Another show over...

So the concerts last week went really well - you never quite know whether it's going to come together until you get there! We still had some issues with illness - at least three soloists were suffering from colds. I was supposed to be singing 'Prima Donna' from The Phantom of the Opera, but we ended up cutting it at the last minute as Carol, who was singing the very high woman's part in the song just felt that she wasn't going to be able to do it justice.

I even managed to get all the words in the right order for 'Razzle Dazzle', which was probably my biggest worry! And I didn't screw up 'Stars'...

This has been a tough show for me, with work and health problems, etc, but I had a really good time and I'm so glad I didn't miss it.

But it's straight onto working on the auditions for the next show - which is 'The Sound of Music' in April. We've already had some amusement. We've got a new couple possibly joining the society after the workshop we held a couple of months ago. According to them they've worked both on stage and behind-the-scenes and (I think) said they had worked in the professional theatre. They came to see the concert on Thursday, said they really enjoyed it and then proceeded to, for example, tell me I was really good (which, you know, good to hear!) but then told me that I should do the comic stuff not the serious stuff (which I normally do but I didn't have the heart to tell them) and I should have done one of the songs instead of Martin...in front of Martin's wife. They then spent an hour telling Anne (probably our best overall singer) what she should do to improve her performance.

So anyway they turned up to the 'The Sound of Music' introduction last night - arriving late and so after the audition process had been explained, so Carol, our director, had to explain it again. To understand what comes next you have to know that we have 'open' auditions - i.e. we audition in front of the society, not just the audition committee, at least in part so everyone can see that fair play has been done - and you have to audition the set pieces from the show (at least one song and some dialogue).

Apparently (I wasn't able to be there last night so this was reported to me by pennski) the new couple were absolutely horrified that we did open auditions. Then the woman (Ann or Anne) asked if she could sing something else she knows rather than the set audition piece!

These guys are going to be entertaining! We're a welcoming company and we have no problem with new members auditioning - we've had a new member take the lead in their first show with us on more than one occasion - but we won't put up with someone throwing their weight around as soon as they come through the door. We only last year had that problem with a so-called 'professional' actor who upset everyone with their insistence on always knowing what was best (and he wasn't even any good!) and it won't be allowed again.

Watch this space. It could be fun...!