Mother Goose News
Latest: 1 December 2011
‘Seeing Double’ at Loughborough Town Hall
Mother Goose Pantomime Photography Competition
Visitors to Loughborough Town Hall last week thought they were seeing double when BBC Radio Leicester presenter Martin Ballard, star of this year’s Christmas pantomime Mother Goose, dropped in to the foyer to pose with a full size standee of himself, dressed in his magnificent dame costume. “It’s like looking in a mirror,” laughed Martin when confronted with his twin.
Martin was there to launch an ‘eggs-citing’ new photograph competition for the Christmas season. 
with the standee and two members of the ‘Boiled Eggs Team’ of the Panto Junior Chorus, Samantha Lacey aged 13 and Annabel Banks aged 11, Martin explained how to enter. “It’s time for the public to get inventive. Just come along and strike your own pose with my standee and the Goose, take a picture and perhaps earn yourself a chance to see the real me on the stage.” Submitted photos will be featured in a foyer display, with the winner receiving a Family Pass (4 tickets) to a pantomime performance towards the end of the run.
Entries can either be posted to our Facebook page by following the link on the homepage of the venue website at www.loughboroughtownhall.co.uk or emailed to townhallmailing@charnwood.gov.uk Emailed photos should be submitted with written permission to publish the picture. The competition closes on 30 December and the winner will be chosen at random. Mother Goose runs from 26 November to 8 January and tickets are already selling fast,
Latest: 21 November 2011
Mother Goose Panto Takes Off!
Rehearsals are underway for this year’s Christmas pantomime at Loughborough Town Hall, with the talented cast of Mother Goose settling in to the new production. The spectacular show, a high flying fairytale adventure, opens on 26 November for a six week run and is sure to be one of the hottest tickets of the festive season.
Steve Boden from Imagine Theatre, who directs this year’s pantomime explains some interesting facts relating to this years production of Mother Goose and what goes into creating the annual festive production.
“There are a huge number of elements combined in the running of each panto and they take a lot of co-ordinating. For instance, we will be letting off over 200 theatrical pyrotechnics, using over 800 batteries for the radio microphones and mixing over 320 gallons of shaving cream for the slapstick scene. The actors, dancers and babes will have over 2,500 costume changes between them and the stage crew will change the scenery almost 300 times during the run. Our stage manager has over two hundred calls to give to each of the departments working on the show, that’s over eight thousand calls during the whole run. It’s a massive production and one which keeps everyone on their toes.”
Mother Goose stars BBC Radio Leicester presenter Martin Ballard, in his fourteenth Town Hall panto, playing the hilarious title role for the first time. Martin is relishing the challenge which includes the largest number of costume changes in the production.
“The Dame is one of the most physically demanding of roles to play in any genre of theatre,” he comments. “The part has lots of knockabout slapstick fun as well as a number of songs and dance routines. Energetic enough for any actor, but the panto dame has to do it all in ridiculously outrageous costumes which are large and heavy to wear. I have seven dame’s frocks in the show and when I’m not on stage I’m getting dressed in the next costume. It’s hard work, but great fun. I love it!”
Latest: 15th October 2011
Preparations for this year’s Christmas pantomime at Loughborough Town Hall are gathering pace with the talented cast of Mother Goose visiting the venue earlier this month to begin preparations for the spectacular new production.
Opening on 26 November for a six week run, Mother Goose stars BBC Radio Leicester presenter Martin Ballard, in his fourteenth Town Hall panto, playing the hilarious title role. Martin’s comic sidekick will be Charlie Guest as Archie Goose, who was a big hit with panto audiences last year when he played Buttons in Cinderella. Plenty of slosh and madcap comedy is guaranteed as the duo take on the evil and devious Demon Discontent, played by Mike Royce, and Pablo Raybould as the miserly Squire Skinflint. Feisty Sally Peerless and charming Lindsay Harding will be playing the love stuck duo Jack and Jill, and the cast is completed by Amy Foreman as the loyal Priscilla the Goose and Kathy Brooke as the Fairy.
Following the phenomenal commercial and critical success of last year’s sell out show Cinderella, which was attended by over 30,000 people, Mother Goose is undoubtedly the hottest ticket this Christmas. Produced, once again, by Imagine Theatre and directed by Steve Boden, who has been responsible for many previous Town Hall pantos, the new production is filled with fun, laughter, golden eggs, and fantastic flying fowl!
Follow Mother Goose on a fairytale adventure of loyalty and friendship, a battle of virtue over vanity and good over evil. With fabulous sets and costumes; wonderful songs and the funniest, craziest slosh scenes panto-land has ever seen, Mother Goose is unmissable.
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