Panto-time

Sleeping Beauty at the Radlett Centre

Diary of teen panto stars!

The Radlett Centre is highly regarded for their Christmas pantomime performances and this year looks set to continue the fine trend when Sleeping Beauty graces the stage.

Beauty and her fellow cast members

Unlike other regional theatres, the Radlett Centre shies away from helping to resurrect the careers of former soap stars and instead focuses on using trained actors and a huge cast of local children to bring the show to life.

The assortment of children from around the Radlett area have been involved with the pantomime for months now and come the three week run will be using their finely tuned skills on a rotational basis.

But how difficult is it being a child star of a pantomime during the busy Christmas period? We asked one lucky youngster to provide us with a behind the scenes diary of what really goes on backstage.

Hannah Aylward and Jessica Harrow, have been performing on stage for a number of years and this production of Sleeping Beauty will be just be another panto on their already impressive performance CVs.

Or will it? Here in their weekly diary, Hannah and Jessica will explain what life is like working on a panto over the Christmas period, starting with rehearsals.

Jessica's final diary

Well panto has officially finished and everyone was sad on our last performance. It felt weird being the last time that we were going to be doing the show and having met some great friends and having had a great time I was sad that it was over.

My friends came and watched one of the previous shows and loved the performance. They thought it was funny and had a great night.

Hannah and Jessica.

I so enjoy being involved with something I love and getting the opportunity to perform night after night is wonderful. I feel that from each pantomime I gain more experience and make lots of new memories.

I hope to be involved with the pantomime next year as I simply would not know what I would do for my Christmas if I am not doing panto. It has become a part of my life that I return to each year and just can't stop going back for more.

All I can hope for now is that next year will be as good as this year and even though I am losing some friends who shall not be returning next year, I look forward to hopefully making many more next year and another year of fun, laughter and a great Christmas.

Jessica's third diary

Christmas Eve

Since the first show the pantomime has ran smoothly with great audiences every night. The audience response has been terrific making a wonderful atmosphere.

At the end of every show you can see that all of the children have been struck by the lively characters and all formed great admiration for their favourite characters.

While on the stage looking out into the audience every night my view is filled with smiling faces and waving flashing wands. Even though I have done many performances I am not yet even remotely bored of doing the same show over again.

Instead I just enjoy coming back the next day more and more. On the performance of Christmas Eve, everyone is full of excitement for Christmas day.

There isn't an empty seat in the house and everyone is caught up with the Christmas spirit. I was especially looking forward to this performance because all my family were coming to watch me.

As I arrived at the theatre I realised all wasn't how it should be as there was no one but the main characters on the stage when usually everyone would be there starting the musical warm up.

No Jester!!!

As I walked into the dressing room I found out that the Jester and one of the musicians had broken down in their car and so due to their absence decisions were being carried out about what was going to happen in the show.

We later found out that they would hopefully be able to make it to the performance but would be late and therefore miss some of the opening of the show.

This was a problem because the jester and babes open the show with a song and dance routine. Someone was going to have to stand in for the jester until he arrived.

Fortunately and to everyone’s joy they both made it in time to proceed on with the show as per normal and after a quick change and preparation, everyone was ready for the performance.

Show must go on!

The two shows also had one more alteration as one of the senior dancers couldn't participate in the show and therefore in the first show her double replaced her and in the second show another senior from the other team was able to cover her.

We all made sure that the dancers knew what they were doing and all knew their places and that they felt confident as to what they were doing.

On the second show I had my family watch the show. My family always like to come and watch on Christmas Eve as the atmosphere is fantastic and marks the beginning of their Christmas festivities. 

As it is a small tradition of mine, once again I asked the Jester to call out my family’s group names, as he welcomes and says hello to special groups in the audience, to make sure that they were participating and that they felt part of the pantomime.

Family fun

My family all had a wonderful night full of humorous entertainment and enjoyed the pantomime. 

