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!
Friday 31 July 2009
Tuesday 28 July 2009
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....
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....
Sunday 26 July 2009
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'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!
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