December Titbits 2017

Volume 20 Issue 12 December 2017
To see an animated version of this card, Control click the picture above to take you
there. It will probably ask if you trust Blue Mountain, so it’s up to you if you say Yes!
If you do you will be rewarded by a charming scene and please watch it to the very end.
There’s a fire and a gramophone ..........

Page 2 December 2017
Movies on the Mountain and the TMLT Film Club will return on Saturday 3 and Sunday
18 of February, respectively. For up to date information please visit the Movies on the
Mountain and TMLT Film Club Facebook pages and the TMLT Website.
If you feel a little deprived of a movie, then why not sit back and enjoy a little TMLT movie
from the past.
Just click on the picture to open up the YouTube video

Page 3 December 2017

Page 4 December 2017
Looking for something to do in the
holidays? Then here is an opportunity for
you to help out with a general tidy up and
clean out of the shed, bio box and back
stage; also there is a need to clear out
electrical equipment which is no longer
required.
Put this date in your 2018 diaries NOW!
Saturday 20 January at 11.30 am.
If you can help, please contact Lyn on
5545 1331 or email her by 14 January on
beattle@iinet.net.au
A picnic lunch, ice cream and drinks will be supplied after the Working Bee to say “thank
you” for a job well done!
Mark Shenton: It’s time to tackle noisy food and mobile phones in
theatres
It’s difficult to complain if someone is munching on popcorn during the quiet bits of a play like The Glass
Menagerie when the theatre itself sells the stuff in big plastic tubs. No wonder that Imelda Staunton
demanded that the Ambassador Theatre Group-controlled Harold Pinter Theatre introduced a no food or
drink rule for her run there of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, since they not only usually sell it, but
even deliver it to your seat.
As Sunday Times columnist Mrs Mills (the paper’s etiquette guru) wrote last weekend: “What is wrong
with people that they can’t go for an hour without putting something in their mouths? There is something
depressingly bovine about the need humanity has developed to be constantly grazing. The slovenly habits
of their home lives, where everything is conducted in front of the television – eating, drinking, texting,
idly chatting – are brought into the public space. I am sure people believe this makes them appear relaxed
and chilled. If you bother to complain, you are dismissed as uptight and ‘repressed’ and you become ‘the
one with the problem’.”
This is a depressingly familiar script. Challenge the bad behaviour, and it seems like you’re the one with
the bad manners. My favourite response was when I asked a woman to refrain from taking photographs
during a performance at the intimate Union Theatre. The offender was truly outraged – she told me it was
her little brother who was in the show, and if I’d wiped his arse as often as she had, I could take
photographs, too. On another occasion, I told off another woman who had taken flash photography
throughout a performance at the Barbican Theatre in 2012 – only to discover the offender was Bianca
Jagger. When my confrontation of her made the news pages, she replied claiming that I’d assaulted her. I
had made absolutely certain not to lay a finger on her – I’d insulted her (summonsing my inner Patti
LuPone, I’d asked her, “Who do you think you are?” and then called her stupid), yes, but there was no
physical connection.
Continued over

Page 5 December 2017
Last week, The Stage reported a real assault, when a theatregoer at
the Old Vic was punched by the partner of a woman using a mobile
phone throughout the first act, after he remonstrated with them. But
prevention is definitely better than cure. In New York, it is actually
now illegal to use a mobile phone in “any indoor theatre, library,
museum, gallery, motion picture theatre, concert hall or building in
which theatrical, musical, dance, motion picture, lecture or other
similar performances are exhibited” by a city ordnance passed in
2013.
Actor Zoe Rainey recently tweeted of another experience: “What a
crazy world!!! I had to ask a lady to stop taking photos at Sergei
Polunin’s ballet. It’s so distracting. The beauty of theatre is
immersing yourself in the world the actors are creating. If you can’t
be without your phone for two and a half hours that night, stay at
home. Please!”
But other theatres have evidently given up the battle. A friend
recently attended this year’s Hackney panto, where an usher
informed him that it was the theatre’s policy to permit mobile use.
Was that because it was a panto? “No,” he was told. “All the time.
Calls and texting and social media are permitted. Just no photos of
the show.”
As for noisy food: Nica Burns at Nimax is leading the way by
withdrawing the sale of food products with noisy packaging.
She told The Stage: “To try to improve the experience for all
theatres we’ve been looking at the packaging… We are in a place of
transition. A few of the very noisy packages have now been
gracefully retired, and we’ve brought in similar ones that don’t make
any noise.”
The Stage
I thought it would be a good idea to end with a song. It is a
significant song because it was the opening number for the show
that opened the Zamia after three long years of renovations. It was
especially written for the occasion by Graham and Barbara Lassiter
and choreographed by Barbara Proudman.
Just click on the picture to open
TMLT Committee Members
Patron
Vanessa Bull OA
President
Cath Buckley - 5545 2236
forbucks@bigpond.net.au
Secretary
Brian Franklin - 5545 2096
superhero50@hotmail.com
Vice President
Kate Tardy
Treasurer
Elaine Martin
elainemartin777@yahoo.com.au
Assistant Treasurer
Rosie Powell
Membership Secretary
Graham Lassiter
Social Secretary
Vacant
Editor of Titbits
Warrick Bailey - 5545 0819
workingoptions1@bigpond.com
Website Coordinator
Naomi Blythe - 5545 4786
naomi_blythe@internode.on.net
Providore
Lyn Howard
Publicity Officer
Louise Haggerty - 0408 159494
journee@live.co.uk
Zamia Theatre Manager
Maura Gaughan - 5545 1923
Movie Coordinator
John St Clair - 5545 3517
jts101@gmail.com
Movie Club Coordinator
Jenny McConaghy - 0466 313648
jmelnido776@gmail.com
Zamia Management
Sub-committee
Brian Franklin Cath
Buckley Lyn Howard
Kate Tardy
Maura Gaughan
Elaine Martin
Edited by Barbara Lassiter
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