Breakaway Theatre Company Annual General Meeting
Monday November 4 2025, 8.00pm
DRAFT MINUTES
Committee Members present: Elaine Hartless, Richard Hartless, Shelley Healy, Natasha Inglis, Abi Giles, Marguerite Skinner and Graeme Shaw.
Other members present: Manjit Rostom, Lesley Cowland, Clare Waller, Ruth Ling, Anne Hollis and David Martin.
Attended via Video: Zara Radford
Chair’s Welcome
Elaine Hartless opened the meeting by welcoming those attending.
Apologies
Apologies were received from Julie Nye
Minutes of the last AGM
The Minutes of the AGM held on 10 October 2024 were accepted as a true record.
Chair’s Report
Elaine highlighted the events we had since the last AGM.
In October, we celebrated 40 years of Breakaway at The King Harry. This was attended by both long-standing and newer members. Richard Hartless had digitized memorabilia that had been kept by David Martin, which was set up to show everyone and this will be added to the website. Abi Giles did a lovely speech about Breakaway and what it means to its members.
Our February Show, Ladies Down Under, was directed brilliantly by Lesley Cowland. Nova Horley from NODA very much enjoyed the performance and Breakaway was nominated for Best Group of Actors for the “Ladies”, played by Elaine Hartless, Zara Radford, Margie Skinner and Clare Waller. Paul Murphy won the category for Best Newcomer for his excellent portrayal of Danny and several other characters.
Elaine said the Cast had a blast and thanked Richard, Abi and her backstage team for their support.
In May, members took part in a Play Reading for local playwright Nicole Moody, organised by Zara Radford.
Unfortunately, we were unable to stage a show in the Summer as we were unable to find a Director. This highlights the fact that we have a very small pool of Directors, most of whom also like to be on stage.
Elaine acknowledged that Directing is a huge commitment and a lot of work. However, it was agreed that over more recent years, our Directors have received much more support on the production side than in previous years.
The Committee will consider paying outside Directors. However, this would require Breakaway to ensure that they have the support of a full backstage team, as these Directors would not expect to be involved in sourcing props, costumes etc.
In August Ruth Ling organised a “Play Reading in the Park”, although it had to be moved to her house because of rain.
In September, Shelley Healey, assisted by Joanna Micallef, organised our second Heritage Open Day, at St Peter’s Church. Manjit Rostom, Mark Snelling, Alessia Procaccini and Roy Bookham played the part of four characters who were significant to the history of St Peter’s.
Artists sheltering from the rain did some sketches of the cast.
Once again the performances were well received and St Peter’s hope to do it again next year. In the meantime, they are happy for us to use the Church for other Breakaway projects.
Looking forward to the coming year, the number of active members is diminishing and the size of the Committee is reducing. We clearly need to work on attracting new members and this will be a priority for the new Committee.
Elaine thanked all the Committee for their support over the past year and said that going forward we will need to ask the question “Can people make the time?” rather than “Do you have the time?” as no one seems to have the time these days.
The reduction in the number of Committee Members will leave gaps, which will need to be filled. Vacant roles can be covered by both co-opted Committee Members and non-members. This will be an item for the next Committee Meeting
Elaine had already informed the Committee and the general membership that she and Richard plan to move to Dorset next year. However, as no one had come forward to stand in their place, it was agreed they will stay on until they move. An EGM will need to be called if they stand down mid-term.
Going forward our next event is a meetup at The King Harry on Saturday 29 November at 7.30pm.
Lesley Cowland will be directing The Actress by Peter Quilter at The Maltings in Feb/March. Auditions will be held next week.
Next July we plan to stage A Midsummer Night’s Dream outdoors for six nights. It’s always a crowd pleaser and will hopefully attract new actors. We are considering an alternative venue to The Inn on the Park, which is only ever available for three nights.
A possible venue is the recently rebuilt hall at the United Reformed Church in Chiswell Green, which has a large outdoor area. Zara Radford will be using the hall and will take pictures.
There may be restrictions regarding the use of the Hall for events such as ours, therefore, David Martin, who is a Church Elder, will make enquiries. Parking will also need to be a consideration.
At our last Committee Meeting Margie Skinner and Abi volunteered to get in touch with the Church to ensure it will meet our needs for an outdoor production. They agreed to liaise and organise a visit.
Elaine finished by saying how proud and privileged she feels to be Chair of Breakaway and will work, with the Committee, towards leaving the Company in a strong position, when she leaves.
Treasurer Report
If members of Breakaway wish to see the Treasurer’s Report, please send your request to:
contact@breakawaytheatre.com
The Future of Breakaway
Elaine & Richard met Adam Nicol and Liz Widdowson at OVO to discuss future collaboration. Adam is supportive of other theatre groups staging productions at The Maltings, particularly as OVO only use the theatre space for rehearsals, as it’s not big enough for them.
It was agreed that we struggle to attract new members because we have no permanent base. Adam likes and is supportive of Breakaway He used to be a member and OVO know that when we hire the facilities, they will have no problems and they enjoy having us there.
A discussion was held about attracting new members. It was agreed that it would be madness to fold when we have money in the bank. Elaine suggested we need to invest to accumulate new members.
We need to consider whether we can make more use of OVO’s facilities, to make it more of a “base” for Breakaway.
A barrier to this may be car park fees and hire fees. Additional suggestions were to use the Fleetville Community Centre more. However, play readings within a theatre space may attract more people.
The Trestle Theatre may also be an option. Zara gets a discount and is charged £28 per hour, because she runs drama classes for the benefit of the local community. She will look to see if this is something that we could also be given. However, the location may be a little far out of town for some people.
We can get scripts from the Drama Library in WGC for play readings, which can be picked up from the local library.
The New Barn Theatre in Verulam Park is not an option as they will not be allowing outside lets.
Election of Officers & Committee Members
Those standing for re-election:
Chair Elaine Hartless
Treasurer Richard Hartless
Committee Member: Shelley Healy
Those standing for election:
Secretary: Ruth Ling
Committee Members:
Shelly Healey
Anne Hollis
Tash Inglis
Manjit Rostom
All were nominated, seconded and elected.
Elaine thanked Abi Giles, Julie Nye, Zara Radford, Graeme Shaw and Margie Skinner who are stepping down.
Zara will continue helping with marketing Productions.
Margie will carry on doing the newsletters.
Graeme will continue his help with the new website.
Abi will contact Elaine about whether or not she wishes to continue as Safeguarding Officer.
Anne Hollis will be the first point of contact for new members.
