By Sian Couture,
Director.

Two weeks to go….eek!! 

Now we are “marching to a faster pace” This has been a productive week. Firstly in the workshop. Several of our cast members and backstage crew have been busy painting the set, pink stripes, wood panelling and pigeon poo!  We have adopted 6 pigeons for this production…. Otto, Bertha, Heinz, Heidi, Wolfgang and Adolph. 

Costumes – to be honest it can be a nightmare, there are so many in this show. It is such a huge and sometimes stressful task that we often struggle to find somebody willing to take on this role! So we have combined our efforts and collected from a variety of sources. We have hired from Stowmarket Operatic and Dramatic Society, the Rattonians Company from Eastbourne (their showgirl headdresses are fabulous) The military costumes are from a company based in Devon and some costumes from our own ISC wardrobe collection. All in all, we are getting there, just gathering in the last few “hats, coats and swastikas”! 

There has been a lengthy props list to source, including 2 guns, 6 pigeons, a giant sausage and 14 zimmer frames! Collecting these has also been a team effort. Some of our props have been cleverly made by members of our cast. 

This week our lighting and sound guys will join us to watch rehearsals and make notes. Both are extremely important elements of staging a musical. The ISC have been lucky to have worked with Dan and Phil many times, both of these lovely chaps are totally professional and reliable. We are always impressed with and grateful for their quality of support and expertise! Thank you both. 

We have had a few more rehearsals this week, books are pretty much down. We’ve had a couple of good run throughs which means that Nicola, Glen and myself can continue tweaking, tightening and adding any last minute inspirational thoughts.

I firmly believe that throughout the rehearsal period, right up until “curtain up” that we can always change whatever feels right to improve and present the best show possible. 

This weekend we will be running the show with the orchestra. The orchestra players have had their scores for a few weeks now and will have been practising their own parts, this will all come together for the first time this Saturday. It will be incredibly exciting, there will be new energy, giving the cast a boost to elevate their performances to the next level. 

Next week, I will talk about our orchestra/cast run through, tech get-in and dress rehearsal….going into “Opening Night” 

Again, thank you for reading this, I hope you have found it interesting. 

Sian

The Producers runs at Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds from Tue 13 – Sat 17 Mar. Tickets are on sale at the Box Office, call 01284 769505, book online here or visit the theatre in person.