We had a really imaginative time at Lighthouse on Wednesday Storytelling. The hats came alive with different characters and voices.

Then the stories came thick and fast: “Bob the Builder took the fairy from the elves…..Bash……I broke the door down ……..Bang……The door was red and pink and blue and purple and red and black and loads of red………and a bit more loads of red.

The lady police over there splashed in the water. Fairy SPLASH. Saved the Fairy. She fluttered.”

We acted out chasing and creeping and hiding. Mary Poppins joined us and we remembered Bert who made us all laugh so much.

Join us next time as we find out about the story of noise. Who began it? Where did sound start and noise take over? What made the first sound? Can you hear it? What shape is it?

Storytelling is a very active way of engaging under 5’s and their grown-ups with the world of the imagination. The session is designed to allow children to lead.

Hauled myself out of bed and cleaned and emptied my flat whilst wishing I’d gone to bed 3 hours earlier. Got to the junior dancers’ goodbye party in the Lighthouse Café with enough time to get lots of photos taken with them all.

There was a great deal of “last time we’ll do this bit” in the wings during the show, and it was funny coming off stage and having well loved props hurdled into a box or bin. Since it was the last show I tried to play a few pranks on some people. Gave Rosie, who plays Cinderella, a massive kiss in the bit where I normally air kiss her, and made rude hand gestures from the wings at Mostyn, who plays the Prince, during his soppy love song. But both of them were true professionals and soldiered on.

Thought I’d got away with my late night, but when I started singing my duet with Cinderella at the end of act one – disaster! My voice sounded like my vocal chords had been attacked with a cheese grater. Definitely the worst singing I’ve done for the whole run! But overall the show was a good one, and the finale was amazing. The junior dancers who weren’t on stage for the show made a banner with “Go Roger!” on it (he plays Dandini). Roger didn’t disappoint and did a very impressive back flip when it was his turn to sing.

When the curtain came down for the very last time there was lots of hugging and a few tears. Everyone has got on so well during this show, I haven’t heard a cross word said to anybody, so it was sad to see it all grind to a halt.

As I pulled good luck cards off my dressing room wall I kept thinking how 6 weeks ago I didn’t dare to hope it would all go this well. I’d always loved panto as a kid, and for as early as I can remember I’d wanted to be in one. This was a big test for me, and I was prepared to say “never again” if it didn’t live up to my hopes. But it exceeded them. And that’s all down to the brilliant people who put this show together – producers, cast, crew and the lovely staff at the Lighthouse. Everyone has been first class.

Goodbye Poole. I’m going to miss your fresh sea air, lovely pubs and appalling town planning. But most of all I’m going to miss all the friends I’ve made. Thanks for having me.

Oh, and by the way Cinderella, you’re an idiot. The Prince is clearly the wrong man for you. You hardly know him. You get on much better with Buttons and he clearly adores you. You’re a shallow, gold digging tease!

This day ended up being so much fun I’m surprised I didn’t get arrested by the Fun Police. There’s been a flurry of friends and family wanting to see the show before the end of the run on Sunday. I got to have a quick catch up with my aunt and cousin before the matinee, and managed to play a trick on my cousin in-law’s 3 year old daughter. When I was throwing sweets out at the start I said I’d see if I could throw some all the way to row S (where they were sitting). I chucked them and my cousin dropped a packet of chocolate buttons into her hands. She’s now convinced I have magic powers!

Two of my best friends from school came for the evening show, and what a show. It was non-stop raucous fun from beginning to end, and practically whole audience were on their feet in the finale dancing. I swear I saw some of them kick stepping up and down the stairs. When the curtain came down we were all whooping, cheering and shouting “Best show ever!”

Somehow found myself in Munchies kebab shop at 3.30am. Not sure if that bodes very well for the last show…

After a lovely day off, where our lovely producers Peter and Robin took us all out for a lovely meal (because they’re lovely), we only had an evening show today. Lovely!

I didn’t think we could top the reaction we had from the audiences on Christmas Eve, but general consensus among the cast was that we did tonight. When one of my deliberately corny jokes at the beginning of the show got a round of applause I thought, “I’m going to like this lot”. I really can’t imagine how the show could have gone much better.

After the finale I heard Rosie, who plays Cinderella, trying to cheer up one of the children in the cast who was sad that it’s all coming to an end in two days. Made me feel a bit sad too. Although maybe one of the reasons is that they won’t have an excuse for days off school anymore! We have two groups of junior dancers that alternate between shows, and they’ve both been outstanding. They knew all their routines inside out after a couple of shows, so now they’ve learnt everyone else’s dance routines and most of everybody else’s lines. They’ve been a pleasure to have around backstage, very professional, and have even passed on a few drawings and things to brighten up my dressing room.

My favourite scene that the kids do is the woodland scene. When they come on dressed as animals the audience usually all go “Ah!” when they see how cute they all look. Then when they run into the wings they copy the dance routine that the senior dancers are doing on stage. John, one of the stage hands (who’s a grandad!), has learnt it with them and it’s so funny watching them all together that I’m lucky I don’t forget to walk on stage.

Talking of kids, there was a very sweet message left for me at stage door by someone called Lucas Cook. It said that they’d enjoyed watching the show so much last week that they’d come again tonight. Lucas Cook, I salute you!

Had a great afternoon show, and was then asked if a few of us could come and meet some people from an elderly care home down the road. Had a chat with a woman who was 102 years old! Her husband fought in the First World War, which blew my mind a bit. She said that in her day pantos had “more story”, but she enjoyed it none the less.

The evening show was a bit different from usual. Most of the audience had various special needs and were on a trip organised by an organisation called Care Division. The lights in the auditorium were up a little more than usual and there were no pyrotechnics in case they upset anyone. Every now and then things would get shouted out at unusual points, and someone kept shouting the word “bingo” for a while! It felt like harder work than normal, but we got to meet them all afterwards and it was great to see how much they had enjoyed it.

We all had lots of photos taken together, and I went home thinking about how many interesting people I’ve met doing this show. I can’t think of any other performance related thing I’ve done that appeals to so many different people from all walks of life. Visually impaired children, my Dad, a 102 year old woman… Everyone loves panto!

Only one show again today and probably a good thing too. I still seem to be recovering from the long haul before New Year’s Eve, and my hip’s starting clicking like an old man. I put this down to a bit in Act One where I have to do something vaguely resembling the splits. I’m about as flexible as a block of concrete, and my legs don’t like it very much. It’s my only real piece of physical exertion in the whole show. Roger, who plays Dandini, also does the splits… in the air… as part of a 5 minute dance routine. Which puts it all into perspective. Man up Petrie!

As the holiday season gradually winds down over the next week our schedule is a bit less hectic, and today we only had an afternoon show to perform. My Mum and Dad came along again with some of their friends. My Dad absolutely loves the show and is even talking about coming for a third time! Considering they live a 2 hour drive away I think that’s pretty impressive. Not as impressive as Paige (one of the dancers)’s parents though. By the time the show finishes on Sunday her parents will have been five times! Her Dad is now under strict instructions not to shout out when we ask the audience questions as he knows the script inside out. Surely the Ugly Sisiters start giving you nightmares once you’ve seen the show that many times?

Found out today that so far the show has been seen by over 18,000 people. Not bad going!

Apparently it’s an old panto tradition that at the end of the last show of the year the cast link arms, join up with the audience, and sing Auld Lang Syne. Unfortunately I was only made aware of this tradition (by Bobbie, our own personal Wikipedia of all things panto) about an hour before the end of the show. The most I’ve ever been able to sing of Auld Lang Syne is the first line, after which I shout my head off in unintelligible pidgin Scottish, as does 99% of the country. You can’t get away with this when you’re leading a sing-song on stage though. So we had to make do with shouting “Happy New Year”, which was probably less embarrassing for everyone, especially me.

Raced out of the theatre to meet my girlfriend, family and friends at the ‘Square and Compass’ in Worth Matravers, where they had a marquee up and a band playing who helped us see 2012 in with style and a certain amount of dancing on tables. Woke up at 5.30pm the next day, so it was a good job we had the day off!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Today’s highlight for me was definitely the ballroom scene. My girlfriend, my brother and several of our friends were in the audience tonight, so I got my girlfriend to stitch my brother up and volunteer him to be one of the Ugly Sisters’ “boyfriends”. They get generally pestered throughout the show and then get dragged up for a bit of a dance in the ballroom scene at the beginning of act two. I always find it amusing and am generally cackling away in the background, but tonight I laughed hardest. And my brother’s girlfriend filmed it on her phone, so you’ll be pleased to hear it’s preserved for posterity.

Found out through various channels that quite a few of our audience have been coming back for a second time, and some of them haven’t even brought kids with them! So we must be doing something right.

Started a bit earlier today as we were doing a meet and greet with some visually impaired children who were coming to see the show that afternoon. They came up on stage, got to meet us all and had a feel of the set and some of the props we use. That way it’s a bit easier for them to picture what’s going on during the show. Meridian TV were there filming it for their news report, so maybe you know this already! The idea obviously works well, as they all sat in the first three rows in rapt attention for the whole show.

Then in the evening the show was subtitled with screens either side of the stage. Some of the jokes got a bigger laugh with subtitles than they do normally. Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing!

Went home feeling really pleased to have (hopefully!) given the audience a night to remember. We’re over two thirds of the way through our run now, so I’m sure this will all be over in what seems like the blink of an eye. Can’t believe I’ve been doing this for over a month now.