On Saturday 10th December 2016, Enter CIC staged their traditional Christmas extravaganza at Bowes Museum. Enter CIC has now become well known for staging events in inspirational and world famous venues and the team were delighted to be granted permission to utilise Bowes Museum as the backdrop to our 2016 Christmas performance event.
Enter CIC technical team arrived early at the venue to set up the technical aspects of the production. The team worked incredibly hard to turn the galleries and rooms into beautifully lit theatrical environments. When they had finished the world famous galleries sparkled and truly captured the festive spirit of the season. The venue looked beautiful and one could not fail to be impressed with the grandeur and scale of the event.
Staff, students and volunteers worked exceptionally hard throughout the day to ensure the performance event was perfect. As the audience arrived, our students took up their meet and greet duties and escorted audience members to their allocated seating areas. Ribbons & Bowes was a unique production comprised of two shows which ran independently and simultaneously in different rooms of the museum.
Upon arrival, audience members were divided into two discrete sections and were seated (for the first show) in either the very elaborate Jubilee Room, or the beautiful Blue Picture Gallery. During the interval the audience swapped rooms in readiness for the second show. This type of performance structure required our students to move quickly from one room to another slipping seamlessly into their next performance extract, which quite frequently was taking place in the other room. Initially the audience did not comprehend what our performers were doing, or the scale of what they were achieving. However, you can imagine the surprise on their faces when they moved to their second seating area to watch the second show to discover that the cast they had just watched perform in the first show also had an instrumental performance role in the second show too! The audience were quite simply in awe. The level of professionalism and timing displayed by our students was extraordinary and quite simply breath taking!
We would like to extend our gratitude to Bowes Museum for providing a beautiful and unique performance venue. We would also like to extend a heart felt thanks to our wonderful volunteers, students and staff for their continued hard work and dedication. What a team and what a night!
