BATS are entering the Drama Festival this year with two entries, one for the adults and one for the juniors, and are holding autitions on Monday 25th January.

The adult entry is going to be “In Flame” by Charlotte Jones, and is open to anyone over or under 18. The junior entry will be confirmed shortly and is only open to those under 18.

The performance will be in April some time between the 21st and the 24th. Hopefully see as many as possible on Monday.

Break a leg everyone!

We have been busy in December promoting our up and coming Pantomime and celebrating Christmas.

BATS entered a Christmas tree this year in the St Andrews Church Christmas Tree Festival, which was decorated in the theme of our pantomime Dick Whittington & His Cat on 4th December 2009, see picture below.

You may have also seen BATS supporting the turning on of the Biggleswade Christmas Lights. BATS were invited to form part of the parade and then sing a song from our much-awaited January pantomime on stage. Photographs include the principles, directors and producers of the show.

BATS have been letting their hair down however, with a Christmas meal at Simply Oak in Biggleswade. Lots of nice food, lots of dancing and a lot of fun (see below photos). The kids also got in on the fun, with a kids Christmas party after a rehearsal, involving lots of party food and games.

After a short break we are now back to our busy rehearsal schedule and look forward to seeing you all at our Pantomime Dick Whittington & His Cat on Friday 15th & Saturday 16th January 2010.

Biggleswade Amateur Theatrical Society proudly presents the Pantomime favourite “Dick Whittington And His Cat“, to be performed at Stratton Upper School. Come with the family to see the adventures of Dick Whittington and his Feline companion as they attempt to seek their fortune in London Town, with the help of his new friend Alice; however the evil King Rat attempts to thwart their plans with his own fiendish scheme. Come and share in their tale of mystery and adventure.

Show times are Friday 15th January 2010 at 19:30, and Saturday 16th January 2010 at 14:30 and 19:30.

Tickets will be £8 and concessions £7. These can be bought from Thomas Morris in December.

Hope to see you at the show,

Debbie Brown – BATS Chairman 

We have just finished performing in our Variety Show ‘Silver Plated’ Celebrating 25 years of BATS. It went really well and we all had a great time being involved in the production, despite some dark hours which I will get on to in a bit. The Show was produced by Sue Jordon and included old and new members, (some of whom were actually around in the founding years), performing old and new material.

I’d like to say a big thank you for those of you who attended the show especially on the Saturday night.  We had some interesting moments on Saturday night as we were plunged into darkness twice in one night!

The first time was before the show and lasted just under an hour, but fortunately we had a patient audience, who were also getting half price drinks during the black out. When the lights came back on we started the show but unfortunately the lights went off again just before the end of act one.  Our quick thinking back stage crew managed to shine torches on the actors so they could finish their sketch. We hoped the lights would come back on soon as we didn’t want our audience too drunk.

 As all the power was off we not only had no lights, but no mics or speakers to perform with. However luckily a piano had been left in the hall and Sarah Rees was able to start playing songs from musicals while Gregory Jordon performed table magic while we were waiting to be reconnected.

Happily the lights came back on after a short while and we were able to perform a shortened down version of Act Two.

So I’d like to thank cast and crew for their excellent performances on both nights and for coping so well with the darkness. I would also like to again thank everyone that turned up to watch our variety show.

Our next show is the Pantomime ‘Dick Whittington & His Cat’, which we have already started rehearsing and we will be performed in January next year.

Hope to see you all there,

Debbie Brown – Chairman BATS

Colouring Competition Winner

Hannah Penwright Aged 9

A big thank-you to everyone that entered the competition, hopefully see you all at the Panto.

Kay Young

Colouring Competition!

Win Panto Tickets and a selection of children’s toys and goodies.
Your design will be used as our programme cover!

