News

See below for the latest news and see diary dates for upcoming events.  You can - Subscribe to our mail list if you want to hear of upcoming productions and auditions. Our newsletter, Stage Whispers,  has been relaunched and you will find it, along with previous issues on the  newsletter archives. 

NewslettersSubscribeDiary dates

Reviewed by Teresa Hennessy in the Autumn 2007 issue of DAWN, the newsletter of the Drama Association of Wales

How wonderful it is to meet up with old friends in a beautiful European city at a drama festival. Renewing old acquaintances whilst enjoying the sights and sounds of an unfamiliar city and being entertained every afternoon and evening with good quality, varied, exciting theatre. I am, of course, talking about my favourite, the FEATS festival...and who should I meet there this year but our old friends, the New World Theatre Club (NWTC) from Luxembourg. This talented group excelled in many aspects of theatre this weekend giving the audience great pleasure with a well-chosen piece.

I'd like to thank NWTC members Rodney and Steve who very kindly took time out fr0m their busy schedule to talk to me about the history of the group and the projects they are preparing for later in the year.

NWTC are an active group with many projects in the offing, yet one without a home venue in which to base themselves or store scenery/costumes or even rehearse! Luxembourg is very expensive, and it comes as no surprise to hear that the National Theatre of Luxembourg can charge € 1000 a night to perform at their venue, so NWTC use free space at local schools for rehearsals, and who can blame them? They're trying to establish an ongoing relationship with a suitable venue; a practice that many groups will empathise with. Their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream last July was an extravaganza acted in Luxembourgish, German and English with choral selections in French. The group has also organised youth theatre improvisation workshops in English which have been running since February 2007. These workshops are an opportunity for the young people of Luxembourg to explore the themes of the 2007 Year of Culture through theatre and improvisation.

NWTC was founded in 1968 in Luxembourg and is one of the founding members of FEATS. The club produces on average of two or three plays a year, ranging fr0m contemporary work and comedy favourites to more serious drama. But it all started four years earlier in 1964 when translator Peter Davis wanted to celebrate the four-hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's birth with his class of English language students at the European Parliament. Irene Lowy and Martin Vasey recorded the balcony scene fr0m Romeo and Juliet; good job it was on audio-tape, as Irene was six months pregnant at the time! The experience certainly did not put her off even though she was going through quite an ordeal herself at the time. Four years later, Peter further encouraged her to take part in the full-length play Our Town by Thornton Wilder. There weren't that many British people in Luxembourg then, but as long as they were English-speaking they were roped in to take part!

NWTC have been members of DAW since 1999 and we have enjoyed a great relationship with this group, not least thanks to Pauline Lloyd the former Chair of NWTC; the friendship began when Pauline attended a DAW summer school at St Donat’s in the Vale of Glamorgan back in the nineties.

I not only enjoyed Pauline's company along with the rest of the company, but also thoroughly enjoyed their production of Something Unspoken by Tennessee Williams. Two compelling performances fr0m: Ann Overstall in the role of Cornelia Scott, a Southern lady who has assumed the role of oracle and matriarch of the town; and Fran Potasnik who played her constant companion and faithful personal assistant Grace Lancaster. Cornelia's feelings run wild when, on the anniversary of their first meeting, she gives Grace fifteen red roses, one for each of the years that they have ‘lived together'. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this production, and isn't it great when you can go up to your friend with hand on heart and say how much her company's work has affected you ... and in a good way! The two actresses, in close collaboration with the director (Chris Wilson), explored the deepening of Cornelia's feelings for Grace over the years since the two Southern spinsters began 'living together', and as the imagined relationship, fr0m Cornelia's point of view, was taken towards reality.

NWTC has for many years organised a residential summer school in Clairefontaine (formerly in Munsbach) revolving entirely around project work for directing, acting and musical theatre students. For more information, please go to www.munsbach.org and to find out more about this fine drama group go to www.nwtc.lu

Songs fr0m Call me Madam

Chris Albrecht

On 27 November 2007, I represented the New World Theatre Club at a performance of Songs fr0m Call me Madam at the US Embassy in Luxembourg. The United States Ambassador Ann L. Wagner and Luxembourg’s Consul-General in San Francisco, Georges Faber had joined forces to bring a selection of songs fr0m Irving Berlin’s famous Broadway musical to Ambassador Wagner’s residence.

Call Me Madam is based on America’s capable and colourful envoy to post-WWII Luxembourg, Perle Mesta. The musical opened at Broadway’s Imperial Theater in 1950 and played for two seasons, earning four Tony Awards, including best musical score for Irving Berlin. In 1953, Twentieth-Century Fox adapted the hit musical for film. The evening was especially poignant because the songs were performed in the same house that Mesta lived in when she served in Luxembourg fr0m 1949. It was a rare opportunity to bring such a memorable chapter in Luxembourg's post-war history back to life. Perle Mesta's amazing charisma, was, I am sure, instrumental in its own way in putting the Grand Duchy onto the international map. The event was also great in that it brought together a very interesting mix of local and expatriate fans of English-language culture. I formally expressed thanks, on behalf of the New World Theatre Club, to her Excellency for organising such a special event.

Last changed:Mar 13 2010at3:59 PM