24th December 2013 - Wokingham Baptist

Welcome one and all to the final performance for Wokingham's 2013 Living Advent Calendar. At least 100 people joined us inside Wokingham Baptist Church to listen to a retelling of parts of the original Christmas Story, poems and joined in with a number of well known carols.

The Baptist Church put on a selection of engaging acts depicting Mary on the donkey and Shepherds who had learnt by heart their original scripts. They also led the audience in an enthusiastic round of carols including “Away in a Manger” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”.

The hall was bedecked with lights and an obvious amount of effort had gone into the simple but effective staging. The Baptist Church also put on hot drinks and nibbles to keep us going on a slightly longer than 15 minute performance.

We were also very pleased to have Town Mayor Cllr Martin Bishop to open and close this the final performance of 2013.

In the spirit of giving please find below, in three parts, the full performance from tonight.

Merry Christmas and Thanks from Wokingham Living Advent Calendar

So we are almost at the end of this years Living Advent Calendar.

I say almost, as we still have our Christmas Eve event to go at Wokingham Baptist Church.  

This is the second year of the Wokingham Living Advent Calendar and I think I can speak for all who were involved in the production of this event that it has gone wonderfully and grown since last years inaugural one. We learnt a lot from last years event and will I suspect learn a lot from this years but for now I wanted to thank everyone who has made this years event so wonderful.

I cannot name everyone individually, there are so many who help to put on this event and that is before we get to all the venues, performers and audience members that support it.

Again it is the volunteers who make this event work. Many thanks to Wokingham Rotary for the technical support for the set up of an evening and many thanks to our charities; JAC, Wokingham and District Cancer Care Trust, Wokingham Foodbank and Wokingham Scouts and Guides for supplying people to assist with collecting money, marshalling events and helping to distribute publicity. Many thanks to all who have also helped in other ways like photgraphing and filming the events and a myriad of other small ways.

Thanks are due to the many performers who have taken the time to entertain you all for no fee, giving the gift of song, dance, magic, etc in these dark December nights. Also thanks to ChristChurch Wokingham for another wonderful Live Nativity.

Thanks again to all the venues, who have given over electricity, space and occasionally shelter from some very inclement weather for this years performances. Staying open later than they usually would do to give something back to the community they serve.  A particular thanks to Wokingham Methodist Church who sheltered us on some very unpleasant and wet evenings.  

Thanks to the members of the Steering group who have seen this through from conception to delivery and have been involved in many ways, including a few already mentioned.

There should also be thanks for all the Town Councillors, especially those who have acted as dignitaries throughout the month. A few of those councillors have also been part of the stage set up crew or have come night after night just to support us all.

And a big thanks is to More Arts who help to organise this event through the year. There are no words to adequately describe the level of work that they put into this event to make it go as smooth as it does.

But the biggest thanks is reserved for all of you who came to the performances. I even hear that there is at least one individual who has been to every Living Advent Calendar performance since we began last year.  So thank you to you all and thank you to the audiences who have come over these last 24 nights. We have very much enjoyed sharing our local talent, charities and businesses with you and hope you will support us again next year.

Enjoy the final performance and we expect the blog entry to be up this evening. 

I will leave you in the immortal words of Father Christmas or in this years case, Kermit the frog…..

“Merry Christmas to All and to all a goodnight!”

23rd December 2013 - St Paul's Church Choir at Martin and Pole

Merry Christmas Eve to you all,

Last nights performance at Martin and Pole was really magical. St Paul's Church Choir treated us to a selection of carols both well known and maybe not so well known.

An audience of around 50 braved the storm outside to listen to the carols including "Ding Dong Merrily on High", "Up! Good Christen Folk", "Past Three O'Clock" and "The truth sent from above". But a real highlight was the children of the choir singing "Away in a Manger".

Here is a little background for St Paul's Church Choir:
St. Paul's Choir are the resident parish choir for St Paul's Church on Reading Road. They are a robed Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass choir who sing for Parish Mass, Choral Evensong on the first and third Sundays of each month and also for all special services.  In recent years they have also sung evensong at Southwark and Canterbury Cathedrals and this year they sang at Bath Abbey and also joined forces with All Saints choir to form the highly successful Pentecost Two Choirs Festival in Wokingham.  The choir enjoy the reputation of being a very friendly and welcoming choir and are always pleased to chat to possible newcomers, adults and children alike.  They sing repertoire which covers a huge range of sacred music from plainsong chant through to some of the best 21st century composers and rehearse once a week on a Wednesday evening.

