The Crowbar Theatre Company

Murder at Allington: Editorial.

2011-02-16T11:25:00.000Z

Notorious bootlegger and gangster Duke Allington has been running booze over the border from Leicestershire into the ‘dry’ county of Lincolnshire. Mob boss Toni Pepperoni invited the Duke over to his Allington Speakeasy on 12^th February to discuss Duke becoming his new booze supplier. The Duke and Toni have always had an uneasy business relationship so, to help with the negotiations, the Duke brought along his trusted friend and Accountant, Maximillian Proffitt. Also keeping an eye on things was the Duke’s wife, Sally Allington, and Trixie Fingers, Toni’s Speakeasy ‘hostess’.

The Duke is hated and loathed in equal measure, so surely no-one would have used the meeting as an opportunity to bump him off... would they? But bump him off they did.

Ninety members of Toni’s Speakeasy were invited in to help solve the murder. They gathered in their masses, all dressed up to the nines in 1920s style, but were only allowed entry if they could remember the password. As a treat for his members, Toni served up some wonderful grub courtesy of Truffle Catering, and laid on the Tommy Saville Jazz Quartet to set the mood. After much deliberation and a few tipples from the secret bar, the group worked out that Sally Allington and Toni Pepperoni were the murderers and the winning table received a couple of bottles of bubbly to celebrate.

The night raised £620 which will be split between Allington LIVES First Responders and Allington News. Both committees would like to sincerely thank everyone who supported them and those who gave up their time to help both before the event and on the night.

These photos were taken on the night by Mark Pugh Photography. Many more not shown here can be viewed and purchased from Mark Pugh at www.markpugh.com/event. They are well worth a look.

Valentine's Murder Event at Allington: Customer feedback.

2011-02-15T07:21:00.000Z

Here is the first comment from from of the guests about the event:

Standing outside waiting with all the others Gangsters and Molls the main conversation centred around the expectation of whether the evening was going to be good.

Well that was an understatement. I only hope you heard first hand the words of appreciation from all those attending on how "brilliant and fantastic" the evening was.

Like all things, these do not just happen so I wanted to say thanks for yet another great evening.

Regards
Ian

Murder at Allington: A few photographs.

2011-02-13T12:49:00.000Z

Crowbar Theatre Company 'owned' Allington Village Hall last night, as we ran a 1920s Prohibition-themed murder event as the village hall was turned into a Speakeasy. Here's a few shots of the cast and our guests:

All photographs are courtesy of Mark Pugh Photography. www.markpugh.com

Murder at Allington: Thank you.

2011-02-13T09:54:00.000Z

A huge thank you to everyone who made the Murder at Allington Event such a resounding success. We were thrilled at the effort everyone made to get dressed-up for the evening, and we're hoping to perform again at Allington later in the year.

Photographs from the event will appear here shortly, and all of the photographs from the event will be available to view at www.markpugh.com/events.

Moider at Allington.

2011-01-17T15:58:00.000Z

Crowbar Theatre Company will be performing at this charity fund-raiser:

Corporate Work.

2010-05-05T20:57:00.000+01:00

Corporate events are a speciality. One client, a building society, held a dinner for their staff at a grand stately home. What the guests didn't know was that some of the waiters were in fact Crowbar Theatre Company actors. With hilarious performances and 'inside knowledge' on some of the guests, the 'Dumb Waiter' is one of our most popular events. Contact Jayne Monie for more details: jayne.monie@googlemail.com

Fundraising for your good cause.

2010-05-05T20:54:00.000+01:00

Holding a Murder Mystery evening is a great way to raise funds for your village hall or good cause. To request a brochure and to find out more, contact Jayne Monie: jayne.monie@googlemail.com

We're taking bookings...

2009-08-04T15:15:00.001+01:00

If you're looking for something exciting for your party, wedding or fund-raiser, why not have a Crowbar Theatre Company Murder Event? It costs less than you might think.

