WE. ARE. BACK and we couldn’t be more pleased! – after what has felt like an eternity, we are finally back and ready to rumble.

On Monday the 16th we held our first read through of Beauty and the Beast, our panto for 2022, in person, yes, in person, all in one room and not a single person glitching due to a dodgy internet connection. I was so pleased to see so many old and new faces turn out for the read through. It was wonderful to hear the enthusiasm in people voices as they read each line, cracked each joke and responded to the songs selections for the show.

On Sunday 22nd, after a very long but entertaining day, we had completed our first set of auditions since early 2019!! – our last set of auditions were for Legally Blonde, the show had been cast and rehearsals well underway, before old BJ plunged us into our first Lockdown – But now we are back and we have a show AND a cast. A huge congratulations to those cast in the show, the standard of auditions was extremely high! – You should be very pleased!

We were straight in with the rehearsal period on Monday 23rd, the cast were put through their vocal paces by Kate Sanders our terrific MD, teaching the cast their opening number for the show – it’s a corker!

I’m sure I speak for everyone at SMP when I say that we are so ready and so pleased to be able to get back to it – I’d like to give a special shout out to the wonderful NHS staff and all of the essential key workers,  who have worked so tirelessly over some of the darkest days I’m sure none of us expected we would see!  

We can’t wait for you to see the finished product!

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Keep your eyes on the website as we’ll be bringing you updates from the cast each week with all the latest gossip from from rehearsals with our show blog ‘Beauty and the Blog’.

Tickets are available already via the Millfield Theatre website and you can book by following the link below.

We’re pleased to say that after a fantastic set of auditions that wowed our audition panel we can announce our cast for SMP’s Beauty and the Beast 2022 is…

Congratualtions to everyone who auditioned, you entertained and suprised the production in equal measure. Comiserations to those who weren’t succesful this time around we really do hope that you come back and audition again for SMP shows in the future.

Keep your eyes on the website as we’ll be bringing you updates from the cast each week with all the latest gossip from from rehearsals with the show blog.

Tickets are available already via the Millfield Theatre website and you can book by following the link below.

If you’d like to be part of our next show, Beauty and the Beast, then we have some important dates for your diary.

Our Read Through and Introduction night will be held at Holtwhites Sports and Social Club on 16th August at 8pm. Please join us as our Production team for the show, Director – Michael Lacey, MD – Kate Sanders and Choreographer – Fay Kemal, will talk us through their ideas for the show and we will read through the script.

On the night, the production team will explain all that is needed for auditions and answer any questions about the show you might have. We will start sharp at 8pm so please arrive before then so we can start on time. The address is: Holtwhites Sports and Social Club, 1 Kirkland Drive, Enfield, Middlesex. EN2 0RN. This is also where our Monday night rehearsals usually take place.

The facebook event can be found here, please sign up so we can keep you informed of any updates.

Which leads us onto our auditions! We will hold our auditions on Sunday the 22nd August at (location TBC) we will hold auditions for our children’s chorus from 10am-12pm and adults can audition between 12.30pm and 7pm.

After such a long break we can’t wait to see all our members back at rehearsals but SMP always welcomes new members and we’re hoping to see some new faces join the family for this show. We hope that there’ll be a load of new and old faces at the Read Through and Auditions and good luck to everyone who decides to audition.

** We’re always looking for people to help backstage and behind the scenes so if you’d like to be involved but don’t fancy being onstage then please come along to the read through too! **

Hey guys! Hannah here to update you all on this weeks rehearsals! ‘Cue fanfare, fireworks and confetti.’

This week has been a great one. We started off on Monday with “chip on my shoulder” including the LEGENDARY Harvard scene where Elle proves exactly how smart she can be, putting our Warner to SHAME! This was followed by the start of “what you want” and the rescue of the amazing paulette’s gorgeous fur baby from her awful ex partner thanks to the help of our bubbly heroine.

On Wednesday we got our groove on at Whitney’s party, and everyone learned a little bit more about the amazing Gloria Steinem (disclaimer; shes a woman who did things). Then the delta nu’s kept Elle feeling all things “positve”, and her new best pal Paulette educated us on all things “ireland”.

This show is coming together to be faaabulous. The talent is fantastic and I can’t believe how welcoming everyone has been to me as I develop my character of Enid. I must say, shes been great at helping me release my frustrations from the week, whilst having a great time.

If you haven’t got your ticket yet, WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?! I might be biased but I’m excited each and every time we have a rehearsal to see what’s going to happen next. This is not one to miss!!

