Crème De La Crème

Thursday was tremendous – the crew from Saltmine Theatre Co had arrived on Wednesday night, and set up, and then Thursday we had two performances- morning for schools, evening for The Public. It was a Sell-Out! Here are some of my pictures.

The cast poster – and the Pastor in his new tee-shirt [courtesy Wychwood Brewery]

Nat at the sound desk

Testing the fog machine…

Coachloads of schoolchildren arrived in the morning

They loved the performance

Afterwards, the crew worked really hard sweeping up the confetti from the ‘cannon’

When they arrived, I asked if they needed any costume repairs. Ben’s shirt and the Tiny Tim puppet needed a few stitches. Those didn’t take long. Hannah had been having trouble with one of her costumes- the dress was really too small, and had started the run with press studs [which kept undoing] a zip had been put in [that broke] and some temporary adhesive Velcro hadn’t proved any better. It kept coming unfastened during the dancing in the party scene. I tried a quick repair on Wednesday evening, but it wasn’t really satisfactory.

On Thursday afternoon, I brought it home and put a panel down the back for her - she felt much more comfortable and secure after that!

What intrigued me was the label inside the neck of the dress

There has not been a West Riding County Council since 1974 [what’s West Riding? asked Hannah] This dress is forty years or more old! You can see from all the different fabrics and trims that it has clearly been made, remade, altered and added to over the years.

Bob and Nat kept up a running conversation about sound equipment and the merits of different speakers, mics, and mixers the whole time the team were with us [nerds!]

Thank you Matt, Nat, Ben, Simon and Hannah. You worked so hard and the panto was fabulous.

This is Simon, having a cuppa after setting up the bookstall. When I discovered his surname was Rodda and he came from Cornwall, I just had to ask him “Are you connected with the clotted cream?”

And he is!! I think Rodda’s make the best clotted cream, and it was ridiculously exciting to meet one of the family. [check out the cream stuff here]

You can find out more about Saltmine here or follow them on Twitter [@saltminetrust] or Facebook. They currently work from a building in Dudley – but need to raise the funds to buy it. I hope that all their audiences give as generously as our crowd did – so that the work of this brilliant group can continue. To see such a professional crew, dedicated to presenting the Gospel in a bright, and entertaining way was wonderful. These five young people all working incredibly hard were such fun to be with. I would recommend Saltmine Productions to anyone. [OK I am starting to gush now] Do check out their tour dates and try to see a performance. Better still, book them to come to your church/school/whatever.

Thanks too to Carol and Lynda for organising and all the other KMFC folk who helped [and Nev our Village Bobby for Car Park management]