Our show opened fully on Thursday night and the feedback was super. Thank you to all our audience members who joined us at the new venue and hello to all the new ones, we’re lucky to have so many supporters and we hope to see you again soon.

We have a fabulous cast who have all worked so hard and I would like to thank them all for their efforts at rehearsals which meant that when we came to the theatre we were ‘show ready’ and could concentrate on anything the new venue threw at us. Special mention to our newbies too who slotted into the group seamlessly.

The new venue this year meant more space onstage and backstage and so we were able to include a children’s chorus this year and it was a HUGE success. The children have been a joy to have involved and really added something special to the show. We’ve all been so impressed at how well they’ve done and big thanks to all the parents who’ve been a massive help too. 

The show continued Friday night and the weekend saw us perform three times on Super Saturday (followed by a party) and finish with a wonderful sold out matinee on Sunday.

Then came the real hard work, the get out! Our cast were fantastic all mucking in to make sure that everything we’d brought into the theatre, and it was a lot, all got speedily packed away, stacked, swept, folded and loaded. Thank you everyone who lent a hand.   

Coming to a new venue has been a bit of an adventure and there were a few hiccups but thanks to the experience of everyone involved we managed to get through the show looked fantastic even if there was frantic running around behind the scenes.

We have a fantastic set of people behind the scenes and we’re always on the lookout for anyone who can help with anything so please if you’d like to get involved next show we’d love to have you on-board.

Our show wouldn’t be possible without the support of everyone and I’d like to thank some people both personally and on behalf of SMP.

To our technical team Phil & Derrick on sound and lighting for coming to the rescue and making sure everything was ready for opening night. To Alex for doing a great job as production manager and handling the challenges of the new venue with ease. To Ruth for stepping in to op the desk and Gill, Laura and Claire for spotting. To Adam and Josh, the SMB, for their hard work lifting and shifting in the dark doing all our set changes. To Matt for making some wonderful pieces of set, our props team Debbie, Ellie and Wendy for finding all the weird things we needed for the show and Rob for transporting our set back to our store.

To our team out the front, Kate for running our box office successfully once again, Jo for all her work co-ordinating the FOH team, Yiltan for running our bar and all our volunteers who helped during the week on the front of house team.

To our costume team Fay, Ellie and Debbie, thank you for the wonderful array of costumes ensuring everyone looked stunning. To Lucy and Linda for doing all the paperwork for the children and for sorting out all the chaperones.

To our awesome band who we’re so lucky to have and travel from afar to make sure our show sounds amazing as always, thank you Mike, Paul, Chris, Steve, Tim and John.

To my wife Jo for being an amazing wife and mum, running around doing everything so I can direct the show. I wouldn’t be able to do half the things I do without you and I’m a very lucky man.

Finally to Mike and Fay my partners in crime on the production team. It’s always a pleasure working with you both as we have many times now and this show has been no exception. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved with this show and look forward to working with you both again. 

To anyone I’ve not mentioned by name but has helped us in anyway, there are so many of you, your help putting on the show is really appreciated by all of us in the group so thank you too.

And so now we look to our next show Legally Blonde – The Musical which will be a the Millfield Theatre 10^th-13^th June 2020, you’ll find all the details on our website for Read Through and Auditions if you’d like to be a part of the show.

Thanks for reading the blog, we hope you’ve enjoyed it. We’ll be back with a new show blog once Legally Blonde commences.  

Over the past two days we’ve been hard at work preparing and doing all of that last minute rehearsing, which has got us all SUPER excited for the week ahead, and having a wonderful audience in to perform to! Our tech team have put in a huge effort to make sure we’re show ready and we really can’t thank everyone behind the scenes enough for all their work.

Monday we had our tech run, which included working with props, set, sound and ACTUAL REAL-LIFE MAGIC. Luckily my Fairy Godmother has some extra sprinklings of stardust and we were able to pull it all off without too much trouble!

Tuesday we had our dress run, and final rehearsal before we welcome you all to join us in the Kingdom of Chingfordonia. Everybody looks so wonderful thanks to our incredibly hard working costume department (who I’m pretty sure had some sprinklings of star dust and real life magic up their sleeves too). I just hope I don’t lose my shoe this time!! See you all soon!

