Anyone with DC in pantomime?

well we have had tears from both daughters tonight but I think both are finally asleep. One crying because her panto experience was over (might be too tall next year), the little sister crying because she has loved seeing the stars when she has come to do drop offs and pick ups. oh well, my job this week is to try and put together a photo collage frame for her to put up in her bedroom.

Yesterday was DD2's last performance - in fact she did both shows because someone was injured in one of the other teams. Today all the ones not in the relevant team for the very last show go to watch and then they have a party (which won't end late as several of the professional cast have new jobs starting tomorrow). DD2 is very down but she will be going immediately into rehearsals for the dance festival, so no let up on Sundays at all - still dancing every day of the week except Saturday. The next drama school show will be auditioning in a few weeks too. It's just one huge treadmill really. However the focus will have to be less on her in the coming months because DD1 and DS have A levels and GCSEs coming up.

Thanks teacher. I can't decide if I would be relieved or sad if he didn't audition next year. Academic really as I know he will want to. But the stakes get higher every year as there are no guarantees of getting in just because you've done it before, but it's a huge blow if they audition and don't get picked having already had the lovely experience. I guess the whole process builds up resilience, which is what we're always being told modern kids don't have...

Good luck to you all for the end of panto. DD did it twice - at age 8 and age 10 - and we found that the worst part was the slog through to Easter once all the excitement was over and the tiredness really caught up with her (dance competitions in February half term, so no rest then).

Didn't audition this year -will confess to a small cheer!

DS doesn't stop till 17th. He is going to feel very blue...

Finished on NYE. Hurrah.

our panto run finishes tomorrow. tears have already started. DD1 has loved it all. next week is going to be very miserable for her I think.

DD2 hasn't fallen foul of it in panto terms (yet) but she has been foiled by being little when going for a role in a touring production. Which was a bit annoying because the kids they had already cast in other cities were actually bigger than the role was supposed to be. But having cast them first, the size criteria was set because they only wanted one costume. Financially it made sense - artistically, not so much.

yes the height match thing is the same here. It is a hard lesson I agree but it is what the industry is like. having the right hair colour, being the right height, looking old enough or young enough etc

Ours get 'matched' height wise with another child at the final auditions and then they have two teams. They measure them that day once they have worked their way from 200 kids to 20 (2 x 10 kids) and the costumes are made to fit, but shared with their 'twin'. It's professional panto and sets, costumes, special fx etc very lavish. DS has done lots of am dram and been a walk on in a professional touring show but there's nothing like panto for teaching them what the industry is really all about - lots of fun, but lots of hard slog. Even the kid is who is a fabulous performer, has done 2 years previously, and gets down to the last 25 at audition but then doesn't get picked because there isn't a height match, learns a valuable lesson about the business!

Penultimate performance tonight, only one more drop off and pick up. Phew.

ours have to be under 4ft 10 and between 8 and 11. yes ours have to fit set costumes because it is a big panto company.

When dd was in panto she was actually chosen because someone dropped out & her dance teacher was asked to reccomend a child of the right dance standard & the right height to fit the costume.

The same costumes were used for three teams. The age was 9-14

Nonickname - DD2 started when she was 7. They raised the lower age limit in the next year to 9 but they let her be in it anyway because she was one of the most experienced - she was the smallest child in the chorus for the first 4 years she did it. This year (she's 12) she's technically in the senior chorus but she is actually smaller than at least a couple of kids in the junior chorus (different team though). She is noticeably smaller than the other girls in the senior chorus but she has a feature role which means she is only on stage with all of them in the finale - the rest of the time she is either with one other girl (who is also a bit smaller though not smaller than her) or the adult professionals. I think if that role hadn't been available she'd have either still been in the junior chorus this year or left out. As it is, she has her own costume (all the other kids share with their equivalents in other teams). If she was in say a QDOS show - she wouldn't be. Because they are really strict about fitting the already made costumes (I have a friend who stars in QDOS pantos every year and he has told me how strict they are with the kids). This is a professional show but small scale so the flexibility is there.

Oh and my dd is nearly 6 ft, are children usually quite little in your shows? There are a fair few younger kids in her show, but most of the smaller roles are teenagers.

