I really like this new board too (and its in my fav colour!)
What about a forum for all the panto'ees out there seeing as we're in the midst of the season. You know, funny stories and catastropies, etc. There was a string started on the old discussion board about ad libs and what to do when the words dry up, etc. It made amusing reading (especially the Aladdin and the Lamp one!). My group stopped doing panto's a few years ago but I remember them fondly (and all the chaos!) I'd love to hear how people's shows went this year and also memories from yesteryear!
Come on guys, whadya think?

Janice

[FONT=Impact][COLOR=blue]



Hi Jan

Fancy seeing your name on here!!!

Just recalling the time.. when we were all on stage in Cinderella I think... and someone came on late for their cue - and proceeded to walk into the scenery flats which started to topple - luckily the back stage crew were quick on their feet and managed to save the day!!! What would we do without them!!!
The Audience laughed for the first time though!! - No Only joking it was the second time!!

Well I dread Pantos

I once worked on a professional season (one of a few) - the director was a nightmare. After tech week (called hell week for a reason) we went into 3 days of dress. on the last even (before opening into a matinee) we started at 6.30. Things hadn't gone too well at the previous rehearsals, and this was no exception. After numerous stops and starts we came down at 11:30. No problem I hear you cry. We then started again and came down at 3am...... Not content the director, still unhappy (an understatement) insisted we went through it again. Finally at 7 am we all went home only to bed.

The moral of this story .. well there are many - but my favorite is that the actors (bless their cotton socks) were on a standard Equity wage - Where as the tech crew (especially lighting and sound) were on a seperate contract and thus earned loads on overtime.

Oh and in case your wondering the first two shows were okay although members of the team were often found dozing back stage...

Well I dread Pantos

I once worked on a professional season (one of a few) - the director was a nightmare. After tech week (called hell week for a reason) we went into 3 days of dress. on the last even (before opening into a matinee) we started at 6.30. Things hadn't gone too well at the previous rehearsals, and this was no exception. After numerous stops and starts we came down at 11:30. No problem I hear you cry. We then started again and came down at 3am...... Not content the director, still unhappy (an understatement) insisted we went through it again. Finally at 7 am we all went home only to bed.

The moral of this story .. well there are many - but my favorite is that the actors (bless their cotton socks) were on a standard Equity wage - Where as the tech crew (especially lighting and sound) were on a seperate contract and thus earned loads on overtime.

Oh and in case your wondering the first two shows were okay although members of the team were often found dozing back stage...

I was the Emp in Aladdin once at school (that far back)..

Curtian opened...

Walked on..

Looked at the set..

Walked off..

Curtian closed..

Muffled curses heard..

Curtain opened to the correct scene...

Walked on...

Adlibed... "Rice to see you, to see me in the right scene, Rice..."

It was a giggle..

And of course the old favorite...

"Go on Aladdin!!! Give your lump a rub!!!"

Just finished producing Aladdin locally. Year 8 of panto and still going strong!
Best prompt this year

Wishee washee being prompted on the line "What's Next".

As principal boy (Jack in Jack and Beanstalk), I asked the kids what names I should call the giant. (hey it was scripted - not my choice to do this!). "Big disallowed word!" shouts out the loudest child in the world. Beast. I daren't use it but the Dame did later!

As principal boy (Robinson Crusoe this time), the fairy was rhyming away and about to give me my magic ring when she forgot her words, realised she couldn't ad lib in rhyme and so rushed off stage to look at her script (we didn't have a prompt). So there was I just standing there waiting for her to come back.... But she did, bless her!

Again in Robinson Crusoe, one of the REALLY EVIL pirates bumped into the other but then very politely turned round and said "sorry". When we laughed about it later the apologising pirate said, "well he gave me SUCH a look!". Bless.

We had a very nice gentleman playing Abanazar in Aladdin, who had the lamp (well) hung on a silken cord around his waist. The line "I wonder what will happen if I rub this?" as he stood sideways to the audience and rubbed the lamp caused mass hysteria - to his complete confusion.

Myself, as genie of the lamp, had a job to keep a straight face when I leapt on stage with "what can I do for you, o master?"

Needless to say the director had words afterwards!!

