Director's Blog

Our final day

2006-10-14T12:44:00.000+01:00

Well a great night last night - probably our best performance to date and a great reaction from the audience.

Just two shows left 2.30pm and 7.45pm and then the long night of clearing out the theatre followed by the slightly less arduous party !!

We're all determined to enjoy the last two shows which will no doubt whizz by !!

Three down - Three to go !!!!

2006-10-13T17:56:00.000+01:00

Well we are three shows in and just three performances left - and I am thrilled with the way the show is going.

Touch wood - no problems so far - and the cast, musicians, backstage and front of house teams are all doing great things.

Just about to leave for Friday's show..... it is Friday 13th - so anything could happen !!!!

I'm afraid it's bad news if you haven't already booked your ticket - we're completely sold out for the final three performances so the HOUSE FULL sign will be going up.

Will give you an update after tonight's show.....

We have lift off....

2006-10-10T13:36:00.000+01:00

Well after the best part of six months - we have lift off.

Opening night has at last arrived and although it's scary to see the countdown clock on this website counting down in hours rather than days - we all can't wait to perform the show now.

Ticket sales have really picked up in the last few days so if you are thinking of coming give the Box Office a call now and reserve your seats in order not to miss out.

The tech rehearsal was long and stressful (and noisy thanks to a certain alarm !) - but that's all par for the course. 9am start on Sunday and we cleared out of the theatre at midnight.

It was dress rehearsal last night which went smoothly and the show is now ready to face it's audience.

I'll try and update as the week goes on - but hope to see you in person in Thames Ditton.

Almost time for..... Act 1 beginners...

Almost cleared for take off

2006-10-07T11:05:00.000+01:00

Well - rehearsals have officially finished !

We had our final rehearsal last night in Surbiton which went well - and was well greeted by a small audience of members from Epsom Players - who will miss the show next week for the minor excuse of they are putting on their own show ! Thanks for coming down.

The acoustics in the hall we rehearsed in last are particularly poor - but that aside no major mistakes and the show is now ready !!

Relatively quiet day Saturday - but I intend getting a good night's sleep tonight for tomorrows marathon session. Arrive at the theatre at 9am and I dare say won't be leaving until close to midnight.

All the set and props to set up and technical effects to work out - but I've got a good team and lots of helpers so fingers crossed....

Esher News and Mail

2006-10-05T14:09:00.000+01:00

Nice plug for the show on page 11 of the Esher News and Mail this week complete with photo of Audrey and Seymour.

Had to laugh - there's also an unrelated (I think !!) story on page one of police investigating the suspicious disappearance of potted plants in the Esher / Thames Ditton area.

Only hope our props team haven't gone to extreme measures......

One week to go...

2006-10-03T17:59:00.000+01:00

Ok - another late blog - time is flying and I can't believe another week has flown by.

As the countdown clock is now showing it's just one week until opening night and I'm still fairly calm !! I'm sure that will all change when we get to the theatre on Sunday when plenty of Red Bull will be the order of a long day - in fact - is it available on draught ?

The show has really come on a lot over the last seven days with full runs on Friday, Sunday and last night. We spent some extra time on the finale last night and it was well worth the effort.

Hard to believe we've just one more rehearsal before the real action starts - we'll have a final run through of the show on Friday - a day off on Saturday and then to the theatre on Sunday for a full day including band call and technical rehearsal, the dress rehearsal on Monday and the opening night on Tuesday.

There's still bits and pieces to tweak - but the final push will come when everyone is in costumes, working on the set with the full band.

Ticket sales are now picking up - so don't forget to call the box office if you haven't already done so...

Back with a daily update counting down to opening night.....

Meanwhile off to a production meeting tonight.

Momentum building with two weeks to go

2006-09-26T11:58:00.000+01:00

Ok - the daily blog has again suffered from not quite being, er, daily - but I've been kept really busy - honest guv !

Three rehearsals since the last blog, Friday night - Sunday and last night - when for the first time the show really came alive. The energy was fantastic and we whizzed through the whole show.

It was the first time in ages we had a virtually full company with the holiday season now at an end - and it was great to see everyone.

Two weeks tonight it's opening night and we will run the show again on Friday, Sunday, Monday and next Friday before our arrival at the theatre on October 8th - so still a few chances to work on the outstanding areas and making last minute improvements.

We're a lot clearer now about the set and the size of it - and in particular a certain plant - all bound to give our stage manager Rachel plenty of sleepless nights as we countdown to opening night.

We're still on the search for stage crew - so please get in touch if you can help or know of anyone - help on Sunday 8th would be much appreciated.

Richard is making good headway with his lighting plans and we have also been in touch with our sound men Steve and Richard this week as discussions turn to radio mics and sound effects.

Julia and the cast are continuing to work hard on costumes - and Bob is standing by to produce our programme which is much appreciated.

Musically is it sounding great - Nicola and her team are combining really well and late on Sunday afternoon the full band of four played through the whole show.

