IT’S NEARLY PANTO TIME!
Panto season is literally just around the corner! Oh yes it is! And following last month’s panto photoshoot, the team at Imagine Theatre were now tasked with completing the kids auditions for the 2023/24 season.
| Here are the stats from the 2023 kids auditions! |
| 19 pantomime productions |
| 51 teams of children (some shows have 2 teams, some have 3) |
| 68 different education authorities to obtain performance licenses from |
| 119 hours of auditions |
| 154 children on stage at any one time across our shows |
| 180 children was the biggest turn out at one single audition day |
| 437 successfully made it into one of the main teams (with 152 reserves) |
| 1,785 children attended auditions |
| 18,750 miles were travelled by the audition panel staff |
Sarah Boden, Joint CEO and Business and Marketing Director for Imagine Theatre, said: “We hold open auditions in most of our panto venues, inviting children from all backgrounds and levels of experience to come and audition to try and be in the show. We started in June and finished in the last week of September with a 4-week break for summer.
“It’s always great to be able to welcome so much young, local talent into panto. To be able to nurture and support the development of the performers and professional theatre practitioners of the future is one of the biggest rewards of being a panto producer. In our history we’ve had more than 7,500 children perform in our shows, each of them taking valuable life lessons away from their time with us.”
Sarah added: “The logistics behind the scenes to get so many children into the shows, including costuming, chaperoning and licensing them is a challenge but is really worth it. They bring such an energy and enthusiasm to each pantomime performance. When we didn’t have children in the 2021 panto season due to the pandemic, we really missed them.”
JUST IMAGINE
Don’t forget to check out the Imagine Theatre podcast – Just Imagine. Upcoming episodes include:
- Episode 63 – 13 October is an interview with Andrew Agnew (also known as PC Plum from Balamory) about what it’s like to direct and appear in panto. Andrew will direct and appear in Imagine’s Kilmarnock panto this year.
- Episode 64 – 27 October is about pantomime routines and set pieces, and why they are so important to the artform and upholding its traditions.
- Episode 65 – 10 November is a focus on and discussion around the title Peter Pan.
