The Final Production

The show!
After months of blood, sweat and tears here is one of the shows of Aladdin by The Da Vinci Theatre Company.

Evaluation

It’s easy for one to dismiss reviewing their performances after the euphoria of the shows that we had however, there are quite a few things that if were done with precision would’ve worked very well.

During earlier rehearsals I gained an ankle injury which I found challenging to work with at first especially as I was still figuring out what my character was like and how she would be postured.  Although, I was able to focus on my voice and facial expressions; an example of this would be my entrance as my tone was precise and articulated rather than loud and said with poor diction. My eye line was directed at the technicians at the back of the audience, some of the younger audience turned around to have a look.  As I healed over weeks I began to incorporate both these elements with my bodily characteristics.

There was minimal practise with the microphones prior to the first show and it could be heard. I was not given a microphone for the beginning prologue where Abanazar was, this meant that I had to ensure I was projecting outward as I would not be heard otherwise. The use of the smoke machines at full power occurred for the first time on the first show as well which proved trialling as it was hard to navigate backstage without the stage lights on. I found this difficult with the first show as we were all incredibly nervous; to add to the nerves, our first audience was rather miniscule with only the floor filled, which proved hard to play against as panto is incredibly audience active. Alongside this, more than half the cast were not well and had caught the ‘panto flu/bug’ nevertheless, the show went on and we managed to plough through.

Our first evening show began with the wrong sound cue for Abanazar’s entrance which may could have put us all off as well as the fact that we had a bigger audience than earlier although still small. There was also a lacking of a lighting cue which I thought hindered Abanazar and my performance slightly as we had to exit the stage on our accord.

Our matinee show performed to an all girl’s secondary school was nerve-wrecking. An auditorium filled with 200 screaming, excited girls was hard; grabbing their attention was key to our performance especially as they were young students. As lovely an interactive as they were ‘booing’ and singing along, there were times when all speaking characters had to ensure they were speaking loud enough to be heard and understood; to improve our performance I think we should have all focused on breathing exercises prior as I personally felt that my breath control was not as perfected as it should have been. As mentioned in the beginning, panto is more for adults than younger audiences which is why many of the jokes we had they didn’t respond to in the way we thought they should. I realised that this encouraged a dip in our energy as we all had the mind-set that we weren’t doing well. Engaging in a Q&A after the show was refreshing and opened our eyes to what they paid attention to and worked well and what they didn’t quite get, the slow motion chase scene is a good example of this.

Performing in front of Barbara Windsor was definitely the highlight of the all the shows; everyone was aware of her presence and it showed as people were incredibly nervous backstage. I had to undergo excess breathing exercises and jaw movements as I became incredibly tense before going on stage. This show proved to be one of our best as the lighting and sound cues were done correctly, anything that messed up on stage was covered and we also were graced with a healthy, excitable audience.

Having reached the peak of our performances, I think the final two were still at an incredibly high standard. The final two performances were incredibly sad and there were a few tears, although we were all proud of what we had achieved. The overall process has been an overwhelming experience which I’d happily go through again.

Show Days

All in all, we managed to pull together a professional production.

Our first matinee show (which was also the first time using the microphones) was a small audience which I think put a few people as panto is very audience interactive. However, we did well even though our energy level as a whole wasn't it's full potential, the piece was still light and enjoyable. Battling with colds and tummy bugs which seemed to going round, the smoke machines were a prop to work with themselves. I wasn't used to breathing in that thick air and it affected both my voice and also breath control on stage.

The first evening show is when everyone's nerves kicked in; there was a minor hiccup with a sound cue with the first show, we were all hoping for a better turn out. There were a few more people in the audience which characters such as myself, Abanazar, Wishee Washee and the Dame were really able to connect with.

Second matinee, we performed to an all girl's secondary school, this performance was full. There were at least 200 girls who were incredibly interactive and a pleasure to perform to. They were however, a loud audience so seizing their attention and holding it was incredibly tricky. Personally, I needed to project more as the girls were rather loud as well as keep my energy up without overly exasperating myself. I should have completed more breathing exercises prior the performance as I felt out as though I couldn't breath onstage. I felt deflated as my character is funny although they react in the manner I was used to. I then realised that they were a younger audience than to whom my jokes were targeted at, but also that they were a different audience and there are rarely audiences who would react in exactly the same manner.

Our director did warn us about this in rehearsals upcoming to the show, but it wasn't until then that I realised just how disheartening it could be. After the performance, we had a show Q&A session with them which was really quite fun and encouraging to see how much they enjoyed our show.

