Good Will and All That

Well it's Christmas Eve. Blogs have slowed down a bit last few weeks, what with the house move, festive preparations and of course the panto coming up.

Been an interesting few weeks with the show, we had to make some late cast changes and that is always disruptive, but the principals have knuckled down to work and we are practically there.

Final rehearsals have been mostly fun and good humoured though we have had our stressful moments! Kids though have been great. We knew when we decided to cast 70 odd dancers including a larger number of tiny tots, that this would make Sunday afternoons a bit chaotic.

Rehearsals are a bit of a mix, you know Toy Story and The Sound of Music with a bit of Emmanuel thrown in when the Dame does his Stand Up! (Showing my age there)

I have still shed loads to arrange before the show. Mostly now getting special effects and sounds done. These are the things that elevate the show. You can have great acting, music and dancing but without a suitable fart noise or the right thud when I get punched in the face it all comes to nought.

Me and oppo should be busy working on slapstick but are both engrossed with other things. But as usual we will find the time to rehearse our comedy bits or just make it up as we go a long. That usually works.

So to all my friends old and new, family, readers who don't know me personally, stalkers and any other wierdo's who read my blog, have a Merry Xmas.

I'll see you all at the Floral Pavilion in the new year so get your tickets!

Pantobloke

Calvin Kline's or are they Primark

Been a bit lazy with the blog. Good excuse though as we've just moved house and clearing my cellar of 14 years of junk had to take priority. 

Talking of junk, rehearsals are progressing well with most principals now knowing their lines. Those who don't, we know who you are? It can be difficult though. I struggle and I wrote the stupid thing.

Me and the oppo have still some work to do on our slapstick bits. As usual we will keep it simple and I won't, at this stage reveal what we are going to do. Well I can't reveal it because we haven't written it yet. It will,however, probably involve blowing things up and oppo getting hit on the head several times with blunt objects. I like doing things last minute it keep things fresh.

Talking of fresh, the subject of whose sharing changing rooms rears its ugly head or stench.

Now me and the oppo's room is probably the most fragrant in the corridor ( You want to smell the girl's) Oppo always buys new Calvin Kline undies for the week of the show to impress any of the ladies who try to fight their way into our room. There not genuine CK's of course, I can tell by the fraying around the gusset. Not that I'm looking......moving on.

Busy weekend ahead, footy match with the Dame on Saturday which could be a heavy session being nearly Xmas. Just hope I remember which house to go back to!

Pantobloke

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

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

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

Page 3 it Ain't

Two things to mention this week. Firstly I went along with other committee members to Wirral Met to judge the poster artwork competition they had agreed to run. The submissions were incredibly high standard. When people love what they are doing they can be so creative and we had a hard job picking a winner. In the end we decided on quite a controversial choice, but the artwork was so eye catching we had to go with it. We will publicise the winning entry in the next couple of weeks.

Secondly we had cast photographs for the show program at rehearsals this week. Funny that some people who love showing their full wears on the stage don't like getting their picture taken. Me, I love it and my oppo could only look on admiringly as I posed sexily for the cameras.

It was obviously quite hard for me not to look too provocative, but I think I managed it and didn't show too much shoulder. I even agreed for my oppo to have a joint shot with me so that he could benefit from my professionalism as a glamour model. Unfortunately though, the collective glare from our heads damaged the camera and the photographer had to be treated for snow blindness.

Pantobloke

Is that legal...exactly?

Love rehearsals, really do. Much rather be standing in a church hall on a Tuesday, than sitting at home with a fosters watching the most important England match of the year!

Still we all have to make sacrifices. 

Went to see Wallasey Ops show this week, really well done but so different from our show in so many ways. My oppo was in the chorus and had to make 8 changes!. Particularly liked his nymphomaniac granny role and the other two gay characters which he seemed to pull off with consummate ease.

Panto can be much more anarchic than musicals, the constraints that exist for a director of a copyright musical play just don't exist. We can literally do what we like if you can think of it (and it is not that illegal and/or upsetting for small children or old ladies) we can do it and often will.

Don't read anarchic for unprofessional the best performers ad libs are usually remembered, recorded and rehearsed.

Right I'm in danger of sounding artistic here so I'll shut up. 

Joy of joys bag packing at Morrisons tomorrow, oh I just remembered,spray tan appointment, never mind.

Speak next week,

Pantobloke