Author: Joe White

Slept in late, then got the rest of the travel diary entries done, as well as completed writing the encore verse for Heavy Dragoon. Went to rehearsal, and we got halfway through the finale of Act I. We lost a male chorus member, so it’s going to be pretty scant onstage, but the ones we have sound good. Went to the Coach House to find John, then went to Pizza Express for dinner (pretty tasty). Went to the Palace to post all the remaining backlogged pics and entries (and to IM with the various and sundry folk), then met up again with J&J and went in to the cabaret. Chatted a bit with Ian, then did the quiz with the three of us and Sam Silvers (got twenty-some-odd out of thirty correct, mainly due to Sam and Jonathan, but John and I chimed in a a couple). Wandered the streets of Buxton until finally alighting at the 24-hour Esso station, where we got ice cream. Dropped John off at his hotel and said goodbye, then came on back to the casa.

Cereal and tea for breakfast that I bought at the Safeway, then off to the first Patience rehearsal (though I’m not called ’til the afternoon, I wanted to see how things were). The director, Pamela, is doing some really neat things, and the other principals and chorus all sound great…this is going to be a lot of fun. Wonder off to Spring Gardens and type up the first batch of diary notes. At lunch Jonathan and I make copies of The Zoo as we contemplate auditioning for the festival production that goes up the day before Patience. Another good rehearsal in the afternoon, and I start reworking a verse of ‘A Heavy Dragoon’ as an encore. Dinner with two Savoynet ladies who did ‘Brush Up Your Gilbert’ at the Savoynet cabaret, then an absolutely incredible Yeoman from Trent Opera. All were pretty awesome, but the Jack Point and Wilfred Shadbolt were absolutely stunning. I cried at the end.

Neill found us some rooms in a little house on Fairfield Road. It appears to be used as student housing…at least our neighbors are. There are communal baths, toilets, and kitchen, but there is also a washing machine and a dryer, which means that I don’t have to make another huge journey to the launderette, nor take out a mortgage to pay for it. We stop at a computer store to check email, then go to Chippie’s Plaice (fish & chips place…plaice is a fish…ha ha) for some breakfast, then John and I do some shopping while Jonathan goes to the Savoynet dress rehearsal. John decides he wants to get a full-service hotel room, so we go to the tourist office to try to find him one…no dice, despite the best efforts of the helpful staff. We wander around the some of the places we couldn’t get through to on the phone, and one just off Market Square, The Queen’s Head, does have a single for the nights John needs, and he takes it. We come back to the flats on Fairfield, where he gets packed up while I take a nap. We meet again for dinner at the Coach House, then watch Pirates…really good, especially considering it all came together in eight days. Meet up with Shelton (just back from Dublin…forgot to tell him to call Sylvia), who needs a room for a night, so he snags John’s recently vacated premises.

[Forgot to do this at the time, so relying on the itinerary and my faulty memory]
Nice leisurely morning, then meet at noon:30 for a rehearsal for the concert that we’re doing that afternoon. I sing in the group that does the kingsingers’ arrangement of ‘Ah, leave me not to pine’ (one of my favorites) as well as ‘When the nightwind howls’ from Ruddigore. The concert is a lot fun, especially hearing people do solos whom I’ve never heard on their own before (or, in the case of Tina, in a long time). Fabulous, one and all. Jonathan’s Texan lyrics to ‘If you want to know who we are’ are a great hit, and Dace’s interpolations of Western pieces into the bridges were masterly. Alistair does a first and says goodbye. Finally get the group booking codes from Adventure, but it is too late to call the BA office.