The below video shows a selection of clips from the songs including full length versions of "Away in a Manger" and "Once in Royal David's City"



 
Martin and Pole offered us a very warm welcome with refreshments including mince pies, sausage rolls and sweets for the children and most importantly shelter during yesterdays storm. Many thanks to them.
http://www.martinpole.co.uk/

Tonight we hope you will all join us at Wokingham Baptist Church on Milton Road for the final Living Advent Calendar performance of 2013. It looks like it should be dry, but if not we will be inside.

Bonus Video: Hands On Company at Brown Bag Cafe, 20th December 2013

Here is the video from Friday nights performance at Brown Bag Café. The Hands On Company presented “Where is Rudolph?”.

Beware the video contains spoilers, but also jokes and some really wonderful children and puppets.

For the full blog entry click here: http://wokylivingadvent.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/20th-december-2013-hands-on-company-at.html

Otherwise enjoy!

22nd December 2013 - Pauly Zarb at The Dukes Head

Australian one man band Pauly Zarb entertained a packed bar at the Duke's Head with some favourite Christmas songs, including Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree, Frosty The Snowman, Jingle Bell Rock, O Holy Night and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.

Pauly was joined by his talented daughters, with 9-year old Chloë  playing Jingle Bells on the violin and 6-year old Ella singing Away In A Manger.

There is a short video on the calendar and can be found here but for a longer version including Pauly’s daughters watch below.    

Pauly Zarb, "The One Man Band".  From the Australian music scene to the USA music scene to the Great Britain and European music scene, Pauly has been giving great performances as a multi instrument musician.  His unique style of performance pulls together full band sound, playing keyboard split bass, guitar, flute, tin whistle, kickdrum, high hat/tambourine, congas/symbol, and singing his heart out.  He covers many styles of music, from Irish, to pop, from yesterday's hits, to classsical.  Most of all Pauly entertains people with his confident style of musicianship.  He leaves a great impression and good feeling with his audience which is evident when the crowd is singing along or shouting Encore! Encore!

Many thanks to Pauly and also to the Dukes Head who provided a warm and comforting venue for our 22^nd Living Advent Calendar performance.

We hope you will join us tonight at Martin and Pole on Broad Street for another surprise and the penultimate Living Advent Calendar performance for 2013.

Bonus: Austentation at Antique Rose Video

Good Afternoon all Wokingham Living Advent Calendar fans,

On Thursday 19th December 2013 Austentation the costumed Regency trio performed at Antique Rose.  We are please to be able to bring this video from the evening which shows them in full costumed glory, performing a number of songs including "The Irishman" "The Lass of Richmond Hill" and the somewhat weather appropriate "Over the Mountains and Over the Waves".

We jest but they really were great performers. The rain came down unexpectedly just as they were due to start and they performed wonderfully despite the sudden downpour. 

So please enjoy this video.



Plus for the original blog entry from the event click here: http://wokylivingadvent.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/19th-december-2013-austentation-at.html

Austentation are a costumed Regency Musical Trio, with Frank Underwood and Angela Mayorga on romantic guitar and Gillie Tunley on vocals and percussion. They perform popular tunes and airs from the time of Jane Austen, including “The Irishman”, a witty and incisive song written by Jane Austen herself.  They have performed in the splendid domed Prince Regent’s Music Room at the Royal Pavilion, Jane Austen’s house at Chawton, the Jane Austen Centre and the Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath.
http://www.austentation.org/home.shtml

21st December 2013 - ChristChurch Wokingham Live Nativity

Yesterday afternoon we were treated to a beautiful and colourful celebration, retelling the Nativity Story.

ChristChurch Wokingham for the second year put on their Live Nativity, outdoors and as part of Wokingham's Living Advent Calendar, and again it was a roaring success. An audience of at least 350 (that's about where we lost count) braved the elements and joined us in this festive treat. Children and adults alike were bundled up in wet weather gear and refreshments by JAC were on hand to warm up the crowd.

The actors, adult, child and animal did very well considering the wind and rain and produced the heartwarming, informative and funny performance we have come to expect.

No video this year, but courtesy of Jon White, here are is a slideshow of images
http://www.flickr.com//photos/evendons/sets/72157638887341846/show/with/11483645803/

We hope you will join us tonight a the Dukes Head at the normal time of 6:15pm for a surprise performance from a Wokingham resident who once might have associated Christmas with a red hot beach.

Plus don't worry about the weather, we expect or can be inside for the remaining performances.