The second evening performance we were very lucky to have Barbara Windsor watch; this raised the pressure alongside the fact that we had a full house. Backstage nerves were skyrocketing, adrenaline was pumping, we were all very ready for the show. There was also a horrible bug that many members of the cast and crew got, although the main victim for this show was our protagonist Aladdin (Corrina). 

Amidst, all the energy everyone had and the level of excitement and sickness that occurred especially in this particular show, it went spectacularly well. So much so, that Barbara came backstage to speak to us afterwards about our performance and expressed her gratitude for such a lovely show.

Last day of shows, our matinee show was for the Da Vinci School students and teachers. Due to circumstances in the week prior, a lot of the cast were unnerved about the show and worried that something would've gone wrong. However, we prevailed and their responses were exactly what we had hoped for. Admittedly, our energy levels were not as high as they were in our last performance, nor was the pace.

The very last show, there were tears of both sadness and joy. Another near full house for our final show worked out lovely; our best show however was the performance on Wednesday night. I enjoyed myself the most on both evening performances of the last two nights, I felt that I was able to portray a believable, funny character that fit well with the storyline.
Overall, I feel we all did a magnificent job and I'm certain that we all will miss this panto very much.

Characterisation

In order to get ready for the show with a fresher look, as we had intense rehearsals that we knew each and every detail inside and out, we were given the task to take our panto characters home.
This meant everything from walking in the door, to eating, bathing and preparing for our next day had to be done in character. Furthermore, we need evidence that we were completing these tasks. Here's the short clip of the Spirit in the house:

Not only were these videos fun to do, but it was interesting how we were all able to translate our characters into our daily lives.
Exercises like this helped us focus on our characters especially with upcoming shows.

Technical Rehearsals

dun...dun...DUN!

Three more full runs of the show until opening and we had the most terrifying rehearsal left to complete, the Technical Rehearsals. Essentially the manner in which they are run, the first rehearsal is que to que run in which the lighting figures out what they are doing and then followed by the sound rehearsal too.

The lighting rehearsal, was nerve-wracking as one of the two characters that opened the show (alongside Saskia) are movement had to marked to the points where the lights were appropriate for the mood and bright enough for us to be seen.
These runs were also done in costume, which I found to be an absolute nightmare. My outfit (which I adored) was made from a very light material which could easily be hooked onto anything and ripped. I was very cautious when in costume especially backstage with the splinters from the frames which help up the set. 

Once those runs were completed, we progressed with a run of the entire show with lights and sound. It changed some of the movement I had, an example of this would be the timing within the exit from the prologue. Both Saskia and I had our movements synchronised in a certain manner but then had to change it do to the lesser time we had to get off stage and transition into the opening number.

A scene added rather late on in rehearsals was a slow motion chase scene that took place through the audience and back on stage. That scene and the cave scene were the most tricky as a lot of different lights, sounds and echo effects on microphones had to be activated all at once.

It proved challenging but worked out well in the end.

A Trip to Peking

As a company, we went to the Gordon Craig Theatre in Stevenage to watch their production of Aladdin.
This was my first pantomime to watch, I absolutely adored it. It gave a great insight into what panto is all about. The performers energy levels were always at the highest peak, their characterisation flawless to the point that I completely believed the Dame and everything she sold as her character.
There was a great amount of audience participation especially with the songs and dances.
Another aspect I wasn't expecting is how current panto's are and how they keep up with the latest songs and topics. It adds a greater level to the humour as the jokes aren't just for cheap laughs (although there are many of the Dame's jokes which are) they are intelligent with purpose.
Characterisation was done so well, there was a mishap on stage where the Dame's wig fell off and she began laughing onstage but covered it immediately with a witty line and a quick flurry off stage.
We also had the Dame pick our Dame (Jovan) which gave him a real taste of just how inappropriate can afford to go before it's too much.
Watching my character intently I noticed how she had a lyrical tone to her voice when she spoke which added to her magical element. She also used her arms a lot and had a few motifs. Taking this in, I began to think of similar moves to add that would be appropriate for my character.

Preparations for Show Day

Once our flyer was made we began promoting the show within Letchworth at first and in Stevenage as well as online and by word of mouth. A few of the main characters alongside did some promotional work in Stevenage town centre and performed in the children's ward of Lister Hospital which not only was fantastic for the children but also the actors as they had to ensure their characterisation was solid the entire day.

There was also promotion within the newspaper as well as on the radio.

Rebecca Day, one of the backstage managers within the production, put together a lovely trailer of our pantomime which we tried to share amongst friends and family as much as possible. 

Watching the trailer and doing promotion boosted my energy levels and I was suddenly incredibly nervous and excited for the upcoming shows.
I made sure that I was working on as much as I could personally to enrich my performance, I took to working on the cave seen once again as I felt this was one of the weaker scenes.

Below is a video of the improvements that were made.