Show week

Over 5 days we had 10 shows and over 1000 school children watching our performances. As we got into the routine of show week everything seems to calm there were no more serious argument or disagreements and we made plans with each other between shows with is going out for dinner or ordering food into the theatre. The first few shows were very tiring being in the theatre at 8:30 in the morning and only having a short break between shows. This was the most difficult because we wanted each show to be performed at its best regardless of how tired we were all feeling.

Regardless of how tired we all were the first 4 shows on Tuesday the 4th and Wednesday the 5the went really well and ran smoothly, despite all our worries the children loved the show. As the week progressed and we became more and more comfortable within the run of the show we as a cast started to improvise more and interact with the audience in unsorted ways. There were parts particularly when both Dorothy’s asked the audience more questions to get the kids more involved like when she asked them “should we bring him with us” about the scarecrow, tin man and lion. Each member of the double cast brought something different to the stage to their counterpart, for example, my relationship with Dorothy was and portray of Glinda was completely different to Shopie who was my double. Where as i spoke more softly and added my own humour to the part which wasn't necessarily in the script. One of my lines is “i'm Glinda the witch of the North” but instead of only saying the line as i was i decided to add a thick northern accent not unlike the one i sued for animal farm when i said “of the north” i then coughed and regained the original voice i was using. This became my favorite part of being Glinda and the one line made my performance have more colour and shade. However, Sophie portrayed a more of a northern mum like figure using her own voice. One of the issues she faced was trying to at the same way i was acting which isn't working, we spoke together and discussed that she doesn't have to play the charger the exact same way as i do. By the time of the first performance she had completely made the character her own, seperate from the way i was performing.

Max

On the 6th of December before the morning show it was cast two in the morning however Ellie who played Dorothy had a serious back injury and couldn't perform. This meant that Sarah would be performing the two shows, i think sarah performed very well considering ot was the other cast who she didn't have a lot of time to rehearse with. Even though it's the same show each cast dose have little things they do differently that makes the show their own and sarah did a very good job in adapting her perfume for the other cast. Thankfully Ellie was fully recovered by the time of the nevening show thigh it was felt it wouldn't be safe for hr to perform so she supported the past by watching with the audience and coming back stage fro words of good luck. By the next morning she was ready to perform, to make it fade Ellie would do the same that Sarah did and perform both shows but with the opposite cast. During the ormig show when i was Glinda and working with Ellie and sarah who i would normally perform with i did mess up my song, i'm not entirely sure if this was due to a different dorothy, nerves or just a lack of preparation in the morning. Ellie did however support me and cover up the mistake as best she could. Ellie also did really well performing both shows just as Sarah did.

Another injury occurred with Tom Price one of the dancers when during the morning show of the 7th December he fell during one  of the dances and seriously hurt his ankle meaning he could no longer perform in the rest of the shows. However, he still came to every show and supported the cast the best he could.

As well as all the injuries we had an issue with one of the schools and the issue of fault language being used. This came to a shock to us all as this was the last perfume to school children and we never had any complaint before. Obviously, there was no foul language actually used as the show was written for young children and the only words that caused offensive where mt crows lines “bugger, bloody and sod”. We don't consider them to be swear words especially considering that they were said by a charter who is an old man and most grandparent use those saying. We also got a complaint with the innuendos that were used like my line” though to be honest i have seen bigger” which was specifically written for the adult and cleverly hidden that the children watching wouldnt understand it. This did affect the performance slightly as we had to edit the second act to take out some of the words being used and overall put a downer on the cast as a whole.

During the public shows on 7th and 8th of December i had my own personal issue of my dress malfunctioning, the zip broke and there were some point where i was on stage with it not zipped up all the way. Luckily no one noticed and it was eventually fixed with the help of Emily Dalre the dm on hand. Another one of my own personal issues was my work not understand my commitment to the college course. Normally I work every friday and saturday night in a nightclub in the Northern Quarter, I had booked of the weekend months in advance knowing of the show dates it was to my understanding that it had been arranged nad i had the weekend off. However mid show I received a very passive aggressive text of my manager demanding to know why i wasn't in work I explained the situation but this later to lead me to leave the job as a whole. On this particular; evening I feel that what happened in my personal life affected my performance, i was too worked up to fully be on character and perform my best. This is something i know is an issue with my acting as a whole, I find it very difficult to separate my own feelings from a performance i'm doing. This is something I try to work o in every show I do and as i become more experienced and older it has definitely improved and I would hope I will continue to do so.

Ruth, Jade

On the last show on the 8th of December, the show was performed by cast (cast 1) and it was the best it has been for our particular cast anyway. The show was smooth and professional and with all the hard work we had put into the show it  definitely paid off. I felt fully comfortable in my role and like but i also felt confident with the rest of the cast that together we would make this the best performance and it was. This is the last christmas show a lot of us will perform at college and i would change anything about my performance and i'm proud of what i did. At the end of the show, a lot of children wanted pictures with the main characters including myself and when asked who their favorite charter was a lot said the witches. (Glinda and the wicked witch of the west)

Ellie

This show has been challenging not only because of our own issues within the cast but also because of the scale of the  show but after all the hard work and weeks of rehearsals we pulled it off with the best of our abilities.

Cast