At the end of March Bladon Junior Church and the Windrush School of Ballet joined forces to stage a joint concert of music and dance in Witney's Corn Exchange. The Corn Exchange has a large stage and an auditorium that seats 200 people!
The Corn Exchange in Witney
There were over 100 children in the combined cast and their backstage dicipline and performance on stage would not have been out of place in the West End! Technically, it was a real rush to get familiar with the theatre's lighting and sound systems in the short time we had available.
We had a dress rehearsal in the morning which went surprisingly smoothly. The children then ate a packed lunch whilst the theatre was prepared for the first performance. It was quite amazing when we noticed at 3.20pm a queue stretching from the box office, out of the Corn Exchange and around Witney's Market Square. At 3.30pm we opened the doors and the audience came pouring in.
Both performances were filled to capacity and ran absolutely perfectly. By the time the audience were leaving from the 4pm performance there was already a queue for the evening show! It was a long and tiring day but the children had a wonderful time and a great opportunity to perform in such a big venue in front of so many people. There are a selection of photographs below, all taken during the dress rehearsal - click on the thumnail to bring up a larger image.
We had to get the intercom system working as soon as we could because, even when we were rigging lights, the theatre was too large to shout instructions from on stage to the lighting control room. We've never had this problem in the church in Bladon!
The producer
The lighting box with Mark on "the board" & Peter on sound
Can you pick out the photos of the numbers from the following shows: The Pirates of Penzance, Greece, Joseph, The Lion King, Annie, Me and My Girl, Oliver and Jesus Christ Superstar?
