h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ooh, intriguing. If you ever want to ask about any shows, I have a disgustingly large mental filing cabinet about musicals, so feel free to contact me here or via Facebook (where I can confirm that Pimms is much better than me at Scrabulous).

Meanwhile, I have stepped down from committee duties with my Society due to time constraints. I feel a bit like I've let them down, but thankfully someone else has stepped in to take over my duties.

I'm just lurking today, Pimms, but I am enjoying finding out more about musicals and the stage.

Well, getting perusal material is a doddle From the NODA website get the rightsholder for he show you are interested in, then get the phone number from the list of rightsholder's contaxct details, give them a ring, provide Society details, name and address to send stuff out to and bingo. You get the material for a month and the cost is mostly to cover postage - so this year about £3 to £5 depending on the weight of the score.

I received two shows within a couple of days, and the third should come tomorrow. One was withdrawn, and so we couldn't have the mateial (Cabaret if you're interested), and the final one on the shortlist we already had a copy of.

Have surreptitiously passed one show to another committee member while at rehearsal rooms, and have done pretty well at keeping deliberations under my hat. But hot news - fresh thread needed for results of auditions for Disco Inferno...

Still waiting for the last perusal script - what you tend to get is the libretto (the words) and the vocal score (the tunes but not the orchestration)

After the auditions yesteray we had a brief meeting to thrash out how we were going to make this show work, since many of the cast appear woefully underprepared. We will double up on principal rehearsals - with one rehearsal running songs while in the other room another of the committee has been co-opted as vocal coach to run dialogue scenes. Tomorrow we will have first full read through of script with the cast and I will hear first hand how much character the others are putting into their readings. Easy for me, I effectively only have one scene to learn

Director away for just a few days - back for first blocking week next weekend. Not sure he'll see much of a change by then

The chap at Weinbergers was quite apologetic when I chased up the missing perusal copy. In error he had confused our request with a Spanish one and in correcting the mistake deleted our details not theirs, and so couldn't send the stuff. Now there is a postal strike so we probably won't receive it for *another* week, but as a bonus we won't be charged the perusal fee.

The chairman has set the next committee meeting for next week - during half-term when I am on holiday. I've passed on my choices from the shortlist to the vice-chair to act as proxy, and asked the chairman not to let *too* many tasks be allocated to me (as indubitably happens to members who miss committee meetings). I've also left the posting back of the perusal material to another committee member to enable a few more to get a glimpse of them before the meeting, given that I won't be there.

In discussion with others I realise I was looking for personal appeal, and not sensible reasons for the society to do them - like how much stuff is there for the chorus to do?

I haven't been keeping this up to date, and things have been happening I suppose the fear that I might be disseminating privy information is part of the tardiness (I know that some of my RL colleagues have been known to browse my Journals )

Nothing on the next show - I haven't sent back perusal material yet - a decision wasn't reached at last meeting as not everyone had seen the scripts. I was concerned that the copyright holders had stated a month allowed before material had to be returned, but I have been reassured that we have in the past also returned them a little late without a problem.

No, the recent committee discussions have been on the more pressing issues with the curent show. It has been very hard on the AD to run the rehearsals and continue to put all her effort into improving the show when the committee has been aware of a canker eating away at the viability of the show. It will soon come to a head, but our announcement of the problem to the society members was pre-empted by a news release from the government minister who may have to make the decision affecting us [http://www.manxradio.com/readNEwsItem.aspx?id=11921].

There was no point in alarming everyone else until a decision had been reached, and at this point no decision has been made, so the committee is a little irritated by the premature announcement

We don't want to reschedule our show or change the venue to one less suited to performing the musical. There are daunting obstacles to either course of action. It isn't a question of money (though considerable sums hang in balance) so much as the easily imagined impact on the reputation of the society and ability to retain the new members if we allow ourselves to be pushed around by government to suit the agendas of the film commission.

Oh, pants. That's not going to be easy to deal with. Would it be worth trying to meet with representatives from the other groups who will be affected over those six weeks to co-ordinate efforts?

