Ahoy there, me hearties, and welcome to this week’s piratey blog! My name’s Ellie and I play one of General Stanley’s beautiful, Presbyterian daughters named Kate the – ahem – ‘Eager’. She knows that pirates are no match for upstanding young ladies but can’t strictly be said to discourage their advances.
It’s hard to believe that next is week is actually here, the best week of the year (apart from Panto Week) – it’s Show Week! So this week has been our final week of rehearsals and it’s my honourable duty to bring you up to date with all that’s been going on!
This week we have been running our show in it’s entirety to triple check that everything is ship shape for opening night. Running the show on Monday I felt such a sense of pride – it’s on a night like that that you realise just how many talented people make up our motley crew! I know you probably think I just have to say, otherwise I’ll be forced to walk the plank, but the show really is fantastic. Forget everything you thought you knew about Gilbert & Sullivan – I too was a slave to the misguided preconception that it’s old, stuffy and dull, but our SMP version of it, dreamt up by our incredible production team, is hilarious, colourful and exciting. It was such a delight on Monday to see all of our hard work coming together and to be able to watch other parts of the show, which had me howling with laughter. There were a couple of minor mishaps: for example, our lovely choreographer Miss Fay had to delicately remind the girls to actually move during one of our numbers, aptly named the ‘Wafty Duet’, because we were all too taken by our pretty flowery hoops to remember to do anything. Our superb Musical Director Erika, aided by the very talented Alex on piano, also tweaked a few of the highly complex harmonies, although she mostly seemed relieved that we’ve finally learnt the words to the show – sorting out the ‘magnanimities’ from the ‘lace and dimities’ has been no mean feat! I missed our run through on Wednesday – a sin for which I must atone for providing our pitiless Director Warren McWilliams with meat based snacks – but I am told by my fellow thespians that it was just as excellent as Monday’s.
With that I must leave you to go and pack up all my costumes ready for our get-in to the theatre on Sunday, but before I do I have something to ask of you – please part with a little of your hard-earned treasure and book your tickets now! You really will have a fantastic evening filled with exciting music, beautiful costumes and side splitting comedy. So come along – you will not be disappointed!
Pirates of Penzance runs from 7th-10th June and tickets are available to buy through the Millfield box office here:
