Third Space ARTicles #2
Adventures at Castle Awesome.
Oh no it isn't!
As I write this, it's been about two weeks since I finished my run in the Belfrey theatre pantomime! This year, it was The Frog Prince, and I played the retiring King Albert, who is about to give the crown to his son. I don't do the panto every year, but it is usually a fun time, even if it does get a bit stressful and even burdensome at times! A lot of people put in lots of work to put on a great show. The theatre has a thriving youth division, who get involved on and off the stage. There's so many of them, we needed to split the youth cast over the two week run! With so many people, young and old, involved in the show, it's all a bit chaotic on show days. Join me for a peek into the world of local theatre pantomime, from the perspective of someone heavily involved in multiple aspects of the show..
The Build-up.
To start with, I was still on poster designing duty when it came time to come up with a poster for this show. While I usually like to source imagery for posters, or create vector graphics (or both), I decided that this time, I would draw the main image. This was partly motivated by a lack of what I deemed to 'the right frog' in searches. Certainly, I don't think I could find an appropriate looking frog that was royalty-free or made by a human (while AI has it's place for certain applications, finished artworks are not that, and I would even feel uncomfortable using it as a base, so I will not use AI imagery in my work). The character I came up with went down well! (see inset picture) I really wanted an expression of utter bewilderment on the frog's face, and I definitely achieved that! I used the Jokerman font for the title, which I actually hate, but it was an appropriate choice for the poster, as it is the most playful font out there. It's just a bit 'busy' for my tastes. I was on poster duty for a year, and I really enjoyed the process of designing them, and it was all valuable graphic design experience.
Sticking with advertising, the theatre got a slot on BBC Radio Shropshire to promote the show. The call was put out for members of the cast to volunteer to go on air, and I was one of them. The other was Hannah, who was playing Weasel (one of the comedy duo). I decided early on that I would do the whole thing in character, as the King. Hannah didn't want to do it in character, which is a good thing because she was able to get out all the essential information. The host didn't know how to take me! She didn't seem to be doing well with seeing my face, and hearing this doddering old man! The whole thing was fun, and anyone who has heard it got a good laugh out of it. Mission accomplished. I recorded the audio and put it to a video, which was also a lot of fun to create.
Rehearsals
When it came to casting, and choosing a desired part, I didn't really have many thoughts about it. I thought of reading for the old King to resurrect Balthasar – a character from a play I did many years ago which was a lot of fun. I also read for Sir Lancelot, who was an even smaller part than the King! I might have gone for the Villain, but that part was exclusively female in this panto. I was also asked to read for the Dame, but I'm not quite brave enough for that part yet! As much as anything, the Dame can often be quite a big part, which I didn't really fancy. The size of the part did influence my choices, as I hadn't been on stage in a good while, at least not consistently. I was in Comedy of Errors a little while ago, but that was my first on-stage appearance in some time, possibly even since the pandemic! In the end, the King was the perfect part. It was a fairly small part, with enough room for good characterisation, a silly voice (I always get silly voice parts), and a costume that was a nice disguise – I wore the wig and beard from a Santa suit I have.
Rehearsals went smoothly, and didn't feel too much like a chore, which is often a worry given that rehearsals are in the evenings. Sometimes, it can be really hard to feel motivated to go when you've already been working hard that day, but that's how it is in community theatre! Even for a small part like the King. In fact, the small parts can sometimes be the more annoying ones in that respect, because you end up sitting around a lot. As I said, though, this play didn't feel like that too much (although, I did skip out on a couple of rehearsals!) I did have my script in my hand longer than I'd have liked, It was a bit embarrassing going on with a script when people with much bigger parts were getting their lines down early. Another thing that troubled me was the song I was given. I'm no stranger to singing – especially character singing, but before the tech-and-dress, I'd only rehearsed it twice! There was a couple of days before another dress rehearsal, so I got a copy of the cut of the song we were using, and rehearsed it in my own time (about 20 times), and got it down. Then, I just had to worry about the choreography! I like to have a boogie every now and then, but I'm not nearly coordinated enough for actual choreography. Fortunately, the King is a bumbling old man. Fumbling through the dance steps is perfectly 'in character' for such a role. On the shows, I did enough to mostly fit in with everyone else. I did also have the advantage that because it was my solo song, I could spend most of it singing rather than dancing.
