WORK EXPERIENCE: Our reporter takes to pantomime stage

FOR many people, the Christmas period meant loading up on booze, good food and letting any chance of exercise bid farewell until after the New Year.

But, for the cast of this year’s pantomime at Newport’s Riverfront theatre, the festive period carried no such fortune.

With often two performances a day, the company of Dick Whittington had to ensure they ate healthily, avoided alcohol and exercised regularly to maintain their unfailingly high energy levels.

Donning the outfit of Dick Whittington’s trusty sidekick Tommy the Cat, I spent a few hours with the pantomime cast at the Riverfront ahead of the first of their two performances that day.

The company was just over halfway through its 33-day run of the pantomime, which has been put on by Hiss and Boo productions, but their enthusiasm and energy levels could not afford to take a dip.

“The children who come and watch the panto absolutely love it. When they see us, to them we actually are the character,” said 29-year-old Emma Goodwin, who plays Tommy the Cat.

Each day, at around an hour before the show started, the cast casually assembled backstage in the theatre dressing rooms before taking to the stage for a half-hour, two-part warm-up exercise.

They began with a series of physical warm-up exercises, a mixture of light cardio and stretches.

We started by jogging on the spot,and doing simple aerobic exercises like the grapevine and star jumps. Both the children – who played small parts in the chorus or as one of the rats in the final scene – and the adults took part.

Although the exercises were only light, my Tommy the Cat lycra and faux-fur costume – already tight from fortnight of mince pies – meant I ended up dripping with sweat before having a coughing fit and taking a five-minute breather off stage.

I returned in time for the stretches, which I was told were important to make sure all of the cast’s muscles were loosened up to avoid any later injury during the leaping about on stage.

Also important, Emma told me, were the vocal exercises which were next up. We stood on the stage in front of empty seats with just the stage manager below, and repeated a range of tongue-twisters and enunciated sounds set to music.

‘Blackpool Pleasure Beach’ and ‘the lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue’ were just two of the phrases we have to sing, along with other difficult tongue twisters designed to practise our enunciation.

We then made buzzing sounds with our lips, before singing vowel sounds to a tune ranging from high to low. It seemed true that singing – or at least trying to– makes you happy; after warming up the cast seemed more awake and raring to go.

Next, the cast had around half an hour to get into costume and put on their make-up, although I’d already been transformed into character earlier in the day.

Actress Emma, who runs her own performing arts school, Defying Gravity Academy, in Caerleon – said she did all her own make up for Tommy the Cat.

At the beginning, she said she spent hours perfecting the face, which used a base of white followed by grey shadowing and then black markings.

After almost a month, Emma had the make-up down to a T and said she got completely ready –including costume – with just 15 minutes to go before the show started.

The cast ordered a lot of their costumes from a professional theatrical costume shop, but Emma said often the actors contributed their own finds and clothing. For Tommy the Cat’s final scene, where he dressed up in a bright jacket, Emma found a sequin jacket in her attic which she thought would work perfectly.

Like most of the pantomime costumes, Tommy the Cat’s lycra jumpsuit and furry vest top needed washing every night because of the amount of sweat the actors produced during the energetic shows. The costume also came with knee pads, vital for the part, which involved crawling around.

Preparation for the pantomime started in October, when the cast members received the script and had to start learning their lines.

Emma said she practised her lines with her long-distance boyfriend, also an actor, on the phone in the run up to rehearsals.

In mid-November, the cast got together and started preparing for the panto, with “intense” working days running from 9am to 8pm.

The stage was first marked up with tape to help the cast get used to where they should be and to avoid accidents during scene changes.

Stage manager Jude Cound, who previously worked in the West End where she said there was “more politics,” said this year the pantomime had “been brilliant, great fun”.

Ms Cound, who is hired by the production company, was in charge of making sure the scene changes happened on time and safely, as well as resolving any problems the company had.

She said: “Often, towards the end of the run, some of the cast start to relax a bit and that’s when accidents can happen.

“They think they have got more time in scene changes because they are more practised, but my job is to make sure it is safe backstage. I make sure if there is a big piece of machinery being moved, the cast know to be elsewhere.”

Unlike other theatre productions, for example in the West End where actors sign year-long contracts, pantomime work is of course seasonal, offering work for just a few months.

After the Christmas period, the cast, who are from all over the UK, take up other acting jobs or, like Emma, teach at local drama schools.

It is clear the cast enjoyed pantomime season, but even more than that enjoyed the audience’s reaction, and it was easy to see why. As I left the Riverfront Theatre, a bus pulled up full of schoolchildren from a local primary school who had come to see the afternoon show. They stopped and pointed, open mouthed, as they spotted me with my full face of cat make up. With such an enthralled audience and love of panto, it is no wonder the cast were so enthusiastic for every performance.