Monday, and time for a post.
You’ve probably gathered I’m up at the moment. And this weekend I’ve been a little ‘hypo’ too if I’m honest. Having two hours sleep Sunday morning didn’t help either - more on that later!
Okay here goes… A long post, but hey, it’s my blog so I can write as much as I want!
Full House Friday
Curtain up was about ten minutes late since FOH were trying to sort tickets - half the audience had been hunting parking spaces. Great show though. Audience not as responsive as the previous night, which is odd since you’d think that more people would mean more laughs or more applause. I did make all my gauze cues and it didn’t get stuck, so I was happy!
After the show ten of us adults went to an Indian just along the street for a lovely meal. The cast normally go for their own meal too, but the Chinese they go to has recently turned into another Indian and they don’t like the food or the price so they skipped that tradition on this show, which was a pity.
Short Haul Saturday
Well, long haul actually, since having gone to bed at about two I was up again at 6.45am with a number of things to do before leaving the house for what was to be a very long day.
After picking up 18 gold helium filled balloons from the shop around the corner, I left at about 10:15 to get to the Fairoaks Airport in Chobham. The events company I do some ad-hoc work for (when I’m well enough) had a variety of events going on that needed management staff, one of which was the FA Cup Final in Wembley. (I did the Portsmouth winning semi-final last month.)
But I couldn’t do Wembley because I knew I’d be unlikely to be back in time. (And after the fiasco last time, wasn’t particularly fussed anyway - the smaller stadiums are much better organised.) Instead I was asked to oversee a 50th Wedding Anniversary being held in the aircraft hanger next to the company’s offices in the airport - the first the company had hosted itself.
As it was, that was just as disorganised as Wembley but the guests had a great time and had no inkling of the chaos behind the scenes.
I had been promised two agency staff to help be, but Nicky (Fin’s mum - she works part-time for the company) wasn’t told about it and by the time she was, the agencies she called said it was too short notice. I ended up texting my friend Jon and Nicky called a friend whose husband had bar experience - and for this function we basically winged it. (Apt, being as we were in an airport!)
Jon, Rob and I had a code word for whenever the shit was really hitting the fan - Grapefruit! It was so funny.
When you understand that we were running this function by preparing afternoon tea for sixty people in the company’s board room with no sink or running water and in order to provide the hot water for the drinks, we had to constantly fill the kettle up from the disabled toilet then you can see why this was just a farce. We had to hunt around for teaspoons, and plates and stuff then find 60 glasses for the toast - oh, and an then wash the dust of them first.
The highlight of the afternoon for me was getting our lunch from the airport cafe where I had the pleasure of meeting Ronnie Corbett (yes, he’d flown short haul!) He was ordering a cup of tea and I did one of those double take things then said hello (I was filling up a flask of hot water from behind the counter having given up on the boiling a kettle idea). Mind you he isn’t the sort of celebrity that you wonder wether it’s them or not. It so obviously was, though I have to admit he did appear to be shorter in real life than on TV. He’s very stocky so he’s big and small at the same time. Very pleasant though.
The function finished about 6.30pm and I literally jumped into the car to get over to Sunbury for the last performance of ‘Into the Woods’. Arriving in my black Wembley suit and red Ricoh Stadium tie did require a lot of explaining since no one had seen me in a suit before, but I quickly changed into my blacks and helped set the stage.
The house was about two thirds full, so not as many as the previous night, but the audience was so much better. They laughed and applauded much more which made the cast feel so much better too.
It was a great show. The golden egg laying hen flew across the stage, and then had a number of us in quiet hysterics back stage when we discovered Jack (Mark) sat on the floor in the wings - his Hen was reading the script!
All to soon the fourth and last performance of the show was over and the curtain call ‘Ever After’ was sung for the last time. Needless to say the audience loved it, and I’m not surprised: the whole cast gave an excellent performance and the energy was clearly evident.
We had a quick clear up and then everyone gathered in the auditorium for the after show ‘thank yous’. The Wolf (Alex D) and Cinderella’s Father (Adam D) took to the stage and gave out a card and present for each of the adult helpers as well as the band and the tech crew. Even Milky White (the cow) got a card and present too!
The cast were so appreciative of all the hard work and time the adults gave to putting on the production and it makes it all the more worth while when they make such a big point of saying thank you. Hardly surprising then that some of the adults still help out even though their children who were once members have long since grown up and had children of their own.
I had some lovely comments in my card. One of them was from a member for whom this was his last production - they have to leave when they reach 18. He wrote: “Typical! Just as I have to leave, someone to stay for arrives.” I was also presented with a set of juggling balls, which was just brilliant and very thoughtful. I use juggling balls in my various warm-ups and exercises and my current set was beginning to show signs of significant wear. I was so pleased to get a new set.
Next stop: Clare’s house, (Baker’s Mum) quarter of a mile away for the cast party! Among a host of teenagers dancing, singing, eating and drinking, and jumping and spinning the bottle on the trampoline were a few of the adults having a drink in the kitchen. Great fun.
It wasn’t until a bit later that another teenager made an appearance. Reported to be Clare’s nephew, the depressing looking emo/goth/grunger going by the name of Alistair was noticed by a few wandering about the house, then lounging on the settee reading a magazine, listening to his iPod, eating bread and drinking a beer.
Yours truly, incidentally, was last seen heading in the direction of an upstairs loo. I reappeared half an hour later complaining of a dodgy stomach.
