Panto 2022: For the record

Way back when she was 9 and in year 5, my daughter did her first professional panto. She was in the chorus and she absolutely loved it. We all did. So she went back in year 6 and year 7.

After her second panto, we realised that you were pretty much guaranteed to get in every year after you’d done it once.

Every year, it was an absolute joy and the highlight of the year. (Which is saying something for someone who hates winter as much as I do!)

I used to love writing about her panto experience and I know people loved reading about it too.

But she grew up. Her stories were hers to share, not mine. I became much more careful about how much information I gave away about her.

But, for the record, I needed to share that, against the odds, she is back in panto again. She’s now 16 and in year 12!

If everything had run smoothly, she would have done panto every year since that very first one. But we all know that things don’t run smoothly.

When she was in year 8, the theatre changed the rules. They decided to just work with a couple of local dance schools, rather than hold the open auditions they’d always held. Luckily, that didn’t work out for them.

So my daughter was back in panto in year 9.

In year 5 and 6, she’d been the second smallest on her chorus team. By year 7, she was fourth biggest (a chorus is always eight kids).

In year 9, she was the second biggest.

In year 10, there was no panto. That was 2020.

Panto was back when she was in year 11, but it clashed with her mocks. We accepted that she wouldn’t do it. Auditions were at the start of September, just before school went back. It was my eldest who said we should get in touch with school and ask permission for her to do it. Massive credit to the headteacher who agreed to it.

So she was back in panto in year 11. She barely missed a mock exam and she breezed through them.

Again, she was the second biggest.

Size matters in panto. They try to get a range of ages and sizes. They obviously aim to pick the most talented kids, but of all different heights. Although the kids are different sizes, the age range changes a bit from year to year. A tall 9-year-old will be competing for a place on the chorus with a small 12-year-old.

In my daughter’s first year, most of the kids were aged 12 to 14. When she was in year 7, there were four primary school kids on the team. When she was in year 9, most of the kids were year 6. When she was in year 11, there were three 15-year-olds on the team and only one primary school child.

By the time she was in year 11, the unwritten rule about getting straight back into panto if you’d done it before had gone. Kids who’d been in the chorus the previous year auditioned and failed to get in.

Before 2021, auditions had always been for 8 to 16-year-olds. In 2021, that had changed to 9 to 15-year-olds. My daughter had always hoped to do panto in year 12, but this would definitely be her last one.

As panto 2021 drew to a close, the older girls begged the chaperone to put a word in for them and get the age changed to 16 again. But the powers that be were adamant. The age limit would stay as 15.

In April 2022, the chaperone got in touch with a couple of the girls to say that she’d managed to change their minds. 16-year-olds would be able to audition again!

Obviously they would all get back in again, right?

This year’s audition was the toughest yet. There were more kids than ever. They also had to sing and act, rather than just dance. My daughter is a brilliant dancer and she can act, but she’s the first to admit singing isn’t her strong point. She gave it her all in the audition.

And we waited and waited and waited.

After four days, we finally heard that she’d got in. A lot of kids who’d been in previously didn’t make it, including one who has always been very good.

But, against the odds, my daughter is doing one final panto at the age of 16. Oh yes, she is!

(And she’s still the second biggest.)