PANTO seems an unlikely setting for true love but this year’s shows feature two couples who found their perfect partner while on the pantomime stage.
Oh no, they didn’t!
Yes, they really did.
Tom Duncan and Lynne Jenkinson met while starring in Snow White at the Byre Theatre in St Andrews in 2012 and married last month.
They came straight from their honeymoon to rehearsals as they prepare to play Cinderella and Buttons in this year’s panto.
Tom Duncan and Lynne Jenkinson married on Halloween, but they don’t look scary to us!
Meanwhile, actor Johnny Mac and dancer Steph Fulton met on the hallowed boards of the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow while performing in Peter Pan in 2011.
The happy couple got engaged in September and appear together in this year’s Pavilion panto, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, with a wedding planned for 2017.
Johnny was making his first appearance at the Pavilion’s panto when he fell for Steph although it wasn’t the most straightforward of romances.
“I noticed Steph right away but I thought she was dating one of the other actors,” Johnny, from Glasgow, smiled.
“We were just close friends,” explained Steph, from Coatbridge.
They got to know each other in typically odd panto style.
“I had 10 seconds to change costumes after coming out of a cannon and rushing back on for a swordfight, and Steph was tasked with helping me, so I was able to ask her one question a night. It was like speed dating!” Johnny said.
Johnny Mac and dancer Steph Fulton (C Austin / DC Thomson)
A couple of cast nights out allowed them longer chats and they hit it off.
For Lynne and Tom, theirs is a love-at-first-sight relationship straight from a panto fairytale.
“She looks like a princess but is so mischievous and fun,” Tom, originally from Gretna, said. “The cast had meals together and it all progressed quite quickly.”
Lynne, from Edinburgh, said: “I was the one who made the move.
“Tom was worried at first that if it didn’t work out it would cause upset in the cast.”
They were in a long- distance relationship for a year before Tom moved to Edinburgh and he proposed in April.
The horror film fans married on Halloween and then honeymooned in Disneyworld.
So will art imitate life and will Buttons finally get the girl?
Well, sometimes even the best fairytales can’t match real love.
Santa Claus is Coming to Town is at the Pavilion now until January 17, while Cinderella is at the Byre from Tuesday until January 2.
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