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Hello from Sunderland and the start of the autumn tour! Things here are going very well so far this week – the Technical staff arrived on Monday afternoon to start the get-in and the Company travelled up yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon ready for the first stage rehearsal last night. As this is the first time that we’ve danced Fille on this tour, we’ve had more stage rehearsals here than we would normally have in a touring venue – we had a Piano Rehearsal last night and the General this afternoon. Stage rehearsals have gone well and judging by what I can hear over the tannoy, the first performance is going down a treat with the Sunderland audience! Fille looks and sounds great in this lovely auditorium. It’s quite chilly up here but the theatre is unusually warm and so far the rain hasn’t been to bad – even the pony seems quite at home in his temporary stable on the loading bay! Paul (Grist, Company Manager)
Well, we’ve been here for four days now and already we’re thinking about moving on to our second venue! The flight over went very smoothly and we arrived at Tokyo Narita on Tuesday morning to be pleasantly surprised by how warm the weather was. Kamakura is just over an hour from the airport by coach and once we’d checked in to the hotel, people set off to explore the area.
Unfortunately the skies had been clouding during the day and by the end of the afternoon it had started to rain. The rain lasted until Friday morning and has been quite spectacularly heavy at times; particularly on Thursday when those who decided to make the trip from Kamakura (where the hotel is) to Yokohama (where the theatre is) by train got completely soaked on the walk from the station.
The theatre in Yokohama has a large auditorium and a good sized stage but space backstage is very, very limited which has made for an interesting couple of days. The stage and lighting departments have had the equivalent of a giant logic puzzle to contend with as they work out where to store everything, but at least the dressing room allocation was very easy as there are only two; one for all the girls and one for all the boys! The wardrobe department have had just as much fun – ironing and laundry is all happening in the corridors. Well, those sections of corridor that aren’t three deep in rails! Someone has likened the experience to doing Sleeping Beauty on mid-scale – I think that’s probably a fairly accurate description! One up-side for me is that in the absence of a dedicated Company Office, I’ve taken up residence in a corner of wardrobe – I’ve had a fantastic and hilarious couple of days sharing a room with Lili, Vanda, Michael and the wardrobe girls; although I’m sure they’re looking forward to getting shot of me once we get to Tokyo!
As I type, we’re in Act III of the Beauty General – the first performance is tomorrow afternoon and then we’re straight off to Tokyo. Sunday is a day of studio rehearals and then on Monday and Tuesday we’re at the U-Port Hall with the double-bill. Tuesday night’s performance is a fundraising gala in aid of the Earthquake and Tsunami Appeal; we’re all very pleased to be able to do something practical to help. Life in this part of Japan is pretty much back to normal after the disaster – the only really noticeable difference is the power saving; once the sun sets it’s really noticeable how many lights and neon signs remain switched off.
It’s time for me to sign-off now as it’ll soon be time to start rounding people up for the coach journey back to the hotel!
More soon!
Paul (Grist – Company Manager)
**Update**
Although I wrote this yesterday afternoon, I’ve only just got round to posting! Between then and now, we’ve done our first performance of the tour (which went very well – a really great show which was enthusiastically received by a very appreciative audience), the technical staff have packed everything and loaded it back onto the trucks, and we’ve all moved on to Tokyo! Time for bed now – but more soon! P
Hello from a very chilly Salford where the Cinderella tour opened last night to a wonderful audience response! The Technical Department have risen fantastically to the challenge of presenting Cinderella on tour and the show looks absolutely fantastic. We’re playing to packed houses this week and our Plymouth performances next week promise to be the same.
The Royal Opera House exhibition ‘Invitation to the Ballet’ which charts the life and work of Ninette de Valois and the history of the Royal Ballet companies is running in the Lowry Galleries at the moment. Lots of the Company have already made it up to see the exhibition and the feedback has been incredibly positive – I’m hoping to get up there tomorrow afternoon to have a look around, although from what everyone is saying I think I’ll need to allow plenty of time to see everything!