Our Saturday Matinee is sold out and our Sunday Matinee has 13 seats left so please contact the box office for returns.

You can book online by clicking the banner below. To book wheelchair seats or for information about group bookings please contact the box office on 07708 708 062 or by email on SMPTickets@hotmail.com Thank you!

It was teamwork-dreamwork today in SMP HQ or as its usually known “Get In” day…a very exciting fixture in the calendar. We get to spend a whole day together at the theatre, wahoo, and while the very hard working crew and tech teams put the set together, our FOH displays are completed, our bar is stocked, and our props table is filled, we have a chance to hear and sing with our full band, eeeek.

You could sense the excitement as our cast arrived and found their spots in the dressing rooms, even more exciting than usual as we are in a new venue this year and this was the first time inside for many of us. While our cast toured the new site, their hands piled high with sparkly costumes, they stopped to take a peek at our stunning FOH display by the ever brilliant Fay…who is not only one third of our epic costume team but also our choreographer…goodness knows when she sleeps.

Our INCREDIBLE crew (Adam, Alex, Josh, Matt, Warren, Michael, Jack and cast when they weren’t performing) had been at it for many hours at this point, hanging cloths, painting carriages, shifting set and our sound and lighting super stars; Phil and Del (aka the cavalry) had been busy saving our bacon and ensuring we are lit and heard throughout the week, so it was only right that our cast stopped for a little look at the splendid stage too. The new venue has thrown some new problems at us but our amazing team have risen to the challenge once again.

Soon everyone had arrived, and our lovely Chairwoman Ellie talked through our plans for the week ahead with our beautiful kids chorus, a first time in many years for us, and what joy they are bringing! Once our awesome, rockin band were set up it was time to start our “Band Call” with Paul, john, Chunk, Steve, Tim and our legendary MD, Mr Mike Benyon, who expertly lead us through a run of each number and they sounded incredible! The brilliant bands accompaniment truly enhanced the vocals and the two ingredients together made for the most delicious panto pie! We whizzed through our band call and followed up with a dance & sing through of every number and a costume check too! The foyer was seriously the place to be this afternoon with all the musical commotion and Yil stocking the bar for our lovely audiences to enjoy and Ellie G and Debbie S creating even more magic in the costume department

By early evening our absolute grafter of a director, Warren, was ready for us to test out the stage and run one of our most difficult numbers “the transformation“ … Oh you know, the one where the fairy godmother “magics-up” a sparkly ball gown for Cinders AND turns a pumpkin into a carriage…yeah, no biggy

But with our super SM Adam and Prod Mgr Alex making “sparkly” plans and our props placed perfectly by our lovely DebDeb, there was soon another big tick off the list and before we knew it, it was time to go home (boo)

It’s safe to say peeps were ready for their hot baths and bed by the time we were done but would certainly sleep with a big smile on each of their faces, after a dream of a “get in” with the awesome SMP fam

Our Satuday Matinee is sold out and our Sunday matinee is limited so please contact the box office for returns.

You can book online by clicking the banner below. To book wheelchair seats or for information about group bookings please contact the box office on 07708 708 062 or by email on SMPTickets@hotmail.com Thank you!

The final week of rehearsals saw the introduction of some firey elements. Mr Jamie Nichols, magician extraordanaire popped in on Monday to direct Kate and Lucy through some flammable fabulousness. Let’s hope Lucy remembers to complete said trick during the show, a feat she failed to achieve on Monday.

Our final rehearsal on Wednesday was fairly straightforward, athough we were Cinderellaless, with Lucy getting some last minute character research in Paris. I feel I speak for most, if not everyone, with how excited we are to get this into the theatre and put on what I think will be a very special show. Special shout out to the production crew of Warren, Fay and Mike for creating a show I know all of you will enjoy. And an even biggest shout out to Phil and Derrick for stepping in at the last minute to light this spectacle. With the decade nearing an end, Warren could have some competition for star of the decade!

See you guys at some point this week, I’ll be the one singing to a shoe.

Fare thee well, Jack.

Our matinees are almost sold out so please please get booking, this show is brilliant and you will not want to miss it.

