What Does a Panto Company Do Throughout the Year - August

Continuing our blog of what a pantomime company does ‘for the rest of the year’ here is a brief overview of what the Imagine team have been up to during August.

August began with the announcement that Imagine Theatre is now part of the Trafalgar Entertainment Group which will help unlock further growth opportunities for Imagine Theatre and allow us to build on our legacy of family entertainment that stretches back over 25 years.

For much of the team August is dominated by photoshoots. The final cast members needed for print and social media assets were invited to the Spa Centre in Leamington during late August where the team held four days of photoshoots with over 40 cast members travelling from all across the UK. It was a great week, and the team were delighted to see many familiar faces as well as meeting some of the cast new to Imagine this year.

Many of the team were involved the photoshoot preparations with the wardrobe team having to prep and create more than 40 costumes with the props team ensuring all props are in tip-top condition ahead of being photographed.

It has been a busy year for photoshoots with:

11 Individual days

18 pantos captured

26 Imagine staff and our support team

90 cast members attended

237 bottles of water drunk

335 sandwiches eaten

874 emails sent

4,773 photographs taken

22,050 miles travelled

The photoshoot week also provided the chance for the whole of the Imagine Team to get together for their seasonal meal. With some members of the team working remotely it is rare that the whole team find themselves in one place at the same time.

August also saw a return to Junior Ensemble auditions with the auditions for Jack and the Beanstalk in Kilmarnock and Sleeping Beauty in Inverness taking place. Both venues saw a high turnout of youngsters all keen to be part of their local panto this Christmas.

For the ops team they have been continuing painting sets and creating new sets pieces, such a giant books for Jack and the Beanstalk, and Dave made a trip up to Glasgow to meet with the team there and to examine sets and props for the Pavilion.

If you are interested in a further look behind the scenes check out the fortnightly Just Imagine Podcast which as well as interviews with the members of the Imagine HQ team includes guest interviews from the wide range of people we work with each year.

What Does a Panto Company Do Throughout the Year - July

Continuing our blog of what a pantomime company does ‘for the rest of the year’ here is a brief overview of what the Imagine team have been up to during July.

It may be summer but there has been no break in the panto preparations for the Imagine team.

Louise Redmond, Head of Casting, has been overseeing a number of successful audition days for principal performers. We have been fortunate to have some very talented performers through the doors so far this season. For those interested in performing in our adult ensemble we will be holding auditions in September and further information on the roles available and how to submit will appear on Spotlight and our website within the next few weeks.

With the majority of the principal casting now finalised the marketing team and the wardrobe team have been busy with photoshoots with three being held in July and more planned for late August.

The marketing team are also working on announcing some more of the star casting, with artwork being created for social media and print and press releases being written. Recently announced have been Joe McFadden, Suzanne Shaw, La Voix and Suzanne Shaw for High Wycombe and Matt Terry for The Lyceum Theatre in Crewe.

As well as prepping for photoshoots there have been wigs and fake boobs galore in the office as the wardrobe team have been inviting some of our panto dames in for costume fittings.

Meanwhile the stores team are continuing their work on the sets. Anna has been creating some prosc surrounds for the Cinderella set that will be going to Crewe this year and also took advantage of a rare dry day to unroll the slosh cloths in the car park for a clean. Meanwhile Glyn and Adam have been in the deepest depths of the warehouse working on LED nodes and LED pixel tape for our sets and Ruth has been prepping company manager boxes.

Our Artistic Director Eric Potts is on the revision stage of the scripting process, tightening them so they don’t over-run, consulting with musical directors on song choices as well as liaising with magic consultants over illusions for some of the shows.

The recruitment drive for show staff is also underway and we are recruiting for numerous stage management and wardrobe roles for the forthcoming panto season. If you would be interested in working with the Imagine team then we would love to hear from you and more information can be found on our website.

If you are interested in a further look behind the scenes check out the fortnightly Just Imagine Podcast which as well as interviews with the members of the Imagine HQ team includes guest interviews from the wide range of people we work with each year.

What Does a Panto Company Do Throughout the Year - June

Continuing our blog of what a pantomime company does ‘for the rest of the year’ here is a brief overview of what the Imagine team have been up to during June.

As we hit the half-way point of the year June has been an exceptionally busy month for the Imagine team.

This month has seen Junior Ensemble auditions begin with Louise travelling to Rotherham, Hastings and Reading to audition 9 to 16 year olds. She has seen some very talented young performers in all the venues and has faced some challenges selecting the final teams for each production. Following on from the auditions Beth in child licensing has then been sending out all of the paperwork needed to get the Junior Ensemble licensed for the panto.

