Tunnel + light =

Yes, it's that time in a production when you do actually start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We're coming to the final week of rehearsals for the first UK amateur production of Sunshine on Leith...and it's been a heck of a trip. For some people it's been easier - those who have a basing in drama. For others it's been an eye-opener: the amount of work that has been put into preparation for this production has been amazing. We've drawn on resources that we never knew we had, hit notes that we never thought we could and learnt impossible dance moves too. Well, that last one's not 100% true but if you've got two left feet...

A lot of the learning, the pushing, the teaching has been down to one very special individual: our Director, Victoria Rice. When she started the Ad-Lib Musical Theatre group little did we know that we'd end up doing this. We started off with Little Shop of Horrors, then bounced over to Les Misérables before settling on Sunshine on Leith. A strange progression you might think, but sitting back and analysing it over the past couple of weeks a pattern does emerge.

For example, there's a canon/round in Les Misérables and one in Sunshine on Leith. There's military personnel in Les Misérables and also in Sunshine on Leith. There's a giant man-eating plant in Little Shop of Horrors and...err, help?!

The point is, there was method in how Victoria started us off and the way she continues to lead us onwards. And for that all of us in Ad-Lib Theatre Arts are eternally grateful.

But where would a production of Sunshine on Leith be without music? And where would music be without a band? And what a band they are: a drummer, two guitars, a bass, two keyboards and an accordion. And they are AMAZING. They've had to put up with the cast getting things wrong, repeating sections over and over until the vocals are nailed. They may well have thought naught of the cast at some points(!). But through perseverance the end is in sight.

By the way, did anyone notice the freight train in the tunnel coming towards us? Oh no - it's Opening Night.