Keep your eyes on the website as we’ll be bringing you updates from the cast each week with all the latest gossip from from rehearsals with the show blog #OMIBLOG!

Tickets for Legally Blonde are available already via the Millfield Theatre website and you can book by following the link below.

Hi all! Welcome to the Legally Blonde Blog, otherwise known as the OMIBlog!

We’re continuing the SMP tradition of the blog to bring you the news and updates as we bring our next show to life. And what a show it’s going to be!

For those who don’t know Legally Blonde the Musical, it’s based on the 2001 film staring Reese Witherspoon, the musical debuted on Broadway in 2007 and collected seven Tony Award nominations, it then arrived in the West End in 2009 and won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical. It’s a brilliant show, laugh out loud funny one minute, tear jerkingly tender the next, stock full of amazing characters and brilliant songs. And so I get the enormous privilege of directing – which is hugely exciting. Especially as I get to work with the magnificent Jo Bakhurst and Fay Kemal as choreographers, and the fabulous Kate Sanders and Simon Payne as Musical Directors.

So we came to read through and were blown away by the number of people who were interested in this show. We’ve never seen so many people at a read through for a show, which rather shows how good this one is!

And then we came to auditions. Well, in all my years I’ve never seen so many people give an audition, and what a standard! Everyone brought their A-game. It was lovely to see lots of new faces as well as our SMP regulars and the standard across the board was so so high.

We then had the tough task of trying to make some decisions. Because of the number of auditions and the high standards this took us longer than we’d imagined. So long in fact, we had to go into a different day!

In the end however, we finally made our decisions and our calls. It was tough and we know some inevitably had to be disappointed, but we are so excited by our cast. It really is an incredible collection of talent.

The creative team have a bunch of ideas as to how we’re going to put this show on stage and we can’t wait to start sharing them with our fabulous cast. First rehearsal is tonight, so now we really get started! OMIGOD you guys!!!!

Keep your eyes on the website as we’ll be bringing you updates from the cast each week with all the latest gossip from from rehearsals with the show blog #OMIBLOG!

Tickets for Legally Blonde are available already via the Millfield Theatre website and you can book by following the link below.

After a wonderful set of auditions we’re pleased to announce our cast for Cinderella 2019 is:

We’re over the moon with our cast and our production team Warren McWilliams (Director) Fay Kemal (Choreographer) and Mike Benyon (Musical Director) had a tough time choosing from the fabulous array of auditions. We had a great turn out for the auditions, more people than we could accomdate in the cast, so well done to all those who we’re successful and comiserations to those who didn’t get in this time.

The cast sees new faces and old faces team up to make a killer cast that’ll be sure to put on a fantastic show.

For the first time in a few years too we can welcome a youth chorus to the show, as we’re in a bigger venue we’ve taken the chance to add some children to the cast and can’t wait to see what they will add to our show.

We will be performing Cinderella at the Chingford Assembly Hall, Station Road, London E4 7EN. Those of you who supported us at the Waltham Forest Festival of Theatre will already be familiar with the hall. The hall is at the top of Chingford’s Station Road in a busy part of town with restaurants and bars nearby.

Not only are we moving venue but we will be moving the time of year we put on our panto, deciding to perform before rather than after Christmas. Our show week will be 12th-15th December.

We hope that our audience decide to support us at the new venue, without you we cannot put on our shows. The new hall is only 3 miles away from the Intimate and the bigger stage will allow us to put on a bigger show, with bigger sets, bigger effects and with a bigger cast which means the amount you enjoy it will be bigger too!

Tickets are available to book and are selling already. If you are a large group please contact us regarding group discounts. Otherwise you can book online by clicking the image below or to book wheelchair seats please call the box office on 07708 708 062 or email SMPTickets@hotmail.com

Hello there! And so, sadly our show has come to an end – but let me walk you through the week’s fun!

Most shows are somewhat different from one performance to another, but for this show that was even more profound as the weather changed and the noises from the ‘real world’ swam in and out of our little oasis.

On The weather front, Wednesday and Thursday both went well without rain and with cloudy skies which made for dramatic looking skies up above that would cost a fortune to create in a theatre! Friday was the day we were worried about, we were all glued to various weather forecasts which all changed by the hour and had a variety of predictions, some of which were apocalyptic!! Well the Shakespearean gods smiled on us and (apart from a light shower in act 2 for 10 minutes) it stayed dry! Much rejoicing (and curry) was had after the show at our escape. And so on to our final performance – what flavour of weather would we have to go out on? Well naturally the weather had saved the best for last and delivered a clear blue sky, and bright golden sunshine to wave us off.

