Newark's Giant weekend of panto!

If you need evidence that the festive season is almost upon us then you needed to look no further than Newark two weekends ago when the Palace Theatre held both the panto launch and the auditions for the Junior Chorus.

 The town was taken over by the panto cast on Saturday, including former Grange Hill and EastEnders star Todd Carty, and there were flashbacks to Todd’s EastEnders days when he got behind a fruit and veg stall in the market – although we don’t remember him being dressed quite like that in EastEnders!

 Todd says “This is the first time I have ever been to Newark and it seems a really lovely town, well – apart from it raining all day! I am very interested in history so can’t wait to have a proper look around the Civil War Centre when I am here over Christmas.”

 On Sunday it was time to hold auditions for the youngest members of the panto cast with the Junior Chorus auditions for 9-16 year olds.

 Graeme Pickering, who choreographed the auditions said “The standard of the all of the children who auditioned for us was very high and it was exceptionally difficult to select the 16 children for the two main teams as we would have loved to have everyone in the show.”

 Sarah Boden from Imagine Theatre who produce the panto at the Palace Theatre said “We have been auditioning children for panto here for many years now and it was great to see some familiar faces amongst the auditionees as well as some brand new ones.”

 “One of the most important things we look at is of course their dancing, however, it is really important that the children have a little something extra as well that makes them stand out from the crowd.”

 “The children will have a lot of hard work ahead of them but it is also a lot of fun and a great opportunity for them to be part of a professional production.”

 Come and join us for a ‘gigantic’ festive treat with Jack and the Beanstalk which runs at the Palace Theatre from Wednesday 7th until Saturday 31st December 2016. 

Newark Palace's Panto Jack and the Beanstalk is Fully Cast

The Palace Theatre, Newark are delighted to announce that they are fully cast for their giant pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk this Christmas.

Alongside the previously announced television star Todd Carty and the hilarious Kevin McGreevy the Palace are delighted to welcome Tim Freeman as Dame Trot, Felicity Skiera as Jack, Ann Micklethwaite as the Queen of the Flower Fairies, Kate Eaves as Princess Tamara and Niki Burne as the Queen of Merrydale.

Tim is a highly experienced theatrical performer and has appeared in numerous productions throughout the country as well as fifteen pantomimes. Recently Tim has been touring in the children’s show Not Now Bernard for Colchester’s Mercury Theatre.

Tim also played Mr Wopsle in the film Great Expectations alongside Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes and David Walliams.

Both Felicity and Kate played the roles of Jack and Princess in last year’s production of Jack and the Beanstalk in Leamington whilst Ann previously played the role of Fairy at the Victoria Theatre in Halifax in 2014.

Ann says “The last time I played this role I fell over on some ice on opening night and broke my arm and spent the rest of the run with my arm in a cast so I am hoping for better luck this time!” 

Jack and the Beanstalk is an action packed pantomime as the hero Jack has to climb the beanstalk to the giant’s liar, fight him and rescue his beloved Princess Tamara but Felicity Skiera is not daunted by taking on the challenge once again. She says “Jack is a really fun character to play as he is quite feisty and the giant used in the show is brilliant and always produced big gasps from the audience when he appears, so being in the scene where I get to fight him is excellent.”

Kate adds “I am really pleased to be working with Felicity again as we had a great time last year and I have heard wonderful things about both Newark and the Palace Theatre.”

Niki Burne will be playing the Queen of Merrydale and says “I absolutely love panto season and this will be my first year back since having my little boy and I can’t wait to play royalty – I hope it means I get to boss everyone else around!