Oops! Sorry!

Sorry - we've been away for a while! Not intentional but purely a time thing...

As you can imagine (no pun intended!) November is quite a busy month for a company which produces panto... and so we've not been 'blogging' for a while purely because we've been so busy.
So what has been going on?

Well, in our world, November is all about the final preparations, and namely that's payroll, panto technicals (lighting final designs, sound, props, finalising special effects etc), and all the finer detail.

As we type our pantos are in various stages of progress

- The Palace Theatre, Kilmarnock opened on Wed 25th, and so they've done 6 shows already! It was Gala night last night (Saturday 28th) and it was brilliant

- Loughborough Town Hall opened on Saturday 28th with 2 public previews. They go into a week of schools shows now and their gala night is Friday 4th Dec

- The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry has had it's final dress rehearsal and it opens tomorrow, 30th November (break a leg, all!)

- The Lyceum, Crewe is in full technical rehearsal ready for opening on Wednesday 2nd Dec

- Eden Court, Inverness now has its set in and fitted up, and is ready to commence teching the show later in the week, in preparation for opening on Monday 7th Dec

- Shaw Theatre, London is ramping up its rehearsals ready for opening on 9th Dec

- The Victoria Theatre, Halifax and the Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl start their rehearsals tomorrow (30th Nov) ready for both to open on Saturday 12th Dec.

We're also keeping a tally in the office of how many pantos the team has seen so far. We're up to 4 viewings so far and we're taking bets on just how many it will be between all of us by the end of the season.... we reckon we'll pass 100 viewings! That's alot of slapped thighs and it's behind you's! Oh yes it is!

To all in panto land - we wish you the most successful, happy and fun panto season! xxxx


The Kilmarnock Cast help Ian celebrate his
50 years at the Palace Theatre

Loughborough Town Hall

Christmas party - in November?

OK, so it's a bit early, but we don't have a choice! Seeing as quite a few of the head office team disappear to various venues across the Uk for the panto season, Christmas has to come early in our offices...

So it's our office Christmas party - on Thursday 12th November!

We're all busy being good, in the hope that Santa will be there and bring presents - and party hats abound, we'll have a panto pass the parcel, and a game of musical chairs where the person who wins gets hit with a custard pie! OOh, and Pizza too!

Happy "6 weeks before" Christmas party, everyone!

On countdown...

...No, not the channel 4 programme, we're on panto count down!

Rehearsals loom ever closer, with just one working day until rehearsals start at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. Steve Boden and Iain Lauchlan met with the technical team there today to go through final plans ready for rehearsals. Set is ready, costumes are ready and the special effect is in the final stages of being built.... so everything's ready for the first cast call at 10am on Monday morning!

At the other end of the country, final plans are in place for the set to arrive in Kilmarnock imminently, and rehearsals there start in just 4 working days time. Wow, that's getting really close! Mikey, production manager for the panto, has been down in our Coventry offices with us putting final plans in place, and is now heading back to Kilmarnock. It's really, really close!

We have a little more breathing space on Crewe, Loughborough and Inverness, but not much more! With just 10 days to go, everything is being finalised and falling into place.

On the up side, now the Imagine offices are at last a "Swine Flu" free zone, we're firing on all cylinders, and ready and raring to face the next few months! Oh yes we are! ;O)

"Sloshing" about...

OK, so despite how it may seem, our slosh scenes are meticulously planned - and today Steve Boden and Neil Bull are working on the scene for Beauty & the Beast at Loughborough Town Hall.

As Loughborough is so well known for it's 'slosh', every year we try to make the scene bigger, messier and funnier than the previous year... and this year is no exception.

We're not going to give any secrets away but here's a photo of them preparing...

Bet you'd hoped it would feature slosh, didn't you? Told you we weren't giving anything away, didn't we? You'll have to see the show to find out the end product! :O)

Beauty's going to be a cracker!

You know it's a good sign when production meetings disolve into fits of hysterical giggles with on going discussions about shaving cream, snow and flying cloaks - and that's just what happened at yesterdays production meeting for Loughborough Town Hall's production of Beauty and the Beast.

With Kevin heading up the Loughborough venue technical team, Neil Bull (director), Katie Gavin (choreographer) and the Imagine team ramping up preparations to full speed ahead, we can see the panto season just around the corner.

It's a good job Louise had been shopping and stocked up on tea bags - I've never seen 8 people get through so many cups of tea and chocolate biscuits in one meeting! But it seemed to get the creative juices flowing, and having seen the plans, if you think Loughborough's panto was good last year, just wait til you see what we have up our sleeves this year! ;O)

Crewe Lyceum Panto launch

Tuesday 9th October saw the team from Imagine and the cast of Sleeping Beauty at the Lyceum Theatre Crewe out and about bright and early as it was panto launch day!

