AT theMarch meeting, Nick Wilkes of MalvernBard told members about his career in the theatre.

Nick first of all apologised for his appearance, long hair and a beard but he is currently playing a tramp in a production of one of his plays at Malvern Theatres.

He was born in Bushley, a small village near Tewkesbury, and on leaving school in Tewkesbury he worked for the Travel Agent Thomas Cook. Nick told us how he had gone to Acting School, including the prestigious Bristol Old Vic despite being turned down by them on the first application. He told us that attending the Bristol Old Vic proved extremely expensive and rather than approach established actors for sponsorship as many of his colleagues were doing, he decided to write to the film star Charlton Heston and ask him to spare an hour of his time to be interviewed on stage by Nick with the proceeds of the ticket sales to go towards Nick’s tuition fees. To his amazement Charlton Heston agreed and the show at the Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury was a great, and lucrative, success. They remained friends until Mr Heston passed away.

During his career he had appeared in weekly repertory and explained to us what this involved – rehearsing the next week’s play in the morning whilst acting in the current play in the evening but it proved to be good training, not only for acting but for backstage work as well.

In 2007 he came to Malvern Theatres to do backstage work as well as acting elsewhere but when his first child was born he didn’t want to tour any more but felt that backstage work was not enough for him so he started writing plays and found that his previous repertory experience helped him with this. Nick showed us programmes of all the plays he had written and staged and told us that some had a Malvern theme such as one with a Morgan car on stage and another with the action in Priory Park by the lake. It was a fascinating talk enjoyed by all the members.

After the coffee break, Jill read out the Minutes of the last meeting and the correspondence and told us that our stall at the Mini Market on Saturday had been very successful and thanked everyone for their help.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, April 7 at URC Hall, Worcester Road, Malvern Link starting at 10.30am (doors open 10am) when the speaker will be David Barrie telling members how to Feel good, stay on top. Visitors and new members always welcome. Please phone Jill on 01684 566540 for details.