There's one man we need to keep REALLY BUSY at the moment - that's our box office manager Tony. If you haven't booked your ticket yet - now is the time - CLICK on BOX OFFICE on this site for Tony's number - he's standing by !!

Tick tock, tick tock

2006-09-21T16:10:00.000+01:00

The clock keeps ticking down....

Well we had our production meeting last night and I think I'm even more scared than before !

The good news is we have gone away with a (long) list of all the things that need doing before we land at the theatre at 10am on the Sunday before the show. Some are fairly simple tasks others are more complex and all need precious time.

Hopefully we have captured everything though and there will be no last-minute surprises.

Plenty of special effects are planned (I won't spoil any secrets) but we drew the line at a snow machine. We tried hard to justify it - but there's just no obvious point to use it in the show. So it's going to be a no snow show !

Back after a 'break'

2006-09-18T17:29:00.000+01:00

Hmm, so much for the good intentions of updating the Blog daily. Where on earth did the last five days go to so quickly ?

Well two rehearsals since we last 'spoke' and some good headway - so much so that we ran the entire show for the first time yesterday - and with the exception of some setting that needs doing to the final song - got through it with relatively few major headaches. We've even got as far as the curtain calls.

It was great to see John (guitar) and Neil (drums) yesterday and along with Nicola on the piano we had a real 'oomph' to the sound.

We've got our usual Monday night rehearsal tonight and the first part of the evening will be spent working on that final song I mentioned and working on the 'emergency case' parts of the show that still need the most work. After a quick break for tea (there would be a walkout if this was cancelled !) it'll be a full run through of Act 2 for the final hour.

So much is coming together but there's still plenty to do. However, it's fair to say the 'to do' list is now getting shorter and, touch wood, we remain firmly on course. The countdown clock continues to, er, countdown and three weeks tonight we'll be in the theatre for our dress rehearsal.

With a production meeting on Wednesday and another rehearsal on Friday my priority this week is getting all the elements of the programme together.

Also want to try and squeeze in a trip to see Wicked sometime soon - just wondering if the show lives up to the considerable hype.

9 million bicycles in Beijing

2006-09-13T11:34:00.000+01:00

According to Katie Melua and I can also say there are 5,000 Little Shop Of Horror leaflets in Thames Ditton.

If you can help distribute any or want some to display at work, local pub, shops etc please do get in touch via the contact us link.

Please help us spread the word.....

Production meeting

2006-09-12T11:30:00.000+01:00

My focus is increasingly turning to the technical aspects of the show - waking up during the night with thoughts of "will the set fit through the doors at the Vera Fletcher".

If not I guess it'll be an outdoors production ! Anyway to resolve these and many more 'challenges' we are having a production meeting next Wednesday when hopefully all the technical aspects of the show can be addressed.

Like all the best production meetings - it's being held in the pub !

A breakthrough night

2006-09-11T11:23:00.000+01:00

We had a good rehearsal on Monday night - it was an evening when a lot of things started coming together with plenty of energy from the cast. It was a bits and pieces night - mainly recapping work - with a rapid half hour at the end running through around six numbers.

Kelly added some movement to Meek and we hopefully will be able to run through the whole show next Sunday including curtain calls !!!

Richard, our lighting man popped along and I managed to grab a little bit of time to go through the stage plans with him.

In a game of ups and downs it was very much an up night !

First Sunday ticked off

2006-09-10T21:57:00.000+01:00

Well we made it through our first Sunday rehearsal and all in all I was pleased with progress.

It's exactly a month to opening night and we managed to run through all of Act 1 to just past the halfway point in Act 2 - which is exactly the point I needed to reach today to remain on target.

We started the run at just before 3pm and it seemed to fly by (not sure whether that's good news or not).

There's plenty of tidying up and plenty more detail that will be added but at least it's up on it's feet and I think everyone went away knowing exactly the areas they need to work on. Everyone's working hard and some of the cast are taking extra time out this week to have additional rehearsals.

We have now switched to primarily running the show on Sundays, new work and fixing on Mondays and Fridays for specific dance and music calls (promise you'll get the time Nicola!).

Anyway ended the weekend on a good note - my newspaper tips for Maria went a bit pear-shaped last night - I can't believe Helena made it through to the final although in fairness she improved her game dramatically.

Well another busy week ahead and just a few hours before we go at it again on Monday night.

PS: Don't forget the box offfice is now open - full details on this site !!!

30 days 22h 55m 18s

2006-09-09T21:55:00.000+01:00

Not so sure this countdown clock was such a good idea - every time I look it seems to be counting down faster than the speed of sound.

Is there a pause button anywhere ?

Weekend fast approaching

2006-09-08T17:37:00.000+01:00

Plenty of LSOH (it just gets easier than typing the show name after a while !) action this weekend. Starting tonight when I am hoping to make more in-roads into Act 2 and hopefully Nicola will have time to focus on some of the Act 1 songs from a musical point of view.

Second theatre trip of the week last night ! Went to see Closer Than Ever at the Bridewell Theatre. Only a cast of four - must be a dream for a director - as much as I love working with all 27 of you in LSOH - honest :)

Team music in place !