To request a brochure and to find out more, contact Jayne Monie: jayneDOTmonieATgooglemail.com

Hose Pub Quiz.

2009-05-14T20:34:00.000+01:00

Thanks to everyone who made the effort to come out and attend the charity pub quiz hosted by Corwbar Theatre Company's Mark Pugh and Alan Dillon. We're hoping to do another quiz in around a month's time to raise money for the air ambulance, and full details will appear here.

Crowbar Theatre at Carlton Scroop.

2009-05-14T20:31:00.000+01:00

Here's two pictures from our most recent murder event at Carlton Scroop. Thanks to everyone who attended the event; you were brilliant.

The Big Quiz

2009-03-26T20:24:00.001Z

Murder events: Our philosophy

2009-03-17T12:51:00.000Z

Our aim is not to make our Murder Mystery events too difficult, but, rather, to strike a balance so that through laughter, our audiences leave having had a wonderful time.

Murder at 'The Oscars'

2009-02-20T13:48:00.000Z

Carlton Scroop & Normanton on Cliffe Village Hall
presents
Murder Mystery Evening at 'The Oscars'

with
The Crowbar Theatre Company

Saturday May 9th
7.00pm for 7.30pm

4 course meal (vegitarian option available)
including tea or coffee

Licenced bar

Lounge Suit / Black Tie

Tickets in advance only
£20.00

01400 250655

A Christmas Carol: Featured on BBC Radio

2008-12-13T14:56:00.001Z

Crowbar Theatre Company's Mark Pugh was interviewed by BBC Radio Nottingham about Christmas Carol. By popular request, you can hear the audio here. Apologies for the poor quality; we have had to drop the sound quality to reduce the time it takes to load.

A Christmas Carol: Featured on BBC Television News

2008-12-13T14:54:00.000Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7768201.stm

“A Dickens of a feat of memory”

2008-10-11T14:27:00.000+01:00

In November 2003, tragedy struck the Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton when an electrical fault burnt down most of the theatre. Since then, the formidable challenge has been to raise enough money to rebuild the theatre for use by local amateur groups. Mark Pugh, a local actor based in Nottingham, and a team from Bottesford, Long Eaton and Melton Mowbray have joined forces to bring Dickens’ A Christmas Carol to the Chatsworth Centre, adjacent to the site of what will be the new Duchess Theatre.

“It doesn’t get much bigger than this”

A Christmas Carol is a one-man piece of theatre faithfully adapted from the original Dickens novella. Star of the show, Mark Pugh, will be bringing to life all twenty-five characters in two very special performances on Friday December 5th and Saturday December 6th 2008. He said: “As acting challenges go, it doesn’t get much bigger than this. I have 160,000 words of dialogue to memorise, and twenty-five different voices and characters to perform. However, I have a fantastic team around me who are making this feat of memory, and acting, a little easier. We’re hoping to help the Phoenix Fund - the Long Eaton Charity set up to raise money to rebuild the theatre.” Tickets are £5.00 or £4.00 concessions and are available from the Chatsworth Centre, West Gate, Long Eaton, NG10 1EF, or by ringing the Christmas Carol ticket hotline on 0788 209 7974.

Notes to editors: Mark Pugh’s career spans stage, screen and radio. Theatre credits include Harvey and Access Rights which he wrote and co-directed. Screen credits include the films The Old 3000 and Abduction and voiceover work for the BBC. On radio, he has presented on 103 The Eye and 96 Trent FM. He had a nationally syndicated radio show which won the Radio Contacts Award.

Media Enquires: If you would like more information about the show, or to schedule an interview with Mark Pugh, please contact Jayne Monie on 07980 387503.

A little press coverage

2008-08-21T22:38:00.000+01:00

Murder at Allington Village Hall: Update

2008-08-14T23:41:00.000+01:00

Regular readers will know that we performed at a Murder Mystery Event at Allington Village Hall on June 7th this year. We are pleased to report that the event made £900, and the profits have gone to buy a new cooker for the hall. Thanks to everyone who came for supporting this very worthy cause.

