Well, another excellent weekend. Saturday was very productive regarding confirming all blocking for Act One and then on Sunday we had some really quality time with Steve. Tonight the three ladies are rehearsing again with GA Brace. Our choreographer is now more aware of the genre and the first dance rehearsal takes place next week, Wednesday 21st March. 7.30 at Worle. That requires all three ladies and the three croupiers thank you very much!!

This week has been really successful with regard to the set. I had a meeting on Wednesday with Callum at QEH and it didn't scare him off, neither did I. And then today he came down to Worle to inspect the staircase. Having been a welder in a precious life he is content to adapt the one we have to our needs.

Although it may seem months away, the show is fast approaching. I am working with singers and my dear old Dad at the moment and intend to see who wants extra time learning with him at the weekend. So be prepared to sign up!

In addition I intend to get him up for a couple of days in the Easter holidays to work on the chorus numbers, that's everyone! So please bring your diaries with you. Steve cannot do everything over the weekends and so extra time will be needed if we are going to live up to our set and costumes!!!

See you Saturday at 10.00!!!

So,

We are coming up for the next weekend. 10th and 11th March. You should be OFF THE BOOK by then please as Steve and I want to concentrate on blocking the songs and this requires real effort, not helped if you are reading from scripts.

I have an appointment on Wednesday with the BOVTS carpenter so may have good news by then.

Sunday the three ladies and I are travelling south for some note bashing with the old man. Again the following Sunday. If there is anyone else who would like some extra support learning tunes it can be arranged. Katherine, who did the adaptation, has volunteered her services as well so ther are plenty of opportunities to swat up on your tunes before Steve comes down again.

I ahve been very fortunate to secure the services of an excellent Queen of the Night. Saffron has done the role many times before and is joining us at April and June rehearsals. She lives in London and so is only able to make those, so be ready to concentrate on those scenes when she is with us.

Karen and I had a FABULOUS trip to get fabric and, on Wednesday, started the sewing process!!! There is a lot to do but we have started at least.

We shall be concentrating on Act One the coming weekend so focus on learning the lines for that please.

Also need to start collating biographies so please, please, please send what you want written to me - otherwise I shall make it up!!!!

I haven't heard from many of you about the Saturday evening so please get in touch. If there are not enough to warrant the Windsor, we can gather and enjoy my flat, it is big enough and warm!!! (sometimes). It won't be rioutous but it is nice to socialise.

Get in touch if you have ANY anxieties.

Till the tenth, 10.00 sharp please!!!!

Well, what a fantastic weekend!!

Thank you so much to everyone who made such an effort to be there and worked so hard. I was excited on Saturday and Sunday and really feel that the stroy etc is coming together now.

The March weekend will see the final blocking of the two finales and then run throughs, hopefully with some music interjected this time.

I want you OFF YOUR BOOKS by March!!! No scripts on stage please, we need to start really immersing ourselves in the story.

The March weekend is the 10th and 11th and I shall be booking the upstairs room at the Windsor for the Saturday evening, maybe just early socialising......if anyone wants too. I think we are realising that getting a little 'drunk' on Saturday does not help the Sunday rehearsal and as time is so precious we can't afford hangovers for the first two hours!! Me included.

Please ensure that you have as MUCH of that weekend available as possible. It makes ALL the differnece when everyone is THERE!!!!!!

More anon....

So, what's new......

Well.

We have six beautiful chairs which we succesfully bought on ebay. They are in need a very little TLC but Pete Williams at Worle is on the case and is very happy to make sure they are stage worthy. They are the genuine article - though at this precise moment I can't remember the name of them.....hmmm

On a visit to QEH Jane Barry and I also commandeered three tables and so the set dressing for outside the cafe is sorted.

With regard to the set, I have been in touch wiht the Bristol OldVic Theatre School and am currently negotiating a student on the carpentry course to build the flats for the set. This is excellent news and very exciting, it also promotes the show in Bristol that little bit more.

Sunday this weekend the choreographer (Marina Fairhead) is joining us to suss out the dancers.....get flexible guys!!!

We also made a snap buy on costumes recently and got three pairs of EXQUISITE palazzo pants for the three ladies, they have to be seen to be believed!! Gorgeous.

We are now the proud owners of about 9 birdcages. Just when I think we have enough, another one appears on freecycle and so I snatch it up. I reckon we shall deck the foliage with birdcages all over.