2006-09-07T17:36:00.000+01:00

Well a long committee meeting but nothing new there – still a nice glass of (strong) red wine to help the evening along and we made good progress on all the various actions.

Good news this week on the musicians front – I think we now have the full team onboard and can’t wait to hear them play together.

Nicola, our musical director, is expected to be joined by Neil (second keyboards), John (bass) and Neil (percussion).

A kind of magic

2006-09-06T17:31:00.000+01:00

Wow - what a night - absolutely amazing performance of We Will Rock You - amazing energy from the cast and indeed from the audience. I don't think there'll ever be a performance like that again. McFly made a surprise guest appearance to join in Don't Stop Me Now and great to see Roger and Brian from Queen perform some songs at the end before the whole company came back on to sing The Show Must Go On...

Talking of shows going on - back to LSOH and more planning tonight at the committee meeting - made all the better by the usually fine drop of red wine from the chairman's cellars ! Plenty to discuss as you can imagine but everyone on the committee is a great help and once the jobs are divided up it's usually pretty manageable. Costumes will be high on the agenda tonight - but Julia has already made a great start. Then it will be set, music, lighting, sound, front of house, make-up...... etc etc - just making sure that everything is in hand and we have no gaps next to jobs.

Back to wine... over the years I have been fortunate enough to win several bottles at local drama society raffles - which inevitably get donated back to the next raffle. I have a theory that these bottles never get drunk and just float from society to society. I am sure there's a vintage bottle somewhere that's been doing the rounds since the year dot.

Radio gaga, video googoo, internet gaga

2006-09-05T14:40:00.000+01:00

It's hard to think how we all managed before e-mail - certainly keeping in touch with the cast is so much easier with news of rehearsals etc.

Definitely a virtual world now - and talking of that - I'm off to see We Will Rock You tonight. The show is set 300 years from now in a totally virtual world and of course features the music of Queen. Saw it for the first time a few weeks ago and it was fab. It's a very special show tonight as today marks what would have been Freddie Mercury's 60th birthday - so a very special charity gala performance is in store - with apparently a few special guests.

Sure it will be a great night !

The shopping list is complete

2006-09-04T23:56:00.000+01:00

What a night - never enough time on a Monday night - but we did manage a staggered run through Act 1 and get to work musically on The Meek Shall Inherit.

Before we ran Act 1 - I asked everyone to raise their performances a few notches and got a good response. There's plenty of work still to be done but the whole point of tonight was trying to establish what those areas are. We've done just that and have a shopping list of stuff that needs more work in Act 1 which we'll pick up on Friday and Sunday when we have the luxury of a whole four hours.

Our stage manager Rachel made a first appearance to see what she's let herself in for... hopefully we will see her again !

Over-ran as usual (missed the pub) and the ever so patient caretaker was remarkably, er, patient.

Anyway - a few more emails to send on the midnight shift and a relatively show-free day tomorrow.

Solving the problem of Little Shop Of Horrors

2006-09-03T21:24:00.000+01:00

It's felt a little like the calm before the storm today. Yesterday was web day - getting the web site up-to-date for the show. These things always take longer than you anticipate - so much so that most of the day I was glued to the screen.

Still - it's done now - although there will be cast biogs and photos to follow and any other news about the show.

Now the storm I was mentioning..... big week for rehearsals this week. We have our usual Monday night rehearsal tomorrow night with an Act 1 run and a look at the music for The Meek Shall Inherit - a committee meeting on Wednesday, rehearsal Friday and our first Sunday rehearsal next week.

Hopefully, we should be a lot more advanced by this time next week - if anything we are slightly behind thanks to the usual summer holiday problems - but nothing that can't be caught up with. As I said to the cast last week I don't want it to come to the boil too early - but parts of the show are still in the deep freeze so there's plenty of work still to do.

I work for The Sportsman newspaper during the day - and given my theatrical interests was asked to write about How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria each week. Believe it or not people bet on it each week and so far so good with my recommendations. Last night Simona and Leanne were evicted as I predicted, so quite chuffed with that. One thing I don't get though - if Leanne was too young and Simona's accent was too strong - why were they in the last 10 as surely they could never have overcome those problems ?

In terms of winning I did think Connie for a while but now I'm not less sure. Based on last night there seems to be only one person 'they' want to win - Siobhan.

Anyway, I digress..... I still have to solve How Do You Solve A Problem Like Little Shop Of Horrors.

Welcome...

2006-09-02T12:27:00.000+01:00

Hi, welcome to this blog - you can share the blood, sweat and tears with the emphasis very much on blood for this show as we count down to our production of the musical Little Shop of Horrors in October.

Each day I'll bring you the latest news and problems - oops challenges (!) as opening night approaches.

This is the perfect weekend for setting up the web site as we kick into Sunday rehearsals from next week - and there'll be no Sunday off until the show is finished.

So I can sit back this weekend, feet up, watch some TV, nice Sunday lunch and not even think about the show....... as if !