Springline Radio Players is part of one of Oxfordshire most exciting and innovative amateur dramatic groups, Springline Productions which was formed in 2007. With numerous pantomimes, variety shows and village events under our belt, it was inevitable that we would turn their hand to “Steam Radio” and with Podbean, SoundCloud, YouTube and iTunes we are able to present to a wider public base. The idea of the Radio Players started several years ago but with the improvements in digital recording equipment including dramatic price reductions, couple with a partnership with Gobo Theatre Foundation, a charity created to help, support, mentor and inspire young people in the theatrical arts, our first radio play was rehearsed in March and recorded and completed in April 2016. Our total focus is to provide quality radio plays to a world-wide internet-based audience, while adding to our membership with like-minded people.
BBC Radio Oxford's Jerome Sale spends some time talking with David Hunter about the latest in Springline Radio Players audio productions, "The Canterville Ghost", by Oscar Wilde and how the collaboration with Open Door Playhouse, a professional theatre company based in Los Angeles, California came into being.
We are pleased to present the first in our collaborative series entitled “Across the Pond Theatre”, the joining of Our Kid and Me Productions in Oxfordshire, UK and Open Door Playhouse Theatre in California, USA.
"The Canterville Ghost" is a humorous short story by Oscar Wilde. It was the first of Wilde's stories to be published, appearing in The Court and Society Review, on 23 February and 2 March 1887.
The story is about an American family who moved to a castle haunted by the ghost of a dead English nobleman, who killed his wife and was then walled in and starved to death by his wife's brothers.
Eventually the Pickwickians return to the Wardle farm to celebrate Christmas and the wedding of Mr. Wardle's daughter, Isabella. Amid festivities Snodgrass continues his romance with Emily, and Winkle falls in love with Arabella Allen, a friend of Mr. Wardle's daughters.On Valentine's Day, 1831, Mr. Pickwick is tried for breach of promise. Due to the rhetorical allegations of Serjeant Buzfuz and to the circumstantial evidence, Mr. Pickwick is found guilty and ordered to pay damages, which he refuses to do.
In London, Mr. Pickwick learns that Jingle is in Ipswich and goes there to expose him. Because of a mix-up in bedrooms at an Ipswich Inn Mr. Pickwick is hauled before the justice, a local henpecked tyrant called Mr. Nupkins. Nupkins is visited frequently by Jingle, who is interested in the daughter. Mr. Pickwick extricates himself by proving that Jingle is an adventurer.
In London Mr. Pickwick comes across Sam Weller, a boot cleaner and general handyman whom he takes on as a valet. When Mr. Pickwick tells his widowed landlady, Mrs. Bardell, that he has taken on a servant, she assumes from the ambiguous way he puts it that he intends to marry her. Mrs. Bardell faints in his arms just as Tupman, Snodgrass, and Winkle enter — a compromising circumstance. Mr. Pickwick and his friends go to Eatanswill and are invited to a costume party given by the local literary lioness, Mrs. Leo Hunter, where several varieties of silliness are exhibited. At this party Mr. Pickwick sees Alfred Jingle, whom he pursues to a neighbouring town. Jingle's servant tells Mr. Pickwick that Jingle has designs on a young lady at a boarding school, and Mr. Pickwick decides to prevent the elopement.
After some mishaps in the cricket match and Mr. Tupman falling in love with Rachael; and Mr. Snodgrass with Emily, Tupman is outsmarted by the vivacious, unscrupulous Jingle, who elopes with Rachael. Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Wardle pursue Jingle and Rachael to London, where, with the help of a lawyer, Mr. Perker, they buy off Jingle and save Rachael Wardle from an unhappy marriage. They continue on by coach to London and there Mr. Pickwick comes across Sam Weller, a boot cleaner and general handyman whom he promised to take on as a valet, subject to approval from his widowed landlady, Mrs Bardell.
After the Pickwickians meet to begin their first journey they meet Mr. William Wardle, a country squire who invites them to his estate at Dingley Dell. After some mishaps, Mr. Pickwick and his friends arrive at Mr. Wardle's Manor Farm, where they enjoy card games, flirting, storytelling, hunting, and a cricket match. Mr. Tupman falls in love with Mr. Wardle's spinster sister, Rachael; and Mr. Snodgrass falls in love with his daughter, Emily.
The Pickwickians have met Mr Jingle who turns out to be a supposed actor and con man. At their first stop, Mr. Jingle insults a local doctor, and the doctor proposes a duel. Because of a mistaken identity, however, Mr. Winkle receives the challenge, not Mr. Jingle. Will the angry doctor realise his mistake, or will the duel be pursued?
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (also known as The Pickwick Papers) was Charles Dickens's first novel. Because of his success with Sketches by Boz published in 1836 Dickens was asked by the publisher Chapman & Hall to supply descriptions to explain a series of comic "cockney sporting plates" by illustrator Robert Seymour and to connect them into a novel. The book became Britain's first real publishing phenomenon, with bootleg copies, theatrical performances, Sam Weller joke books, and other merchandise.
Our Kid and Me Productions have presented the audio play in nine episodes, commencing on Boxing Day, 26 December 2020 with the other eight episodes being release from January 2021 in two week intervals.
Our Kid and Me Productions is pleased to present “Twas The Night Before Christmas.
On the eve of Christmas day, one hundred and ninety years ago today, wealthy landowner and august Columbia professor Clement Clarke Moore completed a seasonal poem to read to his children. He penned the whimsical little tale — a throwaway, really, in comparison to his great and respected writings in Greek and biblical literature — from a desk at his comfortable, snow-covered mansion which the family called Chelsea.
The poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas” and often referred to as “‘Twas The Night Before Christmas,” would eventually help define the Santa Claus mythology. It is perhaps the most important source in shaping the physical appearance and ritual behaviour of the North Pole gift-giver and would provide inspiration to New York illustrators like Thomas Nast and, in the 20th century, the Coca-Cola advertising of Haddon Sunblom. And Clement Clarke Moore is even credited with naming the eight reindeer.
