Barbara Arundell had taken on the role of pantomime producer for the 1984 production and she had a real belief in the importance of pantomime. She recognised that it was often a child’s introduction to the theatre, and that whilst it is full of corny jokes and cheesy humour, there are still important creative, performance elements to be explored. She took the craft very seriously and working with her was a great opportunity – I was thrilled to be asked to play Snow White in the January 1988 pantomime and started rehearsals aged 16, desperate for this to be a great show.
What we didn’t know was that the Town Hall had also been booked by a professional company, who were planning to perform Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs just a few weeks earlier than us. Having been the only panto performed at the Town Hall, our regular audience were buying tickets for the professional production thinking it was us. We were so worried that we’d lose all our audience and not make enough money to continue in future years. Playing the character Snow White, I was out every weekend in costume to promote our show. The story was picked up by the national papers and to my absolute delight was featured in The Stage newspaper. It worked out well as the Pontefract community got behind us and the show was a huge success. Years later I looked up Lindsey Dawson, who’d played Snow White in the professional production. Turns out she has subsequently been in Shameless and Waterloo Road, whilst my acting career has largely stayed on the stages of Town Halls in the former West Riding.
I went on to perform in many pantomimes produced by Barbara Arundell and loved working with her and all her talented Production Team, including Musical Director, David Hookham and Wardrobe Mistress, Jill Fieldhouse. As well as performing in the Society since 1982, I was the Society’s Secretary for 23 years and was awarded Honorary Life Membership in January 2015, having been nominated by the Society’s longest standing member, Kebir Berry MBE.
