Tower of London Performance opportunity (produced by MDBrunch) on-book

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE:

MD Brunch has organised the opportunity for you to experience of singing within the iconic grounds of the Tower of London. There will be plenty of time for breaks and lunch, with access to the Crown Jewels and tours at any time during the day. There are 3 Performance stages within the Tower that you will be performing on throughout the day: 

1. The Wharf West and The Wharf East - These are the main stages, where we will have extra amplification and lighting for the later performances. It is also open to the public, therefore, once you have your assigned time on this stage, you can let friends and family know, if they do not want to pay to enter the Tower, that they can pop along and hear you for free. (25 min set)

2. East Side White Tower - has great acoustics so only a little amplification is needed. This is also where people queue for the Crown Jewels, so great footfall as an audience. (25 min set)

NO COVER FOR THE CHOIRS AND ALL STAGES ARE OUTDOORS.

West End Musical Choir is organising the performance sign up, our Musical Director & our performance repertoire (repertoire of the Autumn Term).

Fee for performer: £10 

MD Brunch charges a performance fee to help cover the costs of their team, production equipment hire and professional photographer. Non-refundable.

Performance date: Sunday 8th December 2024

MEETING TIME & LOCATION:

9:10am

You will need to be gathered collectively as a choir at the EAST GATE ENTRANCE (No 7 on the map below / (St Katherines Way, EC3N 4AB) onto the Wharf).

You will then walk over together to the entrance and security check point at the EAST DRAWBRIDGE.

Here you will see the MDBrunch Production Desk where all names will be checked by a member of our production team and everyone will be given wristbands which must be visible at all times.  The Tower security team will then bag check everyone before we all walk together (10mins) to the Green Room.

Once checked in and wrist banded, a member of our team will then take you all into the Tower, across the Middle Drawbridge to The New Armouries, where we have 2 large Green Rooms to accommodate all the choirs.  You can leave bags etc here all day.  You can take essential valuables with you but no bags to be left side of stage, please.

Once you've settled, a member of production will take you to your first stage, where the Stage Manager will take over. Past that point, unless you have been assigned a production team member for assistance, you will be expected to arrive at your next stages independently as a group. 

Once you've done your first performance of the day, you will then need to arrive at the Stage for your later performances 15mins before your performance slot (please also be super supportive the Choir before you too!).

You can choose to stay at the Tower all day (with access to the Crown Jewels and tours at any time during the day) but if you do leave & come back, please ensure you allow plenty of time to get around as understandably the Tower gets very busy.

At the end of your day there is no special procedure or check out required, just make sure you have cleared up your choir's area of the green room, taken all your belongings and leave in an orderly fashion.

GETTING TO THE TOWER:

Here are detailed instructions on how to travel TO the Tower of London (click here).

If arriving by tube, the nearest station is Tower Hill on the District and Circle Lines or Tower Gateway on the DLR

BELOW IS A MAP OF THE TOWER WITH THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS NUMBERED FOR YOU:

1. WHITE TOWER STAGE

2. THE NEW ARMOURIES (Green Rooms)

3. MIDDLE DRAWBRIDGE

4. PRODUCTION DESK (Not actually under water as per the map)

5. WHARF STAGE EAST

6. WHARF STAGE WEST

7. EAST GATE ENTRANCE

8. WEST GATE ENTRANCE

CHOIR GREEN ROOM (2 LEVELS / SHARED WITH ALL CHOIRS):

You will have access to the assigned Green Room throughout the day, which has its own toilet facilities.  This will be where you keep any belongings, as we can't have bags etc around the stages. You are welcome to bring your own food and drinks into the Tower.  There are cafes within the grounds but it's the Tower, so not that cheap. There are takeaway cafes next to the West Gate entrance (Paul's/Starbucks etc) and a Tesco Express at the East Gate to buy food and drinks before entering.

PERFORMANCES TIMES (EACH CHOIR HAS A HALF HOUR SLOT THAT INCLUDES GETTING ONTO THE STAGE, PERFORMING & GETTING OFF):

We will be sharing which singers are in which Cast later this week!

CAST A

10:30am (both Casts perform together) at Stage 3 White Tower

13:30pm at Stage 2 Wharf East

16:30pm (both Casts perform together) at Stage 1 Wharf West

*As the Tower closes at 5pm, you just need to bring all of your belongings from the Green Room with you to the stage as the MD Brunch production team can look after them there.

CAST B

10:30am (both Casts perform together) at Stage 3 White Tower

11:00am at Stage 2 Wharf East

16:30pm (both Casts perform together) at Stage 1 Wharf West

*As the Tower closes at 5pm, you just need to bring all of your belongings from the Green Room with you to the stage as the MD Brunch production team can look after them there.

OFFICIAL RUNNING ORDER:

Hercules Medley

Can't Help Falling In Love

Baby It's Cold Outside

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Believe

We Need a Little Christmas

FRIENDS & FAMILY:

As I have mentioned, the Wharf which runs alongside the River Thames, is open to the public, accessed by the East/West Gates. This is where the 2 Wharf stages will be.  You can tell friends and family to come and watch you for free (you now know your times).  However, if they want to see your White Tower performance, they will need to pay for an entry ticket to The Tower as normal on the HRP Tower website Link for Tickets (residents of Tower Hamlets get discounted tickets). IMPORTANT - Once the paying public exit the Tower, they are not permitted to enter again. Therefore, if you have friends and family paying to watch you at the White Tower, if your next stage is on the Wharf and they come out, they won't get back in. I'm only highlighting this because we had a problem with this last year.

BREAKS / FOOD & DRINK:

There are eating  places (click link) in the Tower (not particularly cheap).

On St Katherine's Way, just before you arrive at the East Gate - there is a Tesco Express.  You might want to grab your daily refreshments there, or bring your own, because we would prefer if you did not leave the Tower one you've been signed in.  You will however be allowed to leave after your last performance, I promise.We have tried to allocate plenty of time (unless you have requested specific start/finish times) within your first and last performances, for breaks, lunch and exploring the Tower.  Once inside the Tower, your wristbands entitle you to visit the Crown Jewels or join a tour.

ACCESSIBILITY:

The entire Tower and the green rooms are fully accessible.  Please be prepared for a great deal of cobbles, but there are specific wheelchair accessible routes, which a production team member will assist with on the day.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that the public are not allowed on the lawn of the White Tower (where you'll be performing), it has a raised and very narrow entrance onto it. This does mean unless a wheelchair user is mobile enough to get out and step up onto the lawn and the wheelchair lifted over, they will not be able to access the stage. However, people using wheelchairs accompanied by a few of their choir members can form a group in front of the lawn and the choir move as far forward as possible, to almost join them. This was the most inclusive solution we could come up with under the circumstances. 

Both Wharf Stages are fully accessible.