'Babes in the Wood' Rehearsals

The rehearsals for 'Babes in the Wood' have been a whirlwind to say the least. There have been both high and low points of the process (mostly high).

Our first ever rehearsal was before anyone had even got their parts. We used the process of trial and error to get a feel of the pantomime. Everyone performed a speech from the character they were most interested in. The Fairy seemed to be the most popular choice at the time.

Then fatality struck and Declan had coronavirus!! This meant us all having to isolate for two weeks. However this didn't stop the rehearsals because we just moved online to zoom. We discussed everybody's character that they'd been given by this point and spoke of locations, costume etc. After our two weeks off we were back and better than ever. By the time we were back we had most of our locations sorted, Chelsea had sorted costumes and We had a shooting schedule. I will insert images of the process below. By the time filming would come around on November 23rd our panto should've been up and ready. We spent some time working on the first scene when we eventually got the first years in and we focused on every scene with them in whilst we had them. The scenes were looking great by the end of the day and we had finished the first scene mostly by the time that we had finished. The only problem we had in every rehearsal was people not knowing lines. In my honest opinion, I believed that nobody had a sense of urgency about them when it came to learning lines and we could not rehearse to our full potential when 90% of the cast didn't know their lines. I will say that I am very thankful that the panto was being filmed as it meant we could cut between takes and give people a refresh if they dropped a line. I completely understand that actors can be overwhelmed when it comes to learning lines and I think its the worst job of them all for an actor. Everyone is guilty of dropping lines, its life! However, it came beyond a joke when even little scenes took hours because line weren't being learnt. despite all of this, I think we were making great progress during rehearsals and working well as a company. The process was fast as it is, so when scenes are picked up and nailed within a few hours of rehearsal it was perfect. Looking back on the experience, I realise there were two scenes that were not rehearsed at all. The last tournament scene and the kitchen scene. I put my full faith in people to learn lines and despite a few bumps in the road I think we pulled it off!

These were a few of the costumes that were scrapped.

On the first week of filming I found out I needed to isolate for two weeks. (bloody corona!) Which means I couldn't be there for the final rehearsal before filming on Tuesday the 17th. All I can say is thank God I wasn't there. I rang the class around one o'clock the afternoon of to find out that only 3 people were off script, most of the costumes didn't fit the theme of the panto and scenes were being brushed over and weren't to the high quality that I was seeing when I was there. This completely worried me as I was not there to help out and therefore lazy behaviour was being overlooked. Thankfully, the scenes went smoothly that week as I let Sam know which ones were rehearsed best and he made the shooting schedule based on that so that the when I returned I could handle all of the fussier and less perfected scenes.