Tour 1 - Northallerton

Following the Sunderland performance, the touring party met at Ewesley Road Methodist Church for our morning meeting, after which there was a photo op: Richard, who had organised hoodies and t-shirts to be made up for the team needed to take a photo of us all in Sunderland, where the printer comes from.

We then travelled on to the Hambleton Forum in Northallerton with a busy day ahead - both a matinee and an evening performance. Following the havoc of the day before, we were still two technicians down, so we were joined by a wonderful volunteer from Sunderland, Phil Wake. He is a multi-talented chap - great with first aid as well as PA, and he was an unbelievable help to us. Another man who worked with us was a local minister who, it turns out, is excellent at ironing...

Following a hurried lunch (I understand some of the team got stuck in a pub...) we had a very quick team meeting, and then it was straight into rehearsing with the Choir. The choir were expertly trained by Iris Smith and Helen Weighell - both veterans of CMM tours, and it was great to work with them again. The stage at the Hambleton forum is quite narrow, yet very wide, which poses an interesting problem. The look of the performance was very different, as scenes that would normally be quite deep are instead much wider. The other interesting factor at the Forum was that the choir were bigger (more numerous) than last time, so the two side exits were blocked and the only entrance was through the choir at the back - football tunnel style.

Following the matinee performance, the cast were fed incredibly well by the Northallerton people - it was the most amazing array of cakes ever seen, along with all kinds of savoury bits and pieces.

The evening performance also went well, except for the overheating of a couple of choir members! They had worked very hard all day, so it was not suprising - the cast got to go backstage where an outside door was open, so there wasn't the same problem for us!

Thanks especially go to Janet Bryer for all her hard work in organising the event - taking over from Ed and Dorothy Richardson who had done the work for the past few musicals. It is always a pleasure to sing at the Hambleton Forum, and wonderful to see all of our Northallerton friends.