The song was '500 Miles' by The Proclaimers, a song which everyone knows, but we weren't doing the full version, instead starting from the second verse. Initially, the lead-in to our 'first verse' (actually the second), and the break before the our 'second verse' (actually the third) gave me some trouble, especially at the stage when it was getting close to show day, and I'd still only rehearsed it twice. As I mentioned, though, I was able to take our cut of the song home to practice, which I did.
With two different casts of chorus and kids, we did a couple of dress rehearsals which (from a personal point of view) went well. It seemed everything was good to go, and it was. All-in-all, a very smooth run-up to the show!
Set
On the committee for the theatre, I have the role of set designer/builder. Fortunately for me in that role, the director of this panto is known to be fond of minimal sets, preferring the actors to tell the story. This meant I didn't have a whole lot of set to do; just install the rotating flats, and build a couple of set pieces – a well and a tree. Installing the rotating flats is an awkward task! They are heavy, tall, and require a lot of moving/removing lots of other heavy, dusty things at height. Certainly, not something one should do alone. The previous building manager somehow did do it all on his own when he was at the theatre, the man was crazy! These days, we prefer to keep things safe, and will only do stuff like this when multiple people are available to help. The flats didn't even need painting, as a lot of my own previous painting on them was appropriate for this production. Convenient, but I do enjoy the painting.
For the well, the director said just a flat representation of a well will do. Easy enough. This meant a couple of flat boards, and some legs to hold it all up. The lower, larger board was painted with a brick pattern, and the upper board was painted like roof tiles. I also constructed it in such a way that it could be easily dismantled, and the parts used elsewhere. Now, we have a board that looks like a brick wall, and some legs that can be used for future set pieces. Even the board with the roof tile paint can be reused, as it has been several times already!
The tree was a slightly more complicated prospect. I was facing either making a tree (and using up a lot of wood), or seeing if we had one buried in the bunker or shipping container, where set pieces are stored. I decided to check the bunker first. Sure enough, I found a tree painted on some thin plywood, that was obviously once attached to a flat. I took it out, but it needed some additions to be ready for the panto set. For one, because it was painted on thin plywood and previously attached to a flat, it was very floppy! It also needed to be free-standing, and moveable (foreshadowing for a later part of the story!) To solve the problem of the flaccid wood, I installed a supporting rod to make the tree rigid. Easy peasy. Next, the free-standing problem. I was having a dig around for fixings in the theatre, and came across a couple of square hinges. Perfect! I made a leg frame, attached via the hinges, which meant they could be used as a kick stand. With the help of a couple of stage weights, our tree could be easily moved (foreshadowing...) and stand tall!
Showtime...
Week 1
This is it! Time to do it all for real, in front of a paying audience! The panto is a big financial boon for the theatre. With so many kids involved, we get lots of parents attending, and pantomimes are popular with families in general, so they're always fairly well attended (and the bar also does well). Pantomime is a form of theatre that involves the audience a lot, with lots of interaction. The first show was on a Friday night, and once the audience settled in, they were nice and reactive. When performing a panto, you want the audience to boo the villain, say 'aww' at sad or cute things, and laugh at the jokes. One of my personal highlights from all the shows is when the King delivers the line “...I polished my crown and everything, even gave the family jewels a good rub!” This always got a good laugh from the adults in the audience, and sums up a lot of the humour in a panto. The shows are primarily aimed at kids, but the writers know parents are bringing those kids, so it's a tradition to stuff it full of innuendo.
This opening night was one of the smoothest I have experienced in all my years of doing amateur theatre. It's considered natural for shows of this level to encounter a few snags on opening night, which get ironed out over the run. This time, I don't recall much going wrong at all. Maybe something did while I was off stage, but I mostly had a good, clean run on the first night. In fact, over the whole show, I think I made one mistake with my lines, and it was a fairly inconsequential one. Even the song, which I was still apprehensive about at this stage, went well. I also had concerns about the wig and beard I was wearing, but they behaved well throughout the first run of shows.
