YC Durham

Black Friday offer! Grab an Early Bird ticket for our February panto Robinson Crusoe, for only £9. Offer available until 30 November only. Thurs-Sat 20-22 Feb performances, adult tickets normally £12. Buy now at ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham

It’s time to start feeling festive and there’s no better way than our YC Durham annual Winter Concert! Tickets are now on sale via ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham so grab a ticket now for just £10 including a free hot drink and mince pie. One night only on Saturday 14th December at Chester-le-Street Methodist Church. Hurry, as we are usually full for this event! 🎫 🎄 ❄️

What a lovely review from NODA! 🤗 🌟

The Addams Family - NODA NODA is a charity that supports amateur theatre groups at every stage.

This looks like a great way to start Christmas early! Our friends at Birtley Community Theatre always put on a great show too!

Thank you so much to those who have already purchased their tickets…not long till SHOW TIME!!! We can’t wait to sparkle and shine for you…Friday is completely sold out and there are a few left for the Wednesday and Thursday so give us a message NOW before it’s too late!!!

Get in the Christmas spirit early with this amazing cast, crew and show!!!! 🎄🎄🎄

Birtley Community Theatre - Public

A few more unseen photos from our Addams Family production 🖤

We had a little review for The Addams Family, from our friend Jak Dixon, which we wanted to share:

I'd never seen The Addams Family as a musical so knew nothing about it. What a very pleasant surprise it was to be in a packed audience on Friday night with family and a load of YC Alumni friends.

The premise of the show is fairly simple; girl meets boy, falls in love, both families are dysfunctional and polar opposites, parents are at each other's throats and all sorts of mayhem ensues. Think Romeo and Juliet with ghouls and corpses!

First up, this show looked great. A simple but effective set made us know straight away where we were. The use of high quality backdrops, moveable flats and an elevated walkway allowed for plenty of interesting set-ups without being overly cluttered. A simple yet effective lighting design helped create the right mood for each scene and didn't distract from the onstage action. Visually the best feature was definitely the costumes. There was a definite stylistic theme running through the principal costumes with enough flair and detail for each character to establish their individuality. Congratulations to Ann Chadwick on a job very well done.

As a musician myself I always want the band to be louder when I go to see shows! The sound mix was excellent last night, the 11 piece band was clearly defined across the players and the balance with the singers was great.

The band itself was absolutely superb. They delivered a complex score with aplomb, creating light and shade where necessary. A friend commented that the music 'on tape' was good, she was amazed when I pointed her to the band in the interval. Hats off to David and his fellow musicians for bringing the score to life.

Now I've been in and seen a lot of YC shows across over 30 years of involvement and I'm happy to say I thought this cast was one of the strongest I've had the pleasure of watching. A fantastic mix of experience and youth has always been the hallmark of YC and it certainly didn't disappoint tonight.

The ensemble, or Ancestors in this case, we're almost ever present and helped to create an energetic, lively atmosphere, particularly during the big set-piece numbers. Again, they looked fab, their white costumes and make-up were really effective against the contrasting principal costumes. It was nice to see some cast members who usually take lead roles adding their energy to the chorus, I think this would really inspire the younger performers to develop their stagecraft.

The Beinekes are the 'normal' family, on the surface at least. Obviously there's more than meets the eye with Mal, Alice and Lucas respectively as the story unfolds.

YC veteran Gary perfectly portrays the nerdy love-interest, a cross between Seymour Krelborn and Brad Majors if you like.

Chris nailed the role as uptight businessman dad itching to be a young cool dude again.

A breakout performance for me was Charlotte as the Stepford wife-esque Alice.
Loads of energy, good comic timing and able to convey the two contrasting personalities of her character convincingly. I look forward to seeing Charlotte onstage again in the future.

Now on to the main protagonists, the titular Addams Family.

Lurch is an iconic role, the mysterious is-he-human, almost silent butler. Paul was perfect for this, his stature ideal for this role. The entire audience gasped with his final act surprise when Lurch unleashed an earth shaking baritone!
Pugsley was played by Georgos, one of the youngest members of the cast. What a fantastic deadpan interpretation of the sinister young brother, another breakout performance for me.

Grandma, heritage unknown, performed by Michaela was a complete contrast to the last time I saw her onstage as Cinderella. Night and day! Hats off to Michaela for putting in a fantastic performance as the scheming Granny in-spite of her recent accident.

A highlight of the show was Uncle Fester, the very strange, lunar-obsessed baldy bloke! Stephen is a natural comic with bundles of stage presence who had the audience in fits of laughter. As a fellow baldy I appreciate this man!

Wednesday Addams is one of the most recognisable roles in modern pop-culture with her funereal looks and macabre outlook. Rachel has played every female role there is so I was confident she'd give Wednesday a good crack. She didn't disappoint with just the right blend of stroppy teenage angst crossed with a potential serial killer waiting to happen! Great double acts with Georgos, daddy's girl with Gomez and the bane of Morticia's life, Rachel got it spot on!

I think it's only fitting to talk about Morticia and Gomez as a pair, they are instrumental to the story at all points of this very tall tale and as such their roles deserved two powerhouse actors in the roles.

