For those who get involved, the weekly rehearsals are all about fun, laughter, making new friends and catching up with ‘old’ friends; leading up to the week of performances when we try to ensure that our audiences have a great night out. But, of course, our main aim is to give as much money away as we can to local groups and charities and since we started (in 1980) we reckon we’ve given over £100,000 away: amazing, eh?!
Our Panto started life when a group of teachers from Hawick High School decided it would be a good idea to put on a pantomime and let their pupils see them in a different light! Rehearsals took place in a classroom in the Henderson Tech (as it was called then). All of our scenery, props and costumes were hand-made so that expenses were kept as low as possible and our first Panto “Babes in the Wood” was performed for 3 nights.
Since then the Panto Group has changed from being something linked to the school to a ‘town’ show –members come and go, we’ve had highs and lows, near disasters, laughs and tears, but each year we meet up again in August to start another round of rehearsing, so that the our audiences - young and old – experience the wonder and the magic of pantomime.