Amy on Breakfast Radio, Its a Christmas Miracle and Crew photos in Barking Post: Director's Blog 42

Hi everyone. 
Very quick update on Team Cinderella trials and tribulations!
Yesterday started with accompanying Amy (Cinderella) to BBC Saturday Breakfast show where she was on the Joanne Good and Simon Lederman show on 94.9 ( you can hear her on Iplayer playback for the rest of this week). The producer had brought together three Cinderellas, from Kington Rose Theatre and St James Theatre. Amy did very well, not least because it was her first ever radio interview and it was a bit daunting for her to think she would be heard at breakfast tables across London! 

All three Cinderellas talked about their shows, and Amy talked about her audition which she said wasn't as bad as she thought it would be! Apparently Phil, Owen and I weren't quite as scary as she had imagined. And Amy also talked about what it was like to become a professional. She sounded real and honest and I was very proud of her.

I saw the second show yesterday - and it was lovely. There had been a bit of a challenge with the Lady number in that poor Sam has lost his voice with the now famous Thespian Malady! Its been going round since November 5th. Not enough antibacterial wipes used by us all! Every week one or other of Team Cinderella goes down with it. Cameron (Technical Stage Manager) and Sam had it too. So we were 2 down on the shows on Friday and Chris and his team managed brilliantly, although I did see them all running around to cover all the cues! Chris is so unflappable.

Then yesterday there was another challenge, and this time it was Phil who led the way The If I were a Lady number in act two is a real young company number and they love it.We have to omit it from all the schools performances because of show running time. 

In Lady Sam Wilmore (mentioned in a review) has a number of short solos but he had come down with the Thespian Malady which has been doing the rounds. Having virtually no voice, Phil rearranged the short solos that Sam does in Lady, and his parts were shared between Jess, Stacey and Rosie (Team 2). They took on the new direction brilliantly and were very proud of them! Both young company teams are becoming more professional with every show! and I think they quite like missing school for a few days too. (Don't tell their teachers please!) I hope that Sam doesn't lose his solos as well as his voice! 

And then there was the front page and double page in the Barking and Dagenham Post which was a behind the scenes article with a great spread of photos from back stage just before and during a show. Funnily enough when the reviews came out on Monday I sent a note of congratulations to the whole team, without which none of the show would run at all.

 In congratulating them all, I made a passing comment that the technical team would probably never get a mention in a review. Well here we are then because no sooner than we talked about there - in came this big spread  http://www.bdpost.co.uk/home/e-edition and yes there they were, the Technical Team in full flow backstage. I was delighted to see this and it brings up some new ideas about what other technical angles we might take in future.

Lastly, but I had a quite special experience talking to Eight year old Savannah and Jasmine who had plonked themselves down next to me in the balcony, leaving their seats in pursuit of a better view. They were mesmorised by Cinderella's dress transformation and Jasmine asked "Is it really magic?" and I asked her whether she thought it was, and she nodded vigorously. Then Savannah chipped in with the biggest smile  "Actually its a Christmas miracle". And she meant it. It was an exquisite moment and you only get these insights when you chat with the kids in the audience after the show. That made my day.

So that's it from me for today. Off to the 4pm show in a bit, not sure I will watch the whole show but will definitely check out the transformation as I love it too. I know how it works of course but the thing that's fabulous are the gasps of the children. There's the magic. 

That's it for today. Have a good weekend.