Flantastico!

So, tonight was our second, and final, performance of All In The Timing, at the Spelthorne and Runnymede Drama Festival - no web-link because, sadly, they seem to have no internet presence and little in the way of advertising. Sadly, this meant that the audience was fairly small, though we did have quite a few folks from Ottershaw Players come along to support us.

The show went exceptionally well. I probably shouldn't mention that it wasn't word perfect, but neither of the slips was noticeable by the audience. After 10 days off, with only a sketchy rehearsal or two to work on a couple of things that Rex Walford pointed out at Woking, I was worried that the show would lack energy, or would be otherwise adversely affected. But I shouldn't have worried. In fact, the (much) smaller stage, and the relaxed schedule seemed to have the opposite effect. All the performances were more focussed and energetic and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the show. And it was nice to get confirmation from those that saw the previous performance (MLYW and my parents) that this one was a notch above the first.

Mike Kaiser, GODA, the adjudicator, was full of praise for the production, with a couple of small reservations. One was whether the third segment should have been performed at all (a valid question - one which Rex had raised and something that I was also pondering at the end of the rehearsal period). The other criticism was about the pacing of the play's opening. Rex thought that we had started off in a way which was too subtle and under-played, leaving the audience unsure as to what the play was about, so we re-jigged the opening to make it 'bigger' and more 'obvious'. Unfortunately, Mike didn't like that approach. Hey ho! Next time I think I'll incorporate changes where I think they really make a material difference to the production, but where it's a case of personal preference, I'll just let it lie.

Luckily, I didn't change any of the music or sound cues, which Rex really didn't like, but which Mike loved (I hope I'm not over-stating his enthusiasm here!).

Well, that's it over. There's no recall night at the Spelthorne Festival, so we'll just go along on Saturday to watch the last-night plays and see if we manage to scoop any trophies. To be honest, I think we deserve something, but this year's competition is very tight, so I won't be surprised if we come away empty-handed, but I know that we've done ourselves, and The Players, proud with our efforts this year.

I'm dead chuffed. Can you tell?