"Just a Spoon Full of Courage, Helps Rehearsals Go Down....."

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.  {Norman Vincent Peale}

WED 20th: After yesterday's little shake of confidence, and writing about it in last nights blog, I stumbled upon a friends article on Twitter about five things actors have to realise if they want to be successful.  There was one point that was very relevant to me... "If you don't have confidence in yourself, how can the (casting) director have faith in you?" Good question and I suppose the same goes for your fellow cast members.  It also mentioned just saying "bugger it!" Have a go with gusto, try it out - that is of course what a rehearsal is for. 

So today, I bloody went gung-ho!  No singing quietly with embarrassment, just jump in and see how it goes!  And y'know... It was fine.  And liberating!! (How stage schooly does that sound?!") To be able to just concentrate on your actions and movement is much more fun and leads to a lot more comedy than shying away from the lyric.  So thankfully - that phase of rehearsal is over! Everyone has heard me sing and we are free to crack on with having some fun with it.

Of course this whole situation is helped by having such a smashing MD!  Anthony England is a gentleman and a scholar.  He is a joy to talk too out of rehearsals, always helpful and eager to help and is so musically funny.  Only three days in and already he's adding little bits of incidental music, which always raise a smile from me and a nod of approvement.  Oh to be so musically minded...   

We learnt two new numbers I'm involved with today and got to sing through my section of the opener umpteen times, as Jill rehearsed the babes! which was fantastic for me.  "Sorry Jamie, we'll get to you in a minute!"  'You carry on Jill' I thought.... Gives me a bit of extra practice.  

We blocked most of the kitchen scene this afternoon, which is another big scene, and everyone seemed to like mine and Cinders kitchen scene, even though we only quickly stabbed through it.  For Panto passionatas, who'll be coming to see you us, you may notice the abscence of one or two standard gags [mentioned in a previous post] but our scene is so cute, pacey and more importantly... A bit different.  I'm a stickler for tradition - but I think (hope) that the Guildford audiences will be melted by this bit!  We'll see...!

Gerry and Jill have yet again come up with some fantastic choreography for the show.  What I've seen so far is brilliant, with credit also to the ensemble for picking it up so quickly!  I wondered how they were going to incorporate my section of the opener, but I've had such fun blocking it tonight, myself and the ensemble were in stitches.  We've got another call tomorrow to continue with the blocking... I can't wait.  

Anyway, I've treated myself to a healthy chicken ceased salad and an as equally unhealthy pint of shandy in spoons tonight... Gets me out of my room and more importantly... Free wi-fi.  Thanks spoons!

So for now, ta-ra!!  I'm off to cram lines, lyrics and "I'm a celeb!" 

JB-BB x

NB: in order to avoid repetition, please scan back to last years blog "The Pongo Diaries" for more about Gerry, Jill and the Arnaud itself - although I'm sure they'll be cropping up more as we go on!