Paul Grist
Company Manager
Hello from Plymouth and the final week of the autumn tour. We’ve had a great tour, starting with a great week in Sunderland (no flooding this time!) – Romeo looked and sounded wonderful at the Empire and was very warmly received by large audiences. Sunderland was followed by Sadler’s Wells and the Company really grasped the opportunity to show the London audience just what we can do with a week of fantastic performances. We played to a week of great houses and spectacular audience responses – especially for Pointes of View!
Although Sadler’s Wells saw a week of great performances, it was also tinged with sadness as the end of the week saw Viktoria Walton’s final performance with the Company. Her departure prompted a slightly unusual end to Saturday night’s performance of Slaughter; at the end of the curtain call, two of the Policemen headed straight for Vika to make an impromptu ‘arrest’ (complete with handcuffs!), dragging her to the front of the stage where Alexander Campbell (the Hoofer) presented her with flowers! Vika will be much missed but everyone is delighted that she’s going to get to spend more time being a mum and we wish her all the best for her new career! ‘Inntit!’
Playing the triple bill at the end of the week meant that the Sadler’s Wells get-out finished in record time (much to the delight of the technical staff!) and Monday saw the start of our final week of the tour; in Plymouth. So far we’ve had fantastic weather – it’s chilly but the wonderful sunshine has meant lots of bright, crisp days. Performances of the triple bill went really well (including some great debuts) and this evening sees the first of four sold-out performances of Romeo.
We’re taking our ‘touring company’ status to a whole new level over the next few days; whilst the bulk of the Company are dancing Romeo in Plymouth, Iain and Elisha are in Tokyo guesting in The Firebird at the New National Theatre whilst Nao, Chi, Bob, Natasha and César are in Salford dancing tonight with the Royal Ballet at a performance to mark the opening of a major new exhibition at the Lowry, charting the history of the Royal Ballet companies. That really is ‘touring’!
On Sunday it’s back to Birmingham and on Monday it’ll be straight back into the swing of things with only just over four weeks until the world premiere of our new production of Cinderella. There’s already a tremendous buzz in Birmingham about this new show, and that seems to be spreading fast around the country – it’s been a hot topic of excited conversation amongst audiences throughout the tour!
Hello everyone! I just thought I’d grab a couple of minutes during the Swan Lake General to post an update on what’s been happening in the last couple of days.
As everyone is now working right through until we arrive back in Brum on Tuesday morning, yesterday (Wednesday) was a free day for most of the Company – although the LX department were in all day working on the lighting. The Festival organised a trip to the beach yesterday afternoon and the 40 Company members who went had a fantastic time. Everyone also managed to return sunburn-free which is something of an achievement – and particularly important for the swans given that if the skin under their white make-up is sunburnt, they turn purple under the lights!! I think that most people who didn’t go to the beach went shopping; I certainly spent a couple of hours in the mall and will be returning with a heavier suitcase!
It was back to work for everyone this morning; after class we had a two-hour stage call on Acts II and IV (the ‘white’ acts) and the General rehearsal started at 4pm; I think most people are keen to get back to the hotel and start following the election results online once we’re done here!
The local interest in our visit continues and we’ve had lots of press activity going on today which is great for our profile aswell as for ticket sales which are going extremely well. Tomorrow will be an early start as we’ve got a School’s Matinee at 10.30am – this will consist of a performance of Acts III and IV, introduced by Marion and Dom; it’s the culmination of a busy week of workshops by the Learning Department and having heard great feedback from those sessions, I think everyone is looking forward to the students seeing the show.
Quite a lot of people (me included) are still having trouble adjusting to the time difference over here – although no-one seems to have suffered as spectacularly as a certain Mr Tom Stevens on Tuesday morning. Having set his alarm for 8am, Tom thought the jet-lag was to blame for his tiredness when the alarm went off. It was only 15 minutes later when he’d got up, pottered round his room, had a shave, opened the curtains and been surprised to see that it was still dark outside, that he realised that it was actually 3.15am – the clock on his iPhone had automatically reset to UK time at midnight!
