Ever wondered what’s going on in SMP land?

What crazy shenanigans could the cast of Saint Monica’s Players be getting up to in preparation for their hotly anticipated production of Monty Python’s Spamalot?

Laker Girls leap into the air as Choreographer Mrs Fay Kemal whips them through their cheer routine – boy can these ladies jump!

It’s all too much for some, courage friends, just 12 weeks to go, we need you for the show!

Not content to be left behind the men were busy strutting their funky stuff too – sure looks like they’re having fun!

Time for a quick huddle, go team!

And what’s this!?

Director Paula Bland, looks imperiously on, flanked by our very own Sir Brave Robin Chis O’Shea, what grand scheme could these two be concocting to enrich our show? Crazy? Brilliant? Perhaps a bit of both!

Here we see Wednesday night at Cannon House, St Monica’s Parish Centre, home to the fantastic folk of SMP for over 50 years!

Maestro Stuart Piddigton-Wall puts us though are paces as the cast sing out loud and proud!

And look here it’s regular SMP MD and band member Mike ‘Keys of Steel’ Benyon, he’s trying out the desk for size, that’s not your place this time Mr B! This is a rare chance to see the man himself on stage with us, and boy does he deliver! Not to be missed!

Meanwhile next door the technical team are locked in discussions, all experts in their fields, with so much talent at one table you can be sure what their planning will be spectacular indeed! This truly is the room where it happens!

So that’s one week in the wonderful world of SMP!

Tickets for Spamalot are on sale now, so don’t delay, book today!

Get your tickets now from the link below!

Hi all, Luke here and I shall be playing King Arthur.

The show is already coming together nicely and I am loving riding around on my trusty steed (some say it’s less of a steed and more like a couple of coconuts being banged together) in search of the Holy Grail!

Having blocked through the dialogue in the past few weeks, this week we started getting cracking on some more of the songs and dances.

Monday we set the cheerleader number which looks fantastic as you can see from this snippet below:

On Wednesday we sung through a few songs including the cheerleaders cheer

and what may be my favourite song in the show, the amazing “Find Your Grail”. By the end of the evening it was sounding amazing and I left the rehearsal beaming from ear to ear.

There are some tricky “Ah ah” harmonies but our gloriously tanned MD has faith in us as you can see here:

We were excited to start looking at our costumes too as Fay, Ellie and Debbie are already hard at work pulling together the eclectic mix of costumes and tabards needed for the show.

We’re looking forwards to more fun at rehearsals this week and already I’m sure this show is going to be absolutely epic. Make sure to get your tickets as soon as you can, you don’t want to miss out!!

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So it’s my turn to do the blog!

Hey everyone. My names Chris and I will be playing Sir Robin (who throughout the show tends to soil himself on many occasions.)

I originally saw Spamalot at the Palace Theatre in the West End in 2007 – where I fell in love with the hilarity of the show. From then on I knew it was a show that I wanted to be part of. Eleven years later – and here I am, rehearsing with SMP, who are not just a group, but an extended family.

We are extremely lucky to have a wonderful and talented production team – Fay, Stuart and Paula who have magical visions of the show. On Monday it was another dance rehearsal with Fay and of course our brilliant pianist Alex. Yet again, Fay pulls off another great comedic routine (which this show is full of).

The title says it all – ‘He Is Not Dead Yet’ – where Haydn (the man who is not dead yet) has the opportunity to dance his absolute socks off just before Warren (the homicidal brave Sir Lancelot) decides to knock him out with an umbrella (should be a shovel). Not to be missed.

Unfortunately, due to the weather, Wednesday’s rehearsal was cancelled. Paula did set us homework. Snowball fights (looking at song words was also somewhere in there I think).

You don’t want to miss this ‘SPAM’ of a show. Book your tickets, tell your friends, invite family, bring people and some more people. It will be ‘Spamazing’.

Book your tickets on the web before the Knight’s of Ni get them all. So when you’re feeling in the dumps, don’t be silly chumps, just book your tickets and whistle that’s the thing! Always look on the bright…. (gets knocked out by shovel).

BOOK BOOK BOOK!

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It’s Carl here, part of the ensemble of SMP’s Spamalot.

You may remember me from last year’s show Pirates of Penzance, when I had my hand and arm chopped off; or possibly from Urinetown, when I was thrown off a building or from West Side Story when I was stabbed to death.

Well, there seems to be a theme in the parts that I have played and in Spamalot the theme continues. Only this time it happens twice and in quite bizarre ways (what would you expect from the Monty Python team). So, come and see this show cos I’m a dab hand at dying now!