Tickets are on sale and you can book online by clicking the banner below. To book wheelchair seats or for information about group bookings please contact the box office on 07708 708 062 or by email on SMPTickets@hotmail.com Thank you!

We’ve got two weeks (well actually one week once you read this) left before we start all things tech, dress and actual SHOW week! How fun is that?

As you can see we’ve got cast members dancing, signing and jumping for joy on our first rehearsal of week and oh what a rehearsal it was.. everything is coming together ever so nicely – as if it was planned to be such a fantastical evening.

As ever our amazing director (and writer, man of many talents) Mr Warren McWilliams spent his night laughing at our gags, complimenting our tricks and making sure we’re in tip top shape for our first performance – which I can assure you we are, getting to watch these guys and snap pictures of them was such fun and I was in awe of all my talented buddies!

Wednesday night brought another run and some surprise audience members, it was super fun to run the show in front of some new people and the laughter that erupted from them really lifted our spirts and I could feel the shift in our performance from rehearsal to show level which was just a wonder to see! With each rehearsal you can see all the little pieces sticking together and creating a truly amazing show.

Friday night was a good one as the King and I got dressed up to meet some very special people and teach them some dance routines from the show and have a little Q&A with them. Questions included ‘Why do we have a King & Queen in Chingfordonia?’ And ‘What’s the prince’s real name?’.

Saturday was another day full of behind the scenes magic, we had our wonderful band rehearsing, people out on the streets of Chingford putting up flyers and promoting our show, and a couple of handsome, strong men building the float for Sunday!

Sunday, Funday, and oh what a day it was, not only is it a week till we get to hear the music from our insanely cool band BUT…. it’s also parade of lights day! Now for those who don’t know what that means… it means we all get to cover ourselves in pretty fairy lights and dance around the streets of Enfield to promote our show, and our beautiful Cinders finally got in her pumpkin carriage and oh what a beauty it was! Seriously – I think it was the best thing since sliced bread! My legs hurt, and I’m dying for a bubble bath but it was so fun dancing and promoting our little show!

Seriously (on a little emotional, fluffy note) I have done three shows THIS year with SMP and they welcomed me with such open arms, love and peachy joy that I just keep coming back – every single individual I’ve met has just been so lovely and amazing that I feel like I’ve been around for years!

You do not want to miss this show guys, literally the matinees are very NEARLY sold out so if you want a little afternoon delight you better get your trigger finger ready to get those last couple seats! Keep booking tickets and I’ll see you there in my kingdom, don’t forget to wave hello if you see me strolling past with the dear old King and Hearld in toe, we do love a wander!

The matinees are almost sold out so please please get booking, this show is brilliant and you will not want to miss it.

Tickets are on sale and you can book online by clicking the banner below. To book wheelchair seats or for information about group bookings please contact the box office on 07708 708 062 or by email on SMPTickets@hotmail.com Thank you!

It has been great fun to observe from the sidelines as this show has been put together.  The script from Warren McWilliams has caused me to laugh out loud on many occasions, I have cried at the beauty of the singing created by Mike Benyon and been spellbound by the stunning choreography from Fay Kemal. 

As a former child performer I know how nerve wracking it can be to be surrounded by grown-ups, but my Kieran has taken it all in his stride and in his own words is having “the best time ever”.  There is something heart-warming about having a children’s chorus, they inject so much fun into it and their enthusiasm is infectious.

So the past week has been eventful!  We celebrated young performer Archie Beech’s birthday on Monday with lots of cake, merriment and a full run-through of the show. 

Then on Wednesday we brushed up om the singing and dancing to make sure we were pitch perfect for our costume run through on Sunday. 

This was the kids first time in their costumes and they loved getting all dressed up and seeing how they looked with the adults.  I spent much of the time running in and out of dressing rooms making sure everyone had what they needed whilst at the same time supervising to make sure nobody was where they shouldn’t be…..as desperate as the kids are to be involved and watch everything there are some moments that are not for their tender eyes……the “raining men” sequence is a particular highlight!!

We finally got to see the Cinderella costume transformation and the amazing work of Fay Kemal, Debbie Sandys and Ellie Goss is not to be missed.

