As I’ve mentioned before. The Cottenham Theatre Workshop’s (CTW) longstanding Musical Director, the inimitable Barbara D, recruited me as guitarist for the pit band back in 2013. I actually played bass guitar that first year as regular cellist, David A, was treading the boards for the first time. David A was back in the pit for Cinderella and so I switched to six-string guitar and played that for every show thereafter.
2013 – A Christmas Carol
2014 – Cinderella
2015 – Puss in Boots (No band, MD was the late Debbie C)
2016 – The Wizard of Oz
2017 – Aladdin
2018 – Worzel Gummidge
2019 – Sleeping Beauty
2020 – No Panto (covid)
2021 – Treasure Island
2022 – The Nutcracker
2023 – Peter Panto
We usually had Rob W on clarinet except in 2023. Georgia D on flute for my first couple of shows, and also Michael K on saxophone. Matthew P on drums for the first couple, whom I replaced with Adam S (from C5 the band) John K understudied a couple of performances for Adam. Christian on cello, Tanara on clarinet and oboe.
From my privileged position in the pit, looking up at the stage, I’ve usually taken a few photos of the cast during rehearsals for CTW publicity, although I don’t seem to have started doing that until Oz in 2016. 2023 was a record-breaking year in terms of ticket sales, outstripping the previous record in 2022.
While I didn’t join in with CTW until 2013, I had been asked when we first moved to Cottenham in 1998 by Clive B to tread the boards, but didn’t have the confidence. I seem to remember talking to Barbara about her joining the pit band around about the turn of the millennium though and she was definitely onboard from around that time…
It will be all change musically in 2024…watch this space.