Wednesday 27 November 2013

Sick Note

OK before we start, I'm not well, and no it's not Man flu it's a proper cold in fact it's a an acute disease of the upper respiratory tract that is marked by inflammation of the mucous membranes of the nose, throat, eyes, and eustachian tubes and by a watery then purulent discharge and is caused by any of several viruses (as a rhinovirus or an adenovirus) Glad we got that out the way.

Anyway,to use our Dames's standard pantomime segue,not to be confused with a segway which our Dame would love me to buy for him to make his entrance. Every year he wants to make his entrance on some motorised device such as a shopping trolley, lawn mower or this year a turbo charged wheel chair with go faster stripes. As usual I will have to ask oppo to make something, which he will..eventually.

Where was I, oh yes the pantomime. We move to full Sunday rehearsals this week, so now it's getting serious. Scripts must be binned. This is difficult for the cast as I am still writing it. Great when we start to do the material in the main hall with a bit of an audience. We can begin to see what works and what doesn't. There are some jokes I know will always work (You will all by now be very familiar with my if all else fails fart and fall over gag) but other more subtle humour has to be tried out. Now I know what your thinking, Pantobloke subtle humour I don't think so! But I can be subtle (please see clever segue/segway reference above)

Anyway from the look of this blog, I have obviously exceeded my 4 lemsip sachets in 24 hours so I will go and rest so I am fit for Sunday...not that you care

Pantobloke


Wednesday 13 November 2013

No Twerking....no I mean it!

First Music rehearsal this week. Always difficult as we try out new songs and principals get used to Norman playing on his organ. (Ok will clean it up now)

Choice of songs is very important as it is a big part of the show and we like to make sure that cast members are comfortable with the song choices. If possible, especially with solos, we like to use suggestions made by whose going to sing it.

That is as long as it's not "On my Own" from Les Mis. If I hear that bloody song again  I will be on my own, standing on a bridge over the Thames following Javert.

We have to achieve the right balance for our audience and that , lamentably for me, means One Direction. Will draw the line at Miley Cyrus. The thought of our Dame trying to Twerk, puts me off my porridge.

Watched part of the video of our last production of Little Red Riding Hood. It was good show and only about 8 years ago. It's also quite painful watching yourself, it's a bit like Cliff looking at himself in Summer  Holiday. Except Cliff looks the same.

Ah well looks like it's weekly Botox injections for me and oppo right up to the show.

Pantobloke

Saturday 2 November 2013

Cows and Cottages

So we move into November and panto preparations are gathering pace. Rehearsals are going well now that we have the full cast available and as usual we are getting all the rude ad libs most of which will be too rude to put in the show.

Went down with stage manager, stage managers mate and my oppo to the lockup to look at scenery situation. I usually stand round and supervise while the others do the lifting. I let oppo think that I'm too weak to lift anything by occasionally dropping a flat on his foot. Seems to work and he hasn't cottoned on yet. Last time we were down there he broke a floresecent ( not even close with the spelling there) light fitting and blamed me...typical!

Main debate this year surrounds the cottage. As per normal we want to blow it up, so we are looking at ways to do this without giving the older members of our audience a heart attack. This will involve a loud noise, lots of smoke, debris and flame. Would like to use real flame but budget and danger to small children will unfortunately prevent this.

Tickets are going well and we will shortly be ramping up publicity. Our new poster looks great.

Oh I am also now looking to spend some money on a new Pantomime Cow costume. This should be a good use of raised cash unless I can think of an udder way to spend it.....sorry h
Just getting in the mood

Pantobloke