The build up to the show this year was really most stress free. A production can of course, NEVER be totally stress free, and infact I would be worried if it was, but this year I felt certain it was going smoothly and well. Lots of thanks go to C, who was also playing Bunthorne as well as being chorus master, and L who was making the cast trip the light fantastic as well as playing Patience. Having the choreography of the bulk of the big set pieces taken off my hands was priceless.
The sound the chorus made was wonderful, round and warm and well focussed. The centre of a show is the chorus. It does not matter a jot how brilliant the main roles are, without a core chorus there is simply no show. All my teaching career I have put more effort into the chorus, who sometimes get overlooked sadly, than I ever have into the principal roles. They SHOULD be able to slot in, work out some things for themselves and bounce off each other. The chorus need training and rehearsing to the nth degree, so each member is a small cameo role, and each member can be a cog in a smooth wheel and as individual as needed.
This year the chorus were masterful! We had so many drooping and limp lovesick maidens the stage was as pleasingly graced as a Goya painting. The Dragoon Guards eventually got the feet in order, but the most wondrous element of the male chorus was the plethora of huge and slightly insane moustaches, on both gentlemen and 'ladymen' ! I wonder if the trans gender Dragoons will ever be able to shop in the local Coop again without comment, or at the very least slightly pitiful smiles from shoppers who previously knew them as lovely and almost normal females!
The pictures speak for themselves.......chorus, boy did you make me proud!
More on the main roles in the next installment of.....
Patience - The Aesthetic Revenge
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