I confess…
Last week Richard brought home a rather cool wig from the Mind (charity) shop. It is black with red streaks and a long fringe. ‘Fantastic’ I thought as I tried it on in front of the full length mirror in the bedroom. And before I knew it I was immediately perfecting that somewhat annoying teenage habit of swishing the head to get the hair out of the eyes, and having one of those brilliant ideas!
In addition to the rather cool wig, add a long sleeved black teeshirt with my sleeves pushed up, a pair of black jeans with half my arse showing, a LowLife ‘Devoid’ belt (Thanks Taddy!), the obligatory white earphone cord disappearing into the pocket and the ‘I couldn’t care a shit about anything - apart from music’ slouch coupled with few choice monosyllabic grunts, and I was 20 years younger!
Okay so I didn’t fool everybody; the adults (though not all of them) guessed straight away, but quite a few of the younger party goers were convinced for while, and it was great fun having an alter ego.
‘Alistair’ was chatted up and asked to dance and it was even suggested he got his own facebook/myspace page!
I eventually left Clare’s house (after doing an early morning Agony Uncle stint) with the sun shinning on crashed out teenagers and finally got home and into bed at 6.45am.
Yep, exactly 24 hours after I’d got up!
Song Free Sunday
And then, just 2 hours later, my ever wonderful Rich, bless him, bought me up a cup of tea.
“What time did you get in?” he asked sitting on the bed. “I heard you get up for the loo about six.”
“Er, no Darling” I mumbled, half awake. “That was me getting home!”
I was back at the Riverside Arts Centre by half ten, and already the raked seating had been dismantled, costumes and props were winging there way back into cupboards, and lights were being de-rigged. I helped Alan and Kevin take the set apart, then moved onto organising a team of cast members to rub out the pencil marks in all the returned scripts. (They were hired.)
That done it was time for lunch. Ellie (one of the show’s directors) had taken a couple of the young people off to Tesco’s and some of the others set up the tables in the hall. And by then I was aware I was still a little hypo.
I then cut up the french sticks as others rolled sliced ham, chunked up the cheese, chopped cucumber and tomatoes and layed out the rest of the ploughmans lunch on a table at one end of the hall. The tables were arranged in two rows with the adults on one and the young people on the other. Convention dictates that the adults help themselves to lunch first, then the young people demolish what’s left. Various boxes of chocolates are then passed round (adults first, naturally) and lunch was then cleared.
And all that was left was the post show debrief in which everyone (about 40 of us) sat on chairs in a huge circle and Ellie invited comments from each of us. We had a round-robin style discussion in which each person was invited to talk about their experience of the production by sharing one bad thing, one good thing, a ‘man of the match’ and any other general comments they wished to give.
It was so good to hear of everybody else’s experience and many commented on the Baker (Adam A) who had taken on his first big part and done a great job, as well as the the two Princes (Tom A and Peter) and their rather brilliant ‘Agony’ songs. Amoungst others, the tech team who provided sound and light were also acknowledged for their work as well as Amy the musical director.
It was me who was last to speak (before Ellie excellently summed everything up) and after highlighting my bad thing (the gauze getting stuck a number of times and my unfortunate lack of concentration during Thursday night’s performance meaning I was late with my cues to lower the gauze - and after me banging on about concentration in my many warm-ups!) I talked about the good points from the show and how brilliant everyone was, and how proud I was to be part of the such a dedicated and truly wonderful team of people.
Unfortunately, there is one slightly embarrassing side-effect of going ‘hypo’; I get incredibly emotional.
Emotion, in its most general definition, is an intense mental state that arises autonomically in the nervous system and evokes either a positive or negative physiological response. When I’m hypomanic (about a 7/8 on my scale of 0-10), this mental state is highly intensified meaning that it’s impossible for me to suppress the visible signs of emotion. Subsequently, there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop the inevitable tears of joy! (I was already welling up with all the positive things being said by the time the discussion got half way round the circle!)
Even when I am ‘up’ and not necessarily hypomanic, a ‘moving’ moment in a movie or TV show can cause the odd tear to trickle down my cheek. (And they say men don’t cry!)
Sadly, however, it was particularly soul destroying for me to be party to a disparaging remark from one of the adults in the coffee bar afterwards and then to hear a small group of the young people alone in the hall (what appeared to me to be) taking the piss after they’d thought I’d left the building.
Ah, what the fuck. I don’t care. Life’s too short. At least my feelings were genuine, even if my Bi-Polarity means I show them in a somewhat (for a man anyway) unconventional way.
Oh well, here I am at the end of a very long post: I drove the 30 minutes home and after eating only half my dinner, I went to bed watching a rather well written Agatha Christie themed Doctor Who and then promptly fell into a very long, deep and happy sleep.
All that remains to be said is that I am very lucky and incredibly proud to be involved in the development of such a talented group of wonderful teenagers and be part of a very caring group of kind, considerate and supportive adults who, as parents and children collectively, make up the Riverside Youth Theatre and, it has to be said, without whom my Sunday afternoons would be completely and utterly worthless.
I know some of you read my blog and you’re all brilliant! (And that includes the Steward! - There you go Ryan, your wish is granted!)
Thanks guys!
PS: I am very pleased to report that Cinderella’s Father (Adam D) did eventually find his fluffy thing!!!!!!
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