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A Theatre DiaryDateline: 28th September, 2003I usually get at least one email a week, sometimes two or three, asking what my personal involvement with theatre is and it's sometimes a bit difficult to explain, because I seem to be involved in so many different things. I thought that if I put a typical week online, I could always point to that instead of having to hunt through my email outbox, looking for last week's reply so I can copy and paste into this week's. So here we are, the week beginning Sunday 21st September! Sunday After that I transfer the news items from the Latest page to the front page and go through my notes from the previous week to create the News Digest page. Normally the feature article has already been written, so I simpy add it to the front page, and then add anything else that hasn't yet been uploaded. That always includes the New Links page, which tends to be left until the last minute. After that I write the Newsletter and the whole updating process is ready to start. At this point it's usually time to take a break and do my Sunday taxi service: picking up my mother and taking her to her sister's for lunch. Back and FTP the files to the server, go to the front page online and check that each page has uploaded properly - and then discover all the typos which I missed before. Correct them and upload them again and when everything is as right as I can make it, send the Newsletter. After that, collapse in a heap and read mindless detective fiction or watch even more mindless television - interrupted by the second leg of the taxi service, returning mother to her home. And so, in the words of Sam Pepys, to bed. Monday Worked on this till one, then had lunch because at two an actress friend was arriving. I'd promised to help her go over her lines as the play she's in opens next week and she's feeling a bit worried about them. When she leaves after a couple of hours - can we do this again on Wednesday afternooon, please? - check emails, update the site with a couple of news items and reviews, then off to give a talk on the history of the local amateur theatre to a Townswomen's Guild branch. That takes an hour and a half. It's conveniently situated almost opposite the best Chinese takeaway in the town, so I decide to forego the pleasure of cooking for the much greater pleasures of Fortune Chicken with fried rice. Check emails again - a couple more news items to upload - and relax with a couple of glasses of wine and the novel before crashing out. Tuesday Had to pop along to the Customs House, where I'm on the Board of Trustees, to see the director, who's in the book and I needed to get come photos from him. Got there about 3.30 and didn't leave till nearly five. A bit of business - the panto director is working backstage for the show that opens tomorrow, so we took the opportunity of a break in the tech rehearsal to sort out a few things - but most of the time simply chatting. Did manage to see the costume designer, though, which was useful. Back home to work on the book. I was supposed to review The Picture of Dorian Gray at the Theatre Royal Newcastle tonight but Steve Orme beat me to it a couple of weeks ago when it was in the Midlands, so I had more time for the book - and a few more updates to the site. Wednesday This evening was the first night of the Customs House revival of Good to Firm, a play by two local writers, which I'd reviewed last year. Wednesday is my drama evening class but my students (all but one adults) were keen to see the play, so that took the pressure off a bit. I could just sit back and enjoy. Afterwards there was the usual chat in the bar to the director, writers and actors ("Dahling, you were wonderful!"). Then they left and we - the tech crew, three members of KG Productions and myself - sat down to the serious business of bitching about everything - and even sorting out a few more venues to approach for the panto. I needed to speak to the Tech Director anyway. She'd asked me to light a couple of shows in the Takeoff 2003 festival at the school where I used to teach and the tech requirements we'd got from one of the companies (German) didn't make sense. They were in German and so, as my German is OK for the important things in life, like ordering food and beer, but not for understanding technical riders, I'd posted a message on the Stagecraft newsgroup asking if anyone could help. A Chief LX from Berlin had translated for me, but even he had to admit that it didn't make sense, so we decided Ali should contact the company and try to sort it out. Well, better the international call should be on the theatre's phone bill than mine! So it was 11.30 by I got home and I was starving! Discovered I had a corned beef pasty in the fridge, so that was alright. Got to bed before one - that's early! Trouble is, I've got to be in South Shields by 9.30 in the morning and I haven't been terribly good at getting up before nine since I retired. Ah well! Thursday At first it seemed to be justified. One of the first