Rock Tour 4 - Bridport

And so on we move to a new venue, but not an entirely new choir. In the past we have travelled to Dorchester or Weymouth to perform the musicals, but this time, thanks to a performance of Wildfire in Bridport in June 2007, we managed to twist the arm of Steph Frampton from Dorchester to administrate it, and the wonderful people of Bridport to have us.


The performance was in Bridport United Church, and can safely be said to be one of the most intimate venues of the tour. The choir were on every side of the stage and pushed the instrumentalists up on to the balcony. With the close proximity of the choir, sometimes the cast found themselves nearly sitting on a poor soprano's knees. But we managed with the small space, and several of the audience said they preferred that intimacy to some of the larger performances.


The choir was made up of 50% Dorchester people and 50% Bridport. They made us feel very welcome with a lovely dinner of lasagne and chicken casserole. There was also a wonderful prayer team who were a huge support to Margaret as they prayed around the building for the cast, choir and the audience.


It was a birthday day among the cast - both Rachel and Ann. Alan created the funniest moment of the day by attempting to start off the singing of happy birthday. He sang one note to give us all the pitch, and then started off the singing on a completely different note! He'll never live that one down.


The performance was slightly delayed in the evening - the main road through the centre of Bridport was closed overnight for maintenance, so that meant no-one could get to the church after 7pm. But they made it somehow.


There was also a wonderful signer down at the front on stage right. The instrumentalists up in the balcony couldn't see any of the drama, but they could see the signer. Amy, on clarinet, mentioned afterwards that she was amazed with the signing as for special sections of the music the signs used were special intimate ones - for moments like 'The look of love' or 'Simon Peter do you love me'.


The following day was our day off. The team had a wonderful day divided between Weymouth, Bridport and Lyme Regis. And the weather held out for us too, which was great. Thanks so much to the people of Bridport for their wonderful hospitality. We had a great time.


So huge thanks go to Steph Frampton, Molly Doughty, and all those who helped make it possible.