7 Days Till Panto

[paulears]

I did a few videos last year, but did some more as we rehearsed and then started the show at the Grand Opera House, Belfast.

If you've never done a panto at a fairly big theatre = or never done one at all, you could find some of this interesting. Older and wiser folk will realise where I've cut a few corners, but might find a few bits entertaining.

Part 1 - getting there!

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4 - Ghosts?

Episode 5 Get-in Day

Episode 6 - got zapped due to copyright issues

Episode 7

Episode 8

Episode Extras

I tried to be careful with music - but one had lots of background music being played and I had to lose it.

Only another 34 shows to go ................ as of Boxing Day!

[ImagineerTom]

Loving it - thankyou for sharing!

[paulears]

I had lots of messages before I did the last one, saying please share what went wrong - then ironically a reply yesterday saying he actually came to the show and it was good - when it was the most stressful so far - ASM off, and one of the Flawless dancers pulled a muscle - so frantic re-arranging to sort that, and of course I had to cover the ASM stuff - including one line where it said "put on costume and make a dick oif yourself on stage" - as in snowmen! We have a flying scooter that flys out into the audience and while being very happy with how her controls work, it occured to me I didn't have a clue where a couple of things happen and worse, discovered the controller is variable speed, and I'd never given that any thought - so some handing off of critical stuff. You might well be the boss, but part is recognising when you just cannot do it as well as others who've done it thirty odd times. We sorted everything, and good to notice that somebody in the audience didn't even notice anything. 

[sunray]

4 hours ago, paulears said:

I had lots of messages before I did the last one, saying please share what went wrong - then ironically a reply yesterday saying he actually came to the show and it was good - when it was the most stressful so far - ASM off, and one of the Flawless dancers pulled a muscle - so frantic re-arranging to sort that, and of course I had to cover the ASM stuff - including one line where it said "put on costume and make a dick oif yourself on stage" - as in snowmen! We have a flying scooter that flys out into the audience and while being very happy with how her controls work, it occured to me I didn't have a clue where a couple of things happen and worse, discovered the controller is variable speed, and I'd never given that any thought - so some handing off of critical stuff. You might well be the boss, but part is recognising when you just cannot do it as well as others who've done it thirty odd times. We sorted everything, and good to notice that somebody in the audience didn't even notice anything. 

They rarely do notice when something goes wrong unless it's blatant/catastrofic. Chances are it is more likely to be funny and not noticed as wrong.

We went to a 2nd performance AmDram farce recently, and one character had to drop out before curtain up, director took his place and announcement before hand apologised for possible use of script in hand, I hear the funny problems it caused were rehearsed and kept in for the rest of the run.

[dbuckley]

Hi Paul, enjoyed the vids!  Best wishes for the season.

[kerry davies]

Apropos flying with kit I used to do gigs with a solo DJ/Producer/Muso who had two CDJs, two keyboards, a mixer, a drum machine and a couple of laptops. He travelled extensively in Europe and took his mate with him on European flights purely for his baggage allowance. He found it cheaper to have his mate tag along than pay freight or excess charges and his mate enjoyed the travel.