Here we go again! (Oh no we don't)

Well, the Christmas Carry On circus starts for another year with successful auditions yesterday for the annual panto, which this year is ‘Aladdin and his wonderful lamp’.

As always on these occasions, I am blown away by the quality of the auditions and the effort people have put in to learn their audition pieces and songs. Yesterday we had a huge variety of songs sung to us, from the classic audition songs from ‘Les Mis’ through to vintage Pink Floyd (a first in an audition as far as I am aware!).

We have ended up with a superb cast at the first attempt and were spoiled for choice for almost every role, which makes a nice change and is most unusual.

Another thing that is nice this year is that as well as the usual faces (I call it the Christmas Carry On because it really is like the ‘Carry On’ movies, with the same faces playing slightly different but very similar roles each year) we have some newbies in principal roles, which is healthy and refreshing. Every Director goes into auditions with ideas about who might be good in which part (show me a Director who says they don’t and I’ll show you a fibber!) but on the day it’s important to keep an open mind because people you expect to be excellent can simply fail to perform on the day, and others you expect to be less suitable or whom you don’t know can blow you away. We had a few of those yesterday, and a few ‘no shows’ who may well be waiting for the phone call to ‘come along and help us out’ which this year, won’t come!

I’m looking forward to this; not only is it my own script and my well honed vision, but it will be my last show for a while as I am planning on taking a break in 2013 and so it is a bit of a temporary swansong. Panto is always knackering with three rehearsals a week and extra busyness over the traditionally hectic festive period, but the end result with ten pretty much full and very appreciative houses is always worth it.

The best part of the day yesterday was the adult movement audition, which was much more fun than the dancers or kids who always seem to pick these things up quickly and move fluidly with very little tuition. I know all these people will get it right and perform in the end, but adult principal performers just don’t pick up the movement as quickly as youngsters and you can see by the expression on their faces that they are going through half an hour of purgatory. I know that I hate it, and they do too. But it’s a necessary evil and provides great amusement for the audition panel mid way through an exhausting day.

We also had almost 30 kids audition yesterday, from which we had to pick a maximum of twelve. It’s really hard to single kids out, and with such a large number sometimes some very good ones can get lost in the crowd. Four bravely came back for a recall late afternoon, and we have a great team in place.

There’s a bit of a lull now, and we start rehearsals on 5^th October. That’s earlier than usual due to other commitments amongst the production team, but it won’t do any harm for them to get some early learning under their belts. We start in earnest with the full on three times a week late October right through to late January, then we all get our lives back.

Bring it on…