After what seems like months of hard rehearsing the first Wassail is upon us! First show tonight at Highbury Hall in Kings Heath..but are we ready? H*ll yes!
Traffic pile ups, and the Kings of Leon conspired and failed to keep the cast away from the theatre last night for the second dress rehearsal. Everyone eventually negotiated the Broad Street car park and settled in for what we had been warned might be a ‘long night’.
Despite a scarily significant minority of the cast looking rather red nosed and sounding a wee bit snuffly there was full attendance. Everyone in the whole world seems to have cold at the moment and so Gary requested that we all stay well. Sue Lowe, one of the doctors in the cast has helpfully circulated a guide to staying well that acknowledges that avoiding all infected and potentially infected people is difficult when several of them sit within sneezing distance of you in the choir. Its just one of the many bonus’ of the Crescent that in any disaster there is always someone to call upon to sort it out – and another bonus of being in a choir of 32 sitting closely together is that there is always someone nearby who has the cold virus you missed the first time round.
Gary, Gerry and Craig gave us a little pep talk about what the Wassail looks and sounds like from the audience perspective if we don’t toe the party line . Its good to be reminded of what people have paid to see. We pondered how easy no shuffling, snuffling, rifling and scratching (!) was going to be and then suddenly, before we could complete one final fidget we were off into a run through
This programme is fantastic. We have poignant, funny, tragic, hilarious – and that is just Gary’s conducting. No, really, the programme is fantastic. Gerry (one of the directors) has been unwell unfortunately and has had to drop out from the cast. Consequently last night was the first time he has seen the show in its entirety and he was suitably impressed. We also had Pat Dixon in our select audience, who was the previous Wassail director. No pressure then. Right from the start I felt Christmassy. The cast have a great energy about them, a sense of really enjoying the music and readings. The energy of a dress can only improve with a real live audience in front of us and so I know we are in for a good year. The pace is great, it wasn’t a long night after all.
- Its not ALL about mince pies – we do readings and singing too
I am thrilled to be part of the cast. I think we have raised our game yet again. I wont spoil the programme for you but I urge you if you have no ticket to get one (there are still a few left for the matinee on Sunday 21 December at the Crescent Theatre). You will emerge slightly fuller in the mulled wine and mince pies department and a whole lot fuller in Christmas spirit department. Ah go on, you wont regret it.
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