We also had a visit from our lovely chairperson Ellie Ashby who has been busy working so has missed seeing the rehearsals up until now, she loved it and was chuckling along with the rest of us.

A huge big thankyou to my fellow Mums and chaperones, it is lovely being able to support each other as we watch out babies bloom on stage – a big thank you also to the creative team for getting the best out of the kids.

The matinees are almost sold out so please please get booking, this show is brilliant and you will not want to miss it.

Tickets are on sale and you can book online by clicking the banner below. To book wheelchair seats or for information about group bookings please contact the box office on 07708 708 062 or by email on SMPTickets@hotmail.com Thank you!

Only four weeks to go until show week, eeeeeeek! All scenes, songs and dances are set and our task now is to piece everything together and begin working through the show in detail, recapping and polishing it until it’s ready to wow you all at our brand new venue, Chingford Assembly Hall.

This is incredibly exciting as it means we have now got to the point where we are able to see our show begin to take it’s shape and let me tell you…it’s looking superb!

This week marked our first Sunday rehearsal, wahooo! As always, treats were in abundance…provided generously by Kieran Segal the birthday boy! (See below for his epic birthday dancing).

We ate birthday sweets, had our Front of House mugshots taken by the awesome Yiltan, ate more sweets, ran the show, ate some more sweets, and best of all, finally got the chance to see each other in all of our FABULOUS costumes! Which will hopefully still fit us in show week, after scoffing all those sweets…

It really is magical to see how each character pops to life once they are in their costumes. Once again this year they have been so carefully crafted and designed by our very talented costume team Ellie, Debbie and Fay, who work tirelessly to ensure we all look beautiful onstage! Debatable as far as the ugly sisters are concerned, but of course that has nothing to do with what they are wearing!

Also working hard behind the scenes this week, are our props peaches! AKA the lovely Debbie, Wendy and Jo who have been busy making and gathering all the bits and bobs we need throughout the performance, which means we’re now able to start practicing with them! Yay!

A few of us have been asked to learn and showcase some new skills in this production, I myself, as a regal horn blower (it’s harder than it looks!) On Sunday I took the opportunity of receiving a blowing lesson from the master tooter Luke Clow. After my toot-turial, I can proudly say I have managed to sound a tiny toot, so I still have quite a way to go until up to a royal standard! I’ve pledged to practice every morning until show week. My housemates will be so pleased.

Our Buttons on the other hand, the showman of many talents, Luke Ricketts, is already nailing his party trick of the performance (see video below)…but you’ll have to come along to see if he can pull it off on the night!

We’re having such a great time working on Cinderella, and we literally couldn’t have asked for a better production team to bring this panto to life. We are so lucky this year to have a trio of SMP legends at the helm, who have fused their creativity together to make a truly spectacular show. Who better person to direct us than the writer himself…the mighty Warren McWilliams, whose hilarious script is packed full of brilliant gags the whole family will love! Our fabulous choreographer Miss Fay, has done such an amazing job coming up with such fun and beautiful dances sequences which showcases so much of the wonderful twirly talent amongst our cast. To top it off, once again we have Mike the Musical Maestro to ensure we sound top notch!

Our wonderful cast are a great big mix of veterans, fresh faces, those of us in-between, and of course our wonderful junior chorus who are adding such a great dynamic to the show! The kids really are smashing it and always bring with them their big, infectious smiles! Collectively, we’re having a blast, working hard and laughing our way through each rehearsal!

If you haven’t got your tickets booked yet – now is the time! You’re in for such a treat. Our pantomime is packed full of spectacular singing and dance numbers and brilliant comedy from hilariously entertaining characters. With it being SMP’s first show in Chingfordonia….it really is extra special. So what are you waiting for??!! Book your tickets now before it’s too late!

Tickets are on sale and you can book online by clicking the banner below. To book wheelchair seats or for information about group bookings please contact the box office on 07708 708 062 or by email on SMPTickets@hotmail.com Thank you!

We started off the week with my favourite style of dance, tap! We were all in our absolute element and really enjoying practicing and teaching each other our favourite steps. Miss Fay was loving having a whole crew of tappers and was really putting us to work with some classic Fred Astaire moves, watch this space!