BATS presents this years pantomime
Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs

We are performing at Stratton School on Fri 16^th Jan at 7:30pm
And Saturday 17^th Jan at 2pm and again at 7:30pm

If you would like to win 2 tickets, have the pride of your entry being used as our programme cover, seen by around 800 people, and not to mention a stash of other prizes, please enter our colouring competition.

Click here to download the flyer as a PDF File.

Colour the flyer and send into the Biggleswade Chronicle Office, High Street Biggleswade by Tuesday 13^th January. The Editor James Stewart and his colleagues will pick the winner which will be announced in the Chronicle in the 16^th January edition. Winner will be notified by telephone beforehand.

Good Luck!

Hello all and welcome to the BATS website, firstly apologies for the website being a little behind the times of late – our web master has been off having a baby, (well his wife has, but you know what I mean), So we are having a go at updating it ourselves for now!

Anyway, we are currently extremely busy with our final preparations for this years pantomime, SNOW WHITE and the 7 DWARFS, and I have uploaded some photos of the cast and some of our rehearsal shots for you to have a look at.

Our show goes on up at Stratton School on Jan 16^th at 7:30pm, and Saturday 17^th Jan with a matinee performance at 2pm, and evening show at 7:30.

We would recommend that you get your tickets in advance from Thomas Morris Estate Agent in Market Square Biggleswade (Near Greggs Bakers), but if you have any group booking requirements or any questions please feel free to email us through the contact section on the website.

Tickets are £8.00 for adults and £6.00 for children and OAP’s.

We hope you can come along, as the show promises to be a rip-roaring traditional panto, with songs and lots of laughs, – just the thing to wipe away those January blues!

Take care and hope to see you at the show!

Kay Young – Chairman.  BATS. x

BATS will shortly be putting on their production of ‘The Last Bread Pudding’, a one act comedy by Nick Warburton.  The show recently featured at the Welwyn Drama Festival as well as the Bedfordshire Drama Association One-Act Drama Festival, where actor Max Caldicott picked up an award for best supporting actor.

All performances will be at Millennium House, Shortmead Street, Biggleswade on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th June.

Doors open at 8pm and tickets (which will be available on the door) cost £4.00, including cheese and wine.  Hope you can come along and support the group!

UPDATE 03/07/08: Photos can be found online in the BATS Gallery.

It’s Panto time again!  But you’d better look out for the big bad wolf, because this year we’re putting on a production of Little Red Riding Hood!

There’s two evening performances, on Friday 18th and Saturday 19th January – the curtain goes up at 7:45pm.  There’s also a matinee on Saturday 19th at 2:30pm.  All three performances are at Stratton School, Biggleswade.
Tickets are available from Thomas Morris Estate Agents in Biggleswade Market Square.

For more information, please use the contact form or phone Caroline on (01480) 352683.

July 6th & 7th at Stratton Upper School, Biggleswade
Performance Starts 7:45pm
Tickets from Thomas Morris Estate Agents, Biggleswade

It’s time to fasten your safety belts, return your tray tables to the upright position and prepare to blast off for BATS’ production of Bob Carlton’s rock and roll musical “Return To The Forbidden Planet”.

The story so far… the starship Albatross, captained by the heroic Captain Tempest, on a routine scientific survey flight is hit by an asteroid storm. Amidst the panic the ship’s mysterious science officer abandons the Albatross as the ship is drawn to the planet D’Illyria by a strange force. There they encounter the evil Doctor Prospero and the crew are left at the mercy of his lifes’ work – a new form of science by the name of ‘Telegenesis’!

Will the crew of the Albatross survive? Will they find their missing science officer? Is Doctor Prospero really all he seems? There’s only one way to find out – come and be a passenger on this voyage through interstellar space!

Featuring great 50s/60s rock and roll, including: Good Vibrations, Born to be Wild, Great Balls of Fire, Yeh Yeh and Shake, Rattle and Roll!

For more information, please use this link to contact BATS or phone Caroline on 01480 352683.

Directed and Produced by: Sue Jordan

Cast