What's the Buzz? Tell Me What's Happenin'

BSMTC are bringing Jesus Christ Superstar to the Bishop’s Stortford stage!  

Well the ‘buzz’ was audible on Wednesday night and it was all definitely ‘happening’…we had our first show talk for our NEW production Jesus Christ Superstar which will be at Rhodes, Bishop’s Stortford 10^th -17^th November.

The first get together of the year when we discuss our big production is always fun – you get to see old friends who you have not seen for a few months and there is the excitement of new beginnings.  I always get a little thrill when I hear the music for the first time and hold the Lib in my hot sweaty hands!

Jesus Christ Superstar is a bit of a departure for our company in some ways.  We have a great reputation and can certainly do Rogers and Hammerstein justice – i.e. we’re very good at the more ‘traditional’ musicals ( hence the win for Carousel!).  In my second year with the company we put on the less traditional show Little Shop of Horrors which definitely did not sell as well as the previous year – it was up against my Fair Lady which sold out.  Bit of a hard act to follow! Little Shop is an amazing show and great fun to do, but was maybe not to the taste of some of our more established audience. However, I am a firm believer that although it is a priority to get bums on seats you still need to try new things – for the benefit of the members who are as keen as mustard to learn and want to experience the excitement of everything musical theatre can throw at them!  I have just finished my two years as a committee member and have learnt a huge amount in that time about what it costs to put on a show, and how to balance members interests against  commercial interests.  Without ticket sales you don’t have a show or a company basically – but you do need your members to be enthusiastic about what they are doing. 

The choice of show is a real ‘hot potato’ for the committee who have to make the decision every year.  Jesus Christ Superstar was chosen as the show for 2014 way back in 2012 and we did a great deal of research into it. One of the factors that influenced us was the fact that it has been recently resurrected as a Arena tour starring Tim Minchin, Mel C, Chris Moyles and of course Ben Forster who played Jesus and was chosen for the part via an ITV reality show.  This gave the show a huge amount of publicity and people know quite a bit about it.  So that helps a lot! 

I am probably going to be blogging a lot about this show as there is quite a lot to say and we don’t put it on until November so I thought I would kick things off with a few facts you may not know about Jesus Christ Superstar…

Did you know?

•  It was originally produced as an album before it ever became a show.  It only became a stage show when the album sold phenomenally well in America
• On the original album Ian Gillan who was the lead singer of Deep Purple played Jesus – hence the authentic ‘rock’ feel.
• Murray Head had a pretty unsuccessful career until Andrew Lloyd Webber asked him to play Judas on the original album – did you know his younger brother is Anthony Head of Buffy the Vampire fame?
• Agnetha from Abba played Mary Magdalene in the Swedish stage show – right before they won the Eurovision song contest! 

Agnetha in plaits - a fetching look in her pre ABBA days

Agnetha obviously went for beardy Jesus look alikes which is probably why she ended up with Bjorn

• "King Herod's Song" is actually a number from "King Richard", a failed Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Tim Rice had to write new lyrics for this number so that it could be added to "Jesus Christ Superstar"; originally, the number was called "Those Saladin Days".  They wrote it in 20 minutes!
•  For the 1973 film three actors were considered for Jesus – Mickey Dolenz, David Cassidy and a 17 year old John Travolta (who then went on to be cast in Saturday Night Fever and Grease!)

I could have been Jesus

I could have been Jesus too - I had the hair

I also could have been Jesus - but at least I got Danny in Grease

I'm Ian Gillan and I WAS JESUS!!! I had the hair, the voice and the loincloth!

• Andrew Lloyd Webber hated the first stage show of JCS on Broadway – calling it a ‘travesty’.  He also hated the 1973 film.
• Johnny Rotten is currently playing Herod in the North American Tour- altogether now " I am an antichrist!"

Scary..just scary.....

A little thought to leave you all with – here’s a quote from Aussie Stage News who reviewed the recent Australian Arena Tour…

” It takes just the slightest misstep to get this famous, much seen and much recorded rock opera wrong. And Superstar is not a show that calls for slight steps. It needs boldness and creative daring.”

Mentioning no names but I've seen an amateur production which did get it soooo wrong....We have to nail this BSMTC peeps – so no pressure there guys!!

So to calm your minds, here is a lovely picture of Tim Minchin as Judas in the recent Arena tour  - just because...

Tim contemplates whether he should have had that dodgy kebab last night

A Night of Old Time Music Hall

I spent a really lovely evening on Saturday night watching my company BSMTC perform our annual Spring Show which this year was an Old Time Music Hall.  Our Spring Show was essentially conceived as a fundraising activity but what I really like about it is it gives members of our company who may not get leading roles in our main production a chance to shine. 

