Is now confirmed as Friday the 31st of July at The Rugby Club

6.45 for a 7pm Start (Because it goes on for a wee while)

It can all be traced back to Mikey Rowell’s beard! It made such an impression that all one could do was to pay homage and somehow try to follow in its footsteps (if beards had feet, obviously.)

Perhaps I should explain further.

There I was, recently arrived from Glasgow- a new boy in the big, bad town of Oban. It was spring 1994 and I was in the audience for Oban Operatic Society’s performance of “My Fair Lady”. Mike was one of the few people I knew (from our association with Ballet West) and he had invited me to come to see the show. I had only seen Mike in ballets before- he looks great in tights and can fall over on stage with the best of them- and so I was unprepared for the artistic tour de force that was his ‘cunning linguist from Hungary’ (with a beard you could lose a badger in), that lit up the stage like a Mike shaped beacon. From that moment on I knew I would join the society and as we all now know, the world would never be the same again.

The society’s next venture was ‘Summer Showtime’ and so, when I came along to Park School for the first time to join Oops, I was issued with the mythical ‘green folder’ that contained dozens of songs from the shows that we would delight the masses with, once a week, during the summer of ’94.
When I joined I was worried that my singing voice would not be up to the society’s high standards and I would be turned away, shattering all my dreams. I soon realised that a tuneful voice was very much an optional extra and my enthusiasm and Tony’s coaching soon had me joining in lustily with “It’s a Lovely Day”, “Oklahoma” and all the other classics from the green folder. The crowds for these performances were sometimes small- performers outnumbering audience on occasion- but appreciative and it certainly whetted my appetite for something bigger.

That ‘something bigger’ was my first full length show with the society- “Barnum”.
Tune in next time for exciting tales of tightrope walking, juggling, unicycling and falling off the stage during dress rehearsals!

My previous Ditty took us from ?My Fair Lady? in 1994 (prominently featuring Mike Rowell?s beard) through ?Summer Showtime? to the cusp of my first full length show with Oban Operatic Society namely ?Barnum?.

I had, graciously, decided not to audition for a leading role (the sighs of relief from other hopeful auditionees could be heard as far away as Appin!) To be honest I had doubts I would be able to cope with even a role in the chorus especially when, no sooner in the door of Park School for the first rehearsal, juggling balls, spinning plates and unicycles were thrust in our direction for us to hone our ?circus skills?. I say ?hone? when what I really mean is ?feverishly struggle to master even 2 seconds of juggling without dropping all three balls and falling over.? From day one all tea breaks and gaps between songs were spent fruitlessly chucking those little bean bag balls about or clumsily waggling those big long sticks and sending the plate flying halfway across the hall like so many coloured, plastic U.F.O.s. I also spent a lot of time assisting Mikey in his attempt to master the unicycle and many a tea break was spent circling the Park School gym in instalments of about 2 seconds (or 5 feet whichever came sooner.) It wasn?t all circus skills of course and we spent many an hour under Tony and Gwyneth?s watchful eye as we sang and danced to ?Come Follow the Band?, ?One Brick at a Time? and all the big numbers from the show.

In the same way that the summers of your youth seemed to last longer than they do now I seem to remember the rehearsal period for Barnum lasting for ever, or a couple of years at least, but I suppose it was the standard few months. However long it was I know I must have sung ?Come Follow the Band? about 20,000 times by the time we reached the rehearsals in the Corran Halls. It?s always a big jump from the gym to the proper stage but even more so when, as we had with Barnum, the stage is made larger with those extensions at the front. This threw our choreography a bit on some of the big songs, especially ?Join the Circus?. It was during a run through of this number that I single-handedly caused chaos, arguments and walkouts. Oops.

At one point in this song I was in a small group that had to walk backwards while singing the chorus. Obviously doing two things at once like that can be quite tricky but after several months of rehearsal I had pretty much got it sorted. However, with the stage now extended and a different shape to the Park School gym, I managed to walk backwards and plummet into a gap between the stage and the extensions thereby disappearing from view. This precipitated a lengthy argument about safety during which various people walked out in anger or frustration. Oops indeed.

I sat nonplussed at the side nursing my bruises wondering if I had brought about the end of Oban Operatic Society with one bit of clumsy footwork. Thankfully everyone calmed down very soon after that and I was told these sort of things happen all the time. Luvvies eh?

The show itself, I thought, was an artistic triumph. It looked spectacular, Kevin in the lead role was amazing and did his show stopping tight rope walk every night to great acclaim. Plates were spun with style, balls were juggled with aplomb, even Mikey managed to cross the stage on his unicycle without falling off. At least once. The chorus (with me as second clown from the right) did their stuff in the way choruses always do i.e. leaving the stage and immediately saying to each other ?when are we on again next?? We even managed on the Saturday to have nearly all the cast attending Mike and Sarah?s wedding (in costume!) in the morning, have a quick wedding reception at lunchtime AND do a matinee and an evening performance! We must all have been a lot younger then!

Stay tuned to the next exciting instalment of ?Alan?s Ditty? and hear tales of guns, cross dressing and Hugh Scully as we reach 1996 and ?Calamity Jane?

love,

Alan