Morning.
So it's Saturday, isn't that the day to catch up on chores, go for a walk maybe, to the cinema, relax in the evening with a glass of Pinotage and have dinner with friends? I vaguely remember Saturdays.
Yesterday was a wonderful birthday day thanks to my lovely Team Cinderella, which is simply the best group of people I have ever worked with, honestly! Of course I made sure that I let everyone know that it was my birthday on Act One Tech Rehearsal day. It was a toss up though, do I keep it secret and get no cards? or own up and just hope no one asks how old I am! Its a bit of a double edged sword when you reach a 'certain' age. If no one asks your age you know that they either don't want to embarrass you, or they are scared that they might be so out that you are insulted! Suffice it to say, sweetly, no one did ask! And so the fact that I was 35 yesterday remains my secret!
I was really touched to arrive and find that Mr Phil, our talented MD had bought me not just one but TWO birthday cakes! One with the words Happy Birthday and the other a yummy chocolate caterpillar cake! The thoughtfulness was to make sure that the whole team had a slice including our Chorus Group One when they arrived at 4.pm. Sorry Chorus Group Two, its the breaks!
And on top of that a lovely cake from the cast with two big birthday candles with their best guess of my age - 96! Guys - pleeeese! A lovely rendition of the birthday song performed by 7 musical theatre actors with voices like angels ...... what more can an old gal ask for? My other special present was a little bit of scrap paper from Mr Phil, with a promise for three singing lessons under his fine tutelage. MMMM .......just a little bit scary! You see I can sing beautifully and pitch perfectly in my head.... however translating that to what comes out of my mouth is another matter! Thanks Phil, hope to take up your offer...... sometime........ soon.....
So to turn to more important matters, the business of making the show work technically. Its easy for me ....... I just have to imagine how I want things to look, feel, sound and generally come up with some ideas when it comes to the acting, emotion and spatial dynamics.
Over the years I have developed a little bit of a reputation for being just a tad demanding of others however( Ian,our fantastic Designer would probably have a few words to add to this!) describing exactly what I want to achieve in a pretty uncompromising manner!
With Owen on the floor bringing his attention to detail and well honed instinct for theatre coupled with a group of supremely talented Principals and Chorus that bit happens pretty much as I hope.Then its usually comes down to insuring that it can be repeated! However were it left to me to put the technical elements together, you would be left with something resembling a village hall jumble sale in the dark. (mm..... never been to a village hall jumble sale in the dark, but you get my drift).
So this is where the magic really starts to happen. You can probably guess if you haven't been in a show that a technical rehearsal is where the whole team comes together to bring their solutions in realising the writer's and director's vision.
Up until this moment the departments work hard independently in their disciplines to find solutions to all the challenges presented by the designer, director and MD.
The pivotal role in all of this is that of the Production Manager. He or she (in our case Chris of course) is responsible for ensuring that all these elements are heading in the right direction and then to bringing the design and tech team together to track progress, problem solve and action plan. With over 50 people involved its pretty similar to any small business developing and manufacturing a new product. The know-how of the team Chris has brought together is fantastic, and I am in awe of what they can produce and how they can solve problems like bendy wands and of course in our case the transformation for the ball! Not going to say any more about that though.
As well as the Writer, Director, MD, Designer, Choreographer, the role of the Lighting Designer is highly critical artistically. I haven't spoken much about our Lighting Designer Chloe (Kenward) as yet, but when she agreed to design the lights for CInderella I was really thrilled. Just a whistle stop tour of her design website will show you what I mean www.chloekenward.com.
I was also delighted to welcome Phil Hardisty to Team Cinderella over the past few days. Phil is the second member of our Band ( are they all called Phil?) - and brings his talent as a musician and in this case a drummer to the creative mix! Great to have you on board Phil.
I love Chloe's artistic and intelligent approach to lighting, coupled with her discipline and skills and her slightly scary habit of laughing at me! Listening to her on the head phones throughout the day is to get just a glimpse of the combination of visual, conceptual and logical skills she uses to make her bit of the show work in concert with the whole. She and Cat have been working flat out at this point and the pressure on Lighting Designers is full on during the rigging, focusing, plotting and programming of their design. I love lighting, can't do it meself, but I see it as yet another character in a show like music and design. Like what you have done with the doll's house Chloe!
And last but certainly not least Steve Billington, our Sound Designer who is beavering away on making all the sound effects!
And to turn to the Stage Management team of which there are four led by the precocious MJ (aka my carer). Stage Management are the Father Christmasses of a show, you ask for something, and as if by magic it arrives! I had an idea of combining glitter and magic wands which I was pretty confident would work, but it was Myfanwy who went away and solved the problem, bringing me back the real thing that amazingly looked and worked just as I imagined! And giant nets M - they are awesome!
Laura and she have sourced everything along with Ian's direction. You name it they have found or made it. I am feeling just a bit embarrassed that in my blog yesterday, I may have given the impression that Myfanwy's greatest skill is making tea. Profound apologies M, it was just in that moment when you were making so many things happen, that your uncanny timing on asking whether I would like a cuppa became so prominent.
It was very exciting to see the kids arrive this afternoon, get into costume and go on stage for the first time. These little (and not so little) guys jumped on stage and because they really know what they are doing from their many rehearsals, it all came together very well. I have to say I am totally in love with the mice, Freya and Ella ( and Chorus Two's Ellie and Zarmina), and their costumes are wonderful! Really excited about the mice.
So that's yesterday for you. (oh and big thanks to Denise for toast and butter at 9pm! it certainly filled the gap!)
Today we move onto Tech for Act Two. We are on target, and Dean, the lovely Buttons/Dandini whispered to me that it was the easiest tech day he has ever been involved in. Eat your heart out West End Theatres! In large part this all comes down to Chris and his team. Well done all - see you in an hour or so.
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