Joseph It is a
pity that this appraisal of the performance of Joseph and
his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat could not have appeared
in the October issue of Community but the magazine
had gone to press. A pity – because it would still
have been fresh in the minds of those who performed in it
and those who came to see us. In her brief write-up in
our Newsletter, Chris Rose described it as ‘memorable’
and it certainly was that for all of us. It all
began when Jamie had this dream to put the musical on
– however daunting – with Janet Dredge at the
helm. Sally Richards (bless ‘er) agreed to be our
musical director – thankfully for us – and
Janet drew together a cast from St, Philip’s, All
Saints, the Methodist and Baptist churches. There should
have been – as you know – 12 brothers –
but men and boys were in short supply and most of the
‘brothers’ were women! There had to be a fair
bit of imagination on the part of the audience too, as
Zebulum was played by a 73 year old woman and Benjamin a
12 year old boy. Even taking into account the large
family it must have stretched the imagination. Rehearsals
began in May and it soon became clear that more
rehearsals than were originally planned were going to be
needed. Our lack of ability to read music except for a
few of us was patently obvious and for several weeks I’m
afraid Sally’s nerves were a little stretched. I for
one didn’t think we would ever be competent enough
to perform in public. Then it began to take shape and
rehearsals looked forward to. Even our dancing teams
would stay and watch and listen after their pat of
rehearsals were over, as we progressed. The band too were
great as they gelled with the singing and all appeared to
be going well. Sally raised her eyebrows in approval on
several occasions so we knew we were getting there. Things
developed apace – costumes and props were gathered
from all quarters – camels and sheep of all shapes
and sizes appeared on the backbench of St. Philip’s
also brass pots, basket ware and exotic materials. Pat
Fernett Randall produced some nice Egyptian art and
hieroglyphics which were placed round the church for the
performance and a colleague of Janet’s drew us some
clever ‘kine’ both fat and thin for which many
thanks. Lack of
space restricted us so instead of 12 brothers on ‘stage’
there was only room for 4 of us and the rest were ‘chorus’,
a backing much appreciated – by me in particular as
I couldn’t remember the colours in the right
sequence! The
performance was – most unexpectedly – packed to
the scuppers an hour before it was due to start. We had
been rehearsing all afternoon and a small band of ladies
made tea, laid out our eats as we had a little break
– many thanks to the said ladies. We were staggered
at the state of affairs when we got back into the hall.
Many who came along later just couldn’t get in.
There was a scramble to put extra chairs in the aisles
and children sitting on the floor in front. People were
peering in from the hall at the back and around the door
to the porch. As soon
as it started I had expected the children to fidget but
not a move from any of them. First act was over so
quickly that I wondered where everybody was going and
then realised it was the Interval. A quick drink of
squash and back to the fray with ‘Canaan Days’
a great hit with the audience especially when Paul rode
up the aisle on a bike with beret on and a string of
onions round his neck. They were also delighted with the
teams of line dancers and the dancing school with their
performances in the aisles All was
over too quickly – we had done our best and had a
couple of encores to boot. We would
like to do it again of we can all manage to get together
at the same time. Thanks to
all concerned – the band who kept us together, to
Sally for her patience and tutoring, to Janet for her
democratic handling of the cast, to our artists, to the
chorus and ‘brothers’ to the ‘adoring
girls’ and to our two Josephs – one of who had
a dream that came true. Surely a true ‘Community’
effort. I hope
this does not read like trumpet blowing but these are
personal views of one who performed. We were all thrilled
at the audience’s reception and let those who wish
have a say on what it was like to view. It was
good that the Mayor of Maidstone was able to attend. He
felt that we appeared to have spent more on our backcloth
than the Joan Bull |