Newark's Giant weekend of panto!

If you need evidence that the festive season is almost upon us then you needed to look no further than Newark two weekends ago when the Palace Theatre held both the panto launch and the auditions for the Junior Chorus.

 The town was taken over by the panto cast on Saturday, including former Grange Hill and EastEnders star Todd Carty, and there were flashbacks to Todd’s EastEnders days when he got behind a fruit and veg stall in the market – although we don’t remember him being dressed quite like that in EastEnders!

 Todd says “This is the first time I have ever been to Newark and it seems a really lovely town, well – apart from it raining all day! I am very interested in history so can’t wait to have a proper look around the Civil War Centre when I am here over Christmas.”

 On Sunday it was time to hold auditions for the youngest members of the panto cast with the Junior Chorus auditions for 9-16 year olds.

 Graeme Pickering, who choreographed the auditions said “The standard of the all of the children who auditioned for us was very high and it was exceptionally difficult to select the 16 children for the two main teams as we would have loved to have everyone in the show.”

 Sarah Boden from Imagine Theatre who produce the panto at the Palace Theatre said “We have been auditioning children for panto here for many years now and it was great to see some familiar faces amongst the auditionees as well as some brand new ones.”

 “One of the most important things we look at is of course their dancing, however, it is really important that the children have a little something extra as well that makes them stand out from the crowd.”

 “The children will have a lot of hard work ahead of them but it is also a lot of fun and a great opportunity for them to be part of a professional production.”

 Come and join us for a ‘gigantic’ festive treat with Jack and the Beanstalk which runs at the Palace Theatre from Wednesday 7th until Saturday 31st December 2016.