June has also seen photoshoots for Halifax, Stafford and Reading take place and we have been delighted to be able announce our castings for Stafford and Halifax as well with The Conjurors appearing at the Victoria Theatre in Halifax and CBBC legend Mark Rhodes taking on the comic role in Beauty and the Beast at The Gatehouse in Stafford.

This month we were also able to announce that this Christmas we will be working with Trafalgar Theatres on Treasure Island at The Pavilion, Glasgow. The Pavilion has recently become part of the Trafalgar Theatres portfolio and we were delighted to be invited to be a part of such an iconic panto.

Casting was opened for our English and Welsh pantomimes and the casting team are currently working through more than 3500 submissions to select those we would like to see at our auditions in July.

The hot weather has allowed Anna and Jayson to work on their set builds and maintenance out in the sunshine and the wardrobe team have also been taking advantage of the good weather to air dry some of the costumes. Adam has also been hard at work drafting and cutting out patterns for Ugly Sister costumes and the wardrobe team have had a number of dames visiting the building for their costume fittings.

As we wave goodbye to June and enter the second half of the year it is now just 122 days until our first pantomime goes into rehearsal!

If you are interested in a further look behind the scenes check out the fortnightly Just Imagine Podcast which as well as interviews with the members of the Imagine HQ team includes guest interviews from the wide range of people we work with each year.

What Does a Panto Company Do Throughout the Year - May

Continuing our blog of what a pantomime company does ‘for the rest of the year’ here is a brief overview of what the Imagine team have been up to during May.

We can’t believe we are already half way through the year. May was an exceptionally busy month for the team at Imagine.

Star casting announcements were made for Leicester, Hayes and Stafford with Scott Mills making his panto debut at De Montfort Hall,  Antony Costa and Mina Anwar appearing in Beauty and the Beast at the Beck in Hayes and CBBC’s Mark Rhodes appearing in Stafford.

Off the back of the casting announcements photoshoots have been taking place, with more scheduled for June and the marketing team are hard at working planning for these as well as turning around artwork for season brochures.

Production meetings between the Imagine team, venue team and creative teams have begun and Imagine HQ has been busy with a welcome influx of visitors.

The casting team headed up to Scotland at the end of the month to hold their first casting auditions of the year and were delighted to see some wonderful performers. It is also almost time for our Junior Ensemble auditions to begin, with the first ones coming up on Sunday 11 June, and Beth has been busy prepping all the paperwork for the day. If you are interested in our auditions please visit www.imaginetheatre.co.uk/childrens-auditions

The wardrobe team have been working on some stunning makes for the season ahead as well as working hard to ensure everyone at the photoshoots is looking amazing.

Out in the stores Anna and Jayson are continuing to work through all of our sets to do any necessary maintenance.

May also saw Imagine Theatre turn 18 and we would like to thank everyone who contributed to our social media celebrations. We are delighted that our 18th year will see us produce more pantomimes than ever before as the company continues to go from strength to strength.

If you are interested in a further look behind the scenes check out the fortnightly Just Imagine Podcast which as well as interviews with the members of the Imagine HQ team includes guest interviews from the wide range of people we work with each year.

PURE Pre-IMAGINE-ATION

Steve and Mark at the press night of wycombe swan’s cinderella in 2022

“Long, long ago, in tweenie times of yore, imagine, if you will, a tell-tale time when a wish was made.” Young Stephen Boden dreams of becoming a professional pantomime producer.

 Every year he visits the pantomime at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry and strikes up a friendship with co-writer and dame extraordinaire, Iain Lauchlan. Iain and his co-writer and panto side-kick, Will Brenton, took over the Belgrade pantomime at Christmas 1989 and after a few years decided to buy the panto productions from the Belgrade and start their own company, Tell-Tale Theatre Productions, hiring sets, costumes and props initially, but with a view to producing panto productions of their own going forward.

Fun Song Factory was one of their television creations for the younger audience and, during Belgrade panto runs they created the television phenomenon, Tweenies. Being so busy with that ‘little’ project at Elstree Film Studios in Borehamwood, they need someone talented and enthusiastic to head up their new pantomime production company. Who better than Steve Boden?

They housed the sets they had accumulated in a local farmer’s large barn outside Banbury, each year requiring singular maintenance from the chirpy visits of local birds nesting in the eaves. From May 2000, they also rented a small industrial unit on the Beaumont Industrial Estate (no.10, ominously - prime) in Banbury, to house an office and store costumes. Basic beginnings.

