Filming Pantomime Shows
You may remember back in February I reported back on filming Gatwick Airport Pantomime Society’s – or GAPS for short – 2009 charity performance of ‘Mother Goose’ at the Hawth Theatre in Crawley, West Sussex. Well, here is the update – the show has been edited, distributed and screened at the ‘GAPS Oscars’ earlier this month and we now have clips to share!
Before we do, here is a bit of background about GAPS: GAPS is a fun group of committed people dedicated to staging entertaining, colourful shows. Raising money for local charities and ultimately improving the lives of those less fortunate. This year’s charities were the Jigsaw School for Autistic Children, The Olive Tree Cancer Support Centre and The National Association for Colitis and Crohn’s Disease.
Gatwick Airport Pantomime Society (GAPS) was originally set up in 1990 to put on a pantomime, which unexpectedly made a profit. They decided to donate this money to charity. This small act sparked a desire to make it an annual event – the result of which is that GAPS now puts on award winning shows raising thousands of pounds for charities in and around Sussex and Surrey.
Since they’ve started, they have given away over £282,500 and 40 charities have been supported so far plus The Great Ormond Hospital for sick children and Cancer Research – an amazing accomplishment.
Many of their members are employed by British Airways who are also their main supporter. Staff come from both Gatwick or Heathrow but membership is open to people from all walks of life; from Immigration Officers to Police Officers and from Pilots to Check-In agents. Their strengths come from their members who volunteer time, energy and effort into making these shows a success year after year. They work hard to ensure that you enjoy the show and that local charities benefit; it’s teamwork at its finest.
This year’s performance, ‘Mother Goose’, was GAPS’ 19th show – as they say in the finale of the show: 19 years and still red-hot! – and the 15th year I have been involved with the show, so watch out for next year’s 20th anniversary show and ball – it’s going to be huge!!
This is a great group of very committed and talented people, the amount of time and effort that goes into putting these shows together is truly amazing and it definitely shows – they get better and better every year. So, here are the clips I promised: the intro, a couple of numbers from the show, and the outtakes – especially the outtakes, my hot favourite every time, which goes to show: even with all that hard work and effort there is ALWAYS time for fun…enjoy, enjoy…
And a final word from my fanclub, ahh, it’s so good to be loved…
‘Excellent!!!!!! Well done Ines, looking forward to seeing the whole thing now.xx’
Tracy Kirrage
‘This is excellent Ines! Adelle, you’re a superstar! lol! P x’
‘Love it!’
‘Excellent Miss The DVD was FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!’
Andy Hudson
‘Excellent panto video Ines. You are v talented’
Julian Portch
‘Ines, the DVD went down a storm at the Oscars , people were crying with laughter at the outtakes and your Scene change comments brought huge cheers!
I think if you ever leave GAPS Ines the entire cast will go into morning! xxx’
‘Ines, what an absolute fantastic show dvd the best, thank you so much.. tony xx’
‘Ines – that was incredible missus – such a great great video – well done my lovely – tippity tip top idea! We all loved all the scene gags – honestly lovie, that must have taken so much time but it was worth every pain staking moment – its utterly brilliant!! We did miss you Saturday (and its a shame you missed the response your DVD got) but hey – here’s to another year and catching up v soon! Well done love – you are a star! xxxxxx’
Adelle Pope
‘Thank you so much Ines for fantastic DVD – you even made Thriller look good – which was truely miraculous!!! Thanks again Jason xx’
Mwah…I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!! xx Ines
