Friday, October 19, 2007

Biggar Little Festival kicks off

The place where I live has just gone festival crazy. For the fifth year in succession, the Biggar Little Festival is consuming the town and most everyone in it. Biggar has a population of about 2000, but over eleven days it will host 109 events in more than a dozen venues. Concerts, plays, exhibitions, talks, workshops, you name it, somebody will probably be doing it in Biggar between now and October 28th.

Last night was the official launch, with a big reception followed by a late night jazz concert from touring saxophone quartet Brass Jaw. Tonight there's a staging of Willy Russell's Shirley Valentine, plus numerous other events. I'm on front of house for a programme of one-act plays at the Corn Exchange on Monday, acting as MC for a quartet of female crimewriters on Thursday night and performing in Mostly Musicals on Friday.

It's an exhausting 11 days, but also a lot of fun. Once the festival is over, we plunge headfirst into rehearsals for the festive pantomime. This year the Biggar Theatre Workshop is staging Cinderella, as written by Nicholas Pegg - and I'm directing it. Performances will run from December 11-15, and it'll probably be a sell-out like most years. That's a little daunting when you've only just cast the show, but it's good to know the franctic of coming weeks won't go unappreciated.

1 comment:

missread said...

That sounds really good. I'd love to be able to get involved in something like that!