Music Hall is a very much a traditional British theatrical entertainment - with its orgins in London in the 1830s. It started off in public houses but grew in popularity and soon standalone music hall venues were being set up.  These theatres were designed chiefly so people could consume food and alcohol and smoke tobacco in the auditorium while the entertainment took place.  Sounds like a great night out to me - bar the smoking!

Music Hall made stars of people like  Marie Lloyd, Dan Leno, Little Tich and George Leybourne.  In fact Marie Lloyd was only 14 years old when she made her debut!  Songs from the music hall have become part of our culture - everyone knows My Old Man, You are My Honeysuckle and of course there are so many songs from the First World War too such as Keep the Home Fires Burning, Pack Up Your Troubles and Goodbyee. 

I was not in this Spring show as I decided to take a break - I started a new job in January and my commute is massive and tiring so I wanted to concentrate on getting established and settled.  But boy did I miss it!  I really wished I was up on stage on Saturday night as everyone looked like they were having so much fun.  What was really nice is that the older members of our company really seemed to enjoy performing in this show and there were some great comedy turns and beautiful solos.  A lot of my friends were in it and performed brilliantly - it was very well put together, colourful and fun. It's amazing what you can do in a village hall - with no scenery and just lighting to bring it all together.  The costumes really make a difference - I loved the cockney section with the pearly kings and queens the best.

My theatre pals Cat and Jay lead the company in The Lambeth Walk!  Oi!

In true music hall tradition we sat at tables, with our bottles of wine and beer and in the interval had fish and chips.  Simple but oh so enjoyable! My hubby always says he loves the Spring show because he likes the fish and chips. Not because he enjoys seeing his wife perform! I can't tell him off though as he took most of these photos for this years show and he made a really good job of it - I think I am going to offer his services to do our dress rehearsal pics for Jesus Christ Superstar which is our main show this year in November.  More on that in another blog post as we have our first show talk tomorrow night - Yippee!  To say I am excited is an understatement....we are all so looking forward to it.  I don't really care what I am in but I have a secret hankering to be a leper covered in blood - I just want to build my part up as much as possible so I figure I will get noticed if I am covered in blood! ha ha.  More of that later...

To get back to the Music Hall - here is the opening number from the show - Oh I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside - now we all know that one don't we?

Love the way the beach ball is in mid air in this one!

I had to include this one because I think it takes guts to wear a swimming costume like that - this was Swimmin' with the wimmin' - Richard came down with a nasty cold after the show - maybe it was the costume?

And this is of our lovely chorus girls doing Ta Ra Ra Boom Dee Ay.. Here's a little tip from me - get a corset if you are in a Musical Theatre group -  you will wear it loads....

 

And finally a picture of the BSMTC ladies doing a number from Oh! What a Lovely War  - fronted by my good friend Cat who was fabulous in the role of recruitment diva.  I keep telling her she should be on the stage....;)

What about you?  Have you ever been in an Old Time Music Hall - what songs did you sing? How did you stage it?

How to win a NODA award - and yes we did!

Hello fellow theatre luvvies,

Glad my first post was so well received - this brings me great joy folks!

Did I mention that my musical theatre company BSMTC is an award winning company?  No?  Ok well I am telling you now - we won a NODA award for best musical in District 7 South East, two weeks ago for our production of Carousel last November!!  To the uninitiated who don't know what  a NODA award is - its like the Oscars for amateur theatre. Yes it really is.  The National Operatic and Dramatic Association NODA   provides support and advice to amateur theatre groups.  Every year we invite our NODA regional rep to come along and review our performances, and we all wait with bated breath to see what they write as their opinion really matters to us.

I was especially proud that we were nominated for this award as I took on the role of Production Manager for Carousel - well actually, I was co-erced into it by our President who plied me with coffee, beer etc until I gave in.  He is very good at getting people to do things they never set out to do!  It was a very busy role and I had to learn a lot but I am glad I did it and I had a great team to help me. Although there were moments when I thought 'what the hell have I taken on'?

This is the award -shame its not a trophy!

Which brings me to the reason why I think we won this award - teamwork.  We are of course a fantastic company with a supreme amount of talent - that's a given. (I am not at all biased!) However, to make an amateur production work it involves a lot more than just the cast - you need a great stage crew, a wardrobe manager, a props manager, someone to handle publicity and marketing, front of house staff, raffle ticket sellers. I could go on....When I took on the production manager role I did not foresee the amount of work that we would need to do - and it is all done voluntarily by dedicated people most of whom have full time day jobs. It does always seem to be the really busy people who get these jobs doesn't it?