Oh we have. The minister apologised yesterday for releasing the story to the media in advance of the meeting with affected groups - the news might have been released anyway as one of the other groups apparently leaked it to the radio station, and the minister thought it best to say what was going on rather than answer 'no comment' and leave it to rumour.

This has forced our committee's hand as we now have to involve the membership in discussions, and it is hard enough to get half a dozen people to agree what to do.
At least, although the situation is not one we would have chosen, we have something definite to announce. It was impossible before yesterday to do more than say we had (repeatedly) rejected the proposals for changing our theatre booking to suit the film commission's rash commitment to the american film company.

The film (like a juggernaut) is going ahead, come what may. So we have to resolve how we deal with the alternatives. Tonight the chairman announces the situation to the cast at the full-call rehearsal and we can start seeing what we can salvage from the situation.

The most promising alternative open to us is to reschedule to mid April 2008, subject to the cast, crew and director being available in this later slot. At least we have the promise of full-funding from government to meet additional costs due to having this dropped on us.

In the last week I have sent out my first mailshot.
First had to compile a list of appropriate addressees. This meant getting list of life, current and just lapsed members from Treasurer. This then had to compared with my rambling address list (correcting spelling inconsistencies) and weeding out the irrelevant ones (some who had never been paid up members, others having lapsed two or three years ago). Nearly forgot to add in new members Once the list was prepared (about ninety addresses) I had an amusing time trying to figure out mail merge for non-avery label sheets whose size didn't match standard templates available To aid dissemination I also emailed all members in list that I had the email address of.
Once I got the letter inviting members to meeting photocopied I had to trifold them to fit in envelopes (and found the envelopes only *just* allowed an A4 trifold to fit in ) and attach the labels. Fortunately had volunteers at rehearsal to help with last stage - who also identified some members off at University who it was not worth inviting. The letters to current cast who had attended were handed out at the rehearsal. Finally had to post the remaining ones (about 50) - thinking it would be easy to pick up some stamps at the petrol station. Error! The rehearsal didn't finish until after 10pm, and first petrol station didn't stock stamps, recommended the Spar, which turned out to be closed, finally finding a better stocked petrol station after a bit of a drive, which (after a bit of fiddling between tills) managed to find five books of stamps for me. I sat in car with stamps stuck around steering wheel to efficiently attach to envelopes and then sped home dropping off the bundle in the post box (knowing the collection is at 6am).
This should have allowed members to be informed. However I did my best to alert as many as I could (at the rehearsal and the Biannual Ball at the weekend) that this was not a compulsory attendance meeting, just to quell rumours and allow discussion of situation. Then I did not attend the meeting myself (I had a previous engagement). Will find out tonight whether it was a success...

Mentioned in passing above that we had out biannual ball last weekend. This occurs every two years around November, similar in style to a wedding party with seating plans and threee course meal follwoed by disco, but without any formal speeces beyond the President saying Grace at beginning. It has the ladies in party frocks and gents in black tie and DJs. Although called a Ball there is no ballroom dancing - after the meal and obligatory raffle (no speeches ) there is a disco. The disco was started with a brief waltz by former president and his wife (both founder members) now in their 80s.

Each year there is normally some entertainment put on by some members of the society. This year it was an amusing dance which started by half a dozen of the ladies coming on in nun's habits singing something from Sound of Music (Climb every Mountain I think, I'd had a glass or two of ) which on a cue of this being too boring were ripped off in a quick change to skimpy red dresses with devil horns and appearance of 'Kylie' - one of the gentlemen LK in a white frock and blonde wig, lip-synching to 'Better the Devil you Know' as he flounced around. Two other gents flexing bare chests as Chippendales completed the ensemble. They had been rehearsing after regular rehearsals, the number was quite impressive and got some

Many of the attendeees continued to dance and drink before retiring to their rooms at the hotel. One member at least had started drinking somewhat earlier than the meal and was in a convivial mood . I sloped off quite early as it had been a long day selling bread and cakes.

Considerable stresses in committee, with dissatisfaction over state we have got into. We have no agreed show to follow the next show yet, and haven't re-arranged director's visits to account for delay in putting on performances.

