Calendar Girls at Somerset Valley Players Display Cheeky Humor

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ -- It isn’t often that regular, down-to-earth housewives get to strut their stuff as pin up girls, but in the case of a group of small town English women, it was an outright worldwide sensation!

“Calendar Girls,” a comedy by Tim Firth, opening at the Somerset Valley Players in Hillsborough on April 20, is based on the true story of several women who rallied around their friend whose husband died of Lymphoma in 1998.

“In order to raise money to upgrade the waiting room for patients’ families at the
hospital, the women decided to create a calendar, posing in slightly risqué
poses,” states director Darren Nye. “They thought the novelty of having middle-aged
women artfully displayed au naturel would be a fun – and funny – way to sell
the calendars. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.”

For the actresses playing the members of the Knapeley Women’s Institute, the idea of posing nude was intimidating at first. However, the strong bonds these ladies felt rehearsing the scenes together and their collective love for the show made them feel empowered. Actress Janet Gray said, “You always end up becoming friends with people when you do a show. This experience has been very special to me.”

"It was paramount for me, as the director, to make sure our actresses were confident and comfortable with how they would appear on stage during the calendar photo session scene,” explained Nye. “The nudity is done in the old vaudevillian tradition of carefully positioned props and strategically placed costumes. It’s PG-rated, not Playboy.”

Actress Michelle Gorka talked about her experience with the nude scenes: “It’s natural in the
sense that at this age, I feel comfortable with who I am,” she said.

In addition to the challenge of disrobing, the actresses have also had to learn the quirky dialects of the Yorkshire countryside. “For this show, we have taught the girls two accents: RP, which is what most people view as the standard British accent, and the Cockney accent, as well as a few others that you’ll hear in the play,” stated dialect coach and cast member Viv Tyndall.

“This is not the first time I’ve bared skin on stage, and, oddly, I’ve been doing British accents recently, so that wasn’t that much of a challenge either,” laughed actress Laura Carey.

The story of the real Calendar Girls ended with the ladies selling over 250,000 calendars, becoming international press sensations, and being the subjects of a 2003 hit movie. Best of all, they raised millions toward providing support to Leukemia and Lymphoma patients and their families in the United Kingdom.

“Calendar Girls” opens on Friday, April 20, and runs through Sunday, May 6. For tickets and show times, go to www.svptheatre.org. The theatre is located at 689 Amwell Road in Hillsborough, and is barrier-free and wheelchair accessible