Rowntree Players Panto: sales open with 'golden ticket' offer

Tickets on sale from Saturday 16 July 2016 (in person) or Monday 18 July 2016 (online)

A VIP offer awaits a lucky family at this year’s Rowntree Players pantomime, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  A golden ticket – promising that the holder and their family will be treated like a baron or a dame – awaits those purchasing tickets from the Joseph Rowntree Theatre box office when bookings open at 10.00am on Saturday 16 July 2016.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame runs from Saturday 3 December to Saturday 10 December and is written by Rowntree Players ‘ Andy Welch and Howard Ella, with Gemma McDonald sharing directorial duties with Ella.

This year’s festive treat sees the players transporting the audience from the chocolate-fragranced streets of York to the city of Paris where the beautiful Esmeralda and Notre Dame bell ringer Quasimodo take on the evil Governor LeTrump in yet another brand new rollicking romp of a panto!

The golden tickets will grant the prize-winners VIP access to the show, including front row seats to the final show, a backstage tour and their choice of interval ice-cream – the perfect panto experience!  Anyone buying tickets in person from the Joseph Rowntree Theatre box office, near Yearsley Swimming Pool on Haxby Road, on the opening weekend will have a chance of winning the tickets.

“This is the first year that we’ve had a box office at the theatre itself selling tickets, so we’re bracing ourselves for the first flurry of panto enthusiasts keen to get their regular front-row seats to see what hilarious antics the Rowntree Players will be getting up to,” comments box office director, Martin Rowley.  “Our gates will be open early, and we even have volunteers on standby for the night before if anyone decides to camp on the drive to get the first tickets!”

The show’s co-creator, Howard Ella, is excited to be making a song and dance about the show: “We have a great audience who come back year after year to experience the Rowntree Players panto – the only theatre-based panto in York to be filled entirely with home-grown talent “

Walk-up ticket sales will open at 10.00am on Saturday 16 July.  Free parking will be available in the theatre car park, adjacent to Yearsley Pool.  Those who can’t make it down to the theatre will be able to buy tickets online from 9.00am on Monday 18 July at www.josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk

Any budding actors who would rather be on stage than in the audience still have time to vie for a role in the show, with auditions being staged on Sunday 10 and Sunday 24 July at Door 84, Lowther Street, York from 2.00pm to 6.00pm.  For an audition pack, please visit www.rowntreeplayers.co.uk

ENDS

For further media information or photographs, please contact:

Jay Commins, PR director

Joseph Rowntree Theatre

Tel:         01904 500698

Email:    jay.commins@jrtheatre.co.uk