Chicago The Musical - Samantha Peach Competition!

We're dying to see photos of you in your masks on your Big Night so we're offering 2 tickets to see Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre in London on 9th January 2010, (the perfect tonic to the post-Christmas slump!), to the person who sends in the best snap before 3rd Jan.


Just email us pictures or post them on our Facebook Page to be in with a chance.


Our Head of Production Beth went to see it last month and we've not been able to shut her up about it since!  Take it away Beth......


With only a single row of people sitting between us and the dazzling production that is Chicago, it felt like we were literally singing and tapping our feet along with them. On a weekend trip to London, I went to see Chicago in London's Cambridge theatre and I've been addicted ever since.

If you're curious to know what the storyline is, imagine a nightclub sensation female act that goes by the name of Velma Kelly, who clashes with a spotlight-seeking girl called Roxy Hart.. Both desperate to see their names splashed across newspapers and to hear the adoration of their fans.  Except the only man to help them is Mister Billy Flynn, a high-flying lawyer who can transform the most unworthy criminal into a celebrity...but after their crimes of passion and spell in jail, which one will get that stardom...and how?

Chicago has certainly been a success on screen, but to sit in such a charming theatre whilst talented actors and dancers perform metres away from your eyes is incredible.  It also made me quite envious, not just because they could do the usual of acting, singing and dancing, but because they made it seem authentic and they captured the story and mood perfectly, inviting us, the audience to live in that story too.

In my eyes, there isn't a single reason why anybody shouldn't see this production, what with the singing, the atmosphere, the costume (or lack of it some cases), the passion, the acting, the choreography, the orchestra and the stage-set itself, it's what a musical should be...and let's not forget the main element...all that jaaaaazz!!

Beth Shipley

www.SamanthaPeachMasks.com

Christmas Parties Past and Present at Samantha Peach Masquerade Maskss..

Works Christmas Parties were a mystery to me for a long time, self employed for many years I not only worked from home but completely on my own too, so was always madly jealous of friends with their Christmas bashes, some seemed to spend the whole of December rolling from one corporate Jolly to the next, whilst I sat up in my workroom with a mince pie and party hat on..

Things started to look up when Martin came on board, and our first proper Christmas Company Party was at a Burlesque night with some friends who'd also helped get Samantha Peach rolling that year..

It was the perfect end to the mayhem we have at Christmas, we run around like headless chickens making sure everyone who is going to a Christmas Masquerade Party or Company Masked Ball has the perfect mask to go with their outfit, that all the Bosses who decide last minute to make the Christmas Dinner Dance a Masquerade Event CAN get 300 masks delivered by the NEXT DAY ( true story!) and so after hundreds of calls about other peoples Big Bashes we're VERY ready for our own..

We had a grand old time at the very first Samantha Peach Christmas Party, and for me on my first own Christmas Party?..well I had a BALL..

This year there's a whopping SIX of us for the Samantha Peach Studio Christmas Do ( how times change..)and we're all going to be very up for it by the time it's here - if you happen to be out and about in Nottingham on the 18th December and you see a wild-eyed bunch trailing glitter and feathers, come and say Hello!

You can read more about our Money-Saving tips for Christmas Masquerade Parties and Balls here

Whatever you're doing for YOUR Office Party or Works Do this Christmas 2009, we wish you a shameless, glorious, brilliant One from all of us at Samantha Peach

                                                    

My Victoria Park

The last thing you expect to see out of your window in the bustling city of Nottingham are trees and grass, but luckily for me and the Samantha Peach gang, that's exactly what we see - Victoria Park.


When searching for a student house in our final year, me and the girls just wanted a nice, four bedroom house close to Nottingham Trent University. But when we were introduced to this hidden part of Nottingham, we knew we wanted to live in the bright blue house on The Promenade.  It was part of a row of houses that edged the park, each one a different colour to the next and each one having their own character and personality.

Victoria Park in the summer...

I lived on the top floor of our house, overlooking the park.  I graduated with BA Honours in Textile Design, my other housemates also doing creative degrees, so you can imagine the amount of papers, fabrics and yarns that would cover the floor.  We would sit in the garden in the summer, one of us knitting, the other sewing, another one of us sketching whilst somebody else cooked the burgers and sausages on our mini barbeque from Poundland.  And in the winter, making snowmen and watching families having snowball fights whilst some of the shivering drunks hid under the trees.

Fun in the snow...

Snowy Victoria Park...

I remember working in my room hour after hour and day after day drawing and sewing like some crazy person and looking out of my window, longing and wishing I'd finally finish this project, that project, the other project...and hoping that one day it would all be worth it and I'd manage to find myself a job at the end of it.

My room covered from floor to ceiling in design work...

I based my final project on woodlands and living next to Victoria Park played a huge role in this.  If I was ever stuck for ideas or inspiration, I'd just look outside and usually, something came to me.  I also photographed my final work in the park, dragging my housemate around as my model.  She was happy though, she got to sit in the park all afternoon and get a sun tan.

Final visualisations...

 
But what I do find quite surreal is that as I'm typing this, I'm looking at that same park that I did just a few months ago, just from a different window.  And that this window is from the studio at my desk at Samantha Peach...what are the chances of that?
 
 
Beth Shipley

http://www.samanthapeach.com/