Day 1 (Rehearsals) - "Dick Whittington", Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds 2011

Well. That's Day 1 done and dusted, over and out. Phew!

The drive down to Bury this morning was a bit hairy, with the A14 being a bit of trial (I've since been told that it is like that most mornings.....eeek!) but, no matter- I arrived in plenty of time. Grabbed a coffee and headed into rehearsals.

We are rehearsing at the Guildhall in the centre of Bury St Edmunds - a grand old building, with rooms full of prints featuring the great and the good of Bury's past. No doubt they have witnessed some things in their time...I'm sure this next couple of weeks will not let them down!

We had a "meet & greet" to start the day with the gathered masses introducing themselves and their roles in the production, and the Will - our production designer - showed us the model for the set design, which looks amazing. Beautiful design and it really makes use of the space at the theatre...which can be a little limited in the wings!

Sarina - our costume supervisor - went through some of the design pictures for the costumes, including a few of the one that have been made for name by the students at the Arts College at the University of Bournemouth. Here's a sneak preview of a couple. They're in their unfinished state, but I'm really excited about them - they're going to be great :-)


Leading up to lunch we had a "read through" of the script, so we got a chance to hear each other and get an idea of characters and how it all works for the first time. Lots of laughs (which has to be a good thing for a panto, no?!) and Peter White (the composer) filled in all the blanks with the great songs he has created for the show. Not bad for a morning's work?

The rest of the day was spent working through lots of the musical numbers and and starting to get some of the dance numbers (I use the word 'dance' fairly loosely in Sarah's case!) underway.

So. It's going to be brilliant, and lots of fun. But I sense a few fairly long days coming our way!

Just 15 more rehearsal as to go, and counting...