Rehearsals - Week 1 - 21st October 2013

Having cast the show, we were faced with the rather daunting prospect of starting rehearsals. Come 15th October, we had our first chorus rehearsal and I think I speak on behalf of all the production team when I say how impressed we all were with everyone that turned up, and indeed the amount of people that turned up. We had 30-35 cast members which is a huge increase on last year!

Beginning as informally as ever with some warm ups et al, attention was turned to the first song that we'd planned to teach. With Thomas at the piano, Pour, oh Pour the Pirate Sherry was taught in little
under an hour. I must confess this rather left us scratching our heads as to what to do next, it took a lot less time than had been anticipated, and moreover it sounded better than any of us had expected.

So, what better than a Pirate battle? Chorus were split into two groups for some group work, seeing who could 'perform' the song the best, and, y'know it was certainly something. We had a text from AMD Katherine Bond saying she could hear us from the library!

This was of course followed up with the usual trip to the pub, success all round. First rehearsal, tick.

We were aware though that we had planned Saturday rehearsals from the outset and so come Saturday 19th, the first batch of principles joined us to learn their respective solos and begin blocking with them. The way this system is designed is to teach the principles their solos a few days in advance, so come the Tuesday, the chorus can learn their parts and the song can come together as a whole without having chorus sat round wasting time while the principles learn their part. In more than doubling rehearsal time, it means we can get as much contact time possible with the all the cast.

Again, rehearsals on Saturday were a success. Jon and I, along with Charli and Sarah got the first block of songs taught and began staging and getting lines run with Joe, Robin, Jenny, Alex and Charlie. Sage to say, I think it proves testament to the organisation of the production that we can have the first 4 songs taught to some degree to the whole cast. In a week. Considering that we have 21 weeks from first rehearsal to opening!

The week ahead will be run similarly, with chorus rehearsals on Tuesday teaching all the parts for the first block of songs and principles being called on the Saturday to teach them the next set of songs and so on. Of course, this weekend we have the first rehearsal with the orchestra. So it's a pretty busy weekend, but exciting nonetheless!

Feedback from the cast so far is almost universally positive, we're a happy production team. If you want to join our ranks on stage then our open chorus rehearses Tuesday evenings in building 34 on Highfield Campus!

Your Loving MD,
Thomas