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
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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.

Wonderful Workshops!

Over the last six weeks, Team Joseph have created a sub-team: Team Workshop. This particular team of people, led by yours truly, have been visiting schools and community groups around the Island delivering free workshops to children to help them gain confidence, try out singing and dancing and have some fun with the story of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

And the feedback has been wonderful.

The workshops contained a mixture of games, vocal warm-up exercises, singing and dancing, with each group learning two songs from the show: Any Dream Will Do and Benjamin Calypso. 

Each group also took home our 'Design A Dreamcoat' worksheet, and all those returned by the deadline will be displayed at Medina Theatre during the run.

We thought it would be nice to share just some of the feedback with you, and give Team Workshop some recognition for all their hard work.

"It was wonderful of the cast members to give us a day of [their] time and provide the children with such a great experience...the children loved it and they all thought you guys were great."
- Carisbrooke C of E Primary School

"It was great to have you all in...it's really humbling to know there are folks out there prepared to give up their time for children and to share their talent and passion for the arts with them."
- Haylands Primary School

"Thank-you Team Joseph for a brilliant workshop...the children were really inspired. Your 'Fat Camel' galloping game has caught on with Year 6!"
- Brighstone C of E Primary School


Thank-you so much to each and every member of Team Workshop for all their help, and to all the schools and community groups we visited for being so warm and welcoming, and to all the children who participated - what a credit all of them were to themselves, their parents, their schools and groups.

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To see Team Workshop (and their dozens of fellow cast members!) in action, all you need to do is phone 01983 823884 or visit the Medina Theatre website to book your tickets  - we'll see you in July!

Stop. Rewind. Play. Repeat.

"The film's not finished, it's just paused!"

Last week, I heard a child shout these seven words to his friend as they wandered past me during the interval of Mary Poppins at The Mayflower Theatre in Southampton...and they broke my heart.

When did technology become so ingrained in our lives that the next generation can't recognise the difference between actors on a stage and people on a cinema screen?

I suppose, in a way, it was a compliment to the show, which was practically perfect in every way; slick and polished, Mary Poppins was the highest class of entertainment. But alongside all the magic I carried away with me, I also carried that little boy's words, stuck in my head long after the final chord.

Since last week, I've had time to muse on it and, not for the first time, have come to the conclusion, that there is one way and one way only to ensure that live theatre is preserved in all its glory.

And that's by supporting it, and by encouraging your friends, your family, your children to support it, too.

You can't pause a live show, you can't rewind the bits you've missed, you can't screenshot it or find it on iPlayer - it's happening, right there in front of you. Characters are coming to life, a story is being told, and every single person doing the telling is doing it as you watch.

Anything could happen...and isn't that a thrill?

No two performances are the same, each audience will see an equally impressive but slightly different show. Each audience member will come away with a different experience, according to what caught their eye.

One may spot Joseph sat on the steps trying to decipher his dreams whilst the Brothers are scheming, another might see the shock of the Chorus as Benjamin is accused of theft, a third might see Joseph and the Narrator dancing together in the background of another number, a fourth could hear an instrumental riff from a different musical creeping into the score...

Hundreds of people watching the same show can see hundreds of tiny details, nuances and moves. Each person will have their own favourite song, favourite character, favourite moment; each of those moments has been delivered by a real person, in real time.

And only those hundreds in the audience will have shared in the experience. It can't be replayed, it can't be replicated. What an exclusive club to join, to be one of only a fraction of the population to have witnessed the magic of a particular show, with a particular cast in a particular place.

Don't underestimate the sticking power of such memories.

For a family of four to see Finding Dory in 3D would cost just 60p less than it would for the same family to see our production of Joseph at Medina Theatre this July (also in 3D, I hasten to add!) with a live band, a live cast of 57 and no DVD option for later!

It's a no-brainer.

We'll see you at the theatre!

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Please Note: Medina Theatre's online booking system is currently unavailable. To book your tickets in the meantime, please phone 01983 823884 or visit Medina Theatre Box Office in person - if the box office is unmanned, pop downstairs and buy your tickets from the Medina Leisure Centre reception.