Blithe Spirit

Our production of Blithe Spirit has come and gone in a whirl. We had so little time to rehearse that I was unable even to keep you updated! It was very tough learning and rehearsing in the shortened rehearsal period. However, we all made it in the end and pulled off four amazing, but very different performances. There were a few ‘prompts’ but with a play that wordy it is to be expected. Unfortunately the Press did not come and see us, however we were sent a glowing report from our local NODA representative. Shortly after performing, I watched the Rex Harrison film of Blithe Spirit and I have to say I was rather disappointed. I know it was the acting style synonymous with the period, but Elvira was not played to her best and I thought I was much better (not that I am blowing my own trumpet of course!) Pictures to follow

It never stops!

Well, only 5 days after the pantomime has ended, we have successfully cast our upcoming production which this spring will be Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward. Hopefully this will be one to bring in the crowds. With such a well-known play it cannot fail to appeal. However, as it is so popular and there have been so many different version of it over the years, there are a lot of fixed ideas about how it should be done, and a lot of comparisons to be made. I just hope we can do it justice. With the strong cast that we have I cannot see that we will have too many problems.

After a few doubts about whether we would be able to cast it due to lack of available, and suitable, men, the auditions went smoothly and all parts were cast.

I am playing Elvira, the ghost of the first wife – for those of you who don’t know the story. I also auditioned for Ruth (the current wife) however, Elvira was the part that I really wanted! What a fantastic part and there are so many different tones and mannerisms that can be used throughout the play calling for a very diverse acting range. The accents will need to be clipped as dictated by the times, and I will need to work out a way of staying permanently grey throughout the performances!

I can’t wait to get started!!

Goodbye Mother Goose.

Well, here it is, another Pantomime over. All too soon I may add. After our problems, we quickly overcame them and impressed our Director enormously (I think). As usual, we managed to put all of our energies into the performances and offered our audiences polished shows. The last few shows were really great. Each performance became slicker than the previous, and each audience got better too. We had pretty packed houses, apart from Thursday night, which is always a problem for us to fill. Thursday’s audience made enough noise for us not to notice though. As we warmed up throughout the show, a few extra ad-libs were tossed into the mix, mostly to get the audience to react to one situation or other, which also gave us a big boost.

Our MD was still not able to play for us, however he was able to come and watch it on Saturday afternoon, which was good as we could then give him recognition for the effort he had put in with producing the soundtrack.

We had many extremely positive and totally unsolicited words of gratitude and praise for the enjoyable performances. This pantomime is a credit to our Director and will be remembered for some time to come.

Let’s just wait to see what the press think of it. I look forward to the review and will post a link as soon as it is published.

Pantomime opening weekend success!

After all of our problems, our opening weekend was a huge success. Although we cannot say that we had full houses, they were not far off and despite the reduced numbers the audience made a lot of noise, booing, hissing, cheering and arrr-ing. Our MD is still not with us, but he promises that he will come to rehearse with us today (Wednesday). I just hope everything goes well, other wise tomorrow’s performance will be like the Dress Rehearsal again!

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The Director seems very pleased with us, after we picked up our lines and made sure our songs were correct throughout the first matinée performance. I think it has also given the cast a boost of confidence, as well as having the feedback from the audience, which always helps. Well, let us look forward to a fun rehearsal tonight and a successful final run of 4 performance over the next 3 days!

Pantomime almost ready to go!!

Well with less than a week to go until this year’s pantomime opens, we have a night off!

I don’t know whether this is a good or a bad thing. Either the Director is happy with the production and doesn’t think that we need any further practice, or she has had enough; she is ready to down the bottle of gin and obliterate her name from all of the programmes! I suspect the latter.

We have had many things to contend with, the abominable weather (complete with snowman), lack of available cast members for the productions to begin with, then lots of missed rehearsals by almost all of the cast. Finally the biggest hurdle to struggle across is the absence, and now illness of the Musical Director. Fortunately he created a disc with all of the song tunes on it, but that doesn’t help with the incidental music that is essential to accent the antics of pantomime. All I can say is that we are glad that we had two rehearsals to get used to the recorded music; even if one of them was the Dress Rehearsal! At least it didn’t happen for the first performance!

Well with the music now organised, we just have to make sure we can deliver our lines correctly. As you can well imagine, the lack of a Musical Director at this stage has upset the apple cart a little and the cast are understandably jittery. This is creating problems with the lines, which although they weren’t brilliant a couple of weeks ago, they were better than they were during the Dress Rehearsal. Yesterday’s rehearsal was a bit better, so hopefully this will give us the boost we need to ensure the first performance on Saturday is a good one. Let’s hope, eh?

Christmas Show cancelled!

Well, this is the first time that I have been involved in a production that has suffered because of something cold and white. According to the saying,  ”The show must go on”….however in our case the only sensible option was to cancel. The weather here has been very cold and icy and despite not having half as much snow as the rest of the country, the travelling conditions are still treacherous! A couple of hours before the rehearsal yesterday afternoon, the decision was made, for everyone’s safety, to cancel the annual Christmas Show.  We would have been playing to a packed house, all in festive spirits, ready for the celebrations to begin. Never mind, hopefully we have the mince pies and wine on ‘sale or return’ or we will be consuming them over the next few pantomime rehearsals!

Maybe we should have taken notice of the omens earlier on in the year, where we had very few people available for the show in the first place. Then we “merrie band of few” got together to have rehearsals and for half of them we had no pianist. However, all that said, you can never predict the weather that far ahead. It was just unfortunate that is all, that we are having our worst weather for 100 years, and it is not even winter yet! Let us see what January brings (just in time for the pantomime!)

Haven Players Christmas Show rehearsals

We are starting rehearsals for our Christmas show today. We are looking at the music and the readings and will be trying to work out who is doing what! A very difficult task. We have already had a running order and there is the usual mix of traditional carols and popular songs to warble along to. It should be fun.

Mother Goose Rehearsals

Things seem to be going well with rehearsals so far. We don’t have any music yet, but that means that we can concentrate on getting the movement right early on. Once the MD is available, we can start to learn our songs. I have quite a few to learn this year, with being Principal Girl. I must start learning the lines though as I don’t want to get to thinking that I can leave it for a while as I don’t have many lines to learn. I don’t have to worry too much if I can get my lines early, then I can get my script out-of-the-way and concentrate on acting.

It’s Pantomime time again!….Oh, no it isn’t!…Oh yes it is!

After the great success of the last show, we are swiftly onto the next production which at this time of the year is the start of the Pantomime rehearsals. This year will be “Mother Goose”, one that we have not done for a very long time. We are using the same script writer as last years pantomime as the format was so good.

I have been cast as Mother Goose’s daughter ”Jill”, the principal girl. I am very pleased with this as although I would have been quite happy to be part of the chorus, I do like a main part. Plus as the years pass by, there is less chance of me being able to audition successfully the role! I have quite a few appearances and several songs to sing. I am hoping for a couple of very pretty costumes too. Might also be a good time to start on the diet again!

Well with the prospect of a string of fun rehearsals and lots of songs to learn, I am very much looking forward to being part of this production!

Accidental Death of an Anarchist – Dario Fo

Well, rehearsals for this fantastic play are nearly at an end. Over the last couple of days we have finalised the Technical side of the production and had the dress rehearsal and are now feeling ready to perform. One more run-through before we open to the paying public.

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