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| 2002 |
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*falls into chair*
i'm not used to all this excersise!!! I haven't danced properly for nearly three years now, and going STRAIGHT into a full-blown dance has taken it out of me a bit - my legs and arms are killing me today!!
HAd to be at the theatre at 9.30 this morning to have an interview/photo shoot for the evening papers and then rehearsed the "Greased Lightning" dane all morning. At lunch time i went to Burger King (to get my daily bacon double cheeseburger) and there was a woman coming out of the door with a pushchair, so i held it open.. the dialogue went something like this:
me: there you go
her: thanks so much.... OH MY GOD!!! YOU'RE...YOU'RE YOU!!!
me: erm...?
her: the harry potter guy
me: oh - yeah 
her: oh my god, i have to get some paper!! stay here and look after my kid
me: *stands in doorway with someone else's kid in a pram*
her: *goes and screams at the poor staff*
and so it went on to it's obvious end... needless to say i GOT my burger eventually!
This afternoon we had our first full run-through of the show. It went incredibly well actually - i was amazed at how much work we'd done in one week!
We spent the last two and a half hours (from 4 til 6.30) rehearsing Grease with the girls from the dance school...
I'm now in need of a very long bath!
I've got the weekend off - so will start again on Monday.
it's getting more scary by the day!!!!
I turned up at the labour club, where we rehearse and I was the only principle there. It turns out that I'm now part of an incredibly complex dance to "Greased Lightning" which involves me singing (woohoo!!) and then doing alsorts of complicated stuff with my lovely dance partner (i've got three, because they're 15 so have to swap around every show - and I can't remember their names yet...)
So that was the majority of the day... I also had to go and do some panto promotional stuff with the NSPCC at a school called "Hethersett Old Hall School"... i got there and discovered it was an all girls school from ages 7-18... I got mobbed a la Leicester Square while the guy from the theatre (who i hasten to add was there to look after me) looked on a laughed. twas fun though...
am back home now (obviously) and intend to sleep incredibly well tonight!!
well, i'm amazed... totally amazed!!
Most of my day was spent rehearsing what will probably be one of the funniest sketches in the show!! It's incredibly pacey, and is made up of five words in various different orders, shouted at each other by the four principles on stage... doesn't sound so good written down, but it's a laugh. trust me.
Had a "dance" rehearsal this afternoon... i say dance, all i have to do (so far) is drag a cow (i shouldn't be rude - the two halves are lovely really) across the stage. We haven't got to the tap routine...yet... The kids were in for a couple of hours this arvo as well, and they are AMAZING - they really could upstage every single one of the principle company! bless 'em!
Anyways, that's been my day...
Bis Morgen kinder
xx
hello boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen!!
today has been an experience and total eye opener for me...
Past experience of rehearsing for a production (albeit an amatuer one) was that you do a scene a day (or so)... today between 10am and 1pm we set virtually the whole show (minus songs and dancey bits)! I was amazed - not only that, i also didn't feel as if i was out of my depth... I knew that i was comfortable with the script (let's face it, we're not doing hamlet!) and the moves...
This afternoon Steven (who's our Prince Casper) came back from London (where he was at a recall audition for the lead in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and we went over the bits that he was in...
That was the day in one very quick paragraph!! I'm slightly exhausted, but off back to the theatre tonight to see Chicago with my mum and nan.
For those of you who want more information on the pantomime at the Norwich Theatre Royale, check out this nifty information page at their website.
As most of you already know, Chris is appearing in his first ever professional stage show this winter as Percival in the Norwich Theatre Royal's pantomime. He's decided to chronicle his experiences in an online diary for your reading enjoyment. Check out the latest entries and find out what it's really like to be in this kind of a professional show here!
well hello and welcome to this very groovy diary i've made here!!
I just thought it would be nice and fun to give you all an idea of what it's like to be involved in a professional stage show... Personally it was totally different to the rehearsal process i'm used to...
Anyways, here we go
I got up this morning at 8.30, which is positively midnight to my way of thinking... the rehearsals started at 10am in Norwich (about 40mins drive from my house) so I set off at just gone nine. However... silly fool that I am neglected to remember that we have this wonderful little thing called the RUSH HOUR at about 9.30, so i was about ten mins late getting to the studios...
This morning was a simple read through, and getting to know you session. I'd met most of the principle cast at the pub last night (it's tradition to go for "pre-production drinkettes" the night before) and was fairly comfortable with who was who...
John, our executive producer welcomed us all to the project, and did the usual "we're all going to have a wonderful time over the next 6 weeks" and then introduced Peter Wilson (who runs the theatre royal in Norwich) who is a good friend of mine, and has helped me alot over the last couple of years. He thanked us all for coming, and hoped that we'll enjoy being on the show...
So by the time we started our reading of the show it was getting on for 11am. (at which point chris still doesn't know how he's going to play Percival).
The script is very fast and puchy - which for a pantomime is quite rare... Richard (who is playing the dame as well as directing and writing the show) has a superb sense of comic timing, and we all got really into the reading and improvising that is so traditional in panto...
By 12 we had read the script, without songs or an interval - the afternoon was left over to going through the songs. So i blagged my way out of that, and set off to see Di the costume lady. (i don't have to sing in the show). I needed to get down on bended knee and PLEAD with her to find me some new leather boots, as the ones i was wearing to turn on Norwich christmas lights were a size to small, and positively crippled me! She asked me to try on a few more of my costumes while I was there. They're lovely! I start the show in a footman's outfit of turqouise and cream, with a white period wig, and buckled shoes. When I turn evil, i get a groovy evil costume (hard to describe), and then for the finale (which is all colour co-ordinated in silver and purple) i get a very glitzy silver number with purple highlights, and purple trousers.... and also have to tap dance, but that's another story!!
So yes, having been costumed, I set off home for the day feeling 100% more confident about the show than i did the day before
Until tomorrow mes amis...
