Snow White Aftermath!
Penallt Panto '26 ... from start to finish!! - Tom Rigby (Director)
I thought many in Penallt would like to know some details about our Panto this year, so next time maybe you too could get involved?
Oh YES You Do!!
Prep work and casting thoughts started in August and were completed during September with rehearsals starting twice a week. Costumes and set build needs were already in the plan then.
This year we beat some new tech challenges which allowed us to massively reduce our usual scenery painting needs and we learnt a lot as a result for the future which will result in very quick scene changes again.
Total numbers of people involved in the show are amazing. 25 on stage acting, including 6 children, who were a delight to have involved, and all had a great time acting, singing and dancing, I really believe. Another well over 25 back stage when we include PR etc and our front of house help, and the hall bar staff for our weekend.
So that's over 50 people actively supporting the Panto, brilliant support, thank you!
And finally our paying audience ... maybe including you reading this here. Over 350 people came to watch, laugh, sing and hiss! Thank you very much, all of you.
Many of our ticket sales are generated via 'word of mouth' but we also do social media work, and posters in local areas and Monmouth, you may have seen the big posters we put in Monmouth?
I feel the Panto is far more than just 'another opening another show' (our opening song and dance number this year).... it is a total community event which so many in Penallt benefit from in many different ways. The Panto also makes money for the hall to contribute towards the funding of Pelham Hall's annual bills, so there's another great win for us all.
If you use the hall’s facilities ... they are now back to normal service for all your weekly activities. The stage has gone, the seats are stacked away! But we all have brilliant photos and memories... we're sharing some of the photos below!
Oh YES we are!
A selection of performance photographs from Andy Henstridge - Click an image for the full-sized version and a slide show.
Panto Backdrops
The decision to use front projection for the scenery backdrops rather than traditional painted drapes was made at the beginning of the project. A powerful short-throw projector was needed, angled at roughly 45 degrees to avoid shadows of actors being cast. Once that had been sourced, the task of designing the projected images could begin.
This job was made so much easier via the use of AI. Various tools were tried and it emerged that Google Gemini was the best on offer. The very first image we wanted was for “The village of Much Snoring” so Google Gemini was given the description “This should be a full-stage setting, the usual village-green type set with a flat or flats representing the exterior of Tom Bowler's inn to one side, It is quite fun to call the inn The Queen's Head with a painting of The Wicked Queen on the inn sign."
Much fine tuning was then needed with many options being rejected or changed radically so some 82 images were produced at the end of this process from which the final 10 were selected - shown below. Click an image for the full-sized version plus slide show.
