WILLOW PLAYS LEADING ROLE IN VILLAGE HALL QUIZ
Newsham, a village ten miles northwest of Richmond, has a vibrant community with regular events and gatherings advertised and celebrated on their Facebook page. Many of these events centre around Newsham Village Hall, including their monthly quiz night. At the end of each quiz, volunteers are requested to run the next month’s event. Usually this will be one of the older community members but last month, Willow Mellon-Kelly, Year 10 student at Richmond School, put her hand up to take on the quite significant responsibility of running October’s quiz night.
We recently caught up with Willow to find out more.
RS: So, a village hall quiz night with cash prizes – that sounds scary! People tend to get quite competitive at these types of events – did you have to settle any arguments?!
W: No – everyone was very calm and good natured – it went well!
RS: Phew! Take us back to the start, after you’d volunteered. How did you come up with the questions and how did it work on the night?
W: There’s a big book of quiz questions that we use, but I also did lots of research on the internet, especially for the picture round. I had to do six rounds of questions plus a jackpot at the end. I wanted the questions to be hard but not too hard – I didn’t want anyone to get them all right, or all wrong! That was quite challenging, actually – finding the right balance – I had to run the questions by my mum and dad quite a few times.
On the night my mum helped setting things up, but I ran the quiz. There were 45 people there – quite a few more than normal – we had to set up extra tables. I stood at the front and read out the questions, then at the end of each round the teams swapped papers and I read out the answers. I was a bit nervous, but it was OK – I quite like standing up in front of people – I love musical theatre and I’m quite good at projecting my voice!
RS: It sounds as though you did a brilliant job – I hear that some people were amazed when they found out you were only 14! What is the quiz for – does it raise money for a particular cause?
W: Yes – the money raised all goes into the upkeep of the village hall – we’re fundraising for a new roof at the moment.
RS: You mention that you’re quite confident standing up in front of people because of your musical theatre experience – tell us a bit more about that.
W: I’ve always loved musical theatre, from hearing Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber when I was very young, then going to see Mathilda by Tim Minchin in London. I wasn’t able to join a theatre group to start with because there wasn’t one nearby, but when we moved to Cumbria and I went to Millom School, I joined the Gosforth Amateur Dramatic Society – GADS. When we moved to Newsham last year I joined the Georgian Theatre Royal’s Youth Theatre – I go on Wednesdays to help out with the junior musical theatre group first, then I’m in the senior group after that.
RS: And are you involved in any productions at the moment?
W: Yes, two. I’m understudy for the Fairy Godmother in Richmond School and Sixth Form College’s panto, Cinderella. I’m in the chorus as well. Rehearsals are going really well – the performances are in the week beginning December 9th. I’m also in the chorus of the Georgian Theatre Royal’s panto – Treasure Island. I was one of 15 young people chosen, based on my performance in their production of Murder at the Musicals last year. There are 57 performances and I’ll be in one of three groups of five, so I’ll be involved in about 20 shows. They start the week before Cinderella – the 4th December. People should come to both!
RS: They certainly should!
Thanks to Willow for giving us such a great insight into the Newsham Village Hall Quiz Night and her love of musical theatre. We wish her all the best with her upcoming performances and look forward to hearing from her in the future!
The photos show Willow at the Newsham Village Hall quiz, helping out with the junior musical theatre group at the Georgian Theatre Royal, and the advert for the October quiz.