Last night's performance of Billy the Liar was pretty good, the audience was spectacular and all joined in with the "Oh no you're not - Oh yes I am!" The audience participation song Shuzzbum Tickletum was a success I think although being backstage at the time I couldn't be completely sure. We all had a great time anyway and today our picture is in the local Portsmouth News together with an article about the show and its author/director, Warren Bailey. It's the last night tonight so after many weeks of preparation, it'll all be over in a few hours. Seems a shame that we don't do more than just the three nights. After nearly six years away from the group, I'm glad I've ventured back and hope to do more next year. I know that Warren has already half written next year's Panto so watch this space for more news on that.
The sun is shining today - it's about 20 degrees outside and all you can smell is freshly-cut grass. The sound of lawn mowers is over-whelming! I am enjoying the weekend with my lovely family - next weekend should be quite busy - Mark has two gigs to play, one on Friday and another on Saturday. The Friday one is a wedding. Playing at weddings can be quite a marathon as you have to be there and set up before the guests arrive and usually have to stay to the bitter end. Can't have the band packing up half way through the evening can you? Guests tend to get a bit pickled and make fools of themselves so it can be quite wearing at times. The gig on Saturday though should be a lot of fun. It's at Samuel's Rest Pub in Shedfield. The Lost Star Souls have played there before and were very well received. I shall go along to the second gig, but not the first.
Before I go to the gig I'm going along to a read-through of a play which will be performed at the end of May in The Great Barn at Titchfield with Titchfield Festival Theatre. Sounds quite exciting -
'OUR COUSIN WILL'
or
Will in his Own Words
....with a few extra ones by Stewart Trotter
A Life of William Shakespeare constructed from his Sonnets and Plays....
'OUR COUSIN WILL' is an entertainment, by turns hilarious and heart-breaking, which traces the course of Shakespeare's life from his birth to his death in Stratford-upon-Avon.....by way of Titchfield Abbey in Hampshire!
It explains how a lower class boy, with little formal education, could attain such knowledge of history and politics....how he could write, with such intimate ease, about the lives of kings, queens and aristocrats......... how he was adopted - and then dropped - by one of the most powerful Catholic families in England......... and how, in the process, English Drama, in all its greatness, was born...
Stewart Trotter will direct this - he very successfully directed Loves Labour's lost for us at Titchfield Abbey.. he is a professional theatre Director who in the past has worked at the National Theatre for Sir Peter Hall at Glyndebourne, ran the Norcutt theatre in Exeter and currently has a version of Carmen running in Poland. He has an intimate knowledge of Shakespeare from his works and really is quite something to work with!
So you can see - I am very keen to get involved in this. Am hoping for a part in the play but we shall have to see - I expect there will be a lot of brilliant actors at the readthrough/casting.
Anyway - I think I need to get back out into the sunshine - this may be the sum total of our summer!
Look forward to meeting you at the read-through of 'Our Cousin Will' Pryba - and hope you and Titchfield like the play!
ReplyDeleteStewart (Trotter)
Ah, Stewart - I have just read your comment. I did indeed enjoy the read through and think it's a great play, most amusing with loads of potential for TFT. I love the bawdiness of the humour.
DeleteI think the read -through must have been disappointing for you as there were only a spattering of us there and I know you were hoping for more youngsters to turn up. Typical for Titchfield unfortunately but we usually eventually manage to find enough people to put on some pretty good performances.
I am very excited about working in the Barn again. I remember us doing Cloche Merle there one freezing winter a few years ago. Kevin and myself were in a drinking competition during the performance and we had to consume copious amounts of ribena - I still want to gag thinking about it. Of course one night we really went for it and drank much more than usual - by the time we got half way through the second act we both needed to run to the loo desperately. It was painful to say the least. The night