Presidents Report
 
Welcome to you all, to our 2022 AGM, and thank you for taking the time to be here.  
 
From last year’s minutes, the following people were present at our last AGM, held on 22 November 2021 here at the Elmwood auditorium: Garry Thomas, Pat Hannah, Franc Bol, Sylvia Barnes, Matt Holland, Barry Grant, Doug Clarke and Marilyn Ollett.         
 
Apologies were received from Braydon Priest and Scott Morrow.
 
As per the previous two years, 2022 again proved to be another challenging one with the unpredictable impact of Covid-19.  However, this year we were able to stage all our planned productions.
 
Our elected committee for 2021-22 was a small team of 6, with a number of former committee members stepping down.  Garry Thomas was re-elected President and Pat Hannah was elected Treasurer.  We were unable to elect a Secretary at the AGM, but that role was subsequently picked up by Scott Morrow.  The committee for the incoming year was Franc Bol, Sylvia Barnes and Matt Holland. Hilary Muir continued as our Patron.
 
During the year Franc Bol stepped down from committee, but we were fortunate to welcome back to the committee both Sally Wilson and Sonya Cameron.  We also welcomed newcomer Ashlyn Moore.
 
Productions:   
Our first presentation for 2022 was in January with the deferred from 2021 musical, Bugsy Malone, directed by Franc Bol.  A challenging production in many ways it was extremely well received and attended.  The committee’s thanks go to director Franc for her determination in getting this onstage.
 
April brought us the Ben Elton comedy, Silly Cow, directed by Jon Amesbury.  Some casting difficulties surrounded this production with the lead pulling out of the production a few short weeks prior to opening.  We were fortunate to have Nikki Conyers step into the role and ensure the production went ahead.  The play was well received and big thanks must go to the whole team – on and off stage – for this production.
 
In July we staged the black comedy, God Of Carnage, which I was fortunate to direct.  The challenges for this production weren’t as great as our previous production – I guess the only one really was being able to convincingly vomit on stage – big thanks to those behind that special effect.
 
We were very happy people in Elmwoodland when in August we were able to stage a four night season of short plays under the Array ’22 banner.  Two plays from the cancelled Array ’21 plus a new play were staged.  Those plays were A Sequence Of Events, directed by Sylvia Barnes, What’s For Pudding, directed by Matt Holland and One Good Beating directed by myself.  The cabaret style presentation, with live music and MC’s by our Patron Hilary Muir did struggle for an audience, particularly opening night.  We are reviewing the staging of our one acts for next year.
 
Our final production for 2022 was another comedy, Ladies’ Day directed by Elmwood stalwart Marilyn Ollett in October.  We welcomed a number of new faces to Elmwood for this production.  And my thanks to committee member Sylvia Barnes who gained us a corporate booking for opening night, which resulted in this production making a healthy profit.
 
In summary:
2022 wasn’t a too bad kind of year, with generally good-ish patronage and feedback. However patronage is an issue, and the marketing of our productions will be an early focus for the incoming committee. And once again, our revenue for auditorium hires also took a hit, with only a few number of external hires.  On the plus side, we do have all our productions finalised for Elmwood Players for 2023, and I’m sure it’s going to be a great year!
 
So with that, I’d like to thank the current committee for their continued support, and obviously, my thanks go to all who supported Elmwood Players over the past 12 months, both on and off stage.  I’d also like to acknowledge the contributions of both Spencer Travers and Craig Blaikie who assisted with the technical side of things.
 
 
Cheers
 
Garry Thomas
President
Elmwood Players