This year we decided to do something a little different and instead of the usual panto launch in September at the venue, we decided to move 'outside' and to stage it a little later - this year moving to the beautiful Crewe Hall hotel - the perfect place for Sleeping Beauty to launch her panto.

Steve, Sarah and Louise from Imagine were delighted to be joined by 7 of the 8 cast (one of which had only been contracted 2 days before due to Mike Royce having to drop out due to family illness), Karen and Dawn from our wardrobe team, Philippa and Paula from the theatre, Helen our photographer and Mark Edwards our Musical director. With Mark was Adele who is playing Sleeping Beauty in our Kilmarnock panto - so we thought it would be fun to get the Kilmarnock Beauty and the Crewe Beauty together!

We had tons of fun getting the photos outside Crewe Hall (dodging the rain showers!)in the Grand Hall, and the Drawing Room. we also cheekily 'borrowed' their grandest bedroom to get photos of the cast on the lovely four poster bed!

Thanks to all involved in the day - we can't wait for the panto now! And a huge thanks to Crewe Hall for letting a team of mad people in fancy dress take over your beautiful hotel for a couple of hours - makes a change from conferences, I guess! ;O)

Scenic Hires

As well as being one of the biggest panto producers in the UK, Imagine Theatre is probably THE biggest scenic hirer to the pantomime industry (we may not hold as many sets as QDOS but we hire more out to other people).

This year we hold 28 complete sets in our stores, and we are using 8 of them on our own productions (we have 9 shows, but we're hiring one in ourselves)- meaning there are 20 to be hired out to others... and if we tell you that at present there are just 4 still remaining for hire, that means we're hiring ses to 16 other productions.

As well as that, there are some productions which are just taking one item (like a beanstalk, or a carriage for Cinderella), some are hiring costumes (we have 10 sets of costumes going out in addition to our own pantomimes this year), and others are just hiring one prop from us.

So this last few days we've been focusing on set hires. Bruce James productions were in today to look at their set and carriage for Cinderella at the Pomegranate, Chesterfield. Friday saw Chris Jordan in as he's hiring from us for Potters Bar, Eastbourne and Fareham, and Phil from Imagine was over in Hereford on Thursday talking about their Beauty and the Beast hire.

Seems that Dick Whittington is the least popular title this year - we have 3 Dick sets left for hire (Maybe it will be popular for the London Olympics in 2012?).... and a Babes in the Wood set. Any takers?! ;O)

Just how many pieces of paper does it take to license the kids this year?

It's that time of year - all the babes auditions are completed now, and we are undertaking the mamouth task that is licensing them all.

There are just short of 160 kids in all the teams for our pantos, plus 50 reserves - meaning 210 licenses to apply for. Each license averages 14 pieces of paper, meaning 210 x 14 = 2,940 pieces of paper (and every single piece has to be double checked to see if it's filled in correctly and returned to the parent if there is a problem with it...)

We then have to take photocopies of everything incase anything goes missing in the post meaning 2 x 2940 = 5,880 pieces of paper

We then have to write to the authorities and obtain the licenses themselves. These can be anything up to 3 pieces of paper PER CHILD - lets say an average of 2 so 210 licenses x 2 = 420. We then have to send the originals to the theatre and keep photocopies back in the office so 2 x 420 = 840

Add the application paperwork (5,880 sheets) to the actual licenses (840) and that gives a total of 6,720 pieces - thats just over 13 REAMS of paper...

And we thought we could become a paperless office - think again!

Halifax Press Launch

Friday 18th Sept saw the press launch for Cinderella at the Victoria Theatre, Halifax...

Back - Anne Micklethwaite as the Fairy Godmother, Jamie-Lee Mason as Dandini, Alice McGreevy as Prince Charming, Nick Barclay and Stuart Slavicky as the Ugly Sisters

Front - Jennie Burrows as Cinderella, Guest Star Doodles the Dog, and Neil Hurst as Buttons

Panto launches and panto babes...

As a good friend of ours put it "Imagine theatre continues its exploration of the UK motorway network" with yet another weekend of trips and activities... and this weekend it's been a weekend and a half!

Friday saw the launch of 'Cinderella' at the Victoria Theatre, Halifax - 7 of the cast were there (or should we say 8, if we count the surprise guest?) along with our fantastic photographer Helen again. Steve, Sarah, Lou and Vicky from Imagine met up with the cast and the venue team for a really great photo shoot - which we think is one of the most colourful we've ever done.

