A blog from the lovely Kate

With only a month(ish) to go I thought it was about time I had a go at this blogging malachy.  how hard can it be?

so umm yeah...rehearsals great...singing good...dancing ok...Neil stressed...George lovely...publicity going...tickets selling...Laura Becky...Becky Laura...mosquitos bitting...crates made...finale set...game on!

done :) easy!

k8xx


(Kate Claxton)

What the...?

God, not long now

We had a photo and film shoot over the weekend for M&M, but I'm not going to explain about it. You need to buy a ticket to find out what the dickins' was going on here...

Neil

All good things must come to an end

In just 6 weeks this blog will be no more. Kaput. Gone to the great posting place in the sky. And, like the French Football Teams World Cup hopes, just a distant memory (Oh, you didn't just make a football joke did you, Neil? But..but you don't like football. Why yes I did, Neil.)


On the production front it's all a bit fenzied. Nuff said.


Neil

The Mathieson & Gaylor Sitcom

Week Aaaaarrrrrggghhhhh

Something different this week - a video blog (Below) hopefully - John G is well on the way with building the set, so I dropped in on him last night. Here's a tiny tiny snapshot of 'Life with Gaylor'. Plus there's an in-joke at the end that no-one will get. Sorry about that. Cue sitcom music.



Press play to...er...play

Neil

Putting it together

Stephen Hutt. The Man. The Legend. The young 'Stephen Fry'. I should have put this up last week but I didn't. No, don't give me that look. I'm juggling lots of balls at the mo. And you don't want to see it when my balls drop. Anyhoo, on with the blog...

In the words of Stephen Sondhiem this week we are 'Putting it together'. Ah sunday in the park with George, nothing like quoteing a musical no one has seen. It's gonna be fun fun fun.

Last week is not a week I remember well. Truth be told. My head was full of revision, binary to hexidecimal conversions, ionization enthalpy rates and uv radiation and other causes of ozonedepletion were all at the forefront of my mind. So looking back it's all a tad fuzzy. Both Tuesday and Thursday Mr Neil went over all the things that were yet to be done on the acting front / bits people had missed or just plain wanted to revise. Which was nice.

The real news is that a couple of cast members went books down. *sound of neil having a party in background* a rather lovely development. Another bit of news is that we have found 'the scene' , the scene that will always go wrong, if there is going to be a mess up it will be here. We've already spent a silly amount of time on it, done it again and again. Forewarned is however forearmed. It's not a hugely important scene either or that emotional which is always a good thing. But it's there, looming with the faint smell of disaster.

This week looks to be a goodun' I unfortunately cannot attend Thursdays rehearsal, (it saddens me deeply but there is little I can do) but Tuesday was very productive and most enjoyable.

We got stuff done and we had a laugh doing it.  Amen to that!

Stephen Hutt

Two poems from the lovely Polly

2 poems from Polly this week - I'm not sure if I'd missed one...email overload....but it means you get a 'twofer' this wet Thursday afternoon. Aren't you lucky. Yes. Yes, you are. 

Poem 1

Right..It’s getting serious – Our names are on the signs.
Neil is going to shave our heads if we don’t know our lines.
Mack managed a monologue for a page and a half.
Then Mabel fluffed up her first line – it made us really laugh.
Simon has been busy – “Spellbound” have been on the phone.
He’s needed as their trainer after Tuesday’s backward roll!
John G acts convincingly..just half a page behind.
But we’ve seen the title credits so we know they will be fine.
We came to Walkford so that we could start a run right through.
..and though we all did very well......We’re only on page 2!

Poem 2
Rehearsals in the hall at Walkford just could not be rosier
But not a walk in the park outside in the dark – they’re suffering from exposure!
Ian’s put to the test, but doing his best with all Altos, Tenors, Basses
As he says “Don’t Tap, Try not to Chat or we’ll all be basket cases.
George is working on a mission that will come to fruition
To finish the Finale that we learned at the audition.
Adam’s here (“Hooray!” we cheer) He’ll be Playing Kessel!
But it was a bit tough to sing by himself at his very his first rehearsal!
It’s a privilege to have a part and this chance to do dramatic art.
But HELP! We’re Fretting, We’re all forgetting stuff we did at the start!

Polly

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter.

