Lining up to strip off.

When the amateur rights to The Mousetrap, Agatha Christie’s 60 years old blockbuster, became available to Australian and New Zealand community theatre companies there was an immediate and eager queue. Although there was only a two-year ‘window of opportunity’ in which to perform the famous whodunit, amateur groups couldn’t wait to sign on. And those smart enough to head the queue have been rewarded by full houses.

Now another play is set to outsell The Mousetrap, at least in the UK. The 2008 stage version of the 2003 hit movie Calendar Girls was last year released by Samuel French to British amateurs for a tight 12 month ‘window of opportunity’. It was a risk: maybe local ladies wouldn’t be too keen about getting their gear off as the script requires.

But such was the mad rush for licences that the window was soon widened to 18 months. Companies had been “fighting over the same venues”, according to a report in today’s Independent.

French’s, says the report, has now issued 322 licences, and Managing Director Vivien Goodwin is quoted as saying the 182-year-old company had “never experienced anything like this for a play”.

Will ‘down under’ amateur actresses be equally keen to strut their stuff when it becomes available here? Oh, indeed, yes.

Calendar Girls has also been released for community theatre performances in Australia for a limited window of time.

Lilydale Athenaeum Theatre Company (Vic), Sutherland Theatre Company (NSW), Arts Theatre, Brisbane, Gold Coast Little Theatre & Cairns Little Theatre (Qld) and Garrick Theatre (WA) are among the first companies to stage local productions later this year.

More Reading

Community Theatre Seasons 2012 - www.stagewhispers.com.au/community-theatre/community-theatre-seasons-2012

More Community Theatre - www.stagewhispers.com.au/community-theatre