Meet The Committee

Chair

I fell in love with being on stage at school but was never able to pursue this as an actor. Performing however is in my blood: my grandmother toured all over the country as a chorus girl when she was younger and my cousin who studied at The Royal School of Ballet, performed for the Queen and toured the world as a dancer.

Over the years I have been in several bands as a singer, so I have performed on stage - my biggest crowd being 400 people at Birmingham Metropole. Hitherto my career has been in marketing and events, so organising and promoting are also second nature to me.

I have always loved the theatre and go as often as I can, but have only recently taken up acting - and I instantly fell in love with it again! Wychwood Players are such a welcoming group and the camaraderie during rehearsals and performing the finished piece feels like gaining a new family.

Treasurer, Actor

Phillip was a founder member of Wychwood Players, appearing as the eponymous Gosforth in Gosforth’s Fete by Alan Ayckbourn in the old Beaconsfield Hall in 1997.

His lifelong love of amateur dramatics was kindled when, aged 17, he appeared in the leading role of Thomas a Becket in a school production of Murder in the Cathedral, by T S Elliot. Subsequently, over the years he performed in productions too numerous to mention with drama groups in Naphill, Nr High Wycombe, Colchester and Farnham, before moving to the Wychwoods in the 1990s.

Phillip joined the committee of Wychwood Players, holding the position of Treasurer for several years, before becoming Secretary, and then again resuming the post of Treasurer in 2012. In 2020 Phillip succeeded Dudley Thompson as Chairman, and, in the absence of a willing volunteer, he also retains the Treasurership. For many years he has also organised the bar for the Group’s productions.

Having appeared in numerous plays with Wychwood Players it is not easy to select highlights, but the part of failed schoolmaster Crocker Harris in Rattigan’s The Browning Version was a particularly favourite role in 2006. Other memorable productions were Outside Edge, Oh What a Lovely War, Hay Fever, Neville’s Island, Visiting Hour, Sandcastles, Flint Street Nativity, Table Manners, Toad of Toad Hall, Hound of the Baskervilles, Allo Allo (as Herr Flick), Dangerous Corner, Wuthering Heights, Vicar of Dibley, Blackadder (as Captain Darling), Laburnum Grove and several pantomimes, including two turns as the pantomime dame in Dick Whittington & his Puss in Boots (2001) and Treasure Island (2007).

Actress

Since taking my first steps on stage at university, I have loved stage and screen acting and worked with many groups across the country whenever I moved.

I joined Wychwood Players in 2008 and was lucky enough to be invited to act in several productions, including Humble Boy, Deathtrap, Laburnum Grove, Table Manners, The Ghost Train, Blithe Spirit, Men of the World and the online play Something for the Weekend, during lockdown.

In 2022 I was awarded Best Supporting Actor at Henley Festival for Late Entry by David Tristram, a play I truly loved being part of. I am also a member of Spotlight and have acted professionally on stage, film, radio, voice overs, multimedia and also live events including murder mystery evenings.

I am a regular guest speaker performing humorous poetry for WI, U3A, Probus and other networking groups. Recently I started performing with Springline Productions for radio and online plays - great fun and no lines to learn!

Having been active with various drama groups as a youth I went through a hiatus while raising a family before a chance encounter with a neighbour in the cheese aisle at Tesco’s. “Do you fancy a bit part as a British airman in “Allo, Allo” ?“ she asked. With the promise of a ginger moustache and that classic economic comedy line “Hello” how could I resist an offer like that! I was hooked again.

Since then, I’ve been actively involved in local drama both in my native Cheshire and since moving to Oxfordshire in 2020  with Wychwood Players. Aside from acting and occasionally directing I’m a keen designer and love working on the ‘look and feel’ of our productions. There’s something rather special about transforming a village hall badminton court into a live theatre.

I took part in all the school plays – including understudying for a young Victoria Wood! But it was later in life with my young family when I really discovered drama - and the great fun involved in putting on a production. I performed in numerous local concerts and plays in Oxfordshire. Then in 2018 I moved to the Cotswolds and joined Wychwood Players. I found a very welcoming group; keen and ambitious as well as relaxed and informal. It takes team work to put on a production and I have very much enjoyed being a part of the Wychwood Players Team – both on and off stage, acting and directing and joining in where needed.