Member: 2001-
Committee Positions:
2004-05: Chair
2010-11: Merchandising & Sponsorship
2011-12: Co-Webmaster
Directorial Positions:
2007: Director - The Pirates of Penzance
2007: Director - Kaleidoshow
2008: Director - Ruddigore
2010: Director - Be our Guest
2012: Director- Yeomen 12
Awards:
The Award for Biggest Ego was named after him.
Self proclaimed (and yet endorsed!) society God-King Christopher Charlton joined the society way way back many centuries ago…well, for The Mikado 2002. As practically the only tenor, it's not surprising he got the part of Nanki-Poo. Bless, doesn't he look young in that video!
Having joined, Chris has hung around for, well, quite a while. In Iolanthe he played Lord Tolloller, in Mary Poppins he was cockney chimney sweep Bert, in The Gondoliers Marco Palmieri, in Return to the Forbidden Planet Captain Tempest, in Princess Ida King Hildebrand, in Patience the Duke of Dunstable, and in Guys and Dolls Big Julie.
After all that, Chris decided he'd had enough of the stress of principal roles. So he decided to become a director. That must be less stressful, mustn't it? Well, after directing The Pirates of Penzance and Ruddigore, as well as script writing, assistant directing and playing a door in Kaleidoshow he wasn't so sure any more. Chris was also society chair 2004-2005.
Chris once again took the stage in the society's summer show of 2008, and then discovered he portrayed haughty youth Pooh-Bah rather well for his first reprise of a G&S show in The Mikado 2009. "You know you've been here too long when…"
Chris is also renowned for his appalling accents. The first of these, cockney, appeared to be a side effect of playing Bert in Mary Poppins (though some still say it was better than Dick Van Dyke's). We then had American (Planet and Guys and Dolls), and what was known as "Scottish-Russian" in Princess Ida. It's said that this began as a joke at rehearsal, which the directors took rather too seriously.
Having said in 2005 that it would be worth staying in the society for at least 40 years if he could get to play Jean Valjean from Les Miserables, we decided that we'd better make sure he didn't have to wait that long, and he played that role in Kaleidoshow in 2007.
In 2010 Chris branched out into the field of being a Techie and Stage Managed our production of The Sorcerer, but followed this with a return to acting in the Gondoliers 2011, reprising his role as Marco Palmieri.
Also in 2010 Chris Charlton married the beautiful and estimable Lauren Mathews, whom he had met during Patience 2006 (yet another marriage through the G&S society)
2012 heralds a return to directing with the Yeomen of the Guard - 1940s style!
As one of the gravestones in The Pirates of Penzance 2007 said,
"Christopher Charlton. Forgotten but not gone. 2002-?"
