FRIDAY, 4th June, 1993 Easy conversion to musicals What a joy it was to watch Trowbridge Amateur Operatic Society perform Kiss Me Kate at the Civic Hall on Tuesday last week. Usually I watch musicals as gladly as I feed piranhas out of my hand. So I welcomed the message from society chairman Mrs Joan Francis: "Lose yourself in Kiss Me Kate and I do hope you enjoy it as much as we have during rehearsals." The chorus did everything right. They sang tunefully, looked great and actually seemed to be happy they were there - which is more important than you might think. Their zest shone through in belters like We Open In Venice. Leading characters Paul Morgan and Jan Jensen complemented one another at once in the song Wunderbar. You know Kiss Me Kate - Cole Porter meets Shakespeare. Front of stage could hardly fail, so backstage crew Joan Baggs, Sandra Tucker, Val Stone, Heather Smith, John Bennett, Mark Price, Tony Giddings and Joyce Pascall - take a bow! The audience of 240 on Tuesday might not have noticed the air conditioning installed over the winter. In fact, it cooled the hall so much they asked caretaker Cliff Skinner in the interval to turn it off. Mark Rowe |