us much more than to avoid anyone who goes by the name of Big Bad Wolf. What some think of as silly children’s stories can often become the foundations to prepare little ones for the realities of adult life. We considered the lessons we could all learn from those childhood classics.  


1. Narcissism isn’t pretty

While it may be true, no one is as big as Gaston, his role in Beauty and the Beast proves that thinking you’re the best, doesn’t necessarily make you the best. In fact, you don’t have to look far into the fairytale world to recognise narcissism as a recurring trait amongst its villains. Just take Snow White’s Evil Queen as an example: an inflated sense of self-importance, fantasies of power, a huge sense of entitlement and most notably, a hateful envy of the story’s protagonist. All proving that for these villains, narcissism really is a nasty trait.

2. Don’t be greedy

Naturally, children admire adventurous and curious characters, so it’s no surprise that Jack and the Beanstalk is such a timeless classic.

But looking back as an adult, the story reads a little differently.
In an attempt to help his struggling family, Jack abuses the trust he has built with the Giant by stealing gold from him not once, not twice, but three times! Of course we don’t really want the Giant to grind Jack’s bones to make his bread, but in hindsight, we don’t have much sympathy for the little bugger. After all, if he’d listened to his mother in the first place he wouldn’t be in this mess. But perhaps that’s a lesson for another blog post.

3. Doing it for the girls

Generally speaking, fairytales have a bad reputation for teaching us that a woman’s role in the story is to be a helpless damsel, waiting for a prince to sweep them off their feet. It’s easy to dismiss female protagonists as the docile princesses we know from the Disney versions of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, but thankfully, not all stories fit the same stereotype.

While admittedly, the majority of these women aren’t exactly what we would call independent by today’s standards, they certainly aren’t wallflowers either. Belle, from Beauty and the Beast proves that she’s smart and she doesn’t have to hide it, Ariel of The Little Mermaid is adventurous and independent and Rapunzel, well, can you get more resourceful than using your locks as a ladder?

4. Don’t judge a book by its cover

Unless it’s in the window of a cake shop, I’d categorically avoid ginger bread houses at all costs. Although a jelly bean and chocolate button covered bungalow may sound like a dream find, Hansel and Gretel’s mistakes have taught us all that glitters is not gold.

On the other side of the coin, Quasimodo in Hunchback of Notre Dame is described as looking so different and unattractive that people mock and ridicule him; the same can be said for the Beast in Beauty and the Beast. Despite unsavoury appearances, both characters show traits of kindness, understanding and intelligence, ultimately, teaching a lesson that shouldn’t go a miss for anybody: there’s more to a person than their appearance.

5. If all else fails, break and enter

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, if you and your sister Gretel are ever abandoned by your parents, or you’re just craving some porridge but it’s not on the breakfast menu at the local Holiday Inn, it’s perfectly acceptable to crack open the door to a stranger’s home. Honestly, find the comfiest bed and make yourself at home.
Ok, I’m joking. Perhaps some of these lessons are best left in the storybooks.

Revisit a childhood favourite this December, Jack and the Beanstalk the rock ‘n’ roll panto is showing at the Stafford Gatehouse Theatre from Thursday 10th December until Sunday 10th January. Tickets can be purchased here.

Where's Jack? Panto ticket competition week 1

Hello everyone! Your favourite veggie inspired fairy here! I know Christmas is a month away, but to get you into the spirit, I'd like to give you the chance to win tickets to this year's rock 'n' roll panto.

While rehearsing for this year's show, my friend Jack stole my magic leek and climbed to the top of the beanstalk to hide from me!

The Stafford Gatehouse team needs your help in finding Jack so he can return my magic leek. After all, what good is Fairy Aubergine without her magic leek? Every week, you'll have the chance to win a pair of free panto tickets if you can guess where Jack is.

This should be easy-peasy! Get it?

Jack's teasing me with this description of what he can see from the top of the beanstalk. In true Fairy Aubergine style, I'll give it to you in rhyme.

This building is located on Eastgate Street,
It's the heart of Stafford, where theatre performers meet.
The place stands tall with arches over all doors,
Here, famous comedians can take to the floor.
The much loved building is the home of the MET,
I'll be there in December, but have you worked it out yet?

Can you identify this Stafford landmark? Comment below with your name and email address to submit your answer. The winner of the first pair of tickets will be announced this Friday afternoon. Don’t miss out on your chance to see what The Daily Mirror called “quite simply the best panto you'll see in the UK”!