I've provided revised commitment forms to cast that extend to end of April, but expect it will take some time to have them all completed, and don't hold out hopes that they will accurately show attendance likely.

I have also alerted AD to my proposed absence from rehearsals in mid-February (when the director was due to be over) as I have been reminded of an obligation that I had forgotten about to be in another ballet - Romeo and Juliet. Her response was disquieting as it appeared to countenance me cancelling the ballet obligation for rehearsals. Odd my reaction to this, as with other people's commitments I expect them to put our society first, but with my own I want flexibility. Am I an inconsistent person being unfair in my opinions? I have rationalised my inconsistency due to the details of my change of plans - the ballet comes first because I made my commitment to it first (in 2006), although I had forgotten this when I made out my earlier commitment to Disco Inferno (in Autumn 2007)

Had a committee meeting on Sunday evening to discuss next show and remaining dates for directors blocking visits.

Much discussion on first point as 'rival' company have just announced that their next show after Annie is to be Les Miserables - an advantage to being on an Island is that *sometimes* you can wheedle rights to a restricted show (one which the rightsholders are not allowing amateur companies to perform, usually because it is on a professional tour, or just opened in London). We have asked for Les Mis on several previous occasions so we are gutted that the others have secured it.

The danger is that it will draw wavering members from our society to theirs, as it will be difficult (and possibly impossible with limited range of shows ostensibly unrestricted) to try and match the appeal of that show.
The chairman stuck to his guns and said we had to choose one from our shortlist to secure rights for, even if we continue to look for another show. Otherwise we could be looking a long time and end up with nothing. We each voted for two shows fromt he shortlist, took the top two ranking shows and then each voted for one. The result was then challenged as flawed, the reason being that a couple of committee were convinced the choice could be bad for ther future of the society. Their feeling was that we should give more weight to choosing the show that will pull in old members, than one which has audience appeal.
I was convinced, but that didn't sway the majority.

The other item for the meeting, of discussing dates for Director's visits proved to be flawed too, as when I phoned him this morning he was not prepared to discuss them, as he is still waiting for feedback from the tourism department on the compensation package they are prepared to offer for the disruption to his schedule, due to their reneging on the original dates booked at the theatre. I had to apologise as I had been unaware he'd been left in the air for two weeks waiting for a response, and contacted the chairman immediately in the hope that he can kick some donkey. I hope it can be resolved tomorrow...

The proposed new dates will have to work around a half-term and Easter break that seem to affect quite a number of the cast. He won't be happy with the missing cast, but this seems to be a perennial problem. Further words were spoken at committee meeting about the need for AD and MD to arrive and be ready to start before 7:30, otherwise where is the moral high ground for berating the cast for not turning up on time?

It has taken a week, but donkey kicking has succeeded. Unfortunately result came through on my busiest day at work, and meant that I didn't leave until nearly two hours later than normal, due to the teleworking interspersed with real work, as faxes, texts and emails flew (or failed to).
Then just work of minutes to book flights and hotel for January visit. Surprisingly the flights were considerably cheaper than the last trip I booked despite being made closer to the departure date. Ticket pricing - who can guess the best time to book?
Now we are on a surer footing for the show going ahead in April we need to sort out what compensation claim we can put to the film commission for the disadvantages they have put quite a few members to. As amateurs it may be harder to quantify financial costs incurred.

Our patron however is not a well man . He went into hospital for an operation on his foot, and ended up in ITU (intensive care of some sort I don't know what the acronym stands for exactly), when a complication brought on by combination of diabetes and general anaesthetic meant he needed to be put on dialysis with kidney failure, and he may not recover...

We all care about him because of his evident pleasure in being involved with the society, and his help in enabling us to put on the best shows we can.

