Cake and Bubbly in the Plaza.
On Saturday, July 2, The Javea Players celebrated their 40th Anniversary with a monstrous 'everyone
welcome' party in the Plaza Baix in Javea's Old Town. There to cut the cake and to toast the future of
the drama group that has earned such a huge reputation for the outstanding quality of its productions
was the Mayor of Javea, Jose Chulvi with his Councillor for Culture, Quico Moragues. Other VIP
guests included the sons of Janet Phillips, the founder of the Javea Players, David and Andrew Philips
and her daughter, Jessica who had flown out specially for the celebrations. Great music for a great
party was provided by Strikland with the fabulous lead singer, Rob Sweeney
In January 1976, Janet Philips, who had established in Javea the greatly appreciated English Library
Service, decided that something should be done to relieve the live entertainment starvation the English
speaking residents were suffering. She invited to a meeting ex-pats who might be interested in starting
an amateur drama group. Twelve turned up. They were, however, an immensely enthusiastic and very
resourceful dozen. Very sadly, Janet died suddenly before the curtain went up on their first production
in May that year. It was a double bill of a dramatic sketch entitled, 'Murder by Request' and the two-act
comedy, 'Meet the Family'. Such was the enthusiasm and dedication of the group that in their very first
year they staged three very successful productions. They did so in spite of what those less resourceful
would have found insurmountable difficulties. It was only a year after the end of the Franco regime and
bureaucracy was still very much alive and kicking.
The group managed to get permission to stage their productions in the old 'Casa de la Falange' which
had been the headquarters of the local supporters of the dictator. It was a start. But the building was
designed for political rallies, the electricity supply was totally inadequate and to have any stage lighting
it was necessary to nick a little extra supply from the street lighting, irrespective of the drama being
performed on stage, military style marching bands thought the building still to be the place for them to
reach their crescendo.
In 1987, the Ayuntamiento decided that the old building was becoming too dangerous for public
performances. With very little notice and a play well into rehearsals, the Javea Players found themselves
homeless. To their rescue came Sr Cevera Pastor who made available to them the old cinema in
Benitchell. It was there that the Players staged their first play with music, 'Oh What a Lovely War' and
later the musical, 'Toad of Toad Hall'. Their new found home unfortunately proved to be short lived as
it was found to be an illegal venue for public live performances.
In 1992, the Javea Players staged their first production of Shakespeare. In a disco.;A Midsummer
Night's Dream' was performed in the Moli Blanc Disco. The staging was an enormous challenge, every
evening, within half an hour of the final curtain the Players were required to erase all evidence of their
production in readiness for the arrival of the disco revellers.
A year later, the Players found a home in a concert hall, the Union Musical, Gata de Gorgos. They
are still there. One of their 40th Anniversary productions, Cherry Cabban's production of 'Our Man in
Havana' will play there this November. Now, it is not their only home, the Javea Players have built in
the Old Town of Javea the town's only theatre, an intimate, professionally equipped Studio Theatre
where many of their productions are now staged.
With so much achieved over the last 40 years it is small wonder the Javea Players celebrated with such
gusto.