32 | www.amateurstagemagazine.co.uk ONSTAGE D ick wasn’t to know that many years later his descendants would be so captivated by the town that they would decide to settle here in 1923. And who could blame them? Sidmouth, as John Betjeman remarked, is “a town caught in a timeless charm”. It’s a beautiful seaside town, set in the green hills of the glorious Sid Valley in Devon, and nestled beneath majestic red cliffs. It is a thriving town too with many diverse societies and organisations, one of which is the Sidmouth Amateur Dramatic Society (SADS) founded in 1922. Our annual pantomimes began in 1978 with great success, and, together with our three other annual productions, have always been performed at the local Manor Pavilion Theatre. We are very fortunate in having a really great theatre in Sidmouth. It has tiered seating for up to 278 people, an orchestra pit, a large scenery bay, a really good sized stage and seven dressing rooms on two levels. The theatre was built in the early 1900s and was originally a dance hall. Due to the financial success of our pantomimes, the Society was able, in 1986 to re-build our headquarters/workshop. The new building was designed specifically for drama production, and is situated within ‘The Byes’ in Sidmouth, on land owned by the National Trust. Although we built the hall and maintain it, the building remains the property of the National Trust to whom we pay an annual rent for use of the facilities. The building proudly boasts a rehearsal room, and a large scenery dock for construction, painting and storage. We have a small kitchen, toilet facilities, and a store room for our props. The upstairs section of the hall is home to our extensive wardrobe department. We also hold a tremendous amount of lighting and sound equipment which is stored at the Manor Pavilion Theatre. THE DIRECTOR’S STORY It’s May 2010, and I have been asked to direct SADS’ annual pantomime. First there are meetings with the play reading committee, a vital step – you can’t direct without a script. We looked at and read several, but I knew right from the start that I wanted one of Ben Crocker’s scripts. Why? It was mainly because I knew of him through reputation from the Northcott Theatre, Exeter. A script is like a book for me. It has to grab you within the first couple of pages, which his did, and fired my imagination. I chose Dick Whittington and his Cat because the characters leapt out. They were funny without being silly, as well as strong. The whole script flowed effortlessly from one scene to another. It was modern and up to date, but still traditional, which to me was important. The script had all the standard characters – Sarah the Cook (the Dame), Dick Whittington, Tommy the Cat, Idle Jack, King Rat (the evil part), Fairy Bowbells, and the wonderful parts of Alderman Fitzwarren, Horatio Fitzwarren and the Emperor of Morocco - the twist is that all three parts are played by the same actor, and throughout the script this leads to increasingly frenetic costume changes. We also had our love interest Alice, Fitzwarren’s daughter, and a chorus of citizens, rats, sailors, guards, and palace attendants. This gave me a lot of scope to use both our adult and junior members. We have our script. Next comes the team you need behind you. You can’t manage without them – stage manager, production assistant, set designers, set construction and painters, wardrobe, publicity, lighting and sound, D.S.M. on the book, props and musical director. Into July and the auditions. If you are lucky you get the cast you have imagined every time you have read the script, which by now you almost know inside out. Now that the actors and team are in place, rehearsals must start. We began with music and choreography. Opening in London, it had to be a medley of well known London songs. We moved to Lord Mayor’s Day and had a ‘Supercalafragelistic’ day. We went to sea with ‘All the Nice Girls Love a Sailor’ and ‘Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat’, and on to Morocco with a bit of Bollywood, ending with ‘The Bells Are Ringing for Me and My Girl’. The Society was extremely fortunate to have Ben Crocker hold a master class for all the pantomime cast early on in the rehearsal period. This was held in our rehearsal rooms and he divided everyone into small groups and gave each group an extract from a pantomime script to work on, and they had to produce a piece of theatre from it by the end of the day. It proved to be very worthwhile, and it goes to show that you are never too told to learn, and even cast members with many years of experience learnt new things from this workshop. It’s October and rehearsals start in earnest. We rehearsed twice a week, putting in music and choreography with the acting, and the script that you have pored over for months comes alive. Of course, as the actors get into their characters, you have to adjust and tweak some of your ideas, because the pantomime grows and evolves naturally. November comes and goes, full of rehearsals and meetings with your production team, checking things off your list of ‘to dos’. Moving into December, and the panic sets in. We have extra rehearsals because of weather disruption (you can’t control that) and Sunday rehearsals to run everything together, and all this time the team is working away behind and with you; wondering whether we are going to be ready for that move into the theatre. It’s nearly Christmas and we take a short break. After the Christmas break, full steam ahead. We have the dress rehearsal. It goes well. The day of our opening performance arrives. When you hear the laughter, people joining in, see happy faces, feel the magic, you know it has been worth it and that’s what it’s all about. All pantomimes tend to have their problems. Last year, we had to cancel a performance because of heavy snow and ice, but we could not have predicted what actually happened this year! A fire - not at the theatre itself, but in a derelict hotel nearby. This meant the entire area was cordoned off, and the fire chiefs told the theatre that they would not allow the show to go ahead that night. This was at 6.15 p.m. with a curtain up of 7.30 p.m.! It’s not until something like this happens that you realise just how many people are involved in a production such as this, and just how long it takes to call everyone - and this didn’t even include the audience, for which we had a full house. Everyone rallied together, and we decided to re-schedule an extra performance for those who were unable to attend that evening. This involved ensuring that the lighting and sound crew were available, the SM and DSM, crew (a minimum of six required), orchestra, children, chaperones, dressers, front of house and of course the cast. Could the theatre get staff in to cover? It was a mammoth task but between the director, SM and the theatre manager, we managed to get it all sorted. Without staging this extra performance, it could have meant that we lost over £2,000 in tickets sales for that night but, fortunately, most people re-booked. DICK WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT REACH SIDMOUTH