One of the only things that really went wrong on the first run (for me at least) was my part of the walkdown. The walkdown is at the end of the show, where there is a big group song, and the characters come out and do a bow for the audience, and join in with the song. I did say the tree would come into play later; well, here it is. Many of the last scenes take place in the 'fairy-tale forest', which included the tree I had made for the set. After the last scene, I had the task of helping to take the tree off stage, then changing my costume, then going on stage for the walkdown. On the first night, after taking the tree down, I didn't have enough time for the costume change, and ended up being late for the walkdown. This also happened the next show! For the third show, I was smarter about the costume change, wearing most of the second underneath the first. It did make me very warm (and a bit sweaty), but it worked.
All-in-all, week one went very well. The kids were good, the main cast was good, everyone was chill, and the audience enjoyed it. A very successful panto!
Week 2
Given how well week one went, we all approached week two with a lot of confidence. While we did have a new cast of kids, the main cast was well polished by the end of the first run. There were a couple of hitches I can remember. One was the curtain getting jammed! The curtains were shut for a scene, and when the next scene started, they were supposed to open. They got stuck, which lead to a funny moment of the curtain a couple of times (which got a laugh out of the audience!) Eventually, a strong member of the cast gave the mechanism a good yank, and it freed itself.
Another sticking point was the tree. Remember how I told about the awkward costume change after taking the tree down? Well, on one of the shows during week two, I managed to get the costume change done really quickly, and made my way to the side of the stage to prepare for the walkdown. There seemed to be some sort of delay, which had all of us on our side of the stage wondering what was happening. It turns out, I had completely forgotten my tree-moving duties, and left it all to the kids! A real brain fart! When I say 'left it to the kids', that is not a slight on them. The kids I'm referring to were Ava, and Jess; two members of the youth theatre who were helping out backstage, in a role with a cool title 'scene ninjas' (so-called because they are supposed to blend in as they change scenery around). They were brilliant throughout the whole run of both weeks. They were very professional, and ran things well. They were so mad at me for forgetting the tree – rightly so! They had, overall, been very helpful in reminding me that the tree needed moving, but I guess on this occasion, I dipped out before they got to me. I didn't see how they got on, but after a slight delay, they managed to move this surprisingly heavy tree on their own, The reason I had been helping them is because I could lift and carry the tree on my own, but they couldn't. I felt bad for letting them down! The rest of the show was a complete success!
That was that! Two weeks, six shows, and a lot of hours of rehearsal, all done and dusted! There's a phenomenon amongst theatre performers called 'post-show blues'. This a crashing down of energy levels, brought about by the sudden end of a show after a lot of work going into it. Not just the background work, there is also the performances themselves. For each performance, the actors are: usually full of caffeine and/or sugar, creating a surge of false energy that results in a crash when it runs out, and are also full of adrenaline. I'm a pretty confident person in many aspects, and I have been performing on stage for years now. Still, even when I'm well rehearsed enough to know exactly what I'm doing without thinking too much, there are still nerves. You're still putting yourself out there, making yourself vulnerable to the criticism of the crowd, with the knowledge that making a mistake could potentially derail the whole show. Even people are experienced, confident, and well-rehearsed get nervous. This nervousness is what produces the adrenaline, and the more nervous you are (and the more adrenaline you have), the bigger the crash when it's all over! I didn't feel it as much this time, but there is always at least a moment of “all that work, and now it's over!”
That's a Wrap!
So, there it is! My account of preparing for, and performing, an amateur pantomime. It's a chaotic whirlwind of cheesy jokes, funny characters, and a cast and crew who want to put on a good show. And we did! Everyone was amazing, the kids were included (the youth leaders do a fantastic job with them). Maybe I'll go for it next year. Who knows, it might even finally be the time I go for the part of the dame... We'll see.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this literal look behind the curtain of amateur theatre!