Initially the business was set and costume hire, and when I joined Steve, part-time from November 2000 he was busy talking and taking every opportunity to network in the theatre world, looking for hire customers and production opportunities. Even at this relatively early stage he was hiring an entire production, including script, for a fifth year to the Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury. He had made a smaller, but duplicate Belgrade set for Jack and the Beanstalk.  There were now three animatronic giants and an early non-animatronic version, more sets from Bristol Old Vic and costumes and props were hired out that year to Boston, Cambridge, Truro, Croydon and Dunfermline.

By the summer of 2001 it was obvious that if the expansion was to continue apace, then bigger premises were required. With full military precision, Steve organised the big move from Banbury to a new home on Little Heath Industrial Estate in Coventry. For five days, Monday 20 to Friday 24 August 2001, two 45 foot Luckings (theatrical removals stalwarts) trucks journeyed between Banbury and Coventry clearing the unit and the barn into their new home. A team of seven was split to fill a truck in Banbury while Steve organised the unloading and logistics of the layout in Coventry. By Friday afternoon 95% of the barn was empty.

The Unit at Little heath which was the home of tell-tale / wish / imagine from 2001-2012

Paul Hulston, who had worked at the Belgrade building sets, had decided to set up his own scenery construction firm, PGH Scenic Workshop, and needed premises. He hired part of the new large unit, so was ‘on-hand’ to build full or part pantos as required and on site. A smart move for both businesses.

Will Brenton, a long-time friend of Susie McKenna, the Hackney pantomime writer and Director for twenty-one years from 1998, got Tell-Tale involved with Hackney Empire during their £20 million refurbishment. Steve steered two Christmas productions of Iain and Will’s television classic Fun Song Factory into the Hackney Empire studio The Bullion Room as the main theatre was full of builders.

We remained involved with Hackney after the re-opening with the provision of much of the physical production of their pantomimes with former Belgrade Theatre panto sets, until they were able to produce their own. Susie McKenna successfully wrote and directed them for 21 years.

Dick whittington at blackfriars arts centre in 2002 was steve’s debut as a panto producer and director

Steve’s powers of persuasion brought Susie onto the Tell-Tale stage in Hounslow. He was approached in August 2002 (only 2 weeks before his wedding to Sarah) by the Paul Robeson Theatre to provide a pantomime, late in the panto day, so he called in Susie, who re-wrote the Belgrade script for a smaller company, directed and played villain herself with West End friends experienced in panto. The relationship with Susie McKenna continued successfully with a showcase of Iain and Will’s compilation musical Funkenstein which played at Hackney in May 2004. I got to operate a follow-spot in a number one, Grade II listed theatre for a professional performance. We were few, but we were versatile under Mr Boden in those early days!

Whilst in Hounslow, I hosted a visit from Janice Blane (now Gilmour) who flew down from Kilmarnock in Ayrshire to Hounslow (not literally, as it has no airport…come on, panto time!) with a view to booking a Tell-Tale panto for the Palace Theatre, Kilmarnock, a relationship that began the next Christmas and is still going strong. The first of an ever-growing number of pantos in Scotland.

New Year 2001 saw Steve driving a small truck all the way from Coventry to Truro to retrieve our animatronic giant, Blunderbore, from Hall for Cornwall where Wayne Sleep was playing Dame. Sitting in the front row at the last performance very near the steps, ‘she’ chose me as her ‘boyfriend’ and bantered with me throughout the performance. I was spared the on-stage humiliation but was given a gift-wrapped tube of Rolos as a thank you, to keep us going on the journey back to Coventry.

Blunderbore also began a five-year relationship with panto stalwart Christopher Biggins. He was starring in Jack and the Beanstalk at Cambridge Arts Theatre, so we snuck a cheeky viewing to ensure that all was well, to be welcomed by name from the stage by Biggins in his Groups and Birthday Welcome List! This continued throughout his hirings and even now, long after the contracts ended, if we meet Christopher in the West End as everyone does tend to do, he always says hello. What a memory for faces and what a very special (panto) person.

The small town of Boston in Lincolnshire, surprisingly, became rather important to Tell-Tale. The 233 seat Blackfriars Arts Centre has an untouchable rear stage wall which is part of the building next door from where the Pilgrim Fathers set off for America in July 1620. Here Steve made his debut as a pantomime producer and director with Dick Whittington at Christmas 2002.

It was whilst driving cross-country from a panto matinee in Cambridge to Boston, in the dark and after torrential rain, that we foolishly took the shortcut. Big mistake.  No streetlights out in the country, we turned a corner, and drove straight into what looked like a lake! We couldn’t see where the road went, so we turned back to the main road and made it just in time to see the in-house Cinderella and to be offered the contract for the next Christmas!