Despite the minor alterations both of the shows were a huge success and produced a fantastic performance. It was great to see all the children dressed up in costumes in the audience ready for Christmas and in the spirit of the world of panto.

Jessica's second diary

Jessica Harrow.

We have finally reached the day of our first show. It was now the time to see if everybody’s hard work and efforts had paid to make an outstanding performance.

While myself and the other dancers where waiting behind the curtain we where all nervous, excited and anxious for a successful show.

As the curtain came up and we all froze into are first positions, we were all happy as we could see that the auditorium was full with a great audience that participated with the pantomime greatly and seemed to have had a really great time.

No mistakes

The show ran smoothly with no mistakes made. Everyone was happy with how the performance went and couldn't have asked for a better first performance.

The children watching were all joining in with the pantomime, laughing and singing along.

As the audience were watching it was easy to see that they all admired the cast and was very impressed by their performances.

After we had finished the first show we then were given our 15 minute call for the next performance.

Running Late

Because we ran late on the previous show we all had to eat our lunch quickly, reapply our make up and change into our opening costumes.

Fortunately we managed to get ready for our beginners call on time and were all prepared for the next show.

The second performance was not as busy as the first however the audience’s participation and enthusiasm made up for the smaller audience.

I can only hope that the rest of the pantomimes go as well as today’s performances and am eager to see how the rest of the shows proceed.

I know that performing is what I am suppose to do!

Jessica's first diary

Dress rehearsals are always a long and tiring process. The show needs to be performed to the best of everyone’s ability with 100% effort and performance quality.

As performers are still not totally sure when to enter and exit onto the stage and which side of the stage they will need to be on for this, some people don't always make their cue for some of the dances.

However a dress rehearsal is time for mistakes to happen so they can be corrected in time for the actual performance.

Fairy

In this years production of sleeping beauty, as well as being a villager and a dancer I'm also a fairy. This means, that as a fairy I am on the stage a lot and therefore have a lot of quick changes.

Quick changes need full concentration and awareness to ensure I have the right costume for the right scene as there are many different costumes for different dances and scenes.

The whole show has to be done twice in a dress rehearsal so each of the different groups got a chance to rehearse the show. The set changes, lighting and sound are also rehearsed and everyone’s work can come together to make the final product which is the show.

Excited

As everyone entered the dressing rooms in the afternoon, all were excited as makes up was applied and costumes for the opening was changed into. Then began a long day of singing, dancing, acting, waiting and of course eating!

At the end of the evening, everyone sat round the producer and director while we discussed how it all went and we went through a few corrections that need to be made.

After watching and participating in rehearsals, I am confident that the show tomorrow will be successful and I can't wait for curtains to come up and performing to our first of many audiences.

I'd like to wish all the cast good luck for the shows ahead!

Hannah's final diary

Hannah Aylward

The last week has been exciting and enjoyable just like any other but this week we have to start saying goodbye to people we have been performing with.

On Christmas Eve I was not meant to be performing but my opposite was unable to do the show. Unfortunately I could only cover one so another girl had to cover the second one.

It was weird performing with another group because, although they do the same as you, there may be little things they do differently which you have to pick up on the spot. I managed well though and the performance was great.

Monday was an ordinary day I was back with my team and we did the usual getting ready, performing and doing it all again.

Wednesday was different though the show times were at 2:30 and 6:30, which meant there was an hour and a half gap between the two, shows.

This meant two friends, Becky and Lucy and me, had time to go over to pizza express. When the second show came we did wonder if the pizza was such a good idea!! We were fine though and did our best.

Filmed

On Friday we were being filmed so that we are able to buy a video to watch. I was confident and wanted to my best for the video.

In the first dance everything was going well but then my mind went blank and I missed a couple of steps I managed to get back on track though and finish the dance with no other mistakes.

After the shows on Friday the main cast and the senior dancers sent out for a meal in Radlett. It was to celebrate what we have done as a team and to have a good time!! It was a lovely meal and a chance to get to see the other team and see how there shows are going.

