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)