Our first rehearsal weekend is over. And has, in fact, been over so long that The Way Through the Woods cast have already had a second one. And now that’s over. See, we’re very prepared.

And so it came to pass that the brave members of Two Shades of Blue converged upon beautiful central London in the hot July sun, and then shut themselves away in a couple of stuffy UCL seminar rooms, in various states of tiredness and hungover-ness. What followed was both brilliant and terrifying.

The Way Through the Woods cast sorted out read-throughs and music cues, while the Batman cast went in search of the perfect Brooklyn accent.

Woods’s weekend led them through a tour of the ancestral home of Sleepy, dance workshops, and much soul-searching through character and improv games.

Not many people know that you can often find your character’s soul under a table.

Compared to that, rehearsing their music and recording voice-overs, the Batman cast seemed almost sedate.

Almost.

Under the guise of rehearsing, the cast also gave life to a multitude of parody songs and filks, from ‘Bat Romance’ to ‘Lovebats’ to ‘You Can Leave Your Bat On’. Do look out for them when you’re wandering along the Mile this year (as you will be).

And, after all that, actual blocking and rehearsing did get done.

Proof:

And proof: