Our performances at Prague Pride 2015 in mid-August, the high point of which was the joint concert with the London Gay Men’s Chorus at the New Scene of the National Theatre in Prague, were sort of a debut for Doodles in many respects.
We have never had such an intense week of singing. During the heat of summer, we organised an intensive weekend rehearsal to prepare for Prague Pride week so that we could perform on Monday at Hrzansky Palace at the opening ceremony of Prague Pride. On the following days, we rehearsed with the London chorus and performed with them, first at the British Embassy on Thursday, and then on Friday at the sold-out New Scene of the National Theatre. For those who still had some energy left over from a demanding week, we participated in the Saturday Prague Pride march, where there was also an abundance of singing.
There were several firsts for Doodles – this was the first time our choir had performed exclusively under the direction of Marek Stanka. Together with him, we prepared for the audience classical compositions as well as popular music from our repertoire. For the songs we sang together with the London choir, we had our first experience with choreography. Some had no problem from the very beginning coordinating their singing with dance moves – and for the rest, at least a surprise toast helped when finishing on stage the song “To Beer” from Bedřich Smetana’s opera “The Bartered Bride”.
It was also a premiere for us to perform with another choir. We are grateful that we had the chance to sing with the London Gay Men’s Chorus, which is the largest gay choir in Europe. We had a wonderful time with them and hope that we have communicated this feeling and atmosphere to all of our listeners.