A diamond celebration for theatre group

Found on stage performing unique pantomimes and one-act plays is the Franklins Players Community Theatre. Its performances and work within the community has helped ensure the longevity of the society, as this year it celebrates its 60th year.

Based at Roosevelt Park Recreational Centre for all these years, the theatre’s deep desire to enrich the community through laughter is possibly just as important to them as ensuring they still get to entertain you for 60 more years.

This year, due to renovations being done at the recreational centre, the group is raising funds to host their debut show – since the start of Covid-19 – elsewhere, a bittersweet transition for its members.

Sitting down with the Northcliff Melville Times was the group’s Soné Pieterse and Hendrik Greyvenstein who gave more detail about the group.

With deep regret in his voice, Greyvenstein described how, due to Covid-19, the past two years knocked them down. Yet, with the glimmer of hope eased restrictions bring along, so too did it usher in some level of excitement, as now, the theatre group can celebrate this diamond anniversary with some stellar one-act plays for your enjoyment.

“Our biggest attendance feature is the pantomime we do every year in December and those [pantomime and one-act plays] are two features we need to do this year to mark our 60th,” said Greyvenstein.

Franklins, according to Pieterse, is a community theatre group whose members are all volunteers who got together initially just to put on plays, “Our first play was When We Were Married.”
Back in the 60s, only two shows a year were shown and it later grew to three a year. She also explained how, along with great community engagement, this is also a good way of getting aspirant theatre people to experience their piece of the magic of the stage, whether you peg yourself a great actor in the making or crew member.

Putting the cherry on top is the fact that a portion of the proceeds at the door has gone to charitable causes within the community. “In 2018, for one of our pantomimes, we had the Children of Fire organisation and an old age home come to watch for free.”

In Greyvenstein’s opinion, this is a great outlet for kids too as they can get away from all that technology and onto the stage. “This is a fantastic experience, the thrill of going onto the stage for the first time in front of a live audience, nothing compares to it!”

Details: Soné Pieterse comms@franklin.co.za