Professional pride?
Amateur pantomimes are often praised for their talent. Now they are outperforming some professional shows where, argues Mary Redman in The Stage, lazy producers are letting the industry down.

The criteria I use when reviewing professional and non-professional productions include querying if the cast’s voices reach the auditorium back wall and whether or not audiences get good value for their ticket money.

In these pages over the years, Charles Vance has often referred to the divide between professional and non-professional productions. My growing sense of unease about certain aspects of the seasonal theatre scene was spurred on by Phoebe Tesselier’s recent letter to The Stage (Opinion, January 20, page . She describes in vivid terms taking her grandchildren to “two amateur and two professional” pantomimes and the enthralled involvement experienced by the whole audience at the amateur ones. “Everyone came out full of excitement and wonder,” she wrote.

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<small>[ 25 March 2005, 03:30 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

I found the largely amateur cast in Chicken Shed's "Peter Pan" to be more enjoyable and technically impressive than many pro productions:

http://forum.criticaldance.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=000332

Any other thoughts or experiences from the dance or musical theatre worlds?

<small>[ 25 March 2005, 03:35 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>