Mayflower Open Day 2012
Saturday 11th August 2012
A great day at Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre
today, celebrating 25 years of this theatre’s existence as “The Mayflower”,
presenting Opera, Ballet, Pantomime and major touring shows in this 1928
Deco building.
Andrew Ryan and I had a
busy day meeting and greeting something like 1,750 people who visited the
building in three sessions- 10am-12, 12-2pm and 2pm-4pm. We waved goodbye to
the last visitors at around a
Great fun- we did a “spot” in each session, and
toured the building saying hello and spreading the Panto gospel on each tier
of this enormous building. We were joined halfway through by Paul Zerdin and
his mate, Sam. Paul will be here for the panto season, and called in to help
us celebrate and to give a taster of his panto performance to a few hundred
of the guests here today touring backstage and front of house.
The Twins, suppliers of magic and mystery to Qdos
and other pantomimes brought along some of their amazing sci-fi theatre
props, as well as a spooky pair of scarecrows- one coming to life at odd
times to surprise the unwary!
There were demonstrations
of scenery, a visit to see how the Flies work, to see and work the Follow
spots, the chance to watch a film on the history of the Mayflower and, of
course to meet us Dames in full regalia! Lovely to see Lee Redwood here
today, taking the day off from his busy schedule in
Thanks to Robin Hancock
and his team who made sure we were in the right place at the right time, and
huge congratulations to the current Chief Executive Dennis Hall, who will be
retiring on October 31st after twenty six years of service to
this landmark building.
I’ve done panto here
twice- each time Dennis was at the helm. Lovely to see pictures of Peter and
myself from our first “Cinderella” here (with local lass Fern Britton in her
first stage role!) along with the magical Dame Hilda Bracket- and pictures
also of
our second visit with Brian Conley’s
“Cinderella”. Great memories. Peter & I trapped in the lift dressed as huge
Christmas Trees! Dame Hilda taking tea in our fourth floor chamber each
interval…the fabulous crew here- Badger has been here man and boy for nearly
29 years I think- it is a magic place, and incoming CEO Michael Ockwell will
be leaving Belfast to join a very exciting venue.
Goodbye Dennis- it has been a huge pleasure to do
two pantomimes in your glorious theatre. Here’s to the next Twenty Five!
Nigel Ellacott
This page was last updated 26th August 2012