Paul.
Well, after a rather mammoth journey the main Company travel group finally arrived in Norfolk on Sunday evening at about 2145 local time (0245 Monday, UK time!).
We’d left the Hippodrome at 0700 on Sunday morning and hadn’t even made it to the supermarket on Thorp Street before one of the coaches had broken down. As with the return leg of the trip to the Embassy for visa interviews, it was the coach I was on – I’ve now got a reputation as a coach jinx-er! So, after a hasty bit of re-arrangement, we got as many people as we could onto the working coach and sent that on it’s way to Heathrow whilst the 21 of us left on the broken coach waited for the coach company to send a replacement. That arrived within about 40 minutes and we set-off for the second time about an hour after we’d set-off for the first time! Everything went smoothly at Heathrow and the flight-time seemed to pass relatively quickly (a glass of wine and a couple of films helping things along very nicely!).
Once we arrived in Washington we had US immigration to get through – 45 minutes of queueing later and we’d all got into the country, collected our bags and started to assemble in the arrivals hall. The Virginia Arts Festival had sent two of their team of volunteers up to meet us: Dan and Sallie who did the same trip in 2007 and loved the Company so much that they’d insisted on being allowed to come and meet us again! Then it was back onto more coaches for the 4hr trip down to Norfolk. Everyone was delighted to arrive at the hotel and most people headed out into town in search of something to eat, before heading back to the fantastically comfy beds – by the time we got to bed, I think most of us had been up for 24hrs!
Norfolk is a really lovely town. The hotel is directly opposite the theatre and both are only a very short walk into the centre of town, although everyone here seems to drive everywhere! The people are really friendly, very welcoming and everyone seems very excited that we’re in town!
The Festival staff and volunteers are also incredibly hospitable and are really taking the trouble to make sure that everyone is well looked after and that everything is taken care of. Everyone seems to have found a different cafe, diner or restaurant that’s become a firm favourite and the breakfasts are particularly popular – most are so large as to negate the requirement for any other meal during the day!
The weather has been incredibly hot and humid for the past couple of days but the storms forecast for today failed to materialise. We’re all keeping our fingers crossed that they don’t come tomorrow as the Festival have organised a trip to the beach for those people who have a free day tomorrow.
Today’s rehearsals have gone very well and the show is looking absolutely fantastic at Chrysler Hall. Phil [Ellis, Conductor] has been rehearsing with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra this morning and everyone is looking forward to hearing them at the General on Thursday.
Anyway, I need to head off and catch the end of the rehearsal – more soon!
Paul.
Greetings from Sunderland and the first week of the Sleeping Beauty tour where the Company are playing to large and enthusiastic audiences. There’s no such thing as a quiet week on tour and this week has proved to be no exception – after a spot of shellac-removal from a dressing room sink yesterday afternoon (who said Company Management wasn’t glamorous?) the fun really started during Act II of last night’s show when water began dripping from the ceiling above one of the entrances to the stage.
A spot of investigation quickly revealed that the source of the problem was in the sprinkler system pump room directly above. The local crew moved swiftly into action with buckets and mops during the interval, an emergency plumber was called and we started Act III without a great deal of concern.
However, a couple of minutes into Act III as one of the guys mopping up the leak turned the valve to stop the supply of water to the leaky pipe, the entire valve (and most of the pipe it was fixed to) sheared off in his hand unleashing a significant torrent of water! Having ascertained that we were safe to carry on with the show, every spare pair of hands was enlisted to keep the water at bay as it ran through ceilings and down staircases; it was mopped, vac’d, swept out of firedoors and every spare towel and blanket was assembled to form an absorbent dam across the doorway to the stage to keep the water away from scenery, costumes and shoes.
The performance finished uninteruppted with the delighted audience completely oblivious to the drama ocurring backstage (unless they walked past the rear of the theatre on the way home and saw the water pouring out of the building!); Company and orchestra were directed out via alternative staircases and the emergency plumber had a very busy night. Everything was fixed by about 1am and by the time this afternoon’s rehearsals began, everything was dry and back to normal.