At Christmas 2003, I took over as Director at Boston for Aladdin (and 2004 for Beauty and the Beast) as Steve secured and directed at Loughborough Town Hall and so began a very successful ten-year long tenure there.

Beauty and the beast at blackfriars Arts Centre in Boston, 2004

Each year in these early days, Steve and I travelled hundreds of miles each panto season to see our own sets on various stages, to view new sets for purchase or simply to experience the shows of other producers to compare with ours. On a successful trip to Derby Playhouse, we discovered a beautiful and practically sized Cinderella set with a flying coach and horse which Steve simply had to purchase. She has been a showpiece for him (and her subsequent sisters) ever since. Another favourite was the York Theatre Royal pantomimes, where Berwick Kaler was a local, nay national institution as Dame, Author and Director of an hilarious anarchic pantomime, the last night of which sold out in April!

When Tell-Tale Productions was sold to Entertainment Rights in 2005, theatre productions was part of that deal, so the contracted pantomimes that year had to be produced under a different name, and on 13th May 2005 WISH Theatre was born.

WISH Theatre was an acronym for the names of the 4 company directors – Will, Iain, Steve and Helen. When Steve and Sarah bought their business partners out to take full ownership of the company on 1st April 2009, the W, I and H we no longer part of the team, so they set about choosing a new name – and in a flash WISH was renamed as Imagine.

I moved on in 2006. I did, however, get to return as Director with Imagine in my hometown of Royal Leamington Spa in 2011 (Sleeping Beauty) and 2012 (Snow White).

Poster for Cinderella for The Palace Theatre Kilmarnock’s 2004 production.

Those early years were ‘small’ by comparison with today, but we beavered away, helping Steve develop and grow the company and were delighted when new venues came on board and ever evolving scripts were adapted to suit each venue and each town. It was almost like the ‘warm-up’ for Steve. He became Imagine and look where the next 18 years took him and his team.

When I created the programmes for those early pantomimes, the introductory page ended with the Tell-Take philosophy, which I quote here, as I think it still sums up Steve’s work today. Just bigger. Congratulations on your Imagine 18th, Steve and team Imagine. It was great to be a part of it along the way. Thank you.

“A Tell-Tale pantomime aims to be a traditional, good quality spectacle. Casts are made up of strong, capable actors who have good contact with their audience. Above all Tell-Tale creates a dedicated team including writers, directors, technicians and performers who have a good sense of fun. Now all they need is YOU the audience to join in and enjoy (as loudly as possible, please…..)”

 Mark Thorburn (Tell-Tale Theatre Productions / Wish Theatre 2000 to 2006)

What Does a Panto Company Do Throughout the Year - April

Continuing our blog of what a pantomime company does ‘for the rest of the year’ here is a brief overview of what the Imagine team have been up to during April.

This month saw the UK Pantomime Association Awards at which Imagine won for Best Production (over 900 seats) for Swansea’s Beauty and the Beast, with the production also picking up the award for Best Set Design. In addition Vernon Kay won the award for Best Newcomer to Pantomime for his portrayal of Dandini in Wycombe Swan’s Cinderella. Many of the Imagine team, along with some of those who worked with us on the 2022 season, were in attendance on the night to celebrate the panto genre at the fabulous ceremony held at the Trafalgar Theatre in London’s West End. It was great to catch up with so many friends and colleagues and the wider panto community and we would like to congratulate all the nominees and winners and thank the UKPA for a fabulous evening.

With Imagine’s 18th birthday coming up in May the marketing team are planning a week-long celebration on social media of the last 18 years. There will be blogs, podcasts and lots of fabulous photos from throughout the company’s history so make sure you keep an eye on our social channels during the second week of May and also please take a look at our post on how you can get involved.

The ops team have spent a few days away from HQ at the Royal and Derngate in Northampton hanging and photographing almost 80 of our new cloths from the last two years.

The Associate Producers for each of our shows are currently in the process of getting the first round of production meetings of the season booked in. These incorporate key members of the creative teams for each show and in house venue staff. With so many pantomimes this year diaries are filling up fast!

In the wardrobe department Esther has been busy working her magic creating and maintaining some beautiful wigs. The other members of the wardrobe team have been embellishing and revamping some of our ensemble costumes and the team were very excited by a large fabric delivery full of gorgeous brightly coloured fabrics which will be used to create costumes for the season ahead.

