Billy Love

The Billy Love Award To commemorate the turn of the Millenium and to celebrate his 40th year of association with Theatre Guild, Billy Love presented the club with a Silver Salver in the year 2000. The salver was beautifully engraved and encorporated the Theatre Guild logo as it's centre piece. Billy's idea was to award the trophy to a Theatre Guild member (or members) who had made an outstanding contribution to the club. The award would be made annually in recognition of efforts over the previous year. To commemorate the awards the salver would be engraved with the names of recipients and the dates of the award. THE RECIPIENTS 2010 Gill Gilmour Gill has been one of Theatre Guild's bubbliest members since she joined the cast of our 2005 production of Hello, Dolly!. Playing the role of (always crying) Ermengard was a true test of the acting skills of this cheery 'irn bru' junkie and her cheerfulness was to be tested that year as she endured the replacement of her onstage partner not once, but twice during rehearsals! That character was wittily renamed "Ambrose Kemper III" in the show programme to indicate that trooper John Paul Liddle was the third actor to play that role in that production! Gill has remained stoically loyal to Theatre Guild ever since, returning to every production despite her busy double life as youth worker and university student. She has been keen to participate in attendance and organisation of many Theatre Guild functions over the years and is an inspiration to fellow members with regard to punctual and regular attendance of rehearsals. Congratulations, Gill! 2009 Dorothy Bedford Dorothy originally joined Theatre Guild back in 1972. She took part in main shows, concerts and touring shows for 4 years (sharing the stage with our first ever recipient of the Billy Love Award, Iain Fraser). Dorothy has fond memories of frantic rehearsals for concert performances on the bus to the venue as the performing spaces were often different shapes and sizes (requiring a rethink) and of constantly repainting shoes to match the latest leotards and headdresses supplied by Billy Love! Dorothy took a break from the Guild in 1976 and began a long association with her local company, East Kilbride Light Opera, teaming up with Billy Love there for several performances (in fact there is a long history of our two clubs sharing cast, director / producers and backstage crew). She returned to the Guild in 1998 for our production of The King and I working tirelessly in various roles over the years including programme/raffle seller, child minder, prompt, chorus member and dresser (with a 'quick-change' expertise)! In 1999 she joined the principal cast of Half-a-Sixpence playing the role of Mrs.Botting. Most of our members will know Dorothy as our Prompt. This year will be her 6th year in succession in this key role. Chairman, Les Hooper, was keen to stress the importance of this role and his gratitude to Dorothy for bearing this responsibility so ably. A certain webmaster (not a million miles from here) has been VERY grateful for a prompt from Dorothy once or twice! This is a well deserved recognition of one of the Guild's unsung heroes. 2008 David McCurrach David has been an outstanding member of Theatre Guild since he joined the cast of our 2001 production of Anything Goes. His confidence and ability have grown visibly since then. He became a valuable addition to our Concert Party in 2004 and has played several principal roles for the club. David's exemplary attendance at rehearsals is an indicator of his reliablity and commitment to Theatre Guild - he is not one to let our faltering public transport system get between him and Theatre Guild rehearsals and he is often first to volunteer for publicity events and assistance on special projects. David is an example to us all and thoroughly deserving of this award. 2007 Jim Potter Jim joined Theatre Guild in 2004 for our production of Oklahoma! and in a relatively short time has made a significant contribution to the company. Straight away he made a mark with his infectious enthusiasm and commitment to our musical productions. Typical for Jim's character he offered to help the committee in any way that he could ... and considering he runs a company which builds professional sets for companies including the BBC, the committee quickly suggested ways in which he could help! Over the years he has helped to raise the standard of our shows by contributing top quality set and prop elements exactly tailored to our requirements. He proved to be a crucial asset to our production of Kiss Me Kate as our budget was significantly constrained due to a temporary move to a smaller venue - in essence Jim provided our set in 2006 free of charge! Jim joined the committee in 2006 bringing his business talents as well as his enthusiasm to benefit the club further. 