As to the show itself, you always worry when trying something new that maybe it won’t land with an audience. Well, as it turns out we really, REALLY shouldn’t have worried. From rave reviews in the press, to reports we have opened up Shakespeare to kids who came along, to breathless reports of the show being “genuinely the best thing I’ve ever seen” – I think we can say it was a hit!

Our magnificent singing quartet were so incredible I believe they have now taken bookings and will be taking it forwards, so look out for them in the future!

And thus, we concluded another fantastic show. We felt at the end that maybe this was something a little bit special, something people will remember for years to come.

Will we get to do another of Shakespeare’s plays sometime soon? I can only hope so, until that time parting is such sweet sorrow, that I should say goodnight ‘till it be morrow.

Our next show will be our Pantomime Cinderella at Chingford Assembly Hall in December – We’re looking to increase our usual cast size and include a kids chorus so if you’d like to be part of the show come along to our introduction night. Click on the picture for full details.

We can now finally announce the details for our next pantomime.

Due to the uncertainty over the Intimate Theatre’s future and as the church are no longer taking any bookings for the venue we have unfortunately had to make plans to move to a new venue for our next pantomime. So here’s the what, when and where for our next panto.

What?

We are pleased to announce that we have chosen Cinderella as the show we will take to the new venue. We will use a script written by Warren McWilliams once again. The script will be the same as that we performed in 2012 but with few changes to bring it up to date.

Where? 

We will be performing Cinderella at the Chingford Assembly Hall, Station Road, London E4 7EN. Those of you who supported us at the Waltham Forest Festival of Theatre will already be familiar with the hall. The hall is at the top of Chingford’s Station Road in a busy part of town with restaurants and bars nearby.

When?

Not only are we moving venue but we will be moving the time of year we put on our panto, deciding to perform before rather than after Christmas. Our show week will be 12th-15th December meaning that for the first time SMP will produce two pantos in the same year!

We hope that our audience decide to support us at the new venue, without you we cannot put on our shows. We hope that you join us on the other side of Christmas for a change too. The new hall is only 3 miles away from the Intimate and the bigger stage will allow us to put on a bigger show, with bigger sets, bigger effects and with a bigger cast. We will be looking to recruit a childrens chorus to join us for the show too, details will be released asap.

It’s with a heavy heart that we leave the Intimate Theatre and we would have stayed if possible but the venue is no longer available to book and so we have had to make this move to ensure the group continues.

Good afternoon your fabulous readershipnesses! Crusty here! Also known as Rebecca.

I am thrilled to be writing the opening night blog for the first ever production of The Little Mermaid – written by Warren McWilliams.

This is my first time playing a villain and though being booed is normally a bad thing, I’m really enjoying it.

It’s very liberating to be able to pick your nose on stage and flick it into the audience! Oh wait… the Director Michael Lacey has just asked me to stop doing that grrrr!

It has been amazing rehearsing for this show and it is so wonderful to now be performing it! The energy and buzz from everyone involved is infectious and I’m loving every minute!

The production team, band, crew, costumers and cast have created something very special and I am proud to be a part of it.

Audience members last night described the show as a spectacle with some commenting that it’s the best one they’ve seen to date! So come on down and enjoy the spectacle, cheer us boo us, sing and dance with us as we continue onto our next performances.

I promise I will only flick the gourmet bogies your way.

You can book your tickets here, if you want to come to one of our 2.30pm matinees please book now as tickets are limited for those performances:

The Little Mermaid Blog

Hi there fellow land-dwellers, and welcome to this week’s The Little Mermaid blog! My name’s Ellie and I’ll be taking you through what we’ve been getting up to this week, our FINAL REHEARSAL WEEK before curtain up… eek!

I say fellow land-dwellers because this year I have the absolute delight of being part of the chorus – a first for me in SMP panto and it’s been such a treat! That means that whilst I am not a mermaid I do get to play various different roles: so many, in fact, that I have seven costume changes in Act 1 alone!

Doing chorus in panto is so much fun as you get lots to do and are involved in all the big production numbers. It’s been lovely to dust off my dancing shoes at rehearsals with our choreographer extraordinaire, Jo Bakhurst, who has put us through our paces with lots of exciting, high energy and creative routines.

The team have chosen a great selection of songs this year, and we have been ably guided through learning them by our superstar MD, Mike Benyon, who has made us promise that we will remember to sing our harmonies properly even once we have all our costumes on and are spinning around on stage. Speaking of costumes, I have to give a huge shout out to our costume ladies – Fay, Ellie and Debbie – who have really outdone themselves this show. We’re so colourful and sparkly, and it’ll look even better under stage lights!

Both Monday and Wednesday nights this week saw us running the show from start to finish under the watchful eyes of our production dream-team, the final member of which is Michael Lacey, making his directorial debut. Not that you’d know it’s his debut: he’s done an incredible job and should be very proud of the finished product (disclaimer: he may be my best friend, but he hasn’t actually paid me to say that).

The whole team have put in an insane amount of hard work. Running the show twice this week has allowed us to iron out any bumps and the show really is looking fabulous. As usual the script, written by Warren McWilliams, is flawless, packed with hilarious fish-related puns that the whole family will enjoy and laugh at for weeks to come (he did pay me to say that).

I often get a little bit emotional at our final rehearsal before show week – I know, loser – but it’s so rewarding to see all of the hard work pay off and to see the production team happy.

On that note, I need to go and start ironing my costumes before we get into the theatre on Sunday – if I start now I should be done by then! Make sure you don’t miss out on this one: see you at The Intimate Theatre NEXT WEEK!

You can book your tickets here:

The Little Mermaid Blog

Hi there fellow land-dwellers, and welcome to this week’s The Little Mermaid blog! My name’s Ellie and I’ll be taking you through what we’ve been getting up to this week, our FINAL REHEARSAL WEEK before curtain up… eek!

I say fellow land-dwellers because this year I have the absolute delight of being part of the chorus – a first for me in SMP panto and it’s been such a treat! That means that whilst I am not a mermaid I do get to play various different roles: so many, in fact, that I have seven costume changes in Act 1 alone!

Doing chorus in panto is so much fun as you get lots to do and are involved in all the big production numbers. It’s been lovely to dust off my dancing shoes at rehearsals with our choreographer extraordinaire, Jo Bakhurst, who has put us through our paces with lots of exciting, high energy and creative routines.

The team have chosen a great selection of songs this year, and we have been ably guided through learning them by our superstar MD, Mike Benyon, who has made us promise that we will remember to sing our harmonies properly even once we have all our costumes on and are spinning around on stage. Speaking of costumes, I have to give a huge shout out to our costume ladies – Fay, Ellie and Debbie – who have really outdone themselves this show. We’re so colourful and sparkly, and it’ll look even better under stage lights!

Both Monday and Wednesday nights this week saw us running the show from start to finish under the watchful eyes of our production dream-team, the final member of which is Michael Lacey, making his directorial debut. Not that you’d know it’s his debut: he’s done an incredible job and should be very proud of the finished product (disclaimer: he may be my best friend, but he hasn’t actually paid me to say that).

The whole team have put in an insane amount of hard work. Running the show twice this week has allowed us to iron out any bumps and the show really is looking fabulous. As usual the script, written by Warren McWilliams, is flawless, packed with hilarious fish-related puns that the whole family will enjoy and laugh at for weeks to come (he did pay me to say that).

I often get a little bit emotional at our final rehearsal before show week – I know, loser – but it’s so rewarding to see all of the hard work pay off and to see the production team happy.

On that note, I need to go and start ironing my costumes before we get into the theatre on Sunday – if I start now I should be done by then! Make sure you don’t miss out on this one: see you at The Intimate Theatre NEXT WEEK!

You can book your tickets here:

Fireworks, fairy lights, floats, full runs and falafel – what a week! So as November turns into December, and Christmas draws ever nearer, we’ve started getting to the stage where all the individual songs and dances and scenes that we’ve been learning for the last few months start getting joined together. This Wednesday was our second run of the show, and it’s all coming together swimmingly

The start of December also signals one of our most favourite times of year – The Parade of Light! This Sunday, the merfolk gathered at the Civic Centre car park, and the annual glittering, tinselling and wrapping ourselves in fairy lights began. Our float this year was made by Matt McManus, designer extraordinaire of last year’s incredible Urinetown set, so we knew we were in for a treat. We’d seen a couple of pictures in the lead up to the day, but couldn’t wait to see it for real. As expected, it was beyond amazing!

Joining the parade were also some new fishy friends in the form of Wendy’s marvellous creations.

So off we set, dancing and jellyfish waving and fish swimming and generally having the most amazingly fun time. We arrived back at the end of the route just as fireworks started filling the sky – finishing the parade off perfectly

The evening culminated with serious amounts of Turkish food, wrapping up a pretty awesome week.

The Show

Coming Soon

Behind the Scenes