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Young People and TheatrePart I: My Theatrical BeginningsDateline: 11th June, 2000 I have a vague memory from when I was a child. I can't remember how old I was - but I was certainly under eleven - and I went to the theatre with my parents. I have an impression of figures which seemed indistinct and a great distance away. (I suspect that's a fairly accurate memory because when I was twelve I was diagnosed as being short-sighted and I began wearing glasses. Suddenly the world became so clear. I remember sitting in the gallery in church (chapel, I should say, for my parents were devout Methodists) and being able, for the first time, to see the numbers of the hymns on the little noticeboard beside the organ. It was amazing: I had never realised that anyone could see it from such a distance!) But that visit to the theatre made no more impression on me than that: indistinct figures in the distance. I have no memory of any words being spoken. I know now that what I was watching was the local rep company in their "Little Theatre" on the town's main street. But I know it from what I have been told since, not from my experience at the time. The Girl in Green But I clearly remember going to the town's major theatre, the Empire, one of the Moss Empire chain, and sitting in the gods watching variety shows. No, that's a false memory, which has crept into my mind because I know from what was said to me later that we went on a fairly regular basis. The real memory is of one particular variety show. I remember the signs on either side of the pros arch which lit up to tell the audience the number of the current act on the programme. I don't remember having a programme, though. But the picture which stays in my mind with startling clarity even today nearly fifty years later is of a chorus girl wearing a green costume with sequins. It was like a bathing costume of the period but with a tiny skirt. I'm sitting on the right side of the auditorium and she is in the middle of the stage, facing stage right. I can't remember the colour of her hair, or even what her face was like. I am pretty certain she was standing beside a man but I can remember nothing at all about him. The reason I remember this so clearly is that this was the time I first fell in love - with that chorus girl, of course. She was nothing like any girl or woman I knew or had ever seen, and I was smitten! The Sunday School Anniversary From the age of five or so I went to Sunday School. Every year brought with it the Sunday School Anniversary, which was held, not in the usual room but in the church itself. We were all, every single one of us, expected to stand on the "platform" - a little stage specially built for the occasion - to say our "pieces". The "piece" was a bit of poetry on a religious theme which we had to memorise and recite to the congregation. I had - and still have - a loud voice. I could project, even at that early age, and could be heard right at the back. Of course, people told me (and my parents) afterwards how good I'd been - because they could hear me right at the back. I used to enjoy Sunday School Anniversaries because people said nice things to me! The First School Play When I went to the secondary school - I passed the eleven-plus exam, and so went to the local boys' grammar school - for some reason I went to see the school play. Not many from my class did, I remember. To this day I'm not sure why I went. I certainly didn't understand it! It was - can you believe this! - Auden and Isherwood's The Ascent of F6. When I was in second year (We called it the lower fourth: we had delusions of being almost a public school!), there was an announcement in assembly about a meeting of the school Drama Club. I didn't even think about it. I just went along, and I was cast in the school play! If you though the Auden and Isherwood was amazing for a school play, just wait till you hear what this one was! Sean O'Casey's Cock-a-Doodle Dandy! I played the servant girl, Marion. After all, we were a boys' school. The rest is history. Well, my history anyway. Next page: Getting young people into theatre Articles Indices:
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