The end of an era – but the show goes on!
Last month we moved out of our home of nearly 11 years, the Old Day School in Bluntisham.
It’s a bittersweet moment, and a decision we have not taken lightly. The ODS has been our home for more than a decade, and there’s no doubt that having a dedicated rehearsal and storage space has been invaluable for us. Being able to set up the stage alsmost exactly as it appears in the Village Hall for productions helps not only the rehearsing actors and director but also the set builders, decorators and dressers. Having everything stored in one place has also extremely handy as well.
Why move out then? Well, the Old Day School is an old building. The clue is right there in the name (thanks for pointing that out – Stating-the-obvious Ed). Like all old buildings, it requires a lot of upkeep and maintenance, and there’s always more to do. Maintaining an old building is like a game of “Catch the Greasy Pig” – constantly pursuing a moving target that is tricky to pin down and seems determined to always stay one step ahead.
Over the years we’ve done a fair bit of this ourselves, as well as raising funds to pay for professionals for the jobs beyond our abilities. We kept on top of it – and then lockdown happened. During that time we still had to pay the bills, but no shows meant no income to cover the costs. We emerged from lockdown with barely enough funds to buy a turnip. What’s more, as soon as we started up again post-lockdown it became clear that the ODS greasy pig had become even greasier. Top of the list was that neither of the gas heaters were usable any more. The spring rehearsals for My Friend Miss Flint weren’t too bad, but during the winter rehearsals for Death By Fatal Murder it was colder inside the ODS than out, and it was brass-monkey weather outside much of the time. Electric heaters got the meter spinning but barely touched the sides with any warmth. Lack of heating, plus other work needed, plus uncertainty about how long we could stay even if all the repairs were done, left us with no choice but to pack up and move out. So, since the turn of the year, that’s what we’ve been doing. It’s astonishing just how many odd-shaped bits of wood we’ve hoarded over the past decade (that’s no way to talk about the actors – Inclusivity Ed).
Does that mean the end of BaCStage then? Not a bit of it! We thrived for more than ten years before the ODS, and we fully intend to continue doing so without it. We’ve got rid of all the stuff we didn’t need any more (no actors were harmed during that process) and found alternative storage for the stuff we still need (more on that another time). We’re already rehearsing our next show in one of the Village Hall meeting rooms, and while there may not be a stage in there it is at least warm!
More details of that next show will be coming soon, so stay tuned. We may have bid farewell to the ODS, but the BaCStage show goes on!