After the winner is announced on Friday afternoon, they will be contacted by our press and marketing officer, Emma Hogan, via email, for further details on claiming their prize.

To find out more about this year’s rock ’n’ roll panto visit www.staffordgatehousetheatre.co.uk.

New show and Director for Shakespeare Festival

We are thrilled to announce that the production for Stafford Festival Shakespeare 2016 will be Othello.

“We are very excited to be producing one of the Bard’s darkest tragedies and this is also the first time Othello will have been produced for Stafford Festival Shakespeare” commented Producer Derrick Gask.

We are also excited to announce a new Director for the show, Clare Prenton.

Clare Prenton has over 16 years experience as a director in theatre, musical theatre and opera. Originally from Liverpool and a member of the Everyman and Playhouse youth theatres, she studied at the Universities of Leeds (BA Hons English Language and Literature) and Hull (MA in Theatre Production) before training at the Royal National Theatre Young Directors Course in 2000. Staff Directing posts followed at English Touring Opera, Opera Holland Park and Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre/The New Shakespeare Company, the British Shakespeare Company’s productions of Twelfth Night starring Norman Pace and Wayne Sleep and Much Ado About Nothing starring Norman Pace, English National Opera Studio/Tete a Tete. Since 2008 Clare has been an Associate & Understudy Director for Sir Alan Ayckbourn and the Stephen Joseph Theatre Company on UK tours of Communicating Doors, Life of Riley, Life and Beth (with Liza Goddard), A Trip to Scarborough and Roundelay.



Clare Prenton

Her Directing credits include: Legally Blonde - The Musical (Kings Theatre, Glasgow), Improbable Fiction (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), A Different Way Home (Cumbernauld Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew (British Shakespeare Company), How the Other Half Loves and Relatively Speaking, The Kingfisher (Sheringham Little Theatre, Norfolk), The Smoking Gun: Cover Her Feet and Fly in the Ointment for the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough and a rural tour of North Yorkshire. Two by Jim Cartwright and Noel and Gertie by Sheriden Morley (Eye Theatre, Suffolk), a revival of Manon (English Touring Opera), Vaclav Havel’s Private View Regents Park Open Air Theatre, Orton’s The Erpingham Camp and Ruffian on the Stair (Greenwich Playhouse) and revival of Victorian drama Did You Ever Send Your Wife to Camberwell? (Battersea Arts Centre). Cambridge Shakespeare Festival (Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew). Further afield, Clare has directed for The English Speaking Theatre of Poland and White Horse Theatre of Germany. Clare won a director’s award whilst at Hull University at the National Student Drama Festival for The Bald Prima Donna with Sam Troughton as Mr Martin.

As writer/director : Clare was an Associate of C Theatre writing for the sell-out Edinburgh
Festival Fringe Show Shakespeare For Breakfast for three years with Romeo and Juliet – The Panto! ; Macbeth - the Panto! And the spoof musical The Lost Musicals of William Shakespeare as well as children’s musical play Santa’s Summer.

“We’re thrilled to be working with Clare alongside a new creative team. We are moving Stafford Festival Shakespeare in a new direction whilst maintaining many elements of our productions we are known for; Othello will still be accessible, affordable entertainment and we cannot wait to get started” concluded Gask.

Othello will open on Thursday 23rd June and run until Saturday 9th July 2016 at Stafford Castle.

Othello is a highly respected military general, a newly-wed and an outsider. His greatest triumphs in turn create his greatest enemies. When cruel Iago seeks revenge after being bypassed for a promotion, he torments and plays with Othello’s mind. In turn, Othello discovers the real enemy is his own jealousy, paranoia and ego, as he tragically destroys his world and everything he loves.

With a brand new creative team and a tragedy never staged before at Stafford Castle, Othello promises to be Stafford Festival Shakespeare’s boldest production yet.

Tickets will be available from Thursday 5th November at 9.30am. Early Bird Tickets are available until January 31st 2016.

The early bird offer saves £5 per ticket* on peak performances (Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings) and it saves £3 per ticket* on Tuesday and Wednesday performances.

The early bird discount is not valid on Mondays, Saturday matinees and school performances and cannot be redeemed against any other offer.

After the early bird discount ends tickets will be available from £13 - £25*

*Plus a 50p per ticket booking fee