Pantomimes-where have they gone?? (Pantomimes)

Member Name: mummy2twogirls

Product:	Pantomimes
Date:	07/11/08 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Being so funny

Disadvantages: the rarerity of them these days

Pantomimes used to be somewhat a tradition of christmas, along with eating mince pies, and carol singing, going to watch a pantomime during the christmas period used to be hugely popular amongst adults and children, but these days it's very hard to find one close to me. Every year my Nan used to book tickets for the whole family, and we used to have a whale of a time. But i have to admit it's been about 5 years since i last saw one.

The word Pantomime, originates from Greece way back in the 17th century, where the word meant a whole different meaning as to what it is today- a solo performer imitating a act, singing solo and playing musical instruments. Since then 'panto' is more commonly known as a show put on by a cast of different people, normally around christmas time. They act out different well known children's stories, like sleeping beauty, Cinderella, snow white, Aladdin, and jack and the beanstalk. But add there own humor, songs, and props.
A tradition with pantomimes is that normally the main boy- jack, prince charming etc is played by a young women, and the pantomime dame is normally played by a man, who is funny and dim-witted.
There is normally a lot of songs during the show, and the tunes are of well known songs, but they tend to change the lyrics to tie in with the scene and what story they are producing. There is always a baddie and the audience are normally asked when he comes on stage to 'boo' or 'hiss' him/her. He tends to cause trouble between the hero and the girl as he often wants the girl to fall in love with him. The dame is normally the most funny character out of them all, he wears outrageous dress's, silly hats, and stockings, and becomes a favorite with the audience as he chucks sweets out to them. The pantomime 'animal' normally is a cow or a cat, and is played by two people, one being the back end and the other the front. A slapstick comedy routine may be performed, often a decorating or baking scene, with humor based around throwing messy substances, which is always a hit with the audience to.

You tend to find villages and towns holding performances and people within the community taking part,they hold auditions and start to rehearse months before the show, but there are also bigger theatre companies that will put on the shows and normally invite a celebrity to take part, normally from soaps, like Eastenders or Emmerdale, as these pull in a bigger crowd.

When i was 13 i joined my local amdrams, who put on a different pantomime each year for the town, so much hard work and effort goes in to the show, and not just from the actors, there are backstage crew to and these work just as hard. Lighting, producers, make up artists, costume designers, people selling tickets, advertisers, all work together to make sure the panto runs smoothly. I took part in about 4 panto's over consecutive years and i throughly enjoyed myself, being on stage gave me a chance to express myself, and entertain other people at the same time, one year i was the baddie, and although it was a difficult part to play, the audience loved it, and i got such a thrill from performing, sadly one year the producers had to pull the plug on the amdrams although because we where getting less and less people wanting to join,and we couldn't arrange enough funding., so we couldn't put on a pantomime with 10 people and no money, which is a shame because it they where still running today i would still be a member because i enjoyed it so much.
As i mentioned in my opening paragraph, pantomimes these days seem very rare, im sure we've all been to see one in our past time and enjoyed it, it is a part of christmas and we should try to do what we can to keep the spirit of panto's alive, next year im hoping to organize one my self in our village, i was going to do one this year but with being pregnant and due at christmas, it didn't seem like a good idea.

Go one and see a panto this christmas, you never know you might enjoy it.

Summary: Will you be going to see one this christmas??