Sarah was invited to Staffordshire University to talk to the students on their MA in Contemporary Pantomime Practice course. She gave a business focused presentation from the producer point of view to guide them through key elements such as the importance of scheduling, setting ticket pricing, budgeting and cashflow amongst other things, and explaining to them why, for a producer, panto is a year-round job.

Martin Ballard, the host of our podcast, also dropped by to interview Beth who oversees the children’s licensing for a forthcoming episode of the Just Imagine podcast as well as interviewing Steve and Sarah for some other forthcoming episodes, including one to mark our 18th birthday celebrations.

If you are interested in a further look behind the scenes check out the fortnightly Just Imagine Podcast which as well as interviews with the members of the Imagine HQ team includes guest interviews from the wide range of people we work with each year.

What Does a Panto Company Do Throughout the Year - March

Continuing our blog of what a pantomime company does ‘for the rest of the year’ here is a brief overview of what the Imagine team have been up to during March.

This month has seen Head of Wardrobe Dawn return from maternity leave and so our fabulous wardrobe team are now back to full strength and are busy planning for the season ahead.

Artistic Director Eric and Head of Casting Louise have been getting some of the creative teams and returning cast members in place for this season’s shows. In addition Eric has been liaising with our writing team over the scripts for this year as well as creating first drafts of those he is writing.

The final week of March saw the first photoshoot of the 2023 season and many of the team were working hard in preparation. The wardrobe team carefully selected and prepped the costumes, shoes and wigs and Katie and Emma from the marketing team had a guided tour of the props floor from Ruth and had a lot of fun coming up with new ideas for social media and selecting the props. The wonderful Ruth and Anna also created some very special and glittery additional bits for the shoots this year. The shoot day itself was a lot of fun with some familiar faces joining us for a lot of merriment alongside the hard work of getting all the photo and video content that was needed.

With the financial year end Sarah and the accounts team have been very busy reconciling the accounts from the past financial year, checking and double checking everything has been correctly coded to each show.

Beth in the Child Performance Licensing department has been creating all the info sheets and application forms for the Junior Ensemble auditions. All the dates are now on our website, with the first ones happening in June, so please take a look at our Junior Ensemble page for further information – www.imaginetheatre.co.uk/childrens-auditions. The page has a run down as to how our audition days work and there is also a video and a podcast with further insight into the process.

If you are interested in a further look behind the scenes check out the fortnightly Just Imagine Podcast which as well as interviews with the members of the Imagine HQ team includes guest interviews from the wide range of people we work with each year.

What Does a Panto Company Do Throughout the Year - February

Continuing our blog of what a pantomime company does ‘for the rest of the year’ here is a brief overview of what the Imagine team have been up to during February.

Although many of the team take the opportunity to have a well-earned break in February, things have still been exceptionally busy at Imagine HQ.

Many of the companies that we hire sets, props and costumes to produce their pantomime during January and February and so the last few weeks have seen the majority of the set and costume hires for the 2022-23 season come to an end. The warehouse, wardrobe and props floor are once again full.

This year our warehouse is home to 5 new sets. The stores team have been logging all the new sets onto the system. They have to measure and photograph each piece of every single set.  Each individual piece of set has its own label with a barcode which is linked to a central system along with the photo and measurements. This allows the team to quickly pull up images and information for each piece of set we own. This system is also used to log the sets in and out of our warehouse each season.

The wardrobe team are cleaning all the costumes from the season and doing any necessary maintenance before they get put away. In addition Saeni and Adam have been venturing off around the country procuring some new costumes to add to the collection.

The debriefs with the venue management and the marketing teams are now almost at an end and budgets are getting closer to being finalised.

The casting process has begun with a few familiar faces beginning to be confirmed for this season with announcements and brochure launches imminent for a few of our venues.

In addition, Sarah, Steve and Laura attended the first ever pantomime symposium in London run by the UK Pantomime Association and the team behind the MA in contemporary pantomime at Staffordshire University, along with many of the country’s other top pantomime producers, and other representatives of the UK pantomime industry. It was a fabulous day of thought provoking panels, honest and open discussion about the future of pantomime and a chance to meet up with friends and colleagues from the industry.

The team are delighted that the Just Imagine podcast has now received 6,000 downloads and the schedule for the podcast for the rest of 2023 is already in place.

And finally, the Imagine Team did not forget to embrace the tradition of Shrove Tuesday with Amy making delicious pancakes for the whole team on Tuesday 21 February.

If you are interested in a further look behind the scenes check out the fortnightly Just Imagine Podcast which as well as interviews with the members of the Imagine HQ team includes guest interviews from the wide range of people we work with each year.