The idea to put Pirates of Penzance in the Nuffield Theatre first came up as so many ideas do over a Pub lunch. After our performance of "The Sorcerer" at the International Gilbert and Sullivan festival in Buxton we went out for a celebratory meal along with our President Professor Lilley. The coversation quickly turned to future shows, as per our old system Trial by Jury and Ruddigore had already been decided but looking past that it was time for LOpSoc to look at what we were to do for our Nuffield slot (this all happening before the change in the Performing Arts allocation system).
Ian and I got talking and he floated the idea of Pirates of Penzance, having done countless shows together since beginning University we decided to direct it together.
Nothing much happened for quite a while after the initial conversation, with other shows to focus on there was a lot to do, during that semester the system of allocating the Nuffield changed for the first time in many years, instead of the previous three year allocation cycle between LOpSoc, Theatre Group and Showstoppers, the debate raged for a week or so and the end result of this was that each society would pitch shows to the PA committee (as well as potentially Nuffield Reps) in future.
LOpSoc were of course put in a tricky situation by this change, 2014 was supposed to be the year where we had the Nuffield and now it looked like we would face a fight to get the slot, compounding this issue the previous system we had used to allocate our shows meant that there was no real pitching experience in the society at the time, luckily however some members had pitched shows before to Showstoppers and Theatre Group and had an idea of how the system worked. Just before Easter we set out to put our team together. In the end we had a team of nine people with potential to expand further
Jon North - Director
Ian Wainwright - Director
Thomas Joy - Musical Director
Katherine Bond - Musical Director
Sarah Hemming - Choreographer
Charli Bradley - Producer
Mike Cottrell - Producer
Emma Joy - Producer
Tab Kimpton - Head of Costumes
The Pitches were held on Monday the 10th of June, during which we pitched against Pure Dance, in the month coming up to the pitch we worked constantly on the pitch to ensure it was as watertight as possible.
Our spoken pitch covered the following aspects of the show most of which was also covered by our written pitch a few months earlier:
- Synopsis
- The Team
- The Cast and Characters
- Costuming
- Set Design
- Lighting
- Sound
- Other Tech
- Audition Plans
- Rehearsal Schedule
- Rehearsal Process
- The Orchestra
- The Music
- A detailed plan on Publicity both internal and external
- The Budget
One aspect we missed was the prospect of Fundraising which we had considered but ultimately left out as we do not anticipate a loss on this show however for a show with rights it may turn out to be more of an issue.
Months of hard work paid off in the end and we got the slot, with only 9 months to go until opening night there's a lot to do, luckily the team is ready to go.
Nuffield here we come!
-Jon
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| Thomas and I outside the Nuffield just hours after getting the pitch! (Photo by Emma Joy) |
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