The History Of Lilleshall Pantomine
Cinderella - 1989
Excitedly we began rehearsing our second pantomime, feeling we had learned so much about how to stage a Show, after the success of our first pantomime, Puss in Boots. We knew we had to maintain our standards and push the boundaries a little further to see what we could achieve.
This year we wanted to create a real 'fairytale' Show, something for people to remember for ages. Colin Reynolds, who thought he'd moved to Lilleshall to retire, found himself in the thick of it. He was asked to design and make a spectacular working coach for Cinderella. Using old bicycle wheels and strange odd bits of metal and wooden frames, he created a truly magical coach. It was painted silver with pink satin upholstery, arched over with fairy lights and real working coach lamps. It was pulled all up the main aisle of the auditorium by six children dressed beautifully as white ponies. A young coachman sat proudly at the front and two coachman stood on the back. I don't think anyone will forget as the audience spontaneously broke into applause when the twinkling lights of the coach first entered the darkened hall, on the way to take Cinderella to the Ball.
Much loved by cast and audience this year was the cheeky character of Buttons, played with such ease and developing a lovely rapport with the audience. Sadly, the Group lost the talents of Buttons, played by Ian Rawlings, as he left to seek pastures new. He was last seen in the King and I at the Music Hall in Shrewsbury and we are sure he will often be seen again treading the boards!
As the stage in the hall was very small, we tried to extend it a little by borrowing the stage blocks from the local primary school. This added a small but essential extra area in front of the existing stage. As there were no side entrances and exits, large cardboard pieces were mounted onto free-standing wooden frames and these provided cover each side of the blocks for the cast to enter and exit behind. These pieces were painted as large forest trees by Mary Croxton who was adept at creating unusual props as well.
It was decided that the group could look into the possibility of creating a more solid but moveable stage extension and side areas for future productions. Regular fundraising events were planned as we realised we needed a more substantial working capital in order to produce a quality Show. A constitution was drawn up for the group to create a more organised framework of support to ensure this new venture was able to continue. With this in place our second Show began to take shape.
One much talked about moment of this Show was the transformation of Cinderella from her rags to being dressed in a wonderful Ball gown, as the fairy Godmother waved her wand over her. People were wondering for weeks exactly how we did it. One minute Cinders was standing before the fairy Godmother and a flash bang later, there she was in the most amazing dress with wide hooped skirt, ready to go to the ball. Of course, we had learned that blinding the audience for a second or two with a flash and a bang is a good theatrical trick when you want to do something spectacular... but more than that, Shhhh....it will always be a Lilleshall Panto' secret!...well you can't give all your secrets away, can you?