West End Kids performed a 1hr cabaret set in support of the “Dreamflight” charity on Saturday 20th June at the Concord Centre, London Heathrow. Here is a “behind-the-scenes” insight of the day of the performance.

12.30pm: WEK Technical Team Arrive at Theatre.
The WEK technical team arrived at the theatre where John (Dreamflight lighting) was rigging up lights. We were all incredibly impressed with John, he is a former West End lighting technician who fell out of the profession a few years ago and had the unenviable task of rigging up, plotting and operating the lights almost single handedly – no mean feat! Installation of all WEK’s technical equipment ran smoothly with no hitches.

1.30pm: WEK’s arrive!
WEK’s arrive at the theatre and are impressed with the size and layout of the theatre. Dreamflight technicians are running a little behind – looks like technical rehearsal will be slightly delayed.

2.15pm: WEK Sound Check
Going into the event, if the WEK technical team had any concerns it was going to be regarding the sound. This is mainly because, in our experience – even though the WEK shows are relatively straight forward as far as sound is concerned, when engineers come in with no prior knowledge of the show on a same day tech and show, there are normally problems.
For this reason, we have our own technical team and sound equipment meaning that we are able to go into any venue with a self-sufficient sound set up, not needing to use or rely on any of the theatres staff, although this is only really practical for theatres with a capacity of less than 500.

As predicted we did suffer some problems with the sound check and were unhappy with the mix coming from the Dreamflight engineer on the mixing desk. Rather than rush through this, we made the decision to extend the sound check and insist on getting the mix of sound that was acceptable to us.

3.30pm: Technical Rehearsal
A swift technical rehearsal went pretty smoothly. We remained impressed with John Swift (Dreamflight lighting engineer) who had done a great job with the lighting in such a short period of time almost single handedly. The WEK’s were finding the 1hr set of flat-out singing and choreography even more difficult under the extraordinary heat of lights. The theatre had no air-conditioning but a rig bigger than we have seen outside of a West End theatre. This combined to create a steady down-pouring of sweat from all the WEKs! Martin also took the decision to rest Hannah El-Ayadi during the technical rehearsals. With a big weekend coming up for Hannah as she solos in Run Freedom Run and One Dream Away at both Dreamflight and West End Live the next day – she was suffering from tonsillitis! Despite having an understudy prepared, Hannah insisted that she wanted to do the performance.

5.45pm: Break / Preparation
WEK technical rehearsal ends and we are happy with the state of things technical prior to the performance – taking into consideration the limitations of a same day tech / performance. We took this into account during the rehearsal period and so the kids were perfectly drilled regarding microphone usage etc. The WEK’s eat and begin to prepare for the performance, scheduled for 7.30pm.

7.30PM: Performance delayed
Dreamflight supporters are arriving but are not ushered through to the main auditorium due to the over running of Paul Zerdins (Ventriloquist)’s technical rehearsal. Performance is put back to 8pm.

8PM: Further performance delay
Heathrow catering team are late with the catering meaning members of the audience are still not seated. Upon consultation with us (as the kids must be up for West End Live in the morning), performance is delayed by another half hour to 8.30pm.

8.30PM: WEST END KIDS PERFORMANCE
West End Kids are in excited and confident mood backstage. Heat under the lights and on stage is particularly hot, again –something we have prepared for in rehearsals by running the set under stress a great deal – the WEKs are fit!

Hannah El-Ayadi does a great job with Run Freedom Run as her voice holds (suffering from tonsillitis) – great relief!
Very good opening of the 1hr set, fatigue begins to show midway through the performance, as a result a little sloppiness with choreography starts to creep in. A little rest during the “Best of Times” gives everyone a chance to catch their breath and deliver an excellent performance of the 10 minute Seussical medley. We complete our set and Malcolm (Dreamflight Producer) introduces our performance of the Dreamflight song “One Dream Away”.

9.30pm: ONE DREAM AWAY PERFORMANCE
Nerves from the musical director, not only as altering vocal arrangements that have been held dear to people’s hearts for 25 years carries a certain degree of pressure, but also slightly worried about Hannah El-Ayadi suffering with tonsillitis.
Performance is very good, reduces the majority of the audience to tears including Malcolm who is unable to return to the stage straight away as he needs to compose himself. Hannah’s voice holds up, and we are very happy with the performance.

Bows and WEK receive a standing ovation and are asked by Malcolm to perform the song one more time – WEK obliges to rapturous applause.

9.45pm: Performance over
WEK’s return to the dressing room having lost a good 3 stone. Plenty of fluids as the lights made the 1hr set very physically demanding.

10pm: WEK: Technical Team out
With West End Live the following day, we are very keen to get out as quickly as possible. A quick strike-out and we are out by 10pm.

10.15pm: WEK’s leave
The WEK’s leave the theatre followed closely by the technical team and head for their beds. Biggest performance of the year tomorrow at West End Live.

Final Thought:
We were all very happy with the Dreamflight performance. It was far from perfect, but of most interest to WEK was the value to the kids of performing such a difficult set of music in such a short period of time (6 days). It was very well received by Dreamflight who were grateful for our coming out to support their cause.

WEK will record a studio version of “One Dream Away” at the end of July for public commercial release. Watch out for its release on iTunes later in 2009.

Tags | british airways, concorde centre, dreamflight, heathrow, one dream away, wek, west end kids