AS CODS prepares for the forthcoming production of Carousel in Crediton, news has arrived about the shows we did last year, and once again it’s quite exciting.

It’s the “awards season”. The professionals have their Olivier Awards, Grammys, Baftas and Oscars. The Amateur stage has much the same thing from its National Association… the NODA’s.

A little explanation at this point would probably be helpful. NODA is the National Operatic and Dramatic Association. CODS belongs to this organisation for a number of practical reasons connected with insurance, child protection policies and production information. The National Organisation is divided into large regions, and CODS comes under NODA South West. This is a big area, stretching from Swindon to the Isles of Scilly. The big areas are also divided up into smaller regions and we are in the East Devon/Lyme Regis/Channel Islands region.

In addition to all the practical support, NODA representatives visit all the Member Societies’ productions and write reviews of the various societies work. They are generally very helpful and constructive. We post ours on our website.

Annually the representatives meet to determine the best things that they have seen throughout the year in the South West, “The NODA’s”.

There are a number of headings for these, for example best singing, best setting, technical achievement, and so on. There are the local and the main SW Region awards.

For its 2017 productions CODS had nominations for three East Devon awards and one SW region nomination.

We were thrilled to win the overall SW region award, quite literally the Best in the West, for Made in Dagenham. A fantastic achievement when you think of all the productions performed from Swindon to the Scillies!

And so it is that we have recently received news of three more nominations for our 2018 productions. Two East Devon nominations and one SW regional nomination.

The local awards are for our Choral singing in our Easter musical Witchfinder, and again for our September Evenings at the Boniface Centre.

The regional nomination is for the production of Witchfinder. We are so pleased about this.

Witchfinder was a terrific show, which in a way took us all by surprise. There was the power of the storyline and the amazing choruses that made hairs on the neck stand on end, and also the audience response to quite an emotional experience.

A very short quote from the production review illustrates this (and this person sees a lot of shows) “Witchfinder left me with a buzz which, at the time of writing my review, is still with me”. It left us all with a buzz too.

The awards night is on March 16 in Plymouth. We’ll have to see what happens. Fortunately there are no acceptance speeches!

This has all been great encouragement as the rehearsals progress for Carousel. These are now twice, sometimes three times a week, and the more we rehearse the more we find out about this lovely show.

Rodgers and Hammerstein had extraordinary success with their first musical Oklahoma! So much so that they were initially quite worried about following up this smash hit. It was certain to be compared to their first production.

Carousel is based on a 1909 play by a Hungarian playwright called Ferenc Molnár. His play Lilliom was considered too depressing for the musical stage, but the creativity of Rogers and Hammerstein transformed it into another blockbuster hit, which after considerable reworking, opened on Broadway on April 19, 1945.

It ran for 890 continuous performances. Our production runs from April 15 to 19, so by coincidence, on Friday, April 19 we will be playing on the 74th anniversary of that Broadway opening.

In 1956 Hollywood turned it into a film. As was the style of Hollywood productions of the time, the story was glamorised and the “celluloid stars of the day” featured prominently, in this case Gordon MacRae, playing Billy Bigelow and Shirley Jones playing Julie Jordan.

It seems that sometimes the films were more about who was in them than the story they told. The stage versions somehow came closer to the characters, the emotions and the underlying gritty storyline.

More of the storyline in the next article, but for the moment we will just say our Billy Bigelow is played by Jonathan Wood and Julie Jordan is played by Nicola Wood. Yes you did read it correctly, the same surname.

Johnny and Nikki were married last summer. If you have been to our September evenings you will have seen them singing together, and will have enjoyed their superb voices.

In Carousel you can see the chemistry between them as they portray the two fateful lovers at the centre of the plot. We think you’ll love it!

The tickets are now on sale from Olivia James in the High Street (telephone 01363 777968) or you can click on the CODS website BOX OFFICE: www.codsonline.com .

Come and join us and see this lovely show … Oh, and please remember to invite your friends.

Mike Palmer