This weekend we welcome our new Pamina and Tamino. Very excited to finally be working with the cast in full. All those who have been coming before I know you will make Alex and Abi very welcome and help them through their first experience of being directed by me!!! They are aslo meeting with the music student at Worle every Wednesday afternoon to get really familiar with their 'tunes' before Steve arrives on the 5th. In relation to that, if anyone else wants me to try and organise a session for them then let me know - all music rehearsals are very valuable as it is now 2012 and time will FLY by.

By the end of this weekend we will have blocked the whole show with the new adapted script and all the changes. Steven feels he may change the odd lyric to suit the style of the music as he goes along but there will be no major changes after this edition.

So this weekend is going to be exciting. Please try and set some tiem aside on the Saturday evening to join in the social aspect of the production - a few glasses of alcoholic beverage at a venue to be decided by those taking part.

I wills ee you at Worle School - in the Dance Studio - at 10 sharp on Saturday.

Blog 2

Well, a lot has happened since I last wrote!

The December rehearsals were bitty but very productive and both Steven and I were very happy with the progress made.

Casting has changed.

All for the good in the end and we have managed to use it to our extreme advantage which is a relief on all counts.

Having fought long and hard to find a Tamino to balance out Pamina – we lost Pamina. Circumstances beyond our control and so I had to seriously rethink the whole situation. Did I now spend ages trying to find a new Pamina that would balance the Tamino we had found – No.

The dynamic of the cast ahs changed now and so we have two new and fresh recruits who are going to take on the roles. I have decided – with Seven’s ‘okay’, that they will be younger than Papageno and Papagena. They will take on the roles of ‘silly’ young things, this helps the ‘love at first sight’ element of their relationship very nicely.

It has also enabled Will Taylor and I to come up with a much more coherent plot line that we are all very happy with – it makes sense of things that did not quite make sense before.

So this is how it goes…..

The Queen of the Nights father first owned the land that the café was built on – prime real estate in Paris in the 1930’s, but he knew that his daughter was a ‘bad egg’ and so left the deeds of the of the property in trust to his granddaughter, skipping a generation. In the meantime the trust is held by his son in law – Sarastro – to maintain the property and the business until Pamina comes of age at 18.The deeds to the property have become the valuable item that the Queen of the Night is after, why she sends Pamina to Sarastro to steal them (the orb/light).

Throughout the performance, we are shown that Saratstro does not believe in fate/destiny, but that we all make our own luck etc – his coin that he flips throughout is a double sided coin and it shows us and the audience that he is in control, he manipulates his establishment so that he is always ‘the winner’.

At some point in the performance we see him hand this double sided coin over to Pamina, telling her that she has to make her own decisions in life and not be controlled by her mother.

At the end, Pamina has found what she wants in life – Tamino – and she turns her back on the property and her inheritance, to make a new life with Tamino. The stage is left empty with only the Queen of the Night and Saratsro on stage. Pamina, as she leaves, tells them that they have to sort it ut between them and that maybe, considering their life styles, the decision should be made on the toss of a coin.

She hands the double sided coin back to Sarastro, knowing that he will win the toss.

The last ‘shot’ is him flicking the coin in to the air

The lights fade to a spot light on the coin and we see his hand snatch the coin from the air

Blackout.

Will and I had a most productive night sorting this out and are very happy with the structure. It helps a lot of things.

Papageno becomes the slightly jaded chaperone who leads the immature Tamino through his trials, helping him to grow as a man through the piece, a man that is worthy of Sarastro’s daughter. This is symbolised by his clothing which, at the beginning, is rather too big for him. An ill fitting suit that looks like he has borrowed it off his dad. By the end his suit has become the perfect fit, he has grown in to a man, learning to ‘fit his own skin’.

He script is being finalised before the January rehearsal and so you will all have it by then.

There have been developments on the staging front too.

I have found someone to erect the staircase and check it over.

We have the set design and someone to print it for us

I have met with the choreographer and she will be attending some of the January weekend

Please keep checking the google docs for information as well as here.

There are now a couple of additional rehearsals.

January 28th and 29th will be just blocking, making sure that we know all the blocking and inserting our new cast members.

The following weekend, the 4th and 5th February, Steven will be coming down to do just music rehearsals. He is going to send me a list of who he wants and so I need to know epople’s availability. If you can tell me what you CAN do, any time during the weekend, days and evenings, I can out it together so that all time is used effectively.

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Great day in Topsham with the three ladies working on music with Geoffrey Brace

The Magic Flute is DELIGHTED to announce that we have secured the services of The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School carpenters to build our set!!! This is VERY exciting!