A Jack, a Bench and a Haunting...February Blog Update

2/25/2024

Well February has been a real hotbed of activity for Tales from Paradise Heights and The Haunting of Blaine Manor, a busy month promoting and performing shows that have gone down an absolute storm with audiences. Huge thanks to each and everyone of you that came to these shows, to the fabulous reviewers, to the venues, the wonderful staff and just extraordinary volunteers who do everything they do for the love of theatre, we really appreciate you all.

Strawberry Jack: A Tale from Paradise Heights

We started with the preview shows for Strawberry Jack: A Tale from Paradise Heights. We were keen to get some 'oil in the engine' of the show and get it out there in early tests, so we took three nights at the fabulous Kings Arms Theatre Pub in Salford - the home of Studio Salford. Wow, what a response we got for this show, from standing ovations to keenly argued theories down in the bar afterwards. The show will be touring venues throughout the year, tour poster below. I'm absolutely delighted with the early enthusiasm for the show from those great audiences, thank you, it's clear even now that this show has a very strong future.

The Bench: A Tale from Paradise Heights

After the successful launch of Strawberry Jack, five days later we were onstage at the beautiful Gladstone Theatre, Port Sunlight. Ran by Georgia and Dawn this is a wonderful theatre. Our tech team were Laura and T and they did us proud, and a very special mention to all the volunteers there. It was a spectacular performance and the audience were extraordinary in their response, applauding, shouting and cheering between the scenes with a fabulous ovation at the end. Things went so well there that the whole series of Tales from Paradise Heights will be coming to The Gladstone. We return to The Gladstone Theatre on 26th October, just in time for Halloween with the Halloween based tale, Rank: A Tale from Paradise Heights, this one is guaranteed to give you chills, thrills and that real Halloween flavour.

From Port Sunlight we were then over to Blackpool Grand Studio for three performances of The Bench: A Tale from Paradise Heights where again we garnered fabulous reviews, despite the lift being too small to get our bench into the studio - we substituted a settee and informed the audience at the end why we had to improvise. Again a standing ovation, this time led by an 86 e year old man, which shows the broad age range appeal of the show, despite a few naughty words in the dialogue. The response to the show across these four performances was just outstanding and very, very much appreciated. Again we made a lot of new friends and garnered three fresh and wonderful new reviews to add to the plethora of great reviews we have for the show. Thank you to all who attended, the reviewers and audiences and the wonderful venues, management, staff and again superb volunteers. Special shout to Isaac, our tech, who was just fabulous, Jackie and Monique, Vicky, Amy, Nick, Hannah, Hannah and Hannah...and Hannah. Again we are returning with all of the Tales from Paradise Heights series.

The Haunting of Blaine Manor

The Haunting of Blaine Manor, Venue Cymru, 24th February 2024

To complete our February shows we played the magnificent Venue Cymru with the award winning and critically acclaimed The Haunting of Blaine Manor and wow, what a venue and wow what a performance. The audience here were just incredible giving us a night we will never ever forget, all 832 of them on a cold February night. Well the show chilled, and thrilled this wonderful audience who really blew the cast and crew away with their responses both during and after the show.

Check the reviews received for the show here:
www.talesfromparadiseheights.com/reviews.html

Huge thanks to the management, staff and volunteers of this gorgeous theatre, we can't wait to return.