​After-Concert Blog – part 4

(Our thoughts & feelings following on from the Concert in October – in five, easily digested chunks.)
 
The rehearsals went extremely well, and the cast were fully committed to the project. The whole team - front and backstage gelled from the start and this added to the overall success of the concert. It was very enjoyable for everyone.  One person who perhaps got a tremendous amount from the whole thing was the young actor who played the boy, Walter.  He worked as hard as anyone and his confidence and self-assurance in acting and interacting with the group visibly increased. He was looked after and supported by everyone.
 
The choice of St Mary’s church for the concert was excellent and added to the authenticity of the storyline. As the concert theme was set in the same church it was inevitable that this would be an apt place to perform it. With its spacious pews it was also a safe venue amidst covid. The main issue here was the lack of rehearsal time; just two days. However, it was down to the hard work of the musical director and the commitment of the cast that produced a remarkable concert in such a short time. The director joined the rehearsals late, but he was still successful in bringing the show to fruition on time.
The hard work applied to the music and lyrics was evident. Songs ranged from serious and sad to engaging and funny. A lot was demanded from the actors because some lyrics are very fast. A good decision was made to perform ‘from the book’ and it worked well.
The Musical arrangements were superb as was the enthusiasm and application by the musical director to the whole concert. He brought the best out in all the performers and musicians. Integrating the music/songs, the narration and the odd pieces of dialogue together was quite an undertaking. The writer of the book and the music/lyricists were in constant discussion to ensure that continuity was kept on track when the two areas were woven together. This was time consuming but necessary to ensure clarity and lack of confusion. The script went backwards and forwards on a constant basis and the writing team also met on zoom on a regular basis to thrash out problematic areas. And this latter point was quite significant as during the Covid lock downs the whole team on occasion were prevented from meeting in person, so they all became quite adept at using internet applications to complete the project.