Life Members

JOHN BURFOOT

John, it is fair to say, does not like cameras much. In fact, it's usually only possible to photograph him when he isn't looking...which is why you may not recognise him from this, which is the best current photo in the Archives...

Anyway, John has been quietly going about the business of keeping all of our scenery and sundry large props organised and in fit state, as well as helping to build, paint, dismantle and transport the stage sets since 1985. Being married to Ann, he has also read through and listened to more lines than most people would imagine possible, for pretty much the same length of time. Not only that, but he has been backstage whenever needed, shifting scenery and helping out with effects. Sometimes (and largely invisibly), he's even helped out on stage - as, for example, half of a pantomime horse and a very large dog behind a cellar door!

It was, in fact, John who inspired the idea of Life Membership in the first place. Not himself - actually, he's far too modest for that sort of thing - but in the fact that he had been consistently and cheerfully supporting us in anything and everything without complaint for more years than most people had been in the group, without any kind of formal recognition whatsoever. Having decided it wasn't simply a lack of interest in paying annual subs that had brought about this state of affairs, we awarded him the first of our honorary Life Memberships in 2001.

Thankfully, John is still with us and still doing all of the helpful things that he has always done. Plus, at the moment, sitting on the Committee too.

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