We're well-known now...

It seems that word about our forthcoming performance of Sunshine on Leith gets around. Check out Amateur Stage Magazine - they've got us on their website at http://www.asmagazine.co.uk/magazine/page/3. You'll need to scroll down to see it.

We're rich(er)...

Y'know, putting on a show like Sunshine on Leith is not cheap. There's the licence, hire of the venue, costumes, lighting, sound, beer(!) and other assorted items. Some of that can be covered by ticket sales and sponsorship, but the rest of it has to come via fundraising.

To that end, towards the end of November Ad-Lib Theatre Arts ran held a pub quiz at the Abbotsford in Perth. There was singing, dancing, drinking and quizzing. There were prizes too:

First place prize was 4 tickets to Sunshine on Leith
Second place prize was 4 bottles of wine
Last place prize was 4 giant tubes of Smarties!

There was also a raffle.

As a result of all the activity on the night the amazing sum of £723 was raised. Wow!!

Of course, it wouldn't have worked without a lot of help. So thanks go to the following:

• Chic and the staff at The Abbotsford
• Scott Reeves, Kelly, Alice & Tom, Kyle, Rachel, Sharon and Gill for entertaining us with music and song (not forgetting Pat and her tambourine)
• Vicky Glennie for organising the event
• Gill, Alice, Sharon and Steven for helping out on the night

Finally a HUGE thank you to everyone who donated raffle prizes and who took part in the quiz. Everyone had a fantastic evening.

Remember those childhood days?

You played outside, you played inside. Outside it was football, hide-and-seek, tag, etc. Inside your games were more limited, normally board games. But once in a while you'd play a physical game...and no, we're not going down the route of The Crystal Maze here. When you were young you might've enjoyed a good game of Sardines. Oh, how those days have come back and mugged the cast of Sunshine on Leith without warning.

On St Andrew's Day 2013 the cast got an invite to perform at one of the local hostelries, Greyfriars. Now, anyone in Perth will know of Greyfriars. Anyone who's walked past will also know how big the place is...or small, as the case might be. It's usually fairly packed on a Saturday, but on St Andrew's Day it was jammed-packed like a tin of sardines for a ticket-only event. And that event was the cast of Sunshine on Leith...plus band!! So that's six singers plus bass, 2 guitars, keyboard and perchance a drum, all squeezed into a tiny corner.

Needless to say the performance went down a storm. There was even dancing on the tables!! Although bass guitar having to be played almost vertical certainly was a sight - sorry Thom.

There will be more ad-hoc sessions in the lead-up to to our performances, so keep your eyes open.

You dancin'?

"Are ye dancin'?"
"Ye askin'?"
"Ah'm askin'..."

...you to come on a date. And that date is 29th January 2014. The time is 7:30pm and the place is the Goodlyburn Theatre at Perth College UHI.

Ad-Lib Theatre Arts will perform Sunshine on Leith: The Musical over four evenings, starting on 29th January 2014 through to 1st February 2014.

We hope that as many of you as possible will be able to make the journey to the Fair City of Perth to see these special performances, the first such by an amateur cast in the UK.

Tickets are £8 for 16 years old and under, and £10 for over 16s.

The Old Landmark

Cross-over time. Let's see if you can guess the connection between the title of this post (it's from a movie soundtrack) and the photos.

That is all.

How many parts?!

It was Sunday. Rehearsals were taking place. The song du jour was What do you do? "OK", you think, "I can do that." Errrr - OK, try six-part harmony, each part with different lyrics, with a few Ooohs and Aaahs thrown in for good measure. It's a good job that other people were doing this song and not the author of this epistle.

It sounded impossible to nail it, but nail it the team did. And it was almost the same as the soundtrack a la Dundee Rep.

There's no facility to upload audio on Blogger, so you'll have to make do with some photos instead. Enjoy...

Elaine

Lynne

Myke, Lynne, Vicky & Elaine

Myke

Vicky

Alice &Gill Donaldson 

Vicki doesn't get it

Ceri

Vicki

Ceri, Mary Macdonald, Gail & Elaine

Director (Vicki) counting 'em in

Vicki gives up(!)

Gabi enjoying a joke

Alice keeping time

Photos

Hi all. Your erstwhile blogger is on holiday at the moment so has no idea how things are going. Mind you, with Victoria in charge things should be going from strength to strength.

In the meantime, to keep you going, here are some photos so far.

Director's Assistant Amanda

Director's Assistant wondering if it'll ever end

Director (Victoria) & Jean (Alice)

Jean (Alice) & Rab (Glen)

Yvonne (Rachel)

Ally (Gordon) & Davey (Alan)

Liz (Lynne) & Yvonne (Rachel)

Director (Victoria)

Davey (Alan) & Yvonne (Rachel)

Liz (Lynne) & Ally (Gordon)

Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

Shakespeare you say? Fortunately no - that might be a bit too high-brow for us.

Nope - our director was off this Thursday with the lurgy. So Claire, our pretty d*mn good piano player, took over assisted by the ever-present Daniel on guitar. Went through all the ensemble pieces so far, right up to Let's get Married. We were going to move it this week but our director also being our choreographer...so we all sang our hearts out and did the twiddly bits in Let's get Married.

Going to the Chapel?

