Theatre tours

Hello again!
On Thursday we went on a field trip to some theatres where we got to go on tours! The first theatre was the Tricycle theatre in Kilburn, London and the second was the Calder Bookshop theatre opposite the New Vic. We also went to The Scoop@ More London although I had been there before. I'm kind of skipping over these for one reason... the last theatre we got a tour of was the Dominion where We Will Rock You is on in the West End! I've never been backstage at a west end theatre before and I've been to see the show three times while it was on tour in Birmingham. We were shown all the equipment that the stage managers use and then we got to stand on the stage! We also got to see the wardrobe department and under the stage where the traps are and where the set for Tottenham Court Road tube station is until it rises up to the stage. It really was amazing to go backstage and my dad was quite jealous because he loves We Will Rock You, but I got to tell him little facts about it like how the videos are live and they record it in a room with a blue screen (if you haven't seen it you won't have a clue what i'm talking about but basically there are screens on stage).

That all xxxxx

The Woman in Black

I went to see the Woman in Black at the Fortune theatre London yesterday. I have to say I didn't want to see it because it's jumpy and I don't like jumpy things. However I didn't think it was that scary although two people left o be honest I thought the begining was really boring and I really needed to cough but as it was quiet I couldn't (i've actually got a chest infection at the moment :/ ) It started to get good when the woman first came out and walked up the isle. I don't really have much more to say about it. It was an okay show but not really my cup of tea and the best bits were when the little boy infront of me fell off his chair and when someone from my group whispered over to another group (who were quite excitable) that 'It's not a pantomime!'
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Doctor Who Experience!!!

Okay so this was not technically theatre but I love Doctor Who so I just had to say something about it! It was really really good and there were other people like me (i.e adults) so I didn't feel stupid like I thought I would. The start was the interactive bit and it really made you feel part of a Doctor Who story with videos of Matt Smith and you got to 'fly' the TARDIS. After that you go into the museum-y bit where you can see lots of monsters and Doctor Who themed stuff. I got a lot of photos of Daleks since they are my favourite! I recommend you go to this if you love Doctor Who or even just like it because it's really interesting. It's on at Olympia 2 in London if you are interested, and it's not the same exhibition that went round the country a year or two ago!
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Ghost the Musical

On Wednesday we went to see Ghost at the Piccadilly theatre! I thought it would be a good opportunity to use my theatre tokens but to cut a long story short the £10 and £5 didn't work :( Anyway.... we got £25 tickets which was really good and we were sitting second row from the back in the stalls. We had 4 hours to kill so we went to Ripley's Believe it or Not which was really cool, especially the mirror maze (it took us a very long time to get out of there!) Back at the theatre we sat in our seats and were a bit worried we wouldn't be able to see because the tabs have Sam and Molly's face on them (the two main characters) and we could only see up to their noses because the bottom of the dress circle was in the way but when the show started it was actually fine. My view of the show was that some of it was really good but other bits were not good. The technical aspects of the show were amazing but the AV was quite distracting and at times I found myself watching that and not the actors. When people died it was very clever but I'll say no more because I don't want to ruin it. Sharon D Clarke was the star for me, every scene with her was so funny! In my opinion some of the songs were a bit random and if I had listened to them and not know they were from Ghost I would have thought they were from different musicals.
Because we were right at the back we were sitting next to the head of sound so we were talking to him and he is going to send us the sound spec for our essays. So obviously I'm doing my essay on Ghost now (which means I was writing notes all the way through The Wizard of Oz for nothing, but oh well!)
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The Wizard of Oz

So I am totally loving living in London and being able to randomly decide to go and see a show!! Me and my friend were in a very boring lesson in which we made a plan to go and see the Wizard of Oz because our next lesson was cancelled. We got really good seats, row M 29 and 30 in the stalls for £25 which we were very happy about! I've been to the Palladium twice before to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Sound of Music and both times I was in the grand circle right at the back so it was really good to see it so close this time. It was a Wednesday matinee and there were quite a few rows of empty seats at the back. The show was really good and there were quite a few understudies on, the witch was an understudy, they were very good. We were taking notes all the way through because we have to do a lighting and sound essay for a show for Mountview! Some of the songs though were quite rubbish, not that I could do any better myself but why they had to write new rubbish songs while they took my favourite song 'The Jitter Bug' out I do not have a clue! Just after the interval there was a very long pause in the show and a voice came over the speakers saying something along the lines of 'sorry, we broke the theatre. We'll start the show again when we've fixed it'. When it started again it became clear that the monkeys were meant to fly but they hadn't.

Overall it was a really good show (apart from the odd few songs) and Danielle Hope was really good as Dorothy. Also the dog was really funny because he obviously wanted the day off and Dorothy had to drag him along every now and then!

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Mountview does 42nd Street!

As a Mountview student I have to go and see Mountview shows and get a free ticket so me and half of the techies in my year went to see 42nd Street on Wed 28th at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham. It was the 3rd year musical theatre students performing and there were two casts. We saw cast 2 and there were some really amazing people in it. Not to say that some of them were bad because they were all really good and it was like going to see a professional show it was so good. It's finished now but Mountview do lots of shows every year so if you get a chance go and see one or two of them. The tickets ar really cheap, like under £10 I think which is very good for what you get to see. And just to mention the 2nd year technical theatre students did the stage management, lights, sound etc. for the show too and they gave us a tour of the theatre so we now know what one of the theatre is like that we will be working in next year!!
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