First Rehearsal

Tonight was our first rehearsal - and normally we would do a full read-through of the script with the cast - but for a couple of reasons (some of the cast were missing, our MD is away for a fortnight during August and wants to make use of the first few rehearsal slots for singing, and we had a TV researcher along to do some filming) I decided to get the cast to learn the opening number (both singing and dancing).

Steve (the Musical Director) got them off to a flying start - 'Opening Night' as it's called, is a quick paced song which is supposed to be a little bit shocking (and set the tone for the rest of the show). Lines like 'We've seen shit, but never like this' are delivered cleanly and sharply - adding punch to the fact that they all hated the show they've just been watching!

The cast all seemed to enjoy the rehearsal (always a good start) so lets hope we can keep up the energy over the next three months!

Hollie then began the lengthy task of setting the number. Obviously after only spending a short amount of time moving, the song is bound to need a lot of tweaking over the next few weeks, but it's always nice to see the formation of what will become the opening of our show - exciting times! :-)

The other important thing to mention is we had the lovely Kimberley filming the rehearsal this evening - she's a researcher for a (proposed) TV documentary series looking at amateur theatre across the UK. Potentially this is a very exciting opportunity for LAMPS, helping to raise our profile and perhaps get some advice on the trickier areas of producing a show like this… Sadie, June, Alison, Brian, Leslie and The Rayners' were all in attendance to help flesh out our spread of new and old members, active and in the background - and think we did ourselves proud. Let's hope we see a lot more of them in the future!

One rehearsal down, 30 to go! No pressure!

Twitter: @LAMPSTheatre