Thursday, August 27, 2009

Clippy's log - page 30

30 pages! No wonder I'm feeling less overweight than I have since Steamy started bringing things to meetings printed on blank paper.

20/8 10pm. Midga runs off early as usual, making the excuse that it feels wrong giving a projector screen a curtain call. The short way is closed so he has to go right around the opera house to get to the club next door!

10:30pm. The Irish are here in force. Don Alhambra gets up to MC the cabaret, they applaud loudly. A lead sop sings a song, they yell, scream and give a standing ovation. They're good though - most of the songs are funny, and those that aren't are well delivered and usually have an Irish connection. Helen K-L and our 2007 cabaret, take note. (Actually can I get rid of that word between "and" and "2007"? Gasvic's.) Adrian and the song "We ain't got rain" was the worthwhile bit.

12:30am. They're done. No violin unfortunately. Totally worth seeing though - but Midga has the beginning of a headache from their mutual applause. Those Irish look after each other! We go home and it looks like they've booked out The Railway (the pub next to the Halls we're livin in, presumably named after the railway bridge) and are having a cast party. Glad to know at least one company at the festival knows how to close off a show. I should like to take post under that company.

21/8 5am. Midga wakes up for no reason and the Irish are still at it! No doubt they need to bolster up the economy of the Irish Whiskey industry.

9:30am. Midga gets up, all ready for a rehearsal for the pot-luck Pinafore tonight. Grab apple, grab water bottle, come let's be gone!

10am. The Paxton is still closed up - rehearsal is at 10:30! Time for a hot chocolate.

10:30am. We start with stuff the ladies are in. Most of it is fairly simple - with a good conductor (John Howells), a loaned score and a piano even Midga can learn this. Sullivan - you rock.

12:30pm. Rehearsal over, homework time. Home for lunch, emails and a brief snooze first though.

10pm. ACK! That was the longest brief snooze ever! Grab an apple for medicinal purposes and get over there!

10:20pm. Midga and I are just settling into one of the cast tables when the thing starts. Just made it... Anyway, it goes well. The conducting is clear, the voices are good (even Midga's), and some of the prinnies even act. Rosuav is manning the camera and gets a large number of good shots, including video. Memories of pot lucks to preserve for the future.

11:50pm. A rousing Hail Poetry to finish, in honour of the G&S Opera Company's Pirates in the Opera House. One of the very pretty young ladies of the chorus comes up and asks for our blog addresses. Nice! Anyway, time to head home. Only one more day of festival!

22/8 11:30am. What's on today? AGM of the G&S Association, skip it. Pirates matinee - won't be piped through. Awards ceremony - definitely one to see! We made a deal with Stuart of Savoynet to cross-check each other's notes of who won what, and get them out onto the list within 10min of the end of the ceremony! Limber up those fingers boys.

5pm. It costs £3 to get in, which we think is a bit steep, but hey, it's worth it. The stage is almost covered with trophies and bunches of flowers. The flowers go first, to people who have spent large amounts of time assisting. Some of them aren't here, so the award really is a surprise. Then the prizes - the boys have to suspend applause at times in order to take notes. The WA Trial got just one nomination, no prize. Savoynet got three prizes and one nomination; the winners were the Irish Gondoliers. When it was announced they went wild! There must have been about 20 of them, in an impregnable phalanx in Row E or F.

6:45pm. That was quite an awards ceremony! Now we don't have time to cook so it's a case of Subway or go hungry. Midga caves in.

7:10pm. We get to the Paxton and there's nobody there but a few techs! Nobody charging money, no other audience, what's going on? We ask about the video feed and they say "Well after a lot of blood sweat and tears, yes it's going to happen". Of course we offer to help but they've just finished. We accidentally earn some brownie points by sympathising with the lot of the tech - solve problems, even if someone else caused them.

1 comment:

Chris Angelico said...

I think there were more than 20 Irish at the awards ceremony. From what I could tell (from the eruptions whenever one of their number won something), they were a rectangle, taking the entire left side of the room, rows C, D, E, F, G, or something like that. Must have been over fifty of them! (And yes, their enthusiasm was tremendous.)