Product Description

This book clearly explains how to plan and deliver a successful, traditional pantomime script. There are thousands of pantomimes staged throughout the world every year, most of them in Britain. Most groups, whether they be amateur drama societies, schools, Women's Institutes or Village Hall committees are constantly on the lookout for something fresh and original. This is often a matter of economics, as professional pantomimes can be costly in terms of performing rights, let alone the cost of scripts. This book is aimed at those people who take part in this increasingly popular hobby, and at the writer who wishes to write a pantomime, either for a local group, or, indeed, for mass publication.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47775 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-17
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

About the Author
LESLEY COOKMAN has been writing, directing and performing in pantomime for many years. Formerly a freelance journalist, she was for a time editor of The Call Boy, the magazine of the British Music Hall Society, and her pantomimes have been performed not only across the British Isles, but in Australia and America. She now writes the Libby Sarjeant mystery series (Accent Press), in which she uses her background in amateur theatre.

Customer Reviews

I suppose it ticks most of the boxes.
I can't bring myself to enthuse about this book. She clearly knows her stuff, but I think this book is more like a personal diary of hers than a reference work for aspiring panto writers. There is very little in this book that you can't find gratis elsewhere on the web imho.

I feel that I can only reasonably recommend the book to those who don't want to research the subject for free on the web and prefer to have the information all in one place.

It's okay - but nothing more.

How NOT to write a Pantomime
As someone who has written many pantos, I thought it would be interesting to see what the author had to say. Well to be honest the sparse number of pages were a great disappointment, a mixture of the bleeding obvious and quite a lot of nonsense.

Example: the "easiest" to write are the best known such as Cinderella and Aladdin. WRONG. Because they're so well known, as an author you have a lot less room for manouver and, therefore, unless you want to copy other people's work it's a lot harder than trying rarer subjects, such as Puss In Boots or Treasure Island.

So overall I'd say don't waste your money on this book.

A Little Knowledge - A Long Way
For those who haven't a clue how to do it, this book is a great starting point; for those who think they know how to do it, it's a great reminder that you don't know it all. It is an ideal guide for getting a panto script off the ground.

Ms Cookman writes clearly and precisely, she doesn't waste time and she provides plenty of examples of what she is talking about. Each chapter sets a few exercises based on the material that has gone before and which serve as a useful reminder.

The introductory chapters help define the reasons why anyone may want to be writing a pantomime, but also nudge the would-be playwright to remember who s/he is writing for.

She uses the motif of her own panto "Little Boy Blue" which the reader sees gradually expanded as the book goes on. She wisely doesn't show the finished script. The reader is regularly reminded to get on with it.

Those people who didn't really have the motivation in the first place will be disappointed with this book because it doesn't tell you exactly what to do. It's great for those with an active imagination as it encourages them to use it. It would give confidence to those who want to have a go and maybe aren't so sure, but they'll certainly be able to turn out a script by the end of this, whatever the standard.

A nice, slim volume that does exactly what it says on the cover, and waste no time and print.