Rantings

It's only Tuesday, and already I'm excited about Thursday's meeting at Theatre Group. We're having the Post Mortem of the play we did at the weekend, Blue Remembered Hills by Dennis Potter. And as this is all new to me, I'm dying to know what the outcome is.

Our next show will be the Christmas pantomime, so I'm guessing that scripts will be brandished by everybody wanting to try their hand at directing. Not me, though. To new. To scary. Maybe in a few years time. :-)

I'm still really tired. Glands in me neck swollen. Feeling achey. Didn't sleep all that well last night, either. Bugger.

The final night was brilliant! What can I say? If I thought Friday's performance went well, it wasn't a patch on last night's. It was by far the best and everything went (almost) without a hitch. At the end, the cast came on for a final bow and called Kate, the director, up on stage. It was Kate's first time at directing and she did a brilliant job. Then us lot up in the light and sound room got a call to the stage, and all the rest of the Washington Theatre Group who weren't acting. Everyone was given a job, you see, including front of house, fire wardens, set designers/ builders, etc. It was nice for everyone to get recognition for their hard work as well, as none of it would be possible without them.

After the audience had left, Mr Lisa made a quick getaway and hid behind a pint of beer in the bar while we had a bit of a photoshoot, Peter made a lovely presentation of a framed poster from the production which we had all signed, and then all the sets had to be dismantled and put away and the stage cleaned up, etc.

Once all the hard work was over we went off to Cat's house for the celebrations. Had a great night, and came away feeling like the group are more family than anything. Such nice warm people, and I'm blessed to have been able to join the group. For the first time in my life I'm feeling like an empty space is being filled. (Ok, gushy moment over).

I'm shattered now. Got home around 3:45 am, so needless to say, I haven't been up and dressed for long! Just had my breakfast before I'm about to catch up on my email.

Last night's performance went extremely well, and although I noticed several mistakes I'm pretty sure the audience didn't notice. They laughed in all the right places, and they gave a round of applause at the end, so I don't think we can expect more than that. :-) We made a bit of a boob up in the lighting room when we forgot to switch the banks over from one scene to two, so than when we put the red and orange flickering lights on behind the barn to simulate fire, all the lights started flashing like we were in a disco. Amazingly, the audience seemed to think it was all part of the show. LOL

As Cat said after the performance, "It always comes together on the night", and it did because believe me I really was nervous that things were going to go horribly wrong and we would be refunding everyone their ticket and programme costs. But then, I do tend to be a bit of a pessimist at times.

So, one or two more tweaks to the way the lights are patched and tonight's performance should go without a hitch. The actors were brilliant, so well done to them all. Dennis Potter's plays are not always the easiest to do, but they pulled it off beautifully. The costumes and makeup was really effective, especially with the character Peter coming back with a shiner after a fight in a previous scene. Much thanks to Nigel for being so patient with a complete noob.

My mother and her friend will be coming to see the show tonight, and I'm hoping some other friends will too. Mr Lisa enjoyed it and I think he's coming along tonight as well. After the show we will be going to Cat's house for the wrap party. :-) Woo Hoo!

I'm getting nervous. Some of you may already know that several months ago I joined the Washington Theatre Group - an amateur dramatics group based at Washington Arts Centre.

Tonight will be the first performance for me. I'm not acting this time around, but have been given the role of assistant lighting and sound technician. It's pretty scary to say the least. I mean, we didn't even finish the tech last week and last night we had to blag it as we did a straight run through dress rehearsal, but all in all it turned out ok. I just wish my stomach would settle. I'm finding it very nerve racking to say the least.

We're putting on a production of Dennis Potter's "Blue Remembered Hills". Set in 1943 the story centres around a group of seven year old children who are all played by adults. It is quite a dark tale of children playing innocently, but whose innocence comes crashing down in a most catastrophic way.

Needless to say, I will be rushing home after work to make sure I have my script with lighting cues, etc all straight and legible, eat a hastily prepared meal, then I will be rushing off to get there around 6pm to make sure everything is set up and working for the performance beginning at 7:30pm.

I have only one word to say right now ... Yeeaarrgh!