Panto Day Launches National Database of Pantomime Performance

With less than a week to go until Panto Day 2013 on Saturday 7th November, Panto Day launches the National Database of Pantomime Performance.

The National Database of Pantomime Performance has been two years in the making and aims to list every professional pantomime staged in the UK between November and February each year. The database, made possible due to a research grant from the Society for Theatre Research, provides key information about pantomimes in the form of casts, creatives, companies and images and is a rich resource of information for the pantomime industry, practitioners, members of the media, academics and pantomime enthusiasts alike.

At www.pantoperformances.info users can easily navigate Panto Season 2013's many shows using a variety of different search terms. Database users are greeted with the season's productions divided chronologically into 'On Stage' for those currently playing, 'Behind You' for shows that have closed and 'In the Wings' for pantomimes opening soon.

As well as by date, productions can be searched by theatre, Production Company, person (performer / creative team member / backstage crew and technicians) or story at the click of a mouse and users can even purchase tickets for the pantomime of their choice using the link on the relevant production's profile page. The National Database of Pantomime Performance is also fully functional on mobile phones and tablet devices.

At present, the National Database of Pantomime Performance lists 1,134 people involved in 255 professional pantomimes presented by 143 production companies between 16th November 2013 and 2nd February 2014.

The most popular title this season is Jack and the Beanstalk with 39 productions, followed closely by Cinderella with 38 and then Aladdin with 29. Fourth and fifth most popular for 2013 are Snow White (24) and Sleeping Beauty (22), with Dick Whittington (18), Peter Pan (15), Beauty and the Beast (13), Robin Hood / and the Babes in the Wood (8) and The Wizard of Oz (3) completing the season's top ten.

Panto Day Founder and National Database of Pantomime Performance Curator Simon Sladen said:

"It is with great pleasure that we launch the National Database of Pantomime Performance today. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved with the project over the past two years and helped it become a reality, from theatre press officers, to production companies and pantomime practitioners, not forgetting the Society for Theatre Research and database designer David Chadderton. The database has been a huge industry-wide project and I look forward to seeing it grow as more and more data is added each day. We're pretty confident we have almost all of the UK's professional pantomimes listed, but I look forward to finding out which one's we've missed and hope those theatres and companies will get in touch to let us know!"

For further information and to access the database, visit www.pantoperformances.info.

To post a comment, you must register and login.