It's been how long?

22 May 200821:11:45 o'clock BST Feeling Surprised Hearing Eclectic mix from Vic's ipod

Just logged myself on and glanced at the date of my last blog!!!!!! Cannot believe its been two months! Shock! Horror! Scrape chin off of floor and replace stunned expression with sickly grin. I know I've been incredibly busy but had no idea it had been so long, I do hope no-one was holding their breath waiting for the next scintillating episode/entry in my missive. Life has turned into one long litany of work, eat, sleep, work, eat, drink some wine, sleep, work, drink lots of wine, sit up all night unable to sleep and so on and so forth.... I was warned about the way the last term could career out of control but even after several severe weather warnings and reminiscences from other staff about previous years' fiascoes I did not appreciate just how hurricane like the last weeks are becoming. Out of the remaining five weeks I will only get about three for teaching as we have a health week next week where the curriculum flies out of the window and the last week of the term is traditionally written off as a waste of effort due to the children being as high as kites and therefore unteachable. So, while I try to get the last scraps of my planning rammed into unreceptive little brains, my only hope is that, as in a mud fight, some will stick!! A soul can pray can't it?
I like green! It's a soothing and calming colour and so I should be able to chill out now and recount some of the other things I have been doing recently - yes there have been other things; hard to recall but I know there were some!! Mainly the Theatre Workshop as we thundered through three shows in six weeks!!!!! never again let me tell you. As you might recall it started off with the Junior show - Alice Through the Looking Glass, and it was a very well received production may I say, I was very proud of the cast, they did a fantastic job! From that I went straight into producing the Youth show; I Love the Knightlife, another very successful venture, happily turning out to be soooo much better than we had hoped. We had four weeks between our productions but Fiona and I worked very closely to double up scenery, sets and props wherever possible and the transition was practically painless. However, the leap into the Senior show was a much more traumatic one. The Youth came offstage on the Saturday night and the stage was stripped to the walls by teatime on the Sunday. Our long-suffering and wildly putupon Theatre Manager yet again had to pull out far too many stops and dismantle the scaffolding that holds the set together to rebuild an open set. Thankfully, we were able to bully him into allowing a bunch of us to go along and help and subsequently we got more done than had been anticipated. Still, he had to take a week off his work to go in each day and build the hinged flats needed for Me and My Girl. I had designed the set decorating and, again working to in close harmony with Daphne the Senior's producer, had managed to use slabs of my Alice set for her Harefield Hall set. Thanks to the wonders of overhead projectors and acetate slides I was able to draw the other parts of the flats in no time at all and with Katy on board we managed to get all the other set painting done over about four evenings. It was a fairly marathon sprint and not one I would be at all keen to repeat. The first run through of the dress rehearsal was absolutely abysmal and I was seriously concerned. However the second run seemed to jildi them up a bit and the show went down very well with the initially poor, but latterly excellent, audiences.
As the theatre needs to close for several months after October for renovations and repairs we are doing a Christmas Revue instead of a Panto. This is mainly down to the problem of venue - we have no idea where we will be able to perform and when, so we need to have a moveable feast, as it were, that can be rehearsed by individuals or small groups and then knitted together nearer the time. This approach bodes well for the next proposed production. As venues are relatively hard to come by, I considered the possibility of doing a full workshop production where each section has it's own parts to learn and rehearse but then all come together for the full production. As the rights for Joseph and his amazing whatzit are not available I racked my brains for another property that could use Juniors, Youth and Seniors. Oliver has been done to death and besides the rights will be unavailable due to the imminent West End production. The only other one I could think of was The King and I. Having tentatively suggested the idea to Fiona, Iain and a few others I am gratified to tell you that we are indeed going ahead with this idea. Rights being available, we should be into rehearsal in August and performing in March!! I am looking forward to the year as it will give us lots of opportunities to do real workshop with the kids instead of only having the time to thump the next song, the next scene, into them on account of them having to carry a whole show on their own. The shared responsibility means there won't be quite the same stresses. Mind you those stresses will likely be replaced by others of equal if not greater value, as Fiona and I try to get the adults to raise their game to the same levels as we expect and get from the younger members..... Meow! Claws away! I'm hoping we are able to book the High School for the show as the stage is much bigger than the Theatres' and we will be able to run a humungous cast!!!! Deep joy! and if they get their acts together they should be started in August too and get the four part singing done properly, instead of having to cut things out because they don't have the time to learn it properly!! Also, routines will be better polished because there will be time to actually learn something other than two steps to the left and then two to the right!!!
Oh I am going on a bit, I need to go upstairs and get on with my report cards now - I should have written five tonight, but the way things are going I'll be lucky to get one done! I still have to get on with my final profile too and get it finished - like there aren't enough things to stress about this week? Still no signs of a job but still hoping!
Till next time