2006 Karen Brown Karen has filled a number of key roles for Theatre Guild since she joined the club in 1990 (as Glasgow celebrated the honour of European City of Culture). She has served on the committee, been a stalwart of the Concert Party (which she directed and choreographed for a number of years) and an active member of the club on the social scene. Karen has performed in every Guild production since she joined with the exception of Half A Sixpence where she took on the role of 'Assistant To The Director'! But Karen's unofficial work for the club has been relentless. Over the years she has organised countless social events including our annual 'Dirty Weekends' to locations as far flung as Birmingham, Manchester and Aviemore. She is always the one to organise the 'spur of the moment' theatre trips, special birthday cards, wedding presents, and more for (or on behalf of) club members. In doing this Karen has contributed significantly to the Guild's famous sense of 'community'. We thank Karen for her continuing efforts from which we all gain so much. 2005 2004/05 Concert Party The continuing contribution of the Concert Party to the success of Theatre Guild is well known. Their efforts are concentrated in the period in between our main productions. While most of our members wait for the next big budget show to begin and enjoy evenings at home over Christmas, the Concert Crew are working hard to ensure that our regular concert venues will be presented with a completely new programme of quality musical entertainment. It is no coincidence that all of the previous recipients of the Billy Love award are active members of the Concert Party - they are all true 'stalwarts' of Theatre Guild. For this reason, in a year that saw a record breaking 16 concerts performed for churches, social groups and charities around Glasgow it felt appropriate that the Concert Party as a whole should be honoured with the presentation of the Billy Love Award. Directed by Moira McLeod, hosted by Les Hooper, administered by Suzanne Lowe and accompanied by Norma Fingland the 'Crew' used their talents to promote our production of Hello, Dolly! and sold 460 tickets from their efforts (raising over £6000 in revenue for the club). In addition they performed a gala concert to raise club funds at the Community Central Halls in Glasgow on 20 April 2005 raising over £900 for the club. See pictures of the Crew's celebrations at our Photo Gallery. 2004 Norma Fingland Norma's contribution to the club has been outstanding. She joined the club in 1998 for "The King and I" and has appeared on stage for almost every show since then. When she took a 'year off' from a stage appearance in 2001 she took up the post of "Assistant to the Director". Norma has always been an outstanding ticket seller - often breaking the "magic 100" barrier! In 2000 she volunteered to take the demanding role of Concert Pianist performing an average of 12 times a year to help generate ticket sales for our main production. Finally, in 2004 she co-founded the successful "Promotions Team" assisting the committee by taking responsibility for promoting the clubs ticket sales and recruitment drives. 2003 Moira McLeod Moira joined Theatre Guild in 1981 as a dancer in our first production of "Anything Goes". She has performed on stage for The Guild ever since then. Within a few years she took up an associate position on the committee as Social Convener. In 1999 she took up a full committee position assisting with the production of "Half A Sixpence" and "South Pacific" before retiring due to work commitments. Always an active member of the Concert Party, Moira has performed in venues from Stirling to Erskine to drum up ticket sales for our main productions. In 2002 Moira took on the role of Concert Director / Choreographer instigating a new era of professionalism in these touring shows affectionately referred to as "Moira's Vision". She retired from this position in 2007, handing over the reigns to Suzanne Lowe. 2002 Cameron Lowe Cammy joined Theatre Guild's chorus in 1985 for "The Unsinkable Molly Brown". Taking a year off in 1986 to pursue his studies he rejoined in 1987. In January 1993 he joined the newly formed committee specifically tasked with returning the club to financial solvency following large losses in previous years. He has served on the committee ever since holding at various times positions including Social Convener, Fund Raiser, Press Relations Officer, Vice Chairman and most recently Club Secretary. He created Theatre Guild's newsletter - "The Guild Gazette" which has been running since 1996. A long standing performer on the Concert Party he has made a significant contribution to their success. In 2003, he created Theatre Guild's web site and he continues to maintain it on a daily basis. 2001 Iain Fraser Iain joined The Guild in 1969 ostensibly as a member of the backstage crew for "Funny Girl". This was not to be, however, as Director Billy Love nabbed him for the chorus and the rest - as they say - is history! Iain performed in every show (often 2 a year at that time) until our 1976 production of "George M". Iain answered our "S.O.S" in 1994 to perform in our fund raising concert "Singing Our Songs". The next year he accepted a laughably small fee to direct "Oklahoma!" - this show solidified The Guild's bank balance by making a £4,500 profit. Iain repeated his directorial success in 1998 with our sell out production of "The King and I" followed by the critically acclaimed "Half A Sixpence". Iain's ticket selling record has only ever been rivalled by one other member - on one occassion he sold more than 180 tickets for a single production! Always a Concert Party 'trouper' Iain performed in, directed, choreographed and hosted our concert party from 1995 until 1999. If you would like to make a nomination for this year's Billy Love Award, simply email cammy@uktheatre.net