Murder at Allington Hall: Post mortem

2008-06-08T22:09:00.000+01:00

Crowbar Theatre Company took over the Village Hall in Allington to present an evening of Murder Mystery fun on June 7th. We presented the Murder of mob boss Al Dabone. The usual rogues gallery of suspects were in attendance, and the 100+ crowd had a fantastic evening.

We helped to raise lots of money to replace the broken cooker at the Village Hall, and after our show, the guests danced the evening away the the sounds of The Famous Belgians.

We had several enquiries to run events at the end of the evening, and if you're considering a Murder Event, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Allington Murder Mystery: SOLD OUT!

2008-05-15T23:12:00.001+01:00

Great news. Our June 7th Murder Event is completely sold out. Thanks to everyone who has bought tickets; we're looking forward to seeing you soon!

Murder at Allington: Tickets now on sale!

2008-03-25T21:57:00.001Z

Tickets now on sale!

2008-03-18T20:44:00.000Z

We're bringing our Murder Roadshow to Allington Village Hall on Saturday June 7th. Here's what you need to know:

8 tables of 8
live band
bar
£20 per head
black tie or smart lounge suit
Venison Goulash with rice
vegetarian option.

For tickets, call Wendy on 01400 281822. See you there!

Murder on June 7th!

2008-01-27T14:16:00.001Z

We're bringing our Murder Roadshow to Allington Village Hall on Saturday June 7th. Here's what you need to know:

8 tables of 8
live band
bar
£20 per head
black tie or smart lounge suit
Venison Goulash with rice
vegetarian option.

Let us know if you'd like tickets.

Murder at Allington Manor

2007-12-28T05:00:00.000Z

Crowbar Theatre appeared at Allington Manor for a private fortieth birthday party. Here's what our client had to say:

"Just to say a huge thank you to you all for making my party so special. The quality of the acting and the whole event was absolutely superb. I can't believe the amount of people who have called or sent cards to say how much they enjoyed it (and everyone has commented on the Colonel…. what a brilliant actor!)

Thanks again from me for all your hard work, it's much appreciated."

Pangea Day International Film Festival

2007-12-15T12:31:00.000Z

Our most recent short film, 'The Viaduct' has been entered into the Pangea Day International Film Festival. News about our progress in the Festival will appear here.

www.pangeaday.org & uk.youtube.com/group/pangeaday

The Viaduct

2007-11-12T22:24:00.001Z

We are pleased to announce our film "The Viaduct" is now available on DVD, and here:

Written by Mark Pugh and produced with help from CreativeLeicestershire, it follows the story of a teenager (played by newcomer Jonathan McGrady) who has a surreal journey home from school.

Dark Angels: Rehearsal cycle begins

2007-07-13T16:31:00.000+01:00

We're very pleased to announce that the script for Dark Angels has been 'signed-off', and we have now begun the rehearsal cycle.

And there's more good news. The cast is joined by June Pedge, who will be taking the role of 'The Condemned'. June brings decades of theatre experience to our show, and recently starred in the film Quarter of a Century.

The director, Dave Allen brings a wealth of film, theatre and television expertise to our show. His credits include Edge of Darkness, Monocled Mutineer, Outside Edge, Blott on the Landscape, and Peak Practice. His input into the production thus far has been incredible.

More news will be posted here as the development process continues, and venues are confirmed.

The play is scheduled to be premiered in November 2007.

A night out can be murder...

2007-03-29T18:42:00.000+01:00

We're pleased to announce our new Murder Event brochure is hot off the press from the printers.

If you've ever considered running a Murder Event at your venue, why not try a complete package from Crowbar Theatre? We cater for venues and events of all sizes.

Click on the photos on the right to expand them and see more detail.

We have a lot of repeat business from venues, so we must be doing something right! To request a printed brochure, click on the pictures to the right of your screen for our contact information.