We've just finished doing Cinderella and in the frightening off one of the actors asked the audience to shout out if they saw anything behind them. The "frighteners off" where ghosts and I was up in the balcony and a kid in front of me shouted "ghoulies"....

we had a dress rehearsal disaster during Jack & the Beanstalk a few years aso. It wasn't going too well anyway when the part of the dame's finger was chopped off in a door. Not a pretty sight but thankfully our MD is a doctor and we had a coupl of nurses in the cast. He ended up going to hospital dressed in an aerobics outfit !!! The first performance the producer played the dame and the original one continued the run from the second performance with a sling which was incorporated into the show from then on !

Anne - Marie - these things are always funniest when the people doing them don't realise they're being smutty!

Lilyrose - I love your tale of triumph over adversity! Your dame is a real trouper! It's amazing isn't it how no matter what the injury or illness we all still carry on. The King in a panto I was in lost his mother during the panto's run and yet he still turned up and got through it every night for the remainder. Deserved a medal in my opinion.

Mmmm?herewith a bit of an embarrassment that turned out all right in the end.
In Aladdin, playing the Vizier ? lovely moustache glued firmly into place. It comes to the final performance; waiting to go on, get a vague sense of unease that all is not well on the upper lip, but too late to demand more glue; go on stage and start speaking; aware that left-hand side has become detached and is wafting somewhat; titters begin from the audience; carry on talking; remainder about to give way; rip moustache off and hurl it over my shoulder into the wings; result?the Vizier's biggest laugh and round of applause of the whole run.

OK, here's another triumph over problems.

Our principal girl didn't turn up to the dress rehearsal of Jack & The Beanstalk. With no answer on her mobile we carried on and the director stepped into the breach. It transpired she was in hospital after a major car crash on the M25. She dragged herself out of hospital next day, cemented into a neck brace, and the wardrobe mistress hurriedly make make-shift wimples (to hide the neck brace) for her and the other female principals, thus moving our whole female costume plot back a hundred years or so, and the two-week run went ahead as planned. No-one ever guessed.

Flange - we went to see Chitty just before Christmas at the Palladium on a night when it was an understudy playing Brian Blessed's part of the Baron. Poor understudy's moustache would NOT stay on. BRILLIANT Nichola McAuliffe playing the Baroness ripped it off and laid the way for many many ad libs that whole scene. A really funny moment. Sorry if it's off topic but the moral of this story is that if there's going to be a cock-up, make it as BIG as possible to give the audience something to laugh at.

About 10 years ago I directed "Darling, I'm Home!".
Part of the plot is that this chap is cooking a special meal for himself and his bit on the side while his wife is away (yes, it's a farce!). He goes to buy all the ingredients including an eel. Comes back with a basket of shopping. On the last night the actor walks on stage with a HUGE conger eel (6ft long and about 6" wide!) over his shoulder, and a completely straight, deadpan expression on his face!

I love farce. It is (sadly) one of the dying traditions of British theatre. It needs to be done in the right style these days, so the last one I directed (Move over, Mrs Markham) was set in the 70's so that it wouldn't look politically correct (re-runs of Are you being served are acceptable now, but a modern version, complete with stereotype girls in short skirts, gay menswear assistants, etc. would be frowned upon)

Okay not Panto but quite funny. During a production of Season's Greetings one of the lesser principals each night made a particular entrance too early. He would realise this stand still in the "hallway" and greet everyone who went by until his cue line was actually delivered when he would then re greet someone and carry on into the house (the said delay was usually around 5 minutes)

The same actor a little further on in to the production had to stand at the rear of the set and set the cutlery onto the dresser whilst two others were engeged in "conversation" If I told you I could clearly hear him set the table from my position in a seal lighting bos at the rear of the auditorium you'll have some idea how loud he was!

Bless him - he still performs to this day........

Also not panto but an other warning...

I was doing Front of House for a group who were doing a Farce "Murder Mystery"...

The Director, funny enough was playing the lead as well, "Inspector Bob" or soemthing like that....

He skipped a few lines...

Actually he skipped a page...

Ok to be honest he skipped 5 PAGES!!!

No one could get him back on track, the prompt threw down his book and walked out and the rest of the cast just gave up and carried on...

The sad part... Not ONE person in the Audience noticed... Not even me who had seen the thing 5 times that week...

NEVER pick a play or a panto that you can do this with!!!!!

I remember thinking to myself... "Gee that was very polished tonight..."

Continuing the non-panto theme...

In Oliver, Fagin has a line something like "Look boys, it's Nancy..." which got transposed into "Look, Nancy boys.."
a point from which you cannot recover. (Fortunately for all concerned, this was in rehearsal.)

In Habeus Corpus, a line that should've been, "so much has Freud taught us", came out as "some much for Freud's tortoise". A line that has become almost a group motto.

Thanks chaps, I've had a real laugh reading these (and full of admiration for those mentioned who carried on through injury and berevement).

I remember last year when we did a one night Christmas Cabaret which included a Nativity scene. One of the 3 wise men has bought crowns for herself and the other two on the night of the show. As they came on, one of them didn't realise the crown was too big for her head and it slipped over her eyes. She really played it up and started flailing her arms around yelling "who turned out the lights!" The other two went with the flow and came to her rescue and the audience had no idea it wasn't part of the sketch. It got a huge laugh.

Ok, here's another.

In Peter Pan, you know the bit where the kids end up with the American Indians? Well, the Indian Chief stands at the front of the stage and prays to his god "God of Sun, protect Pan".

The last night he unfortunately came out with "Sun of God, protect Pan" - to huge amusement from the local rector......

Oh and one more....

again in panto, the line went "quick, we are in grave danger".

One night this came out as "quick, we are in Dave Granger".

After a lot of laughs at committee, the elusive Dave Granger appeared as a member of the backstage team on every show we did for the next 12 years!!

Oh I had a nightmare when doing Amedeus - I was on the lighting board (for those non techies the cues are programmed in sequence and it's a heck of a thing to quickly chop and change out of sequence)

Okay it's the begining of the show and we have a seires of lighting cues that lights up different parts of the stage on particular lines, the cast in that area give a response - these cues came thick and fast about 10 per page for 5 or 6 pages.

Yes I realise this is a recipe for disaster but it was what the diretor wanted.

So on the third night the actor skips a page or 3 (literally) but the cast realise unfortunalty we're out of sync so the cast are talking in the dark - frantic searching finds us the right cue, we move the board on and we're back on track...until the actor remembers his mistake and skips backwards Arrrrgh!!! more hair ripping out. We got there eventually but I really can do without those "adrenaline rushes"

Hello I'm new to this site so please bear with me

I must confess I have never acted in a panto, much as I'd like to, though I have been a regular audience member for many years.

This year when watching Swan Lake, the panto (Yes it can be dioen ) Detective Sergent Clueless asked the audience what was the traditional method for calling for help when the bad guy turns up. NOw I know this group and in particular this actor, so just to annoy him I yelled "Got any pork scratchings, mate!" (For the simple reason a friend of mine was arrested shortly before for asking a policeman that). They tryed it as well. The entire audience got what I was going on about but not the actors. Though he did realsie when someone suggested "Oink, Oink!!"

Welcome Loopy. With a name like that you should fit in well here? Most of us are on the edge!

I love the story.

Robin

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy................................



Martin's finally gone over the edge!!

Yes, not only am I Loupie I'm double Loopy

Thinking about it the peice I did for GCSE drama was sort of panto like, we did a version of the emporers new clothes and had audience interaction if not participation

Anyway I managed to fall off a horse and dislocate my elbow 2 days before the exam. To make matters worse I fell off on Saturday didn't come out of hospital until Sunday so we only had Monday morning to amend our piece. It must have been ok though as my results weren't that bad.

I've enjoyed reading this topic today, which I missed originally. So I'll add a story of my own.

I played Slave of The Ring in Aladdin a couple of years ago, and the idea was to be a robotic slave which Abanazar made in scene 1. So whenever I moved about, they used creaking-sound effects and I slowly walked like a robot. Part way through, there is a scene where I climbed down the wishing well, except there are no trapdoors at The Adrian Mann Theatre, so I had to just crouch down on my hands and knees. I then had to stay there for over half an hour before my next cue, getting very uncomfortable. So when I was next summoned out of the well, I could do the walk without trying, as my knees and hips were stiff. And on the last night, just as I reached the front of the stage, someone shouted out "She needs oiling".

I was in stitches once I got offstage. I was just so glad I didn't have any lines to say at that point, as I was having difficulty keeping a straight face. Particularly, as every night when I went into the wings after that scene, there was one persistent member of the crew who kept volunteering to loosen up my joints!

Claire