Special Cover on Gaiety Theatre, Shimla..

HP Postal Circle issued a new special cover on 6 June 2011 on famous Gaiety Theatre of Shimla.

Gaiety Theatre Shimla

Gaiety Theatre

The Gaiety Theatre was originally part of a huge town hall complex in the neo-Gothic style, spanning the Mall and the Ridge.

The architect Henry Irwin, who built the Viceregal Lodge, designed the theatre building. In 1911, the upper portions of the building were dismantled as the structure was found to be unsafe. It was opened on the 30th of May, 1887, Queen Victoria's Jubilee Year and its God- Father was lord Bill Beresford, who saved the Simla A.D.C.(Amateur Dramatic Club) , time and again from financial ruin. The formal inauguration of the Simla A.D.C. took place in the year 1888 and since then plays have been staged in the Gaiety with unfailing regularity.The history of ADC goes back to the times when theatre was looked upon as a major and serious source of entertainment and, therefore became a cultural necessity for the English elite. Hence, Shimla became the home of amateur theatre and the Gaiety Theatre produced the best of the plays performed in London.

Among the leading theatre personalities connected with the Shimla Amateur Dramatic Club are: Field Marshal Lord Roberts, who remained president of the Club from 1891-1892 during his tenure as Commander-in-Chief of India; Major P.H. Dnyer, a distinguished producer and actor who acted in Loyalties, Interference and Mary Rose; Lord Bill Beresford, V.C. who was the Military Secretary to Viceroy Lord Lytton, famous poet and author Rudyard Kipling, Lord Kitchner, Mrs. Deane, Major General Sir Godfrey Williams, the Chief of Scouts, Colonel Baden-Powell, and Sir Dennis Fitz Patrick, Lieut-Governor of Punjab during 1895 and many others. Notable film personalities like K.L. Saigal, Prithvi Raj Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor, Jennifer Kendall, Raj Babbar, Anupam Kher, Manohar Singh, Nasseerudin Shah, frequently performed on the stage of the Gaiety theatre.

My recent Covers

David Jastrzebski, Dijon – France

Roland Raulsague – France

Hello Roland, Thanks for the cover. It is difficult to read your address on envelop. Please email me your full address.

World Theatre Day celebrated on San Marino Stamps

 

 

Date of Issue : 4 June 2011

To celebrate World Theatre Day, San Marino Post issued a Souvenir sheet featuring performing Arts theme on 4 June 2011. World Theater Day is observed all over the world on 27 March.

This issue celebrates the art of performing a story live through a combination of words, gestures, music, dance, vocality, expressivity, sounds, designs and scenery. The artist who made the original design used a chromatic approach mainly to underline the emotions that the theatre arouses in the spectator watching acting, ballet, tragedies or comedies.

As a result, the souvenir sheet is covered from the top to the bottom with images of dancers and actors performing a play or opera, masks from Greek theatre and Venetian Commedia dell’Arte, parts of scenery, architecture and rays of light which, together with the symbols of the Palazzo Pubblico, the three Towers of San Marino and the allegory of the Statue of Liberty, wish to recall the importance of this visual art in the artistic panorama of the world.

World Theatre Day

World Theatre Day is an opportunity to celebrate Theatre in all its myriad forms. Theatre is a source of entertainment and inspiration and has the ability to unify the many diverse cultures and peoples that exist throughout the world. But theatre is more than that and also provides opportunities to educate and inform.

Theatre is performed throughout the world and not always in a traditional theatre setting. Performances can occur in a small village in Africa, next to a mountain in Armenia, on a tiny island in the Pacific. All it needs is a space and an audience. Theatre has the ability to make us smile, to make us cry, but should also make us think and reflect.

Theatre comes about through team work. Actors are the people who are seen, but there is an amazing set of people who are not seen. They are equally as important as the actors and their differing and specialist skills make it possible for a production to take place. They too must share in any triumphs and successes that may hopefully occur.

March 27 is always the official World Theatre Day.

Club News

News for coin and Banknote collectors

RBI to issue Non-Sequential Numbered Banknotes in Denomination of Rs 500

With a view to enhancing operational efficiency and cost effectiveness in banknote printing at banknote presses, it has been decided to issue, to begin with, fresh banknotes of

` 500 denomination in packets, which may not necessarily all be sequentially numbered. This is consistent with international best practices. Packets of Banknotes in non-sequential number will, as usual, have 100 notes. The bands of the packets containing the banknotes in non-sequential number will clearly be superscribed with the legend, "The packet contains 100 notes not numbered sequentially.

- Vishal Sanganeria, Guwahati

Shakespeare stamps from Royal Mail..

Date of Issue : 12th April 2011

The Royal Shakespeare Company

On 12 April Royal Mail marked the 50th Anniversary of the Royal Shakespeare Company, with Stamps and a Miniature Sheet. Working with the RSC, Royal Mail selected six RSC productions of Shakespeare’s plays from the last half century for the Stamps and created a Miniature Sheet which comprises four stamps showing the theatres where the RSC has performed in Stratford-upon-Avon through the years.

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) stamps see six productions take centre stage, including Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest, amongst others. The stamps each feature a defining scene from an RSC production alongside a famous quote from each play.

The stamp issue marks 50 years since Sir Peter Hall founded the RSC. Over the last half a century the RSC has staged Shakespeare plays across the UK, and has also taken productions on tour around the UK and worldwide.

Other plays celebrated in the stamp issue include Henry VI, King Lear and A Midsummer Night's Dream. An additional four stamps complete the stamp set and are printed in a miniature sheet depicting a collage of the RSC's theatres in Stratford-upon-Avon.

1st Class – Hamlet

The stamp shows former Dr Who, David Tennant as Hamlet from the recent 2008 production.

66p – The Tempest

Antony Sher plays Prospero in the 2009 production.

68p – Henry VI

Chuk Iwuji as Henry VI in the 2006 production.

76p – King Lear

A classic shot of Paul Schofield as Lear from 1962.

£1.00 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Sara Kestleman as the fairy queen Titania from 1970.

£1.10p – Romeo and Juliet

Ian McKellen and Francesca Annis play the doomed lovers in this 1976 production.

1st Class – Royal Shakespeare Theatre

The First Class stamp shows the Royal Shakespeare Theatre with Janet Suzman as Ophelia from the 1965 production of Macbeth.

68p – Swan Theatre

Here the Swan Theatre is shown with Patrick Stewart in Antony and Cleopatra.

76p – The Courtyard Theatre

The 76p stamp shows Geoffrey Streatfeild in Henry V with the Courtyard Theatre.

£1.00 – The Other Place

The Other Place features Dame Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth.

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