7 weeks to go

We're on Twitter. 
Thanks to Pete Whitaker - or should that be Pete Twitaker (**ba boom tish** I thang yew) -  we can now tweet, twoot, twaat, twuut...whatever it is to our hearts contents.

Get all the minute-to-minute, luvvy-by-luvvy updates from here:

http://twitter.com/CharityPlayers

You'd be a..ahem...'twit' not to. Oh stop it. No you stop. No, you. 


Neil

Scene it, heard it, done it.

7 weeks (OH MY GOD, 7 WEEKS) to opening night

These photos above, are not from a photo shoot, they aren't publicity - they are in fact to help with costumes so we know who is in what scene, and to help us figure out who has some quick costume changes etc. So if they look a little bored or distracted that's why.....

Enjoy this little snap shot of 'who's in what scene'.

Don't forget to get your tickets on 01202 499199 - or visit the regent website here.

Neil

It's done.

The Overture storyboard and modelling is done. At last.

It now gets passed over to Jon for a touch of his genius. Huzzah.

Neil

Horsin' around

To find out what the hell the above image is all about book your tickets now by calling: 01202 499199 or

Click here to book tickets at the Regent Centre

Neil

Keeping it going

Week-oh-my-god-I-haven't-enough-time

Oh it's all getting a little scary now. I'm doing 2am finishes at the mo, but my piles doesn't seem to be going down. That's piles of work, by the way, not piles. Nothing to do with my bottom area...just to be clear.

Anyhoo, overture storyboards nearly finished (above) and ready for handing over to Jon and his team. The idea is that everyone gets a name check in the overture in a style suiting them ie John Gayler is building the set therefore:

We had a props meeting on Weds evening and that went well. The Two Annes seemed very at ease with everything I've asked from them, so that's all tres encouragement (as they say somewhere that speaks French. Like Dusseldorf).

Last night was a production meeting which went well. I think. My attempt at being helpful and sorting out lighting bars may have turned out to be a bit wrong... but Martyn and Eliot seemed to interpret it. Plus Martyn may have saved us 1000s of pounds by point out something bleedin' obvious that I didn't think about. Custard Pies + Radio mikes don't mix very well. Phew, electrical disaster averted.

Last nights rehearsal was doing the little bits of lib we haven't done with the principals, and George went through the last of the dances - all in preparation for the bolting it together next week. Cast should have their books down, and Sharon Burn is coming to prompt them - so fingers crossed that the cast have learnt their bits or we're a bit screwed....

Lots of publicity going out at the mo. Ticket sales are ok, but we're going to push more over the next few weeks.

So now comes the hard part of rehearsals.....bolting it all together - next week we'll know if the show is going to work or not....eeeeek

Neil

Time for a quick rank

Week at the knees


Ooooh. This blog is top 100 (88 at time of posting) in the Wikio Music blog rankings and 218 in the top culture blogs:

  

Golly gosh. I have no idea how this works or if it means anything, but it is nice to have a good rank now and then. I'm going to pretend it does mean something: hurrah for us. Watch over the coming weeks as it rises or falls...


Shame we only have a few more weeks left on this blog, and it's all over.


Neil

It's the game that's sweeping the nation

It's the game that's sweeping the nation our rehearsals. (For the whole 
background story to this see our 19th May posting) Thanks to Jon Hall we're off and running to today with "Becky or Laura"....OK! Let's play!

Answer next week....

We throw a pie in the heroine's face...

Well what a week it has been. Time churns on, the show gets nearer and I for one am terrified.

Tuesday brought our last session with Ian forms couple of weeks as he is disappearing off into the wild blue yonder. He did however leave us with jobs to be done, mainly to learn the words as well as overcome jerry Herman's lack of affection for breathing. Then Tuesday was wrapped up with a good bit of dance followed by a quick rehearsal for the publicity event on the 29th.

 Thursday was another exciting experience, we arrived early for another rehearsal for Christchurch community celebration on the 29th. The fabled t-shirts had arrived and were admired by all. The rest of the rehearsal was devoted to sorting the custard pie scene, I won't lie to you it's less than glamorous, and the next scene we are all in has got to be very glamorous, some very good make up recovery will be needed on the night I think.

Saturday then brought the Christchurch Community Celebration that we had been rehearsing for, the weather was foul, but we ploughed through and got a good plug for Mack and Mabel,

All together a fun ol' week
Stephen