Behind the scenes of Panto with Katie Pritchard

Katie Pritchard

It's all go here! We have just finished the second week of rehearsals for Jack and the Beanstalk.  All the music and scenes have now been covered and this is the exciting stage where the show really starts to take shape.

The lovely Katie Pritchard who plays Gemima, the Giant's Wife, has written a guest blog about how rehearsals are going. For a sneak peek behind the scenes read on...


Katie Pritchard:

Rehearsals for this years' Panto are well under way! There are so many hit tunes in this show, it's sure to be a success! Although, often a nightmare to try and learn some of the complex vocal lines and harmonies:




But, on the whole, we're all having an absolute blast learning these absolute classics. So far, my favourite song of the show has to be "Higher Ground", but I may be biased, because I get to sing the song with Laura and Izzy. It feels wonderful to sing it with all the girls!

I've also tried to make myself chief tambourine player, so I have tried to get it into every song that I'm not playing saxophone on...wish me luck...I'm not to sure if our lovely Musical Director, Craig, is too happy about my one-woman tambourine mission?! Who doesn't love a tambourine eh?!

That's us there, trying to learn our harmonies on "You Could Be Magic".

Choreography is proving a task and a half with full on cow-ography going on, courtesy of Verity and her wonderful work! And saxography is looking super snazzy! So hopefully we can get that all up to scratch for the show! It's very hard to play a sax solo whilst doing a full dance routine, but we have all had fun trying!

But the highlight for me personally has to be my scene with the giant. I've not yet had the chance to stand next to Craig while he's in his full giant's outfit, but it looks set to be more than double my height! I really can't wait for that! However, walking around the stage in my outfit is proving very difficult - I fell over three times yesterday during our rehearsal. Oops.

I can't wait to get on stage with all the set and scenery and see it all in action. I hope the audience enjoys the show as much as we've enjoyed making it! :-D

Jack and the Beanstalk opens on Thursday 10th December and runs until Sunday 10th January. You can find out more or book your tickets by clicking here or by calling our friendly box office team on 01785 619080.

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