Go behind the scenes of A Source of Innocent Merriment by reading a personal account of the excitement and tension of the audtions. Ceri-Lyn Humphreys graciously allows us to post excerpts from her daily diary.

Katie put her warm-up tape on the car and we ooh-ed and ah-ed our way to Buxton! And although I sang a lot in the shower this morning (as per usual), I didn't feel like I'd done enough warm-up for the top of my voice. We sang along to our audition songs from The Mikado as well.

I found it very difficult to sing my top G's sitting down in a car because my diaphragm was all crushed.... I didn't think of the fact I was sitting down with my diaphragm all crushed this morning though, I just panicked and started to have horrible thoughts about me opening my mouth and no voice coming out, or even worse, that I'm going to sing so quietly that no-one will ever hear me.

I think I drank about 4 pints of water while we were in the car this morning. I was very quiet and I was nervous. Katie sang perfectly in her warm-ups... I know she's been doing it longer than I have, but she's just so fantastic! She's going to be famous when she's older!

Driving into Buxton was like driving onto a film set - there were loads of hills and flowers and the day was really sunny. Buxton is a smaller town than I expected, full of little quaint teahouses and parks - the kind of town I'd expect to visit for holidays when I'm old.

We drove up to the Opera House and parked outside. I stared up in awe.

The Opera House was all I'd expected it to be and more. It's a huge stone building with painted glass and gold lettering saying "Opera House". Its roof has two domes and it has steps going towards the door and it reminded me of the kind of the way theatre used to be when I was little - when I used to get all excited and run up the steps.

With a deep breath, Katie and I proceeded to the door of the Opera House for our audition... ahem, and were redirected to a small lecture theatre next door where the auditions were actually being held! (It was wishful thinking that the audition was going to be in the actual opera house!)

On the way to the actual audition venue, we passed the stage door... I was intrigued. People were moving scenery around and carrying boxes and costumes and wigs from big vans. Katie thought I was mad but I had to see the stage.

I approached the door to the obvious disgust of one of the stage hands and peered around. I couldn't see anything of the auditorium, but I saw the stage. It was huge and black and had huge tabs and all of a sudden I got butterflies and a sudden shot of excitement, of adrenaline. That was my mission - that was my task; to sing on that stage!

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