Wednesday was super exciting, we had everyone called for our first full run! We even had a little audience with one of our favs, Carla, who is usually in panto with us, but this time she has handed over the dancing shoes to her son Kieran.

It was great to see a real show taking shape and we all had the opportunity to see what each other had been up to over the past 10 weeks when we hadn’t been called. I was especially enjoying the work of the hardup gang and there are a few sneaky clips for you to enjoy!

The Halloween witches are back in their hidey-holes, it is now November full of fireworks and we are starting to think a bit about Christmas. Don’t forget to put a Cinderella ticket on your wish list, and prepare for your pre-Christmas festive spirits to be sparkled, with our December show!

Tickets are on sale and it’s never too early to book. You can book online by clicking the banner below. To book wheelchair seats or for information about group bookings please contact the box office on 07708 708 062 or by email SMPTickets@hotmail.com Thank you!

I am very lucky and grateful to have such a wonderful bunch who pick up all my routines and practice hard. This year we welcome many new faces to the cast and a children’s ensemble too!!! AMAZING!!

This week has been a very busy one!! On Monday I set a fun number ‘Bills’ with the Hardup family and principals. The Barons dance skills are legendary, and everyone manages to stay unharmed!!

Ellie Goss and Debbie Sandys make up the rest of the costume team and on together on Wednesday we went material shopping for our beautiful costumes. There is so much to do!!

Wednesday evening gave us the chance to fit people to their costumes. We are very proud of our costumes and everyone is looking rather lush!!! WHOOP!!!

Dancing and costumes being ticked off of my list and everything is coming on nicely!!! It’s going to be FABULOUS!!!!

Do not miss out on this SPECTACULAR show!! Come on And get your tickets to see Cinderella!!!

Tickets are on sale and it’s never too early to book. You can book online by clicking the banner below. To book wheelchair seats or for information about group bookings please contact the box office on 07708 708 062 or by email SMPTickets@hotmail.com Thank you!

I am loving rehearsals and seeing all my SMP family. It’s also back to my yearly workout with Miss Fays choreography and the added extra bonus of getting to sit back and enjoy watching others bringing scenes to life.

This week in the land of panto has been brilliant as always…

Monday was full of dancing and making some beautiful shapes to one of our slower numbers. It’s a lovely duet between our Lucy and Jack, aka Cinders and the Prince, and I’m sure watching these two real life lovebirds together will help you all rewrite the stars of love! It truly is a stunning number both vocally and visually….

It was Miss Fays birthday on Monday, and Lucy’s on the Tuesday so there were sweet treats and cake for all! Just look at our Hayley – watch out though, she was very protective over the cake! However we are all aware that the show is that bit closer so our costumes have to fit!! Lol

Wednesday saw me rushing like a crazy person from Bounds Green to rehearsals in Southgate – the beauty of traffic and needing to get from a to b using transport that isn’t a pumpkin! Once I had arrived, definitely not 5 minutes late

Mr Director Bossman Warren added us ensemble lot into the scenes that the principals have been beavering away on for weeks. It’s all slowly coming together and I can’t wait till we start running the show in it’s entirety!

We really do have so much fun putting these shows together and this year is no exception, we laugh together, we dance together and we laugh together again because we’ve missed half the song out of the dance! Here’s a sneak peak of the number we did on Monday.

Don’t miss out as this show is already sounding and looking amazing! You’d be mad to miss out on tickets!! All the details for tickets are below See you all at the ball Xx

Tickets are on sale and it’s never too early to book. You can book online by clicking the banner below. To book wheelchair seats or for information about group bookings please contact the box office on 07708 708 062 or by email SMPTickets@hotmail.com Thank you!

It’s been a vocal heavy week, and my first one at all 3 rehearsals, everyone’s been working super hard. Monday we set the opening song and the ladies of the cast set One Thing. There are so many amazing voices in our ensemble, it’s going to sound great with a full band!

Wednesday we recapped all the songs we’ve set so far, something my previous companies have never done. Practice really does make perfect because I can hear the increase in quality already.

Sunday we set the Fireworks scene, the kids are just too good! They’re such little sponges, I’m amazed by how quickly they pick things up. This scene is going to be so magical, glitter everywhere!

