Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Clippy's log - page 22

8/8 6:20pm. Can't be bothered with a pro Pinafore and Trial. Home for dinner and further Looney Tunes database work.

10:30pm. Festival Club, for a pot luck Mikado. It is announced that it will be sans dialogue, which is received with thunderous acclaim. We're looking for a table and Elise comes up and invites us to sit with her at a cast table. She's a festival official, what can we do but follow her instructions?

12:30am. Home. Thank goodness for a later start tomorrow.

9/8 11:30am. Whoopsy, what happened to getting up for church? When is it anyway? No idea.

1pm. Midga heads Steamy off a crazy idea involving trams and standard gauge freight, via Facebook chat.

1:40pm. Rehearsal time soon - get going.

5pm. The stress is starting to mount but Gary is still pretty easy to get along with. Home for dinner, Utopia Ltd tonight!

7pm. Off to the theatre. Quite a gathering of Savoynetters - they obviously don't get to see Utopia often. It turns out to be quite a good show on balance - although like our recent Mikado marred by soggy lighting design and a few diction problems. Still, a fairly traditional Utopia, with some brilliant ideas that had the boys just about rolling in the aisles - well worth getting a DVD of.

10pm. Midga leaves to reserve a table for us at the Club, while Rosuav and I stay behind to hear the adjudication. He can't use Traal because the theatre staff don't like it. I can't tell the difference, but hey, I don't mind doing something useful. The adjudicator didn't like the show apparently; some of the problems are things I agree with, others I hadn't noticed. Ah well, all goes to show it's only one person's opinion.

10:30pm. We rejoin Midga in the Club and he's sitting with the Learned Judge from the WA show. Rosuav is a bit miffed because the table's not close to a power point to charge Traal, so he doesn't join them. But I do. First up is a community singing of Eagle High. The boys just listen - and it does sound good. Next a University Challenge, two teams of S'netters answering G&S trivia questions sent by Deebee. Most are to do with D'Oyly Carte performers and even Sam Silvers doesn't get them. So everyone (including the Smiths who are officiating) just hams the whole thing up and a good time is had by all.

12:25am. The Oxford people have done their cabaret - the usual selection of songs we don't know, some amusing and some done rather well. Home time. Rehearsals are going to get busy from now on.

10/8 8am. The alarm is on this time. Normal start to a day.

9:05am. We arrive at rehearsal slightly damp - it's raining! Costume run today, and hey, there's fresh batteries in the camera. Between taking photos and the occasional t-shirt or raffle sale there isn't much to do, except that Midga gets to go round the shops looking for a cheap watch to use as a prop.

5:20pm. Shopping, washing and cooking - the three essentials. Pity they take up so much time.

7:15pm. Time to go to the show! Bournemouth society's Sorcerer. A traditional production thank goodness. Not a bad show on balance, could do with a bit more alto in the chorus and some acting in the dialogue. But the pyrotechnics made up for everything, and more! Probably the best is JW Wells' death scene - a curtain closes over him, big bang, curtain opens before we can react and he's gone. Brilliant.

10:15pm. Early finish, off to the club. Community singing of some bits of Sorcerer and the usual selection of cabaret. We share a table with Ross Bryant (the Judge) and Laurie Marks from Savoynet. Laurie entertains us with his Cambridge modified lines for some G&S songs. Fun.

11:29pm. Early night. Thank goodness.

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