Spreading the word: Panto Day and the NDoPP

Humour and knowledge are the two great hopes of our culture. {Konrad Lorenz 1978}

So, as well as being in pantomime and seeing as many other productions, as my schedule will allow, this year I will also be helping to co-ordinate Panto Day.  As some of you may be aware, this was a campaign set up in 2011 by Simon Sladen, a fellow Panto Geek and fanatic.  He was writing a paper for his degree when he came up with the idea of a day that celebrates all the we love about Panto both here in Britain and abroad.  I stumbled upon the project last year, quite by chance after Panto day followed me on twitter.  I jumped on the bandwagon and was soon getting our cast to do some "Panto planking" and don our special badges!!

After the season had come to an end I contacted Simon to see if there's as any room "on the board" so to speak, being willing to help and assist in anyway possible.  What followed was a fantastic first meeting at the National Theatre, with gallons of coffee, pizza, beer and literally hours of Panto talk.  I so enjoyed talking to someone, of my own generation, who is so devoted to this special art form.  And... as Simon had studied the form in depth for his studies, I learnt a lot.

Jump forward a couple of months and our second meeting saw us joined by Robert Pearce (a Panto Dame) and Ian Ramsdale, a sports journalist for the Beeb and yet another fanatic.  More wine, more pizza and more hours flying by as we discussed what 2013 could hold for Panto Day.

So many ideas flew around that evening, which only heightened my love of the genre, and my desire to be more and more involved with whatever I could.  Simon is also working on a National Database of Pantomime Performance, which is intended to be the go to place for everything Panto.  Although only in its first year, we're hoping that the concept will soon blossom and become an industry mainstream.  I will update you more on this as the launch date approaches.

Panto Day this year, will be on Saturday 7th December, so make sure the date's in your diary and be sure to spread the word and get involved however you can!!

As I mentioned there will be more regarding Panto Day and the NDoPP as time goes on. I'm actually waiting for the others as we speak for our next meeting, as we enter Autumn and with Panto well and truly in sight.

So for now, I'll sign off and bid you adieu!