No news on our patron. Our January blocking visit going to plan, apart from two main pricipals having booked the weekend to go off island. A few ups and downs since te last entry. I have requested permission to perform a show that we had got the perusal material for, despite losing the perusal material (this down to the AD who last saw it in her car) However as soon as we had voted to choose this show we wrangled over whether it was the best choice for the society, and the chair brought the issue back to the table last week when all the committee could be present. Last time we had a few phonecalls and it wasn't quite the organisation we would have wished. At this second meeting the same shortlist was used but the discussion happened during the voting, and then the committe were asked whetHer in light of discussion they wished to change their preference. We ended up choosing a different show, and I have now requested permission from the rightsholders for that one.

As far as the first choice we are hoping that we may have the opportunity to change the dates on it to do it as Christmas production in 2009. We have the bargaining point of the disruption the Theatre caused our company by reneging on the agreement for the dates for our current show in favour of a film company. We haven't put in a compensation claim beyond the specific costs incurred as a result of shifting the dates to the professionals being contracted to us (director, sound and lighting engineers).

As far as the rival's production of Les Mis we have tried to use that to our advantage too, in requesting special licences to otherwise restricted shows - if they can do it why can't you let us too? sort of thing. We have in the past been fortunate to gain special licences as we are not strictly part of the UK, and most touring companies do not reach our island. It appears that there is still some ambiguity over whether they have actually secured the rights to do the full staged production yet. This is why it is never a good idea to bandy about what the next production is until it is in the bag - you may lose it.

As far as our current production I was asked last night to find out the cost of replacing one song we wanted to cut with a nother more aposite one. We knew that the rightsholder for the show didn't have the rights, so I needed to approach the Performing Rights Society UK. As I had never done this before it is not surprising I got it a bit wrong initially. I started with a bit of googling to their website to get a phone number, then managed to confuse what I needed and ended up being told that having rights to a three minute song would cost 2% of nett box office receipts in royalties (paid via the theatre as a holder of PRS licence for live music) This would be in excess of £1000.

For reference this would be true if I needed 'incidental' music, but reading through some of the help files afterward revealed that what I shoul dhave bee asking for was 'interpolated' music - where the song is part of the action, rather than a background. Interpolated songs are the only ones that PRS can issue licences for to companies to perform, generally PRS issues licences to venues. For an interpolated song of about three minutes duration per performance (there is a sliding scale depending how much time the music takes) the royalties come to about £2.50 - a much more reasonable figure. Now we have to hope there will be no problems in getting the licence to perform the song.

What a palaver . No licence to do the song. A bit confused as to who the PRS are representing in relation to interpolated music. The clear message from PRS is that they are unwilling to grant a licence to perform any additional music in our production which already has an agreed list of music licenced.

Initially we thought their negative resposne was because they thought we had a licence with Joseph Weinberger and JW had not agreed to change of licence. The fact we had a licence with the Australian company who were involved in writing the show, and they had no problem with our amending the song list, cut no ice with PRS. So the PRS appear to be representing the publishers of the other songs licenced to our show, which have apparently been licenced on basis that no changes to music in show are made - like adding other songs.

One wonders when interpolated music could be licensed by PRS? Probably when you write the show yourself and approach them with the list of music wanted, or wish to add a song to a play without other music licenced.

Irritating , but without a licence we won't be replacing the number disliked by the director. It may be a small thing, but the writer of the show did tell us that he had wanted the number our director has suggested himself, but he also was unable to get rights to have it performed.
It is at a point in the show when the girlfriend wants to express her unhapiness with the success taking the hero away from her. What we have is 'Figaro' (a bouncy cheesy song by Abba) what we wanted is 'If I can't have you' (by the Beegees).

Urgh. My sympathies. I can only begin to imagine how many phone calls and how much going around in circles that must have taken.

That is one show. What about the next one? Much maneouvring in recent weeks. I can't go into detail as to reasons (until it is all sorted) but the current state of play is I have just requested permission for a third show while we have two contracts on other shows for the same week next year, one of which I am trying to postpone to later but without any definite agreement with theatre yet for new dates...

Having asked for permission to perform this third show I have this morning requested perusal material (the reverse of the normal order of doing things), as there have been second thoughts. The show is good, and the director is keen, but we foolishly raced ahead without checking that we have the requisite talent within the society to fill the cast - it may require considerably more tenors than we can lay hands on