guys I saw there squared up to me and demanded, in a broad Edinburgh accent, "What're you looking at?" I thought very, very quickly, then replied, "A good-looking young man." He grinned, shook my hand, and said, "You'll do for me, my man!" He turned out to be in the group I was taking. Thank God I came up with the right answer! All the details I'd been given, of course, were wrong, especially the time. I'd been told 9.30 to 11: it turns out it was 10 to 11.45, which was brilliant because I had another appointment at 11.30. Anyway, we reached a compromise for this week and I did the session - and thoroughly enjoyed it. They did, too: my "good-looking" friend told me so when I left! Dashed through to Sunderland to the National Glass Centre for the press launch of the Empire Theatre's pantomime and arrived in the middle of the producer's talk. It, too, was running late so I hadn't missed my interview with Jean Fergusson (Marina in Last of the Summer Wine, but also a very experienced stage actress). Barry, the producer, introduced the cast: Tim Churchill (Prince Charming), Kate Heavenor (Cinderella) and Darren Day (Buttons). No Jean Fergusson! After the introductory bit, Sarah, the PRO, told me that filming for Summer Wine had been held up by rain earlier in the week, so Jean couldn't come but would do the interview at a later date. So I stayed for the buffet lunch. What a day - and it was just after one! I was pleased to be heading home. I was halfway there when I suddenly remembered I had to go to the station to book a ticket to London next Monday because I'm meeting my editor on Tuesday. So I turned around, drove into town, found somewhere to park and then spent half an hour waiting in the queue to be served. It was well after two by I got home, so I thought I'd get some work done on the book. Huh! Press release after press release arrived by email, then three reviews, so the rest of the day was spent updating the BTG. I'd planned to cook a proper meal tonight - the piece of chicken I'd bought some days ago has reached its "use by" date - so I thought I'd better stick to that plan. After all, it was the only one for today which could go right! Then - relax..... Except, of course, that the National Theatre's Annual Report has just been published and I need to read and summarise it to get it online tomorrow. Friday But at least I did get to the theatre tonight. As part of the Durham Literature Festival, Guy Masterson is doing his Fern Hill and Other Dylan Thomas at the Gala Theatre in Durham, so I took the opportunity of seeing the show again and interviewing him. Strangely enough, Guy and I first met when he was doing Fern Hill at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2001, and normally we meet up in Edinburgh every year (not this year, though, with my falling ill and having to come home - but that's another story!). We did the interview (and the catching up) before the show and arranged to have a drink afterwards, but then we were invited out for a meal by the organiser, so it was after midnight when I got home. Just enough time to finish off this diary and definitely not enough to write up a review and an interview! They will just have to wait till tomorrow. Saturday Checked the email first and found one from Philip telling me that the links on the Latest page were all failing. They were and I could see why, but how they were changed I do not understand. Anyway, I put them right. Tonight is one of those evenings when you'd like to be in four places at once: my former colleague at school is singing in the Jarrow Choral Society performance of some Handel masses, Ken Campbell is at the Gala as part of the the Lit. Festival, Guy is doing Under Milk Wood in Middlesborough and it's a friend's birthday (meal and drinks). Theatre, I'm afraid, will have to take a back seat: food and booze win! So off to do the shopping, but just before I set off I got a phone call about some panto photographs I've been trying to track down for the book. The photographer and I arranged to meet in town while I was shopping, so two birds with one stone today! - a big improvement on Thursday! I did manage to get the review of last night done pretty quickly. I'm not a quick reviewer: I like to think for a while before committing myself to paper, but this one was easy and took a mere thirty minutes. As I did it, the computer was printing out another thirty or so advertising letters for the panto. This afternoon's emails included a new list of potential gigs. I also managed to get the Guy Masterson interview done by 6.15 - now! - and that, my friends, is that theatrically for the week. Tomorrow I'll do the News Digest page and the Newsletter, upload everything, and then finish my preparations for the visit to my editor. But for tonight it's get ready, celebrate my friend's birthday, and forget all about theatre. Well, that last isn't likely to happen: they're all theatre people, so I imagine that it will crop up in the conversation occasionally! Articles Indices:
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