Then Sarah lept on a train in Halifax, and 3 train changes and 6 hours later she found herself in Porthcawl ready for the babes auditions there.

Steve and Louise stayed in Halifax and had a great turn out of kids on Saturday and chose 16 really talented kids and 8 reserves for the panto.

Sarah in the mean time had a crisis - swine flu had hit our choreographer for the day, and there was a time when Sarah was going to step in and dance (not a pretty sight!) - until Laura lept in to our rescue and came all the way from London to be our knight in shining armour. Thanks Laura! Director Rob joined them, and they too chose 16 really talented kids, and 9 reserves.

After an exhausting day, it was back to the office to off load, and then a trip to the Chinese for a quick snack and to catch breath...

Ah, and who said Panto was just for Christmas?

Happy Birthday.... to you and you and you

It's been a busy time in the Imagine offices recently, and so two important days passed without celebration - and one was due to be missed next week. Yes, we're talking birthdays!

Sarah and Phil's birthdays passed without mention, and Ian P's is next week and he's off to Hong Kong with the BBC WW production of Tweenies... so Louise and Steve got plotting, and organised a surprise birthday 'do' for them all.

Three cakes, several pizzas, bottles of champagne fizzy pop, and some AMAZING light up balloons later, we'd had a cracking party! (Thanks Lou and Steve) xxx

Then down to the real business of the day - the Grand Pavilion Porthcawl production meeting. Rob Marsden (Director), Matt Loughran (Musical Director) and Simon Butcher (lighting designer) joined Steve Boden (Exec Producer), Iain Lauchlan (Creatives), Ian Plimbley (Production Manager), Phil Roe (Stores) and Chris Ball (technicals) from the Imagine team to work and plan their way through the show. It took them quite some time, but they got there, and it's looking like a cracking show!

Busiest few days of the year so far?

We're just wondering if this has been the few days of the year so far for the team at Imagine?

Thursday saw Iain Lauchlan, Neil Bull and Louise Redmond auditioning in London to fill our few remaining principal roles - and we're nearly there!

Friday saw Ian Plimbley, Phil Roe and Chris Ball from our technical and stores team working on pulling out alot of sets in our stores to plan for the season, while Louise, Steve and Sarah had a massive planning meeting internally. Iain Lauchlan jetted up to Inverness for some meetings at the venue.

Saturday saw Steve Boden and Louise Redmond undertaking the babes auditions in Crewe while the entire cast of Eden Court, Inverness's production of Jack and the Beanstalk had their panto launch.

Then today (Sunday) Sarah Boden and Neil Bull did the babes auditions in Loughborough, while Louise Redmond and Iain Lauchlan did the babes auditions in Inverness.

Then tomorrow (Monday) sees the panto launch in Loughborough...

And in addition, Steve and Sarah's daughter Holly started school last Thursday...

Phew!

Good Morning Steve - We're, er, in our pyjamas...

31st August 2009 saw the BBC Worldwide UK tour of Tweenies draw to a close after a really hectic few months. The Imagine Theatre team have acted as General Managers for the tour.

The final leg of the tour was particularly busy, so the cast and crew were transported and accommodated in a tour bus, where they slept when not traveling or working.

This morning (1st Sept) saw the team dropped off at various points around the Midlands before a final drop off in London.

And when Steve went out to greet the team this morning and to congratulate them on a tour well done, he was greeted by a cast almost entirely in their pyjamas, trying to grab an extra 40 winks!

Still, makes a change from Tweenies skins, we guess!

The tour is off to Hong Kong next, so all the kit will be packed up and crated over there very soon!

Getting the office ready...

With the first round of babes auditions only days away for us, it was time to get the office 'ship shape' and ready for panto today.

The office has gone through it's usual 'pre-panto spring clean' (if you can do a spring clean in the Summer?!) and we've set up extra desks to cope with the additional staff we'll have working on panto preparations.

However, the most important job of all was completed today - a bulk order of tea bags, coffee and biscuits to see us through the next 3 months. Once that all arrives, we're ready for anything!

Bring on the pre-panto season - we have jammy dodgers and chocolate hob nobs so we can cope! ;O)

What music would YOU put in Beauty and the Beast?

It's August and so that means it's panto planning time for Imagine!

And today is no exception. It's the music planning meeting for Beauty and the Beast. As we're doing three productions across the UK (Coventry, Loughborough and Porthcawl), the directors (well, nearly all) and musical directors have all come together in the Imagine offices to plan the musical numbers, stings, incidentals etc for the productions.

