Last weekend was Thronescamp, a readthrough of two seasons of Game of Thrones. This year was seasons 5 and 6. I organise it, along with ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cm, and although it's become a lot easier three years in, as I get the hang of what needs doing, there's still quite a lot to be done. Between formatting files of subtitles into useable scripts, working out meals and groceries for 16 people, planning logistics and sorting out the casting, it's been taking up quite a lot of my tuits for the last few months, but as always the end result has been extremely worth it.
We hold it at the Old Baptist Chapel in Belper, a rather eccentric aging holiday home, where we've been hosting one readthrough or another for years. I arrived at just after three on Thursday evening, to findbella_luugosi and fluffymark already waiting for me to turn up with the keys. The first evening was a fairly relaxed settling in. I cooked dinner, and we learned a couple of bits of music that would be used in the readthrough, but mostly just sat around talking and drinking and singing and saunaing.
Friday was the day with most reading, starting around nine am, and going through to half ten in the evening, albeit at a far more gentle pace with more breaks than Bardcamps of old, where we would slightly crazily cram five Shakespeare plays into a single day. There were lots of fabulous and moving performances, interspersed with just about the right amount of readthrough ridiculousness. I had very greedily cast myself as both Varys and Littlefinger, and really enjoyed both parts; also, I played Theon toleonato's Ramsay Bolton, which was hot in all the wrong ways.
Saturday was a later start to the reading, allowing a nice lie in for all the sensible people who didn't get up to go to Parkrun. Spoiler - I was not one of those sensible people. I had been nursing a slightly tight calf, and having smashed my PB a couple of weeks previously the plan was to run at a reasonably sedate pace.robert_jones was intending to run 20 miles the following day, so had a similar plan. The trouble with plans like that is that now we're about the same speed, and maybe just a teensy smidge competitive, so neither of us was going to let the other get ahead, which means we completely failed at running slowly, and both got new PBs. (And very importantly, mine was 9 seconds ahead of his ;)
After another fairly long day of reading I was glad to get a lie in for myself on Sunday, and woke up about 20 minutes before my 10.00 alarm. There's a nice anglo-catholic church just down the road, so a bunch of us went to Mass, and were pleased to be recognised with the comment, "Oh hello again, we'll enjoy some good singing today then!" Back at the chapel the atheists had been hard at work cooking brunch, so we got back to giant piles of eggs, halloumi, pig in various forms, and other delicious fried things, before bringing season six to its conclusion. Another evening of drinking and talking and singing in extremely convivial company followed, until we all sloped off to bed much earlier than we used to at these things... I had the Monday off work, and so went back to York for a few hours before leaving Mark to rest and recover, which made for much less of a wrench than saying goodbye in a few minutes as our trains go in different directions.
It is quite a relief to have the organising and admin over and done with, but I'm a bit sad that it's a whole year (or thereabouts) until the next one. I had such a good time, and a couple of people said that it's been one of the highlights of their year, which makes me feel all squiggly and warm inside.
cm, and although it's become a lot easier three years in, as I get the hang of what needs doing, there's still quite a lot to be done. Between formatting files of subtitles into useable scripts, working out meals and groceries for 16 people, planning logistics and sorting out the casting, it's been taking up quite a lot of my tuits for the last few months, but as always the end result has been extremely worth it.We hold it at the Old Baptist Chapel in Belper, a rather eccentric aging holiday home, where we've been hosting one readthrough or another for years. I arrived at just after three on Thursday evening, to find
bella_luugosi and fluffymark already waiting for me to turn up with the keys. The first evening was a fairly relaxed settling in. I cooked dinner, and we learned a couple of bits of music that would be used in the readthrough, but mostly just sat around talking and drinking and singing and saunaing. Friday was the day with most reading, starting around nine am, and going through to half ten in the evening, albeit at a far more gentle pace with more breaks than Bardcamps of old, where we would slightly crazily cram five Shakespeare plays into a single day. There were lots of fabulous and moving performances, interspersed with just about the right amount of readthrough ridiculousness. I had very greedily cast myself as both Varys and Littlefinger, and really enjoyed both parts; also, I played Theon to
leonato's Ramsay Bolton, which was hot in all the wrong ways.Saturday was a later start to the reading, allowing a nice lie in for all the sensible people who didn't get up to go to Parkrun. Spoiler - I was not one of those sensible people. I had been nursing a slightly tight calf, and having smashed my PB a couple of weeks previously the plan was to run at a reasonably sedate pace.
robert_jones was intending to run 20 miles the following day, so had a similar plan. The trouble with plans like that is that now we're about the same speed, and maybe just a teensy smidge competitive, so neither of us was going to let the other get ahead, which means we completely failed at running slowly, and both got new PBs. (And very importantly, mine was 9 seconds ahead of his ;) After another fairly long day of reading I was glad to get a lie in for myself on Sunday, and woke up about 20 minutes before my 10.00 alarm. There's a nice anglo-catholic church just down the road, so a bunch of us went to Mass, and were pleased to be recognised with the comment, "Oh hello again, we'll enjoy some good singing today then!" Back at the chapel the atheists had been hard at work cooking brunch, so we got back to giant piles of eggs, halloumi, pig in various forms, and other delicious fried things, before bringing season six to its conclusion. Another evening of drinking and talking and singing in extremely convivial company followed, until we all sloped off to bed much earlier than we used to at these things... I had the Monday off work, and so went back to York for a few hours before leaving Mark to rest and recover, which made for much less of a wrench than saying goodbye in a few minutes as our trains go in different directions.
It is quite a relief to have the organising and admin over and done with, but I'm a bit sad that it's a whole year (or thereabouts) until the next one. I had such a good time, and a couple of people said that it's been one of the highlights of their year, which makes me feel all squiggly and warm inside.
