Bums on seats for naked Calendar Girls (From Streatham Guardian)

Bums on seats for Kingston Vale's naked Calendar Girls

9:30am Monday 4th February 2013 in Freetime By Jon Sharman, Reporter

It will be bums on seats for a cheeky performance this week as Calendar Girls comes to the Arthur Cotterell Theatre in Kingston.

Eleven brave women will perform the story of Women’s Institute members who posed naked to raise money for the hospital where one of their husbands died of cancer.

In the spirit of the original calendar girls, Kingston Vale Operatic and Dramatic Society (KVODS) will also collect donations for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research after the shows.

Director Katy Goddard says she had no problem getting people involved.

She says: “I was really surprised because I told people they would have to get naked but we actually had more people than we needed for the parts.

"We’ve created extra roles – people are getting more than their money’s worth when they come to our show.

“Because we’ve got quite a lot of large-breasted ladies we had quite a lot of fun in rehearsals to get big enough props to disguise their modesty – getting the right size buns.

“It’s a bit of a taboo but you do it and then it becomes normal.

"At first everyone was being a bit coy. We’ve had a brilliant laugh.”

Katy’s former drama teacher Paul Brown died of leukaemia, so when she found out KVODS would be able to put on the show she was thrilled.

She says: "He encouraged my passion. It all sort of fell into place and I thought, this is a perfect reason to do the show.”

The Calendar Girls are on show at the Arthur Cotterell Theatre at Kingston College, Kingston Hall Road, from Wednesday, February 6, to Saturday, February 9, at 7.45pm. Tickets cost £14 or £12 for concessions. To book, call 07982 046210 or visit www.ticketsource.co.uk/kvods