Some of the shows will feature original score, along side covers, but all will be musically completely different and unique.

Rob (Director, Porthcawl), Matt (MD, Porthcawl and musical tutor at Loughborough), Steve E(MD Coventry and click track preparer), Neil (Director, Loughborough) and Steve B (Imagine Exec Producer) are all busy working away, and loud music is eminating from their meeting room! Iain Lauchlan (Director, Coventry) is still in Scotland and so can't be with us.

In true Imagine style, they've got cups of tea and a MASSIVE packet of Jammy Dodgers, so we know they'll come up with some cracking ideas!

It's raining... inside!

Ok, so it's been raining alot outside recently. We all know that, and we can stand rain outside, safe in the knowledge it won't rain inside. Oh yeah? Think again!

We have a leak in the Imagine Theatre unit - and no small leak either. Luckily the leak is at the front of the unit and all our props and any panto gear is in the back so it's not really a problem to us at all... but it is most inconvenient to the cat which lives on an old bean bag in the front of our unit and who as unoficially adopted us as her 'owners'!

It appears that every time we experience heavy rain, the down pipe into the storm drain off the roof of the unit leaks, and the aformentioned cat gets a bit of a bath - and judging by the cat-a-walling and screeching that goes on, she doesn't like it much!

Off to phone the council to facilitate a repair, I think!

Tea Bag Crisis!

It was nearly a major crisis in the office yesterday, when we ran out of tea bags. A small problem to some, but for us at Imagine, it was a major problem!

We are, by our own admission, heavy drinkers... but not of the alcoholic type - we do like a cup of tea and a chocolate hob nob, here in the office, and a lack of tea bags is not something to put us into a good mood!

Thankfully Louise came to our rescue and normal tea drinking service was resumed this morning, meaning that we could crack on with the important business at hand - pantomime!

Are we nearly cast yet?!

It was another full day of auditions in London yesterday, and yes we are nearly cast, but not quite!

Steve and Lou's day started quite badly when a 1 hour train journey into London from Coventry became a 2.5 hr epic when the train halted for no reason outside Milton Keynes - and took over an hour to get re-started again. 'Not best chuffed' springs to mind when they ran through the door just as the 1st audition was due to take place!

It was a full day of auditions combined with meetings with Nigel (one of our production managers) and Susie (from Hackney Empire) about various pantos.

In the auditions, Rob Marsden (Porthcawl director) had to head back north, after auditioning people for Porthcawl in the morning, leaving Iain Lauchlan (Imagine Creatives, Director of Inverness and Coventry pantos this season, and playing dame in Inverness), Steve Boden (General Manager of Imagine, producer of all our pantos and director of Crewe and Halifax pantos this year), Louise Redmond (in house choreographer), Neil Bull (Loughborough Director and Silly Billy) and Matt Loughran (audition pianist, who will also MD Loughborough and Porthcawl for us)

It never ceases to amaze us just how many people fail to turn up for audition when they've confirmed attendance. I think we had 6 no-shows yesterday, and only one let us know he wasn't coming and why (and one who didn't show had been chasing us for months to audition for us!) It's so sad because without seeing actors audition, we don't know how good they are and we can't give them a chance.

Sarah spent the day working on the BBC WW tour of Tweenies and also on some panto marketing bits and bobs. Photo shoot in Porthcawl on Saturday....

Our final auditions

Tomorrow Steve Boden, Louise Redmond, Iain Lauchlan, Rob Marsden and Neil Bull are off to London for our final round of principal castings. It's been a long audition process this year, with us receiving over 2,000 CV's. Great to hear from so many people as we do take the time to view every CV we receive. We usually shortlist CV's very quickly once received although it may take us some time to get back to people.

We've held 5 audition days this year (one in Scotland, one in Coventry and three in London) meaning we've auditioned nearly 300 people.

Audition days are always manic, and tomorrow is no exception. the guys will start auditioning at 10:30am and are due to finish at 8pm. It will be a hard day for the panel as they literally get 15 mins break every 2 hours and 30 mins for lunch and tea. Lets just hope they don't over run!

Once we've completed the auditions, it's back to Coventry on Tuesday and Wednesday to make the final decisions on casting.

This year we're casting for 7 of the pantos ourselves and the other two are being handled in house, with our consultation, so there are ALOT of offers to be raised and paperwork to be created. That's done by Ray back in the office. She's amazing and every office needs a Ray!

We're up and running

Welcome to Imagine Theatre's Blog! We'll be keeping this updated so you can follow our progress as we prepare for the panto season to come and beyond!