Saturday 10 December 2016

A Snapshot of our Social Media

On Saturday 10th December 2011, exactly five years ago today, Nicola Chastney (nee Steedman) and myself launched The Wight Strollers' Facebook page to the public with a barrage of old pantomime pictures and our very first public Facebook post, which was about none other than our Penguin Parade around the Island.

It went something like this...

Why not pop along to Newport or Ryde tomorrow and revisit the fun of the carnival with The Wight Strollers!
We'll be getting off our penguin bus in St James' Square at 10am, and waddling our way through Newport before riding to Ryde and performing at Tesco and The Busy Bee!
10am - St. James' Square
10:30 - HMV and the High Street
11am - Cineworld
11:25am - M&S
11:45am - Morrison's
12:10pm - Iceland
12:45pm - Sainsbury's
1:45pm - Tesco
2:15pm The Busy Bee
-
We will be singing, dancing and waddling our little flippers off to promote our 2012 production of Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood, so come along and join the fun!
See you there! :-)

We've come a long, long way since then, and gained a lot of 'likes' along the way - 1,080, to be exact!

In February 2013, we were celebrating reaching 2,919 people with our Facebook page - in July 2016, at the height of Joseph, our page reached over 10,000 people with a single post. Wow!

This very blog launched on Monday 17th September 2012, and, to date, has been viewed 21,949 times. The most popular post ever published is 'Notes from the Narrator', with a whopping 875 views so far!

In fact, our top ten blog posts are a proper mix - take a look below and see what the fuss is about!*

10. Springtime With The Strollers - 327 views
9. Introducing...Aladdin! - 345 views
8. Aladdin 2015: The Feedback, Part 1 - 386 views
7. Pretty As A Princess - 395 views
6. Wonderful Workshops - 422 views
5. He's Just A Dreamer... - 454 views
4. Not Just For Kids: Pantomimes Are For Everyone! - 478 views
3. Honest As Coconuts: Banter With Benjamin - 567 views
2. Such A Dazzling Show Of Many Colours! - 623 views
1. Notes From The Narrator... - 875 views

*N/B: These figures are correct at the time of writing, on December 10th 2017...we're hoping they're about to shoot up even more!

Our Twitter channel (@WightStrollers) was launched on January 25th 2013, just before we revamped our website, and our current Twitter tally is 588 and counting!

A few years on, we introduced an e-mail address - wightstrollers@gmail.com - and then finally joined Instagram earlier this year, on January 13th, which currently stands at 260 followers, and in February we created a YouTube channel, thus completing our social media profile...for now!

Originally comprised of just two people, it's a small team that runs our social media channels now, led by Em Scotcher (yours truly) and Allan Gregory, with admins Nicola Chastney and Sarah Scotcher on standby to support the madness!

The e-mail account, blog and website, meanwhile, are all run by me - which is no small task, but it's certainly one that's good fun!

Our social media team are all volunteers, just like the rest of our company, and we've been honoured on more than one occasion to have people send us messages thinking we're a professional team!

Since The Wight Strollers' first public page appeared on social media, we've moved from text-only posts and rehearsal notices to pictures, collages, videos and homemade memes to promote our shows, and it's all thanks to our fabulous team, and - of course - our members and followers for jumping on board with whatever we ask them to share!

We're immensely proud of how far our online presence has come since 2011, and we're grateful to everyone who has taken the time to like, follow, watch, comment, share, read or post on any of our pages.

Please keep the love coming, and ask your friends and family to give us a like, a follow or a share as we approach the launch of our tickets for Jack and the Beanstalk, which will be performed in February 2017 at Medina Theatre.

Tuesday 6 December 2016

Pretty as a Princess

Last week, we introduced Michael Mullin as Jack - this week, we're introducing our gorgeous principal girl, Princess Primrose, who will be played in our February production of Jack and the Beanstalk by Beth Batchelor.

Beth is another relative newbie to the company; she joined in September 2014, stepping out to tread the boards with us for the first time in February 2015 as part of the chorus for our award-winning production of Aladdin.

She was a member of our chorus, too, for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (2016) before being asked to play the seductive Mrs Potiphar in our summer production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. 

She then proceeded to clean up (and dance!) the streets of the Island as part of this year's 'Dirty Dancing' carnival entry - it's safe to say Beth has thrown herself wholly into Strollers life since she joined, and we love having her as part of the Strollers family!

Prior to joining The Wight Strollers, Beth was no stranger to the stage.

Beth has, in fact, been performing on stage since she was 6 years old, and was an Irish Dancer for 10 years, coming second in the British Championships when she was 14 and even qualifying for European Championships. But that's not all!

"I starred as an extra in a Discovery Channel Documentary when I was 18," she says. "I played an air crash victim - which didn't really help with my existing fear of planes!"

Jack and the Beanstalk marks Beth's first principal girl role within The Wight Strollers, and she will be playing Princess Primrose. Not your typical princess, Primrose hates formality and falls for the charming and witty Jack Dimple, a village boy.

So how is Beth finding playing a princess?

"I love being a princess - I have to say that, in reality, I'm not a typically girly girl. It's been a little challenging getting into character, but I have been "revising" by watching endless Disney Princess films!"

Having seen her in rehearsals, we can tell you she's going to be absolutely fantastic, and she's been working hard with Michael (Jack) to perfect what will be another gorgeous panto duet.

"The singing rehearsal with our MD and 'Jack' went really well," Beth says. "I'm looking forward to adding a few moves to the singing now!"

For Beth, all things panto may be going smoothly, but for poor Princess Primrose the road is a little more challenging; after all, the course of true love never did run smooth, and soon after she meets Jack she's kidnapped by the sinister Giant - Buster Gut-Bucket - and taken to his castle in the clouds.

It's up to Jack to rescue her...but will he succeed?

Make sure you get your tickets for Jack and the Beanstalk - performed at Medina Theatre, Newport, on February 18th, 19th and 25th 2017 - to find out!

-

Tickets for Jack and the Beanstalk go on sale Tuesday 3rd January 2017 from Medina Theatre Box Office on 01983 823884 or at www.medinatheatre.co.uk - don't miss out!