If you can’t tell, I’m super excited about being a part of this show. I hope you’ve all got your tickets because they’re selling fast and there isn’t long to go now. See you at the ball!

Week 7

Welcome to another week of blogs! My name is Hatice and I am a part of the chorus for SMP Cinderella. We were going over the song and dance for Best day of my life by the American Authors. It was so much fun! The dance and song has really come together, everyone just smiling their way even after being so tired. With so many of us dancing at once everyone is being careful to not tread on anyone’s feet!

This Monday just gone we all worked on Re-wright the stars, it was such a beautiful dance showing the connection between Cinderella and the prince, as the ensemble we were trying to keep them apart throughout the dance. It was quite majestic the way the dance flowed. The way all the girls moved with their partners.

Here we have a quick but cute snap shot of Fay, Lucy and Jack

Can’t wait for the next rehearsal to see what dance and song number we will be doing next!

Ohh what fun awaits us?!

Tickets are on sale and it’s never too early to book. You can book online by clicking the banner below. To book wheelchair seats or for information about group bookings please contact the box office on 07708 708 062 or by email SMPTickets@hotmail.com Thank you!

Our regular Musical Director, SMP stalwart, Mike ‘Keys of Steel’ Benyon, taught our entire cast the song which will be our finale this year, and I’m excited to say that it is very much a current hit, so was well known to all our younger cast, and even those encountering it for the first time can vouch for how undeniably catchy it truly is, and I for one have certainly heard it being played around now I know what to look out for!

What a rehearsal we had on Monday 23rd when every section of the cast from our brilliant child chorus, right up to old hands like me, learnt our respective parts of the spectacular finale dance, ably instructed by Choreographer Fay Kemal, and it certainly was a joy to see it all come together!

Fay Kemal and Ellie Goss, who manage our costumes, with the invaluable assistance of the extremely talented Debbie Sandys, have all been busy in the Aladdin’s cave that is our famous costume store, and dress fittings have already begun. More exciting news for our costume department, and indeed the company as a whole, came with the arrival of our new purpose fitted container unit, which touched down in it’s new home in Southgate last week, on complete this excellent new space should allow us better access to our collections than ever before, and several of the company have already been on hand to move much of our stock into its new home.

Special mention must go to Monday 16th which saw the creation of a dance routine that places our two dames, Chantelle and Jordan played the irrepressible Mr Terry Aylot and the renowned Mr Nicholas Johnston Quye, front and centre leading the male chorus in a spectacle that truly has to be seen to be believed, I won’t spoil the surprised save to say that you should get booking those tickets, you will not want to miss this!

Week 5 saw us set the dance for the Finale on the monday night with everyone involved it’s a great number and on the wednesday we ran the dialogue for the whole show and already its starting to look great and gives us the chance to add even more humour.

Tickets are on sale already and it’s never too early to book. You can book online by clicking the banner below. To book wheelchair seats please or for information about group bookings please contact the box office on 07708 708 062 or by email SMPTickets@hotmail.com Thank you!

Monday night found a few of the principles flung together to do a quick run through of act one and two as we have already set the whole show, incredible as it may seem. Usually our Panto is in January but our new home in Chingford means we can have Panto in December, so things really need to be got done.

Our beloved Cinderella played by that country and western belle Lucy is hard at it …. Errr, in fact I’m not sure if she is asleep so let’s quickly move on (picture 2) ahh! now we find my son, the mighty Prince Charming played by mister Jack… he is such a hard working performer ……. Oohh, he seems to be flexing his muscles and showing off…. oh those darn award winning actors!

Ahh, now all is calm, our beloved leader Sir Warren Mc is taking both Luke (our Buttons) and Lucy in hand and helping them with their directions I’m sure the Normandy Landings were easier to direct……

I mean making sure that a dozen dancing chorus members make it on stage on time must be a nightmare in comparison!

Sophie, our beloved Sophie… in what can only be described as Jane Austen-like-stance, oh where is her bonnet???? Say no more!

At last there is some action on the floor and no, not in that way, our great leader is making great …. eeerrr…… emmmm, directions and basically telling us what to do.

Such larks Pip!!!

So the frame work of the show is in place and on Wednesday we had the great Miss Fay in her leg warmers yelling dance step at us, step ball change is still ringing in my head!