No fear here. Melanie as Morticia and Jake as Gomez were simply stunning in every way. Visually and note perfect, their onstage chemistry was obvious from the opening scene and it only got better as the show progressed.

Melanie as the matriarch of the weirdest family alive was awesome. If looks could kill, poor Gomez would be six feet under as he bumbles his way through life! I was scared just watching! Melanie exudes class onstage whether she's being serious or delivering the deadest of deadpan jokes.

Jake, as Gomez, is a literal force of nature. The range of emotions he presented as the head of the family was spectacular, I couldn't take my eyes off him. Every look, every gesture was perfectly nuanced, he didn't miss a beat.

Melanie and Jake's set-pieces were just magnificent and it culminated in a brilliant dance number. Boy these two can move!

Probably the best lead duo I've seen in my experience.

The choreography was cracking, very well executed by the full cast and certainly added a 'wow' factor to the bigger chorus numbers.

Suppose I should mention the direction, someone called Mrs Watson had something to do with it I think?

It was slick throughout, everybody onstage understood their role, knew where they needed to be and what they needed to do. The staging, blocking and tableaux were superb and enhanced each scene. She might have a future in this direction lark.

In summary The Addams Family by YC was brilliant. From design to sound to performance, the company have created a piece of musical theatre that deserved a longer run. For those of us who were lucky enough to get a ticket, we were spoilt!

And thats’s a wrap on our production of The Addams Family. What an incredible week. The cast, band, backstage team, front of house, tech team and audiences have been outstanding this week. Thank you to everyone involved. And thank you to Park View for having us, as always!

P.S. The competition for guessing the number of jelly beans in the jar was won by someone at our Saturday show, and the correct number was 1218.

Tonight’s performance (Friday) of The Addams Family will be busy so parking at Park View school will be busy too. We recommend using other parking spaces in Church Chare if you are able. The show starts at 7.15pm.

Online ticket sales for tonight’s performance of The Addams Family close at 6pm. But you can still buy tickets on the door with card or cash.

Well Wednesday night was amazing! What an incredible audience! If you came to see us tonight and enjoyed it, please tell us what you thought and tell your friends. Friday night is nearly sold out so be quick, but we still have availability for all the performances at ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham

The Addams Family, 23-26 Oct, Park View, Chester-le-Street. Tickets at ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham

Opening night tomorrow/today - Wednesday (how apt) 23rd October. Still tickets available at ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham

What makes a great show? The script? The musical score? The band? The cast? The costumes and set? The ensemble? Or all of those things? We think the latter and we think we have a great show to perform this week. Come and see The Addams Family, Weds-Sat this week. Ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham

Ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham Weds23rd Oct, all tickets £10. Thurs-Sat 24-26th Oct, tickets £13 (£11).

Halloween fans! Get along to The Addams Family musical next week! 23-26 October, Park View Theatre, Chester-le-Street. Ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham

Don’t forget about our Halloween themed Spooktacular performance on Saturday 26th October!

Fun Halloween activities for kids and there will be a prize for the best kid’s Halloween costume.

Book your tickets now using the link below

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham

Grab your tickets now for our Halloween-themed performance on Saturday 26th October at 2.30pm and get your Halloween plans started! The Addams Family musical: Ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham

The Addams Family musical, 23-26 Oct.
Weds 23rd October at 7.15pm - £10 for any ticket, Saturday 26th October at 2.30pm is a Halloween-themed performance with fancy dress encouraged (a prize for best dressed child), and some interval activities. Book at ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham

Costume fitting and run through tonight! So exciting to run in costume, and tonight was simply excellent! This is going to be fabulous. The Addams Family, 23-26 Oct. Tickets at ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham

Meet Lucas Beineke (played by Gary Hoyle). Lucas fell in love with Wednesday when he spotted her in Central Park with her crossbow. Wednesday is in love with Lucas too. Awww 🥰. Now all they need is their VERY different families to get along and all will be perfect. Except that bit won’t be so easy. The Addams Family musical, 23-26 Oct. Ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham

Our production of Cinderella in February won Best Pantomime in our area at the NODA performance awards last night. Oh yes it did! Super proud of the whole cast and production team!

Meet Morticia Addams (played by Melanie Hill). Morticia is the heartbeat of the family and values loyalty, passion and truth above all else. So of course no one in the family would ever keep a secret from Morticia, would they?
The Addams Family, 23-26 October. Ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham

We like to keep busy, so squeezed in a mini concert before Addams Family rehearsals tonight. For fundraising and promoting our latest show. Well done to all our members who performed this evening and then came to rehearsals. What a fantastic group of talent with a professional attitude!
Grab your tickets for our next show, The Addams Family, at ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham

Meet Uncle Fester (played by Stephen Shield). Fester is the MC of our show, getting the Addams ancestors to help Wednesday and Lucas’s love win! A tiny bit crazy, with a heart of gold, a beautiful voice, and in love with the moon! 🌙 🤍 The Addams Family musical: 23-26 October, ticketsource.co.uk/ycdurham