I had my first dance rehearsal with the amazing choreography of Fay Kemal. For those of you unfamiliar with Spamalot, naturally, the opening number is a song about fish. To find out more you really must come and see us. It is simply marvellous in a mad way – just how SMP like it.

In our the next rehearsal, I’m not sure how but under the intelligent direction from our director, Paula Bland, we managed to get through all of Act 2.

Obviously, we will run our lines again and again but I felt this was a great sign of the hard work the production team and cast are putting into this show.

I am super excited about this show, not only cos I get to die on stage but I also get another chance to work with Stuart Piddington-Wall as musical director. We would have had a singing rehearsal last week but we was selfishly on his honeymoon.

Get your tickets now from the link below!

Hello, my name’s Warren and I’m lucky enough to be playing Sir Lancelot, the French Taunter and The Knight who says Ni in SMP’s production of Spamalot.

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been part of the cast for SMP so it was great to get down to business this week with rehearsals. Once again new faces have joined the SMP family, familiar faces have opted to tread the boards for the first time and old faces have returned. The result is a talented bunch of people who are guaranteed to give you a great show.

Monday saw us singing the opening number, the fisch slapping song, Not dead yet and making a start on the offstage vocals for our Diva, the lady of the lake. We welcomed back our wonderful rehearsal pianist Alex as she ably aided our fabulous MD Stuart. With a good strong cast and a healthy dose of male voices we’re sounding good already. I love a rehearsal where it’s appropriate to bring a fish and so I particularly enjoyed Monday.

Elsewhere Paula and the wardrobe department had a meeting, with lots of costumes in this show both specific and random they have their work cut out. Us Knights of the Round Table were measured up so that our costumes could be started on. Personally I can’t wait to get my hands on my chainmail and I don’t think I’m alone in that feeling.

On Wednesday we went about blocking Act 1, Paula took us through the whole of the first half and we had the chance to start run some of the classic scenes we’ve been itching to sink our teeth into. One thing we noticed is just how much music is in this show, the songs come thick and fast with no huge sections of dialogue, handy as it means we don’t have tons of lines to learn!

Spamalot is a wonderful show and as a big Monty Python fan it’s such fun to be playing parts that I’ve been quoting since I was old enough to watch the films. Don’t fear if you’re not much of a Monty Python fan though, the musical still has lots to offer you, the songs have a wide range of styles and are topical and witty so you’ll still find plenty to enjoy. There’s lots of dancing too so all in all it’ll be a real spectacle.

That’s all for this week!

Tickets are already selling and you can buy them in advance by clicking the link below. Look forward to seeing you at the show!

Hi there, My name’s Paula and as Director I get the fabulous job of starting off the Spamalot blog. A weekly dip into what’s going on behind the scenes of the fab show you will need to book tickets for, as I think this one will be a sell out.

We started off with a great turnout for the information evening and read through, the laughter in the room as we read the hilarious script was contagious. Audition parts were discussed and sign up sheets were filling up quickly as everyone realised this was going to be fun.

I am super excited to be directing this show alongside a fab team, with Fay McWilliams choreographing and Stuart Piddington-Wall as MD.

Stuart guided the auditionees through the audition songs at our next evening and the excitement and nerves started to kick in as auditions were only a few days away.

Audition day came and the team and lovely helpers are eager to go. Alas we had no key to the chair cupboard and with only 1 chair available Stuart was allocated that as he had to play the keyboard? A talented man as Stuart could’ve stood but then I remembered I had my pitch side chair in the car, so I let him have the chair.

Poor Lisa and Fay were left standing and squatting. But hey, I am the director. We got the key and things we’re looking up, we were off.

Auditions were of a very high standard and we were thrilled with each and every one, which made our decision making very difficult. After a lot of discussion we had our cast and wow what a cast it is. The phone calls were made, the flow of emails started as the planning and meetings are full steam ahead.

I eagerly wait for news of the Facebook cast page so I can (as director you know) welcome the cast and give important information out. Apparently the page was up and running but I was not added, I repeat I……. the director……..was not added? We won’t go on about that, I’m over it now.

Anyway, Our first rehearsal was a great start in welcoming new members to SMP and we found out lots of interesting facts about all of our cast members. Invisible horse riding was practised, script was read (more laughter) schedules were given out and I’m looking forward to the first singing rehearsal on Monday. Stay tuned for more weekly insights from the spamalot cast.

Paula – the director – I thank you

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