What with the significant flooding in the FOH toilets last time we were in Sunderland and the evacuation of the Cyrano Saturday matinee at Sadler’s Wells last autumn when the basement flooded, maybe we should think about getting Birmingham Royal Ballet branded wellies! Fingers crossed that the rest of the tour remains dry both outside and in!
Paul.
Well, we’re back in Birmingham for a week’s rehearsal after a great visit to Plymouth, and I’m grasping the opportunity for some time in the office to catch up on all the things I haven’t managed to do whilst we were away! Both programmes went down really well in Plymouth, everything looked great in the Theatre Royal and as usual the audiences were incredibly responsive.
As you’ll see from the picture, the LX department had some dry ice left over at the start of Act III of the Saturday matinee of Cyrano, so they decided to give the Company Office a more theatrical feel – if only every Company Office were that glamorous! Some more cynical friends have suggested that the dry ice was an attempt to conceal a ‘bad shoe day’!
Paul.
Beijing is a fantastic city – very different to Guangzhou. It’s much ‘lower and wider’ with a great sense of space and much less pollution. The hotel is lovely and although we’ve still got coaches to the theatre, it’s only about 20 minutes walk so lots of people are taking the opportunity to walk, although crossing the road in China is quite something else – you really do take your life in your hands as the traffic lights seem to mean nothing; green is for go, but then, seemingly, so is red!
On Sunday night the British Ambassador threw a reception for us at his residence – it was a fantastic evening and a great opportunity for everyone to dress up and relax. Unfortunately there were no Ferrero Rocher but the gin measures were wonderfully generous!
The National Centre for the Performing Arts (where we’re performing in Beijing) is the most incredible building – breathtakingly beautiful, absolutely enormous, a complete maze inside, and armed with almost impenetrable security. No-one is allowed inside without a security pass, and the the Stage Door (outside and inside shown below) is unlike anything we’ve seen in the UK!
Even the audience aren’t allowed in without a ticket and once inside have to go through airport-style security. We’ve had endless fun trying to get sponsors and various other VIPs into the building for our FOH receptions; they will only issue security passes to those on the Company list (and no replacements for lost cards!) so for all those who don’t have a ticket, we’re reduced to borrowing passes from dancers, wardrobe staff or anyone else we happen to pass in the corridor! Just getting from backstage to FOH is a mission in itself! Add to that the fact that the foyers don’t open until 6.30pm and it’s a recipe for chaos – people are queuing round the block from about 5.00pm but somehow it all seems to come together in the end.
The backstage facilities are incredible and it’s so nice to be in a warm theatre at last (not least because it’s so cold outside!). However, the communication difficulties continue and it’s been another challenging week for the technical department. As usual, they’ve triumphed in the face of adversity and the shows have been looking really fantastic – and the audiences have been very appreciative. It’s great to have the Sinfonia with us now too – I think everyone is looking forward to tomorrow when we get to hear Romeo as it’s meant to sound!
The ‘lost property list’ for the tour (so far – passports, wallets, keys, phone, shoes, gloves) took an eventful twist at the start of the week when my bag of washing went missing at the theatre for 48 hours. Luckily it eventually came to light; otherwise I’d either have had to find time for some shopping, or managed the rest of the tour with just three pairs of socks and underwear!
Having three performances of Beast has finally allowed some time for sightseeing and this week I’ve managed a trip to the Great Wall at Simatai and a quick visit to the Forbidden City. Both were completely spectacular, photos to follow. The stretch of wall at Simatai is one of the most precipitous sections and to see such a huge construction in such a remote and rugged setting is quite amazing. We only managed a small section of the Forbidden City but that too is quite incredible.
