© Abingdon Operatic Society 2009 - 11

Email: webmaster@abingdonoperatic.co.uk

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Is amateur theatre ever as good as the West End?

Welcome to the AOS web site.  We’re an amateur society based in Oxfordshire. We’ve just celebrated our fiftieth anniversary and we’re lucky enough to stage two major productions each year.  We have around 150 full members and another 25 associate members, so we’re a strong society by most standards.

The short answer to the question posed above is probably no, but with limited resources and funding, we still stage productions that look very professional to our audience. We’re currently preparing for our April 2012 production of Crazy For You.

Compared to the West End we have a long time to rehearse, but that time flies by. There’s the show to learn, of course, but there are also sets to be built, lighting and sound to be designed, and all the backstage areas, such as makeup, hair and costumes, to be arranged.  And all this has to be fitted around our members’ busy lives and careers. So we’re proud to be professional amateurs!

We hope you enjoy our web site and that you’re tempted along to see us on stage.

“Let me give you the lowdown, I’m Crazy For You”

When you look at the twentieth century’s greatest composers of popular music, anyone with sense would have to include George Gershwin in the top ten. And yet he died at only 38 years old. When you consider music like Rhapsody in Blue and Porgy and Bess, it does make you wonder what might still have been composed if only he’d lived longer.

Well, on the 16th April 2012, AOS will be bringing a celebration of Gershwin’s genius to Abingdon in the form of ‘the new Gershwin musical comedy’, Crazy For You. So how new can it be if he died in 1937? Well, Crazy For You first opened on Broadway in February 1992 and is an amalgam of several Gershwin shows, notably 1930’s Girl Crazy. For AOS, this show will signal the debut of Joy Skeels as director and Natalie Biggs as choreographer, although they are both happy to be in the safe hands of John Nye as musical director. We’re expecting this show to be a major event, so if you’d like to learn more, visit the showpage on our site here.