I was very lucky with this show in getting a really great team together - firstly this show had a big costume quota and a big cast including 2 sets of children ( 12 in all) . Our wardrobe manager Cat took this job on and was fantastic - she was so organised and patient - and she kept her cool at all times.  Costume is a tricky area - everyone wants to look their best on stage and so when you hire costumes as we do they can be badly fitting and in need of some work. In fact the area of costume is a whole other blog post - I will definitely write something on that.

To give you some idea of how many costumes there were including a bear - a BEAR people - this is the opening number with the whole cast on the stage..

  and here are a few more images to show you including the boys as sailors...

I had a brilliant props team - my lovely mum Diane and a lovely lady called Jenny. Now my mum never does a job by halves -she has to do a job well or not at all - which is why I asked her to do it!  She still has not forgiven me!  Anyway as you may or may not know Carousel features a lot of clams - a huge amount of clams - as we all go on a clambake and even sing about it.  So where were we going to get that many clams?  Answer - my mum made them from Fimo and painted them...definitely worthy of a NODA award all by themselves I think you will agree?

You would never know these were not real clams would you?

Our other amazing team members were our stage crew and I was lucky to find a set of people with experience who were willing to get stuck in. We handled all the publicity ourselves and the programme and flyer was designed by the son of one of our members.

Of course you cannot win a NODA award without a great director and MD - and we have both. Boy, do they work us hard sometimes but it is sooo worth it. We started our run feeling confident and we all knew what we were doing, plus the singing and music was fantastic.  Some members of the audience said 'You'll Never Walk Alone', sung in the last scene gave them goosebumps and made them cry.

So to finish this post I thought I'd share with you the picture of us all at the NODA awards - we did a NODA selfie!  This was after we won and we were on a massive high...tonight is our AGM and we are going to show the award to our members so we are feeling very proud of ourselves.

The theatre luvvies celebrate their win

First ever blog post - why I love being in an amateur theatre company

Hello there fellow theatre lovers! 

Difficult to know what to start writing about first - as I have so many things I want to say, but as this blog is about amateur theatre I thought I'd kick off by telling you why I got into it in the first place. I'm a member of Bishop's Stortford Musical Theatre Company www.bsmtc.org.uk and joined up about 6 years ago. I'd always loved acting and singing but somewhere along the way after university I stopped doing anything - I was trying to establish my career, then I got married and had my lovely daughter Olivia.  I think I lost my 'mojo' and felt I did not have the talent or confidence to get up on stage. I left it for about 15 years! It all changed when I started working part time as a marketing manager in a local theatre. The venue I worked in was a council run place, and local groups hired it for shows etc so we played host to a lot of local theatre and ballet etc.  I got interested in one group, BSMTC as they were putting on a production of My Fair Lady and it was selling out - I managed to get a couple of tickets at the last minute, went along and was so impressed by the talent.  I sat in the audience wishing it was me up there in the costumes and under the bright lights -most of all it looked FUN. I really felt I needed something that was just for me - where I could be myself - not mummy, wife or career woman.

So I sent off an audition form and was asked to prepare a piece to sing and perform a poem or piece of text - I was so nervous I went and got singing lessons. I chose to sing a piece from Les Miserables - no, not I Dreamed a Dream,  I chose On My Own instead and a speech from Shakespeare.  My audition was on windy, cold night in a football club - I'd prepared the whole song, but when I turned up was asked to do only a section of it.  It was so cold my teeth were chattering so it was not the ideal audition environment, but somehow or other I got in.

My first steps back onto a stage were in a Spring Cabaret in a village hall which the company do every year as a fundraiser - I thought to myself -' I'll just stay in the background until I get my confidence back', but everyone was so welcoming I started to really enjoy myself from week one.  I soon started to see that other people were not afraid to get up there and really give it everything, so I felt - why not?  You can do it too!!  I think the closet diva started to emerge there and then - secretly I am a total show off!  After that  I got a part in Little Shop of Horrors which was my first big production in a proper theatre - I played Mrs Lucie the 'editor's wife' and was also in the chorus.  A soon as I stepped onto the stage on our first night I was hooked - I had the biggest surge of adrenalin and happiness ever.

Since then I have not looked back and my confidence has grown and grown.  I can honestly say have met the nicest people - I feel I have finally  found my 'tribe'.  They love acting, singing, dressing up, being crazy and having fun.  I have never laughed so much as I do sometimes at our rehearsals and I have made the best friends.

Joining an amateur theatre company was the best thing I ever did - I got my mojo back.

Here I am in my first ever big show Little Shop of Horrors as Mrs Luce with my fellow cast members behind the curtain on the last night - I am top row 6th from the left in the red hat.  That yellow thing is Audrey the man eating plant from outer space!

And here is another backstage pic from the same show...

Happy Days! 

What about you? Do you act and sing and how did you get into it?