OK, we're late with this entry to the blog. But then, aren't many brides fashionably late to their own wedding?

And if you're a fan of The Proclaimers you may well have guessed the song we did this last Thursday. Aye, 'twas Let's get Married. In terms of harmonies it's relatively easy for the majority of the tune. About 50% in unison, with a 2-to-3 way split at some points. But relatively easy...

Except for Myke. When Myke heard the part that our esteemed director wanted him to sing...well, we can't remember his exact words but they went something like "You have got to be kidding!!" Heh - can't wait until next week when we put it all together.

And Vicki, our director, also tellt us that the band's coming together and sounding great. That means we'll have to raise our game further still.

We also got shown the result of the previous Sunday's scene rehearsal - Throw the R Away. Och aye, pretty braw rendition.

More news when it arrives. Might even be able to let you know about dates for actual performances soon :-)

We got media coverage...

Thanks to the Dundee Courier and Advertiser for featuring us in their paper and on their website on 22nd October 2013. Here's the link:

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/perth-kinross/perth-theatre-company-claim-a-sunshine-on-leith-first-1.144348

See ShyAnn shimmy...

Drinking songs...usually they're along the lines of "skol, skol, skol, skol" repeated ad-infinitum until the singers falls over. Other accepted styles include the singer declaring their love for another or extolling the virtues of the local scenery. Of course, this being Sunshine on Leith all those are collapsed into about 3 minutes. We got jumpers, teachers, early sexual anecdotes, dinner and death.

"But," you say, "what about skol, skol, skol, skol?" The reply is, "You try and go 'bah-bah oo' for eight bars, repeatedly." Not too bad you might think, but when you have a double 'bah-bah' in the middle you lose sync and tend to make it up. As long as they don't turn the mikes up then we'll be OK.

And ShyAnn's shimmy? Heh-heh - just wait until you see our barmaid.

Oh - forgot to say: one of the people in the scene falls over too.

A Hobbit told us to have fun...

True fact: there was a Hobbit in the Dundee Rep musical production of Sunshine on Leith back in 2010. Yea, Peregrin Took aka Pippin aka Billy Boyd. He played Davy in Sunshine on Leith. And you know what - he sent us a signed photo this week. Well chuffed. Thanks Billy - we hope we'll do you proud :-)

It could get a bit rough...

Sunday...Sunday was fun, fantastic and a big boost to all the guys taking part.

As I said in the previous post Sunday is the day that we do all the scenes, the non-company rehearsals. In all honesty I was coming to this day with some trepidation. Looking back on it I have to ask myself "Why," 'cos it wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be. Great support from all the other guys. We actually managed to nail the entire scene in less than two hours. How? Well, 'cos it was just us guys getting on with the job-in-hand. It's like shopping - guys know what they want, go in, get it and leave. No distractions. Now, what's the military parlance - run for cover?! :-D

Not without a few alterations. Our esteemed director said she wanted it a bit rougher, the singing at the start that is, more broad Scottish. So we all grabbed our sticks (broom handles, aka guns) and made with the roughness. Hey, whaddya know - it worked. And even the harmonies came easily this time.

Then it was time for the shouting...well, someone's gotta play Sarge and give the commands. Yours truly's in that role. Shouting - yeah, I'm good at that. But MIL-spec / drill sergeant shouting? Hmm - needs work methinks. But there's only 5-6 phrases I have to deliver so it's not too onerous in the brain department. Guess I'll have to research my role - "It ain't Half Hot Mum" and "Full Metal Jacket" come to mind. Any other suggestions?

Oh - one more thing: rucked boxers!! You know who you are!

Sky takes the Soul

We're on our way...

Well, good news - we got the scripts for the original Sunshine on Leith - The Musical this last week. We're only borrowing them from Josef Weinberger, so we'd better take good care of them.

It was interesting to go through the first big company number (I'm on my Way) with the script on Thursday of this week. Not only does it have the spoken parts but it has the lyrics and the score. And that's where the fun starts. You see, when you're a fan of an artist like The Proclaimers you get to know the songs very well, to know how to sing them in a certain style with a certain melody. Well, doing Sunshine on Leith - The Musical means that you have to unlearn part of that and instead pick up the harmonies. However, with the help of our director (Victoria Rice) and our trio of musicians we soon got things sounding good.

As for the acting and solo/small group numbers, rehearsals take place on a Sunday. This is where you have to be good - there's no place to hide behind the rest of the company. But it also gives you a chance to shine, to hone your art/part, to make that moment in time your own and to say "You know what - I could do this again."

More to come...

Sunshine on Leith.

Adult Musical Theatre group - Sunshine on Leith.

Ad-Lib Adult Musical Theatre Group is proud to present the UK Amateur Premier of Sunshine on Leith. The performances will be in collaboration with Perth College and will be running in late January 2014.

The Award Winning Musical written by Stephen Greenhorn, featuring the hit songs from The Proclaimers including; Sunshine on Leith, I'm Gonna Be(500 miles), Jean and many more.

Follow the highs and lows of Ally and Davy as they return home from the army. Families, relationships and work are not all plain sailing in this funny and moving story about love and life.

"A story worth walking 500 miles for, if not 500 more." The Guardian

"A brilliant piece of family entertainment." Evening Express

"It doesn't get more vibrant than this." The Stage