It's semi-professional I think, and small scale, only seven shows and no stars (panto is not big here, a bit of an English curiosity although they've had big audiences). The crew are all paid but none of the cast.

wow lots with LOADS of shows. I thought 25 shows was a lot. The most any of ours can be a juvenile is 4 years because of the age and height restrictions and it is quite rare to be small enough to do 4. I think they tend to do 2 or 3. I honestly don't know how some of you have done it for so many years.

DS doing panto for the 2nd time, and loving it. He has 38 performances in total, two teams of kids. He gets a rare day off tomorrow. It is a bit of a slog for parents but for us it's very local as we live in the city - some kids come from 30 miles away!!

Yes, all three in the same one, but the youngest is in a different chorus so rehearsals so far have been different. From next week they're the same though.
They've all done it from when they're 5yo, so dd1 is on her 10th year.
Unless the bullying situation in their group us sorted though it may well be the last year. And it's unlikely to be sorted as guess who the main bully is the dd of...

Dd did panto 4 years ago. She enjoyed it & I'm glad she got the chance but it impacted hugely on our family Xmas and younger ds.

The panto opened early December & closed Mid January so even with 3 teams it was a lot of shows.

Her school doesn't allow the children to audition for panto now so no more (at least until she graduates)

Yes DD is doing panto for the 3rd year. She loves it and it helps her confidence. Due to the schedule and 2 teams we were able to get to my Mum's for Christmas this year. The only problem is she managed to leave her character shoes at Mum's, we only discovered this when we got to the ferry port. so she is having to perform in shoes 2 sizes too big. I don't really like panto but this year they have got some better actors/characters so it was quite enjoyable.

gosh no dress rehearsal is shocking. Ours got in the theatre 3 days before the first show - I think there was 1 tech rehearsal which seemed to last a day and a half and then 2 dress rehearsals so the tech was split between children's teams and the dress rehearsals were one each. Does sound like someone really didn't plan your daughter's one well but isn't that lovely that she is able to use all of HER experience to help make it all run so smoothly! she has plainly learned some brilliant skills and she will be able to continue to use them in the future.

I think this year ours have been blessed with a really lovely main cast. I gather some years this isn't the case. not that they aren't nice, just that they aren't AS nice if that makes sense. This is our only experience of it so I don't really know but certainly the main cast are making the children feel important and valued and part of it all.

That's surprising. Is it a professional production? The pantos that DD2 has done, they have always done full tech and dress rehearsals for each team (so the main professional cast had 3 full dress rehearsals). And a couple of other full cast rehearsals in the rehearsal rooms rather than in the theatre. The conditions of the insurance mean that everyone has to be at tech and dress. Or at least that's what we have always been told.

This year seems to be DD2's favourite year so far (it's not my favourite, I don't think...it's very good but nothing will ever top the one a few years ago). We are already resigned to the fact that she will be doing it next year.

Well my dd is I suspect much older than quite a few of the panto children here (she is 15) and the main issue is that she thinks that her director just isn't very good. She has been in lots of productions before and clearly the panto director has a very different style to previous directors. She is in the chorus and has a lot of dance numbers which they have practiced many many times. However they haven't done many whole cast rehearsals and managed to get to their first performance without a full dress rehearsal.

dd was horrified! It sounds like she wasn't the only one who thought that this was pretty poor time management, but there is a significant lack of theatre space in our town, so they only got the stage a day or two before the first performance, which obviously made things very difficult.

Anyway now the performances have started she's much happier. They've had full houses (the theatre seats over 1000) and lots of very happy very participatory children. She's taken a very active role as a stage hand as well as her chorus role so she's feeling much more part of things (we discouraged her from auditioning for a main role as it added another six hours of rehearsal every week) and she's ended up on stage a lot sorting out all the snafus, so while she doesn't say anything she gets to be quite expressive!

Also on the way home yesterday we stopped off to gets some McDonalds and she was recognised by a granny (she'd been very worried about the custard pie that had got splattered on the stage - dd got to clean it up :))

I was anticipating there being days DD wouldn't want to go and do it but she is ready early every time, desperate to get to the theatre.

nooka - what has been frustrating where you are? During rehearsals where DD was tired after school etc and I was running around with DD2 as well doing all her after school stuff, taking DD1 and collected DD1 and then dance exams too I was very fed up with it, first week or so of shows I was so nervous for her (opening weekend I had a fixed grin because I didn't want her to see I was nervous) but now we are so near the end I have actually started to think, perhaps we will let her try again next year.