Dark Angels - Director appointed

2007-02-27T23:01:00.000Z

We're absolutely thrilled and delighted to announce that David Allen is joining the Dark Angels team as Director.

Dave brings a wealth of film, theatre and television expertise to our show. His credits include Edge of Darkness, Monocled Mutineer, Outside Edge, Blott on the Landscape, and Peak Practice. His input into the production thus far has been incredible.

More news will be posted here as the development process continues.

Collaborators - UK Design for Performance

2007-02-03T16:45:00.000Z

We're just back from this amazing free exhibition at Nottingham Trent University. We went along to get some ideas for our forthcoming stage production, Dark Angels.

British Theatre Designers have a worldwide repuation for fresh and innovative ideas. How do they communicate their ideas to audiences - and to the artists, performers and technicians they work with? How will these ideas translate into three-dimensional space / structures, costumes, light and sound? What is the dialogue between the designers and their collaborators?

This major exhibition brings together a huge range of work made in the last four years by over 10 contemporary UK designers; it has been made possible through a new collaboration between Nottingham Trent University's Theatre Design Department and the Society of British Theatre Designers (SBTD).
The venue was the impsoing Waverly building, the original Nottingham Art School on the Nottingham Trent Univerity City campus; a selection from the exhibition will be on display in Prague's Industrial Palace, in the International Prague Quadrennial in June 2007.

The exhibition was accompanied by a full colour catalogue and tailored education programme for schools and colleges, offering a unique resource for students, teachers and anyone interested in contemporary performance.

We were completely blown away by the sheer scale and breadth of the designs on display.

Prior to going one question loomed in my mind: How do you display over 150 theatre designs in one building? The answer, is that every single production had a small scale model made. Both of the designs I photographed here are actually scale models, probably no more than 50cm accross.

All three of us took some great ideas away which we'll add to our own in the coming months. It was encouraging to note, that we all liked the same kinds of stage design - hopefully this will minimise conflict when the time comes to design the production!

Crowbar Theatre in the Leicester Mercury

2006-11-19T12:17:00.000Z

Here's some recent press coverage in the Leicester Mercury about our bursary success.

Crowbar Theatre's Bursary Success

2006-11-14T17:01:00.000Z

Press Release

15 creative winners

15 creative businesses from a comedian to a design company have won £2000 each to help them develop their business. The cash comes from Creative LeicesterShire’s second development bursary awards. The winning 15 creative freelancers and small businesses were chosen because of their potential to develop their work and business.

Clare Hudson, Creative Industries Manager, said ‘we were overwhelmed with a total of 73 applications and the quality was very high. There’s a huge amount of creative talent in the subregion and I’m just sorry we couldn’t take more businesses on to the scheme.’

The winners are:

* Rhubarb Media, a web design company from Loughborough www.rhubarbmedia.co.uk
* Steve Gibbs, a musician & producer from Leicester
* Alex Williamson, a jeweller from Kirby Muxloe www.alexwilliamson.com
* Canard Design, product designers based in Kibworth www.canard-design.co.uk
* Stuart Simpson, a digital artist from Wigston www.stuartsimpson.co.uk
* LaurieLorry Theatre Company based in Leicester
* Henrietta Corbett, a fine artist from Ratby
* Crowbar Theatre Company, based in Bottesford
* The Creation Station based in Loughborough www.thecreationstation.co.uk
* Rob Gee, a poet & comedian from Leicester www.robgee.co.uk
* Write Exposure based in Coalville www.writeexposure.co.uk
* Beyond Compere, artist agency from Leicester www.beyondcompere.com
* Ocean Art, art retailers based in Leicester
* Claire Williamson, a glass designer-maker from Loughborough www.clairewilliamsonglass.co.uk
* Safe Media, a film & media training company based in Leicester

