Eight Days a Week

That’s it, Cinderella has set off to the ball for the last time this week and we have all breathed a massive sigh of relief that we have managed to get through the first four shows of the run.
But it’s been a long eight days getting to this point. We had our last “normal” rehearsal on Sunday 2nd and then doing the tech set up took most of Monday. By Tuesday we were pretty well there in terms of costumes and makeup. Wednesday was the official dress rehearsal and fortunately only a few issues were highlighted. Thursday was a second dress rehearsal but with a couple of people in the audience, who would not otherwise have been able to see the show because of sheltering due to covid.
And thus it was that, some 19 months after the first tentative read throughs, we arrived at our proper opening night. Not quite a normal pantomime because we had no children in the show and our audiences have been masked. Stage crew at a minimum but I was happy to pitch in when not on stage and others all did their bit by being responsible for their own props and helping each other with costume changes.
The biggest problem has been cast. Looking at a photo of the rehearsal before the “rule of 6” restrictions were introduced last September, only 4 out 9 people in that photo were still able/wanting to do the show when rehearsal recommenced this year. And one of them was the director!
With a couple of others dropping out due to illness in the last month, and the rise of Omicron, there was a general air of surprise that we did actually get to opening night with a properly entertaining show - and that we have managed 4 shows in front of 500 or so appreciative audience members of all ages since then.
They have laughed, groaned, booed, cheered and clapped in all the right places and all the feedback has been very positive. From a personal point of view, it’s been great to be up on that stage being silly again and it’s nice to think we’ve given people something to smile about amidst the gloom of winter and the depressing daily headlines.
Three nights off now and everything crossed that no one tests positive before we start again on Wednesday.