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We’ve also been sampling a bit more of the local food – a real find has been a fantastic ‘local’ Chinese restaurant just behind the hotel which has become a bit of a favourite with the Company. As well as fabulous food, the staff are wonderful and have a penchant for taking photos of Western visitors to adorn their walls. Siân [Morgan, Company Physiotherapist] and I went there for lunch today and they seemed convinced that we’re married. I’ll see if I can scan a copy of our photo which is already up on their wall!
Anyway, I’ve probably wittered enough now – I hope all’s well in Brum; only another 8 days and we’ll be back in the UK!
More soon!
Paul [Grist, Company Manager]
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Well, it’s been a week since my last blog entry – apologies for not having got anything to you sooner but as you’ve probably been hearing from everyone else, this week has been just as frantic as last week!
I’m not quite sure where I left you with my last entry but suffice to say that our week in Guangzhou ended just as eventfully as it had begun (and been every day during the week too!). The problems with the heating continued and after more security shenanigans (the local staff deciding that 5 minutes before the Saturday night show was the perfect time to collect up everyone’s security passes….) we finally got the second show underway – or not…..
At about 19:55 (it was a 20:00 show), we had a message from the pit to say that the light had gone out on the keyboard that we were using for the celeste. A local electrician was promptly despatched to the pit to sort out the problem and promptly managed to trip out the rest of the pit lights too. Apparently, the only man who could fix it was the man whose job it was to look after the pit lights (only in China would you have a ‘Head of orchestra pit plug sockets’) and, inevitably, he was nowhere to be found. Much running around and shouting in Chinese ensued but still the problem was not fixed. The advertised start time came and went and the audience became slightly restless. I was poised to make an announcement (as I would under such circumstances in the UK) but with my Chinese not being quite what it could, I decided it might be wiser to suggest that someone else did it. I had not reckoned for the fact that in China, it is the job of the local promoter to decide if an announcement should be made (of course, he was nowhere to be found either). So, people were despatched to track him down whilst the electricians continued trying to solve the problem.
After a few more minutes, word came back that the local promoter had agreed to an announcement. Relief! Or not. This being China, an announcement can only be made by the Head of Announcements, from the special ‘Announcement Box’ which was, of course, locked. And yes, you’ve guessed it, no-one knew who had the key! Cue more shouting in Chinese and more people scurrying off to try and sort it out.
By this point Johnny [Westall-Eyre, Head of Lighting] (with much pointing) had managed to convey to the electricians that they weren’t getting anywhere fast and that we should think of another solution – so, extension leads were gathered (quite probably from the very hoover which caused the unplugging of the lighting board on the Friday morning!) so that we could power the pit from an alternative source.
The audience were now quite restless and there was a bit of slow hand-clapping and some shouting in Chinese, luckily, at that point the Head of Announcements finally managed to get into her box and was able to update the audience on what was going on.
Finally, after much frantic re-plugging (and with some seriously dubious wiring!) the pit lights came on again and we were able to start the show only 24 minutes late! The Company were fantastic and very understanding (not least because the heating had gone off again!) – although given that we had to leave the hotel at 06:45 the next morning, it wasn’t really the ideal night for a delay!
The show went well (including an unscheduled guest appearance by the fine Irish tenor, Mr Paul Murphy [Conductor] in place of a couple of absent instrumental lines….) and our week in Guangzhao came to a close. As the Company headed back to the hotel to finish packing and grab a couple of hours sleep, the crew had a typically ‘Chinese’ get-out; long and challenging (highlights included having to do the first 10 minutes in a complete blackout after someone turned all the lights off – and the team of crew whose job it was to dismantle things – completely; including the removal of all screws and ironmongery….). They made it back to the hotel about 30 minutes before we had to leave for Beijing.
The journey to Beijing was long and pretty uneventful – I shall discreetly draw a veil over the names of the two people who overslept, were woken by my call, had to pack and leave the hotel in 5 minutes to do the ‘walk of shame’ onto the coach. We’re also still taking suggestions as to quite what the in-flight meal was supposed to be, although we’ve identified the following airport fare as ‘ground coffee’:
Paul [Grist, Company Manager]