Ends

Contact Clare Hudson e: chudson@leics.gov.uk t: 0116 267 0017 m: 07802 277566

Creative LeicesterShire supports creative businesses and freelancers in Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland. The programme is funded by Leicestershire County Council, Leicester City Council, Rutland County Council, Blaby District Council, Charnwood Borough Council, Harborough District Council, Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council, Melton Borough Council, North West Leicestershire District Council, Oadby & Wigston Borough Council, and Arts Council England.

www.creativeleicestershire.org.uk

Murder at Brooksby Hall - 10th & 11th November 2006

2006-11-13T07:06:00.000Z

November 10th & 11th saw a hugely successful two nights of moider at Brooksby Hall, Crowbar Theatre-style.

Friday night saw the death of Rebecca Pecker, TV soap star, at the East Midlands soap awards 2006. Saturday saw the untimely demise of gangster Al DaBone. The audience on both nights were absolutely superb, and got really involved.

When you have a large table of prison officers, and a man called Mr. Shirley Postlethwaite, it really is a gift from the Gods of Comedy.

Mark Pugh played DC Dick Bent, ably assisted by the cast of Suspects: Tom Marshall, Emma Thomson, Megan Underwood, Ryan Taggart, Mark Cato, Karen Weston-Riley and Anneeta Sutherland. Running the show smoothly from behind the scenes was Alan Dillon.

Musical performances were provided by Tom Marshall and Anneeta Sutherland. Get in touch with us to book a murder event for your venue.

See you for more murder in 2007!

(top to bottom: Anneta Sutherland is interrogated by a table of guests. / (l-r) Ryan Taggart, Tom Marshall, Anneeta Sutherland, Mark Pugh, Alan Dillon, Emma Thomson, Megan Underwood and Karen Weston-Riley / Mark Pugh is DC Dick Bent.

Here's what some people said about the event:

"An unexpected, but welcome change. Very enjoyable!"

"Fun! Let us know when you're next on."

Murder at Brooksby Hall - November 2006

2006-10-11T13:23:00.000+01:00

We're pleased to announce that we'll be appearing again on Friday 10th & Saturday 11th of November 2006 at 'Murder at Brooksby Hall'.

We'll be bringing our own brand of high-quality, comedy-fuelled murder fun to hundreds of dining guests at the hall. If you'd like to join in the fun, why not visit the official Brooksby Hall Web-site to book your place?

Exciting Developments

2006-05-29T12:11:00.000+01:00

Hello, and welcome to our web site. Things have been very busy since we set up our company just a few short weeks ago. We've taken over a business which provides professional Murder Mystery Nights in the East Midlands area. We've also been comissioned to perform some children's stories in a very unusual venue - we'll give more detail about that as things develop in the very near future.

In the meantime, if you have any queries, or would like to get in touch with us to discuss a Murder Myster event, please don't hesitate to get in touch using the contact details on the right of your screen.

Mark Pugh

2006-01-01T21:00:00.001Z

Voted the World's Best Actor (by his mum), Mark Pugh wrote the acclaimed stage play 'Access Rights' which was published in 2005.

His radio work is extensive, and he had his own national show on commercial radio for four years.

Having played the main villain in the feature film The Old 3000, Mark wrote and directed Quarter of a Century which was made with a film crew from ITV1.

Mark's personal page can be found at www.markpugh.com

Alan Dillon

2006-01-01T21:00:00.000Z

Alan was transported from South East London to Nottingham as part of a Careless In The Community programme. He is a writer, actor, radio presenter and poet, with a degree in Performing Arts. Alan has numerous theatre credits including The Merchant of Venice, Adrian Mole, The Breakfast Club and A Taste of Honey. Alan has appeared at the Leicester Comedy Festival and Abbey Park Festival as a Poetic Saga Lout, and at the Grantham Comedy Festival as Special Agent 009. Alan has also appeared on cable and terrestrial TV. Alan became addicted to wedding cake, after being Best Man fourteen times. Alan can be heard every Sunday between 3pm and 6pm on 103.00FM The Eye.