Monday will be my last performance, which I am looking forward to but not. Its going to be good because everyone will be really raring to go for the last one but then no one wants it to end!

Last show

Hannah with her fellow dancers

It was one of my teams last day on Friday because they are unable to do the last show so we have someone coming in to fill in for her.

For the fifth year running I have had such a good time doing the panto and have once again met many lovely people who are great to work with.

Hopefully I will be able to do this again next year, as my Christmas holidays would be a bore without it!!!

Hannah's second diary

The first week has been eventful but very good fun!

There have been a few mishaps such as babes not being on for the finale and being out of time in some of the dancers but these things don't faze anyone. We carry on with the show and give something enjoyable for people to watch.

In one of the dances my shoe was beginning to slip off so I had to discretely try and put it back on, which was rather hard when your meant to be spinning round on your knees!!

Also in another one of the dances I was out of time and unfortunately it was a bit noticeable! I'll have to brush up on my dancing quickly!!

Being a fairy is exciting especially as we have lines to say! Thankfully I have not yet missed or mucked up lines and hopefully it will never happen!! (Touchwood) if it does ever happen I'm sure I or someone else will cover it perfectly!!

On my last show of the week all was going well. I hadn't gone wrong in dances and my lines were perfect! I was standing on the side of the stage waiting to go on for the last dance of the show and I heard people saying fire!

I didn't know whether it was a joke made by one of the cast or what, so I took a peep around the wings and found myself looking at a microphone!

Only this one was alight!!!! The nanny came to the rescue and sorted it out! Lets just hope we don't see that again!!

Hannah's first diary

Once again we begin rehearsals for what is going to be another excellent Christmas of panto. Coming back to see old and new faces was so good and exciting.

To see that everyone was as enthusiastic and ready to go is another bonus as it lifts spirits and gets you into the panto mood.

Our first rehearsal was great. We got straight into learning dances and also tried on some of the costumes!! This got the energy levels up even more as we saw what we would be wearing.

All dancers were very willing to learn dances quickly and get rehearsing them, especially when there were a few laughs to be had. There was an idea for a dance move, which involved sitting on the floor and trying to swing legs over each other.

Giggling

Unfortunately this didn't turn out as planned and it was where the giggling began. For the next couple of rehearsals we carried on learning routines and went over previous ones as well, it is always so tiring because some of the dances are so energetic and fast.

Our first rehearsals with the babes was great as we got to see who we would be working with and got a chance to get to know them.

During the day we practised dances and added the babes into dances that we had learnt so we knew where we were to stand in the routine. At points this did get very confusing but we managed.

Four seniors from each group are fairies. We have to say a couple of lines and get an extra costume on top of that.

Exciting

It is a good opportunity and an exciting thing to do, as it is different from dancing the whole time. We do have a very short ballet type dance to go with this that we learnt early on.

Our first rehearsal with the whole cast was only a two hour session but was exciting as we started sorting out positions, entrances and exits and also the songs.

We also got to be together as a whole team and this really got us in the frame of mind for the show.

The main parts were put into the dances and also had to learn the dances in a short space of time and this didn't always have the best result.

High Spirits

When we came back to rehearse for a whole day everyone was still in high spirits and you could see that the main cast had been practising their moves, as they were on the ball and really throwing themselves into the dances.

This was the same for the dancers. Although we have been rehearsing the dances for longer we are still enthusiastic and get right into them.

It has to be said that SOMETIMES things slip and we do go into sleepy mode. (This will definitely not be the case when we are performing.)

At this point we are making a few final touches and getting all technical, which is not our favourite bit of the show!!

Everyone is ready and raring to go and cannot wait to get performing to audiences and generally have a great time.

Being with friends from previous years and meeting new people makes it that extra bit more exciting and everyone’s enthusiasm will assure audiences have a wonderful panto to watch at Christmas.