With my great dancing ability, it was decided to bring me into the dance number, “SPICE UP YOUR LIFE” by the last 12 bars I’m devastated and gutted and totally relieved.

Well my lovely friends this is going to be yet another super show, tell all your friends and come and support us, we need you to be there smiling at us!

Tickets are on sale already and it’s never too early to book. You can book online by clicking the banner below. To book wheelchair seats please or for information about group bookings please contact the box office on 07708 708 062 or by email SMPTickets@hotmail.com Thank you!

This week we got stuck in to the acting as we blocked our way through act 1. This is always great as we, the cast, start to get to see what everyone else is doing with their characters for the first time. I can confidently say we have a magnificent cast! Even at this early stage you can see people are bringing some real fun to their characters and this should make the show a cracker!

Wednesday was our first dance rehearsal and Miss Fay soon had us whipped in to shape for one of our biggest numbers. This is one of the few that will have the whole cast on stage at the same time, and with 41 in the cast – we’re glad the stage at Chingford is so big!

Next week should bring more fun and games and we’re all looking forwards to it.

Tickets are on sale now, so do make sure to buy early to get the best seats!

Tickets are on sale already and it’s never too early to book. You can book online by clicking the banner below. To book wheelchair seats please or for information about group bookings please contact the box office on 07708 708 062 or by email SMPTickets@hotmail.com Thank you!

We started proceedings with our introduction night and read through where myself and the production team revealed our ideas for the show. We’re using a script I wrote back in 2012 but I’ve made some changes and replaced a few gags here and there to freshen it up. It was great to have a good turn out, some new faces arrive and old ones return to join the current membership. The script and song choices were all well received at the read trough and so we moved onto the auditions.

We had a bumper number of auditions and a few nice surprises on the way. As our new venue, The Chingford Assembly Hall, means we have a bigger stage to fill we’ve looked to increase the size of the cast for this show however, we still had more people audition than we’d be able to fit comfortably on the stage. This, coupled with the addition of our children’s chorus, meant that unfortunately not everyone made it into the cast. On behalf of the production team I’d like to thank everyone who did audition and congratulate those who were successful and commiserate those who weren’t. Thanks also to our reader ins and those who held the fort with the admin making sure our auditions went smoothly.

Casting the show was a tough job, we could have cast the show in a number of ways thanks to the standard of those who auditioned and the talent on show. We discussed the casting long into the night, so long in fact that we got locked in at the Walker Cricket Ground and had to call for help to get let out, but in the end we all agreed on our cast and were very happy.

As you can see we’ve ended up with a really strong cast with plenty of panto experience under their belts. We’re keen to start work with everyone and excited to have our children’s chorus joining us to see what they’ll bring to the show.

Finally, we had our first rehearsal on Wednesday and even with a few people missing it was clear we’ve got a really big cast!  

Our MD Mike made a start teaching some of the music in the show. A full company number that made our dreams come true and then the featured singers along with some of our ladies worked on a second number. The songs sound fantastic already and I was having such a good time listening I forgot to take any pictures apart from this one, sorry!

So that’s all for now, our cast will keep you updated each week with all the goings on from rehearsals so please keep reading to stay updated.

Tickets are on sale already and it’s never too early to book. You can book online by clicking the banner below. To book wheelchair seats please or for information about group bookings please contact the box office on 07708 708 062 or by email SMPTickets@hotmail.com Thank you!

On the night our production team Warren McWilliams (Director) Fay Kemal (Choreographer) and Artemis Reed (Musical Director) will talk us through their vision for this years show.

Our panto this year is at the Chingford Assembly Hall and the bigger venue means we’re looking to increase our usual cast size and have more members join us onstage.

We’re also looking to include a ‘kids chorus’ so looking for boys and girls ages from 8 up to be part of the show.

Auditions will be held on the 18th and 21st of August.

Sunday 18th – 10am – 12.00 (Childrens auditions)
12.30 – 5.30pm (Adults)
Wednesday 21st – 8pm-9.30pm (Adults)

For more information about SMP or to book tickets visit our website at www.smptheatre.co.uk we have set up a facebook event that you can sign up to here: https://www.facebook.com/events/445293666203700/