Public holiday... means extra rehearsal time...

We are currently in the middle of Orchestra Rehearsal. This means that instead of spending the rehearsal singing with our Maestro Paul Abela on piano, the Maestro is instead directing the orchestra musicians, who have brought in their instruments and set up in our rehearsal space.

The collection is impressive - saxaphones, brass, drums, guitars, keyboards. It's so cool to be singing to a live band, and I especially like the sound of the brass. Although today is a public holiday, it's not a day of rest for us Panto people - music rehearsal with the orchestra all afternoon, and dance rehearsal with Miss Alison all evening. At least this part, the music, is fun.

The dance rehearsals aren't fun any more because their nature has changed - instead of learning new routines, which is usually fun, instead we are 'cleaning', which means going over the same routines over and over and over again. The reason for cleaning is that when you have twenty-eight people who are all supposed to be doing the same moves at the same time, and one of them is doing something slightly different, then that twenty-eighth person sticks out like a sore thumb.

So in cleaning, Miss Alison checks that every single body/hand/foot/head is exactly where it needs to be, how it needs to be, when it needs to be. And then she points out which of them are not, and we do that piece over and over again until everyone has it right. And then, when everyone finally has it right, we do the next sixteen counts... tedius and time-consuming and BORING. But, necessary. It's this horrible cleaning process that will ensure that we look tight on the stage and not at all sloppy (the curse of ensemble dancing). So, although no-one enjoys it, we do it anyway as an investment in making this the best show possible.

Ah, I see the orchestra is back from their break. Off to sing some more.