How Chickenshed prepared for Pan

Chickenshed is marking its 50th anniversary with a special Christmas show, Pan.

Their brand-new adaptation of J M Barrie’s Peter Pan comprises an 800-strong cast of staff, students, and members of the adult, youth, and children’s theatre groups aged from seven to 50+. They perform in five rotas with a core cast of 18, and, when they’re not on stage, they will be working behind-the-scenes as backstage crew or assisting chaperones.

It’s a mammoth undertaking – and we had several of those involved document the journey to opening night. The production runs until Saturday 11 January.

Cara McInanny: core-cast, co-writer, co-composer, vocal direction

Monday 18 November 

Today the past week caught up to me! I woke up and took my dog, Rolo, out for a walk. Then we had an epic nap on the sofa. I couldn’t have a day off and not go to my favourite place on earth (other than Chickenshed), Asda! I got some new Christmas PJs and then Rolo and I watched two new Christmas movies before ending the day with a paw mask (for the dog) and a Korean skincare refresh (for me), whilst learning my new signing for the Christmas show. 

Tuesday 19 November

I woke up to the most beautiful sight this morning… snow! It’s beginning to look like Christmas. I took Rolo on a walk while wearing Crocs, which was a bad move. Then we went to Chickenshed for our last dress rehearsal before the first preview show tomorrow. I can’t believe that the shows have come around so quickly. Tomorrow will not only be our first show but our first ever Purple Rota show in the history of Chickenshed. Bring it on!

Wednesday 20 November

It’s show day. I woke up early. I couldn’t get back to sleep because I was so excited. So, I went for a walk and then went to see my Nan and Grandad. It was then to Chickenshed for last-minute preparations and voice recordings for the show to open tonight. We had notes at 3 pm, our last chance to get together before the beautiful chaos of our students and membership arrived. As I write, the curtains are up in 15 minutes! Good luck, Purple Rota!

Wednesday 27 November – opening night

A beautifully chaotic first few shows! Things went wrong, of course, but they were full of so much energy, vibes, and smiles. I’m especially proud of the Tiger Lillys… they sleighed! A couple of shows down, only 59 to go…

Demar Lambert: core cast

Monday 18 November 

A well-needed day off! I have slept in and relaxed my muscles, as I was aching from the dress rehearsals at the weekend. It was a very good rest and was much needed. I stretched quite a bit to stop the aching from flying and wearing the harness for an extended amount of time.

Tuesday 19 November 

Woke up early today to get ready for the Purple dress rehearsal. There was a lot to rehearse, with more still to do as we are adding more to the food fight. It was great to have an audience as well. 

Wednesday 20 November 

We made some quite big changes in the food fight scenes and rehearsed those, but it was a very good first show. Purple worked really hard and it only goes up from here. The audience seemed to love it!

My first show as Pan was an adrenaline rush. Seeing the audience for the first time was unexplainable. By the end, I was buzzing and exhausted but definitely a good feeling afterwards.

Bethany Hamlin: core cast and choreography

Monday 18 November

Today was a day off for most of the cast – the calm before the storm! So I spent my time relaxing, going over my lines and some of my signing, and most importantly… getting my nails done ready for the first show on Wednesday!

Tuesday 19 November

Today we had our final dress rehearsal before opening night tomorrow and it went really well. Still some bits to rehearse which we will do tomorrow morning!

Wednesday 20 November

It’s show time! Today is an exciting day, not only because it’s opening night, but because it’s Purple Rota’s first-ever show at Chickenshed in history. We have never had a purple rota before.

We rehearsed and prepped for the show and then the time came to perform in front of the audience. My mum and sister came with their Brownie group and they all said they loved it! This run of the show will be an awfully big adventure!

The first couple of shows went well! Everyone was saying how smooth it ran and how impressive it was that it was everyone’s first show, after all, it was the first time we had run without stopping! I’m looking forward to now having audiences in and hearing their reactions – laughs and cries and all.

Sebastian Ross: co-writer and co-composer

Monday 18 November

Today was a fairly slow day. I had to head to work for a few little things but finished early enough to get home and have a relaxing afternoon and evening. I mostly practiced the sign language that I’ll be performing in the Christmas show before grammar-checking a piece of writing I’ve been working on, not helped by my cat insisting on sitting on my laptop. It’s always good to have a chilled evening before going into a dress rehearsal the following day. The calm before the storm. Or I guess the fifth storm since this is the fifth rota dress we’ll be doing.

Tuesday 19 November

The final dress rehearsal. The final chance to get things right before the show opens for previews. And almost everything went right. I especially enjoyed watching the pirate scenes be performed since they were written by me and a coworker. Seeing something you made being appreciated by so many people is such an honour, especially knowing the hard work that went into it.  We then had our dress run in the evening and that went very well in my opinion, here’s to hoping the first show tomorrow is as good, if not better.

End of previews

Previews ending is an exciting yet nerve-wracking time. It’s like the safety net’s been pulled before you do a trapeze act. However, I’d say the general vibe of the cast is that we’re very prepared, maybe more so than previous shows. We’ve really put the hours in and smoothed out all the various kinks in the show, leaving it as a very efficient and well-flowing piece.  

Wednesday 27 November – opening night

When you’ve already done multiple runs you’d expect the actual opening night to hold less weight, but there was a definite vibe around the building today. People were rehearsing things a bit harder, vocal warmups were a little more extensive, and set moves were being double and triple-checked. When the show did start, everybody was thoroughly in the zone. And due to that, I believe it was our best show so far! It certainly set a high bar for us to maintain for the rest of the run, a challenge we all welcome.