DGSC on Tour

Sun 29th - Farewell Friends...

2007-07-30T02:12:00.000+01:00

Friends both new and old waved farewell this morning. Some people were leaving for home and others moving on to further investigate Canada and North America leaving behind new friends on the Ubethcha team (and Stacey and Christie from The Foundry - eh boys!) - see you guys again we hope!

Sadly this will be my last post on the blog as we are off to Victoria to rest & recover from this fantastic week.

I will keep posting photos for anyone who is interested.

See you all soon.

Simon & Jo

Sat 28th - A Triumph in Harbour City

2007-07-30T01:03:00.000+01:00

Wisely Andrew called a walk-through rehearsal of Pirates this morning at 11am and it was well worth it. The matinee show went at full pelt and wowed the audience into a standing ovation. We think this was mostly due to Mike (Moose) Oldbury's arse on floor moment in "When the foeman". Well done Mikey!

We split up again for a bite to eat before the evening show. Pete and Stu of course kept the takings up at The Foundry whilst other folks scattered here there and everywhere.

The evening show was unbelievable. Sharp, crisp, sparkling and as good as I think we have ever performed Pirates. I understand that the audience where awestruck and reports from FoH where of top quality.

At this juncture I'd like to thank Andrew. He has thanked everyone else's hard work but we haven't thanked him and he works harder than everyone to ensure the performance is as good as we can make it - Thank You Andrew.

After the fantastic show came the moment we all were dreading - loading the container. However, under Keith's expert direction the load took just over an hour and somehow despite less than a square foot of space in the outward journey, it seemed we could have fit another set in the container when the doors finally closed - awesome job!

Despite the late hour some folks were able to take Arlene's invitation to nibbles and drinks at her house and a good time was had by all. Thank you Arlene, Jo, Joan and Greg, Mike & John for all of their help, support and hospitality over the past week and the run up to this fantastic event.

Bed was welcomed at 1.30am!

Friday 27th - Rumble strips are "Good to Go"...

2007-07-28T17:24:00.000+01:00

Today was a free day for most people and activities ranged from lazing by the pool to exploring the islands to trips in float planes. Everyone enjoyed themselves, even Pete who (scared half to death) took a float plane flight into the mountains.

Despite only having sight in one eye Pete said that the views were fantastic apart from when we flew over one peak to reveal a 3,000 foot chasm! At that point he shut his good eye!

Jo from Ubetcha took Pete to the medical centre to get the eye seen to and it seems that he has a torn eyeball laminate. The optromitrist made him up a healing contact lens which he has to keep on for 5 days and this morning (Saturday) Pete said his vision was slowly clearing! Great news! "Good to go"!

It seems that Dave Culm, who ribbed Mike 'The Fish' Martin for his rumble strip mayhem earlier in the holiday, also has a penchant for the bumpy stuff and gave Pandy and Barbara a restless journey back from their trip today. Culmy - will you ever learn?

Tonight's Iolanthe was a much better show than first night and the audience and cast really enjoyed themselves. Perhaps the final performance of the 'Mushroom' Iolanthe? Only time will tell...

The Grafters, Canada Division, stripped Iolanthe in double quick time (30 mins) and almost completed the fit up of Pirates. If only Pete and Rumble Strip Dave could have had a better aim with getting their pins in the holes we might have finished it! 11pm we were ordered out of the theatre for a well earned beer (or four).

Here's to Pirates tomorrow! Cheers!!!

Thurs 26th - He never saw it coming...

2007-07-27T09:14:00.000+01:00

Ouch! It's a bit bloodshot - better cover that with a patch Pete!

Last night's heroism showed it's toll on our gallant Pirate Pete who slipped into a cross party roll with an eye patch for today's performances of Iolanthe! (sorry for the puns).

A solid day was mostly enjoyed by all of the cast; a useful technical (followed by a rebuild of the mushroom due to tech difficulties, a great dress rehearsal and a pretty hot show. The audience seemed to enjoy themselves, and we definitely did.

After the show the company split up, some to bed, some out for food, some to the HoJo for a party and some to the Foundry for more Kareoke. Being a witness of only one of these events I have to say that 'Great Balls of Fire' by Dave Culm and 'American Pie' by Bozzy were both on the 'Not to be missed' feature in this month's issue of VisitNanaimo.com.

If you missed it then...Sorry!

Weds 25th - "I'm sure we marked it!"

2007-07-26T07:32:00.001+01:00

Today was always going to be a tough one and so it proved...

Men's movement drill at 10.30am (for those that turned up on time!)
Technical/Blocking rehearsal on stage from 11.30am - 1.15pm
Dress Rehearsal for Pirates between 2.30pm - 5pm
Strike Pirates, build Iolanthe from 5pm onwards
Pirates band call at 7pm

We finished a long day at about 9.30pm with the immortal words (from Mr Jackson) "I'm sure we marked it/them" ringing in our ears. Of course we hadn't marked the floor tiles or the drapes so we played the usual guessing games but we'll be sure to mark them before the strike (hopefully).

I'll take this opportunity to thank the technical team particularly Alan Jackson, David Marsden and of course Keith Drage who flew in by sea plane at 9.30am today and was on stage by 10am!

Whilst saying this I would also like to recognise the immense effort by the props and costume staff particularly of course Pat and Sue. Is it me or is Sue impossible to fluster even when we forget our ties, shoes, belts, etc., etc., etc!

I actually didn't think there would be much to write in today's blog until around 10.30 this evening when a fight broke out outside the local hostelry (The Foundry of course) and ex-PC Bostock decided to break it up. A lot of screaming and shouting later and Pete broke it up but not before taking a left hook in the eye!!!

Not a bad shot for a 4 and a half foot, seven stone laydeee!

Not sure what his eye is going to look like in the morning, we'll have to wait and see...

Tomorrow Pete will be mostly found...in make up!

Tuesday 24th - Arrrrrrr!

2007-07-25T09:24:00.000+01:00

This morning the Grafter's Club (minus Simon and The Fish who chose the roll of 'splitters' for the morning) got dressed to impress and hit town with cutlass and garb to thrill and startle the locals. (See Flickr photos)

The Newcastle Island Ferry was keelhauled and shouts of "Shiver me timbers", "Arrr me hearties" and "Avast behind!" could be heard ringing out (mainly from Bozzy) across the Harbour Front! They even raided the local tavern before the sun past the yardarm (I can't imagine your surprise). Sadly no virgins were found by the pirates but they looked high and low, so they did!

Straight from here to a piratical band call and set fit up. Both of which went swimmingly!

Tonight saw the taking place of the much awaited 'Meet the Cast' event. It was well received with some spectacular performances from our principals and our chorus. And just as we were about to leave - Joan Self appeared -yippeee!!!

Some of the motley crew chose to take in the sights and sounds of their favourite hostelry - you guessed it - back to The Foundry for the third time today.

And as if by some sort of divine intervention, it was Kareoke night! Much hilarity was had by all and even the local 'professional Kareokeists' couldn't douse our enthusiasm with their constant Country & Western Kareoke choices. We out-sung them on the good stuff and the very weary eyed, recent arrivee, Andy McPhee belted out the classic "American Pie" to the delight of the audience. Our enthusiasm caught the attention of several of the locals and leaflets were distributed accordingly (just in case Andy and Arlene are watching).

An early night for yours truly - we left the Pirates to it!

Monday 23rd - Split up everyone!

2007-07-24T03:33:00.000+01:00

We all went our different ways today as the weather wasn't so good in Nanaimo, although it's much better than back home we hear.

Some folks went to Newcastle Island, some to Victoria and others to Tofino on the west coast. Others explored Nanaimo and mooched around the parks and the pool (which was closed until 5pm).

In Nanaimo the weather was overcast and humid all day with the sun showing it's face for about 2 minutes around 5pm when they opened the hotel pool and we all jumped in for a mass splash event!

A warm evening was enjoyed by all with people taking in the local eateries and of course more use of The Foundry!

(New pics added to Flickr)

Sunday 22nd - ...and relax!

2007-07-23T07:50:00.000+01:00

First things first - Joan is going to be able to make it and is booked on a flight out of Gatwick on Tuesday. Yay!

Back to today which had a great start - one (or more) of the staff's relatives had sadly passed away and therefore breakfasts were running a little late (according to reports from our correspondent on-site). So we split up.

For some of us a hearty bagel was all we needed to kick start us before heading down for the start of the annual Bathtub Race (crikey that gun is LOUD).

It was great fun while it lasted (5 minutes) then twenty minutes later we moved on!

This afternoon was the second coming of the Welcome Party from UBetcha productions.

A special guest made an appearance - Chairman Andy beamed in from Derby to an appreciative Nanaimo crowd, much to the hilarity of the home staff.

More later....

DGSC arrive in Nanaimo - eventually

2007-07-22T16:49:00.000+01:00

Phew! That was a trip and a half - literally!

"Yesterday we will be mostly queuing, sitting, standing and boarding and unboarding various forms of transport."

It was an eventful day - Joan Self sadly missed the flight due to being stuck in floods and we had two fainters before we even got checked onto the plane!

When we did get checked in we were told there was at least a 1 hour delay which ended up being 4 hours by the time we finally reached Canadian soil after a turbulent flight.

We missed our ferry connection which put us back another hour and we finally arrived at the Howard Johnson at 10.30pm welcomed by the "Sheffield Crew + Dave and Brian" who were somewhat high on the past 7 days of fun (and some of Mike T's special reserve Malt).

Everyone retired to their rooms to catch up on some sorely missed Zs apart from the die hard Malt Shovel posse (plus Mike M) who headed off to The Foundry for a bedtime drink (or five).

We finally got to bed 28.5 hours since begining the journey the previous day.

Phew!

Photos and more later!