Apologies for the rather erratic publishing times for the blog over the past couple of days, I only just realised that Christmas day is actually next Tuesday! How did that happen?
Well apparently panto time means its Christmas for a full five weeks, every day and every show. Then suddenly the real Christmas arrives and you realise that you have omitted to do all the real lead up to Christmas stuff like sending cards, buying presents and ordering a turkey! I have definitely been so obsessed and focused on Cinderella that I am at my all time most disorganised for next week.
All I can say is thanks to Amazon, ebay and Barking market or FC wouldn't be scaling the chimney in our house, (which to be fair is actually blocked up). But we'll get there. Yesterday's dedicated blog time got pushed aside for the frenzy of ensuring I would have presents to give to my family and friends, or perish the thought I might find myself with fewer this time next year and a proven reputation for lack of thought and last minute action!
I have been in the theatre for quite a few shows over the past few days. I don't always see it all but I have to admit that being there for the love duet and transformation in act one is always important to me as a gauge of audience response. And I am just a bit partial to the wonderful gasps of awe as the kids in the audience can't believe their eyes as the dress transforms. I wish I could not know how it works and see it as living proof of the existence of magic before my own eyes. But second best is to know that without any shadow of a doubt these children totally believe they have seen the dress magically change.
Often during the intervals at the school's shows I overhear conversations between children and sometimes join in with them and its a joy to see their imaginations so fully stimulated. And its the learning and thinking bit of that I like too.
The metaphor of the transformation of pumpkin and dress signals that however it is done anything is possible if you set your heart and mind on it. That's why this is possibly the most important work we have done for quite a time now. In these economically bleak times, we need to build our children's resilience, and stories about how things can change are so important here and at many levels!
As the poet Ben Okri says
Stories can conquer your fear you know, they can make the heart bigger.
After every public performance of the show, the actors come out into the foyer for a "Meet and Greet" Little children have their photos taken by beaming mums and dads The kids are often so star struck they can hardly move! It was funny when Anya (Ella's little mouse sister)who Amy teaches was staring at her with wonder and awe and could hardly speak to her even though she knows her so well. Amy had clearly transformed right in front of Anya, not just as CInderella but also as her dancing teacher! Ah the power of theatre and the imagination eh! Nice photos, nice memories.
I took a few photos of a couple of the children with the cast and have the permission from the parents to publish them on here.
That's me for today - meetings ahead all morning and a visit to TC with a sponsor this afternoon.
Have a good one!
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| Ian Crowe - Nefaria and Andy Gillies Lascivia |
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| Sally Fisher - Marsha, Fairy Godmother |
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| Andy Gillies - Lascivia |
10 comments:
Carole Pluckrose
Ah bless her!
Amari Blaize Usually I dread pantomimes, they are so formulaic. I’m still recovering from one to which I dragged my grandchildren a few years back. It was dreadful. The then five-year old attempted to leave the auditorium several times!
But Arc's expression of the author’s version of Cinderalla generated sheer alchemy on stage. It received incredible reviews. The set looks a bit West-endish; the Prince and Cinders can actually sing and do! The transformation of Cinders into Royal Princess is …well you will have to see for yourself. Last week it was streamed internationally to hospices acround the world. Amazing. If you must drag your kids to a panto this year, this is the one – see snippets on YouTube: Arc Theatre1.
Carole Pluckrose
From Amari Blaize:
Usually I dread pantomimes, they are so formulaic. I’m still recovering from one to which I dragged my grandchildren a few years back. It was dreadful. The then five-year old attempted to leave the auditorium several times!
The Arc team’s expression of the author’s version of Cinderalla generated sheer alchemy on stage. It received incredible reviews. The set looks a bit West-endish; the Prince and Cinders can actually sing and do! The transformation of Cinders into Royal Princess is …well you will have to see for yourself. Last week it was streamed internationally to hospices acround the world. Amazing. If you must drag your kids to a panto this year, this is the one – see snippets on YouTube: Arc Theatre1.
Well it's taken me several weeks of blog reading and my daughter and I watching one performance (so far!!) of Cinderella for me to finally comment but here (with a big gulp) it goes.
You might wonder why today and not after watching the show or after reading a particularly insightful Carole blog and the answer is quite simple. Twice today I have been forced, care of Radio 4, to actively think about Cinderella, it uniqueness in the world of panto and what an amazing thing the human voice is.
So to the conscious jolters … since I do love a bit of scientific fact ‘Word of Mouth’ in which Michael Rosen explored the effect of alcohol on speech and voice quality was fascinating. Amongst other things he visited the Royal College of Music to discuss voice care and the kinds of food and drink professional singers have to avoid in order to prolong their careers. I have a new found respect for vocal folds (as I now know they should be called) and be warned I can now be very geeky about the quantity of mucus on them that causes fractions of a second of delay in sound production when singing, the need for super hydration to keep them at their peak and the necessity to avoid chillies and alcohol too close to a performance!
The other programme was called 'Grimm Tales' which traces the tales right back to their ancient origins, hoping to answer the question of why we find parallels with the Grimms' stories in texts across cultures throughout time. Today's search centred on Cinderella in the tale's oldest known incarnation - an ancient Egyptian manuscript that tells the rags-to-riches story of the 'rosy-cheeked' Rhodopis and was a (perhaps fittingly) precious find, recovered from a rubbish dump. It also told of the variations in interpretations of the story over time and across the world, with the same underlying theme.
Your Cinderella as a new reincarnation moves the story another notch up the evolutionary tree from the panto we all know and love. Whilst it has elements of the current ‘traditional panto’, in the splosh scene and audience song board (even without a song board, since who needs one with a yodelling goldfish!) it does however perhaps intentionally (or maybe not) take it back to the origins of the story and really is a piece of true musical theatre.
The scenery is simplistically lovely; we especially liked the wave like transition from kitchen to woods and back again moving across the stage. The costumes are entirely suited to the characters being portrayed and of course the dress transformation is magical, though sadly we were intrigued by the broken shoe transformation as well!
The cast are all brilliant, there have been plenty of superlatives written about them all which we entirely endorse but for us the mice are particularly loveable. The grumpy mouse trying to prevent the other mouse joining in and then having to give with unadulterated pleasure is just so endearing!
Finally the creative team in terms of script, direction, musical score and choreography have done a wonderful job, and although we admit to knowing 2 of them, that actually means we would be more critical and give them a ‘hard time’ if there were things we didn’t like!
Bravo Arc and Broadway Theatre… job far more than well done … can’t wait for next year’s panto!!
OOh this is very lovely! Now I am totally intrigued to know who you are! I suspect I do - the quality of the writing and the insights suggest a certain mother and daughter team perhaps? (C and K maybe?) tell me if I am wrong? If I am please give me another clue! Thanks for this review though its fab! xx
Haha that will teach me to leave a comment!!
Annoyingly, for me, the golden eyed fish from the Chinese Cinders and it's link to your yodeling one was one of the main reasons I decided to comment in the first place.... and then with a tired brain, as the little comment box filled up I didn't make any reference to it at all!
Glad to see that my original comment didn't contain quite as many spelling mistakes and grammatical errors as the blog.. thought I'd really lost the plot there!!
Good luck with the rest of the run... if he's up to it my 88 year old dad wants to see the show...so we still hope to make a return visit!! Anonymouse (a title I rather like and intend to keep)
Sorry Anonymous if there were mistakes in the blog version of your comments! Unfortunately I had to re-type it and very quickly! So any errors are entirely my fault - I will rectify I promise!
Sorry Anonymous if there were mistakes in the blog version of your comments! Unfortunately I had to re-type it and very quickly! So any errors are entirely my fault - I will rectify I promise!
Oh dear Carole... now it looking like I was moaning... so not the case!!!! I just assumed it happened when being linked or copied and pasted into your blog... didn't realise you had to re-type the whole blooming lot!!!! Sorry!.......... even more impressed by your blogging skills now! :)
Hello Anonymous (But I do know who you are really!) No problem re my retyping - will edit again to change any errors! xx
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