I’m afraid there’s much that’s going to come all in a rush now as I’ve finally seem to have the time to attend to this blog.
Anyway, first thing to report is the wonderful success of Standing with Stones at its first public showing at the Chipping Norton Theatre in Oxfordshire – not a stones throw (forgive me!) from the Rollrights themselves. I’m happy to say that filling the theatre for the night proved not to be a problem and it really gives the lie to the notion that interest in megaliths and standing stones is a ‘niche’ subject. Most of the tickets – certainly the initial rush seemed to come from the newsletter of the theatre itself which certainly does not have a demographic bias towards stone freaks. Whatever the main source for getting the bums on seats on the actual night, it was gratifying that the theatre filled to its 213 seat capacity with very little effort on my part.
Bottom line is that everyone seemed to enjoy the evening immensely and most importantly, we raised the sum of £946.19 for the Rollrights Trust which I am sure they can put to very good use.
What was interesting from our point of view, seeing as there were many angles of view represented in the audience, from a proper, academic archaeologist (George Lambrick, chairman of the Rollrights Trust), through to megailithomaniac stone huggers, that everyone came away happy and smiling. We always aimed to be able to accommodate as much of a general audience as possible with SWS while at the same time delivering fascinating story, facts and ideas and it was gratifying to see that we seem to have achieved that.
So, thanks to everyone for coming and to the staff at the theatre – who were great – and thanks to everyone who supported and contributed to making the evening a success. I want to do more now …
