Last Chance

Panto dress rehearsal tonight, so it’s the last chance to check everything is working ok before opening night tomorrow. So far, it’s not been too bad but, as the first act is looking at running around 1hr 40mins, we could probably do with either speeding up dramatically or cutting dialogue and/or songs.
Normally, us cast would have the option of sitting out front and watching the scenes we’re not in but we do actually have a small audience tonight. It’s a couple who love our pantomime but one of them has a severely compromised immune system, so they can’t really come on a night when we have a full audience. They came to the dress rehearsal last year for the same reason and obviously enjoyed it enough to want to do it again this year!
Second half a bit better but it’s still quite slow. Until we get a full audience I don’t think it’s really going to be possible to get an idea of what the pace should be. No doubt we’ll find out tomorrow.
It’s definitely going to be a late finish though - act two is shaping up to be over an hour, so it’s going to be an 11pm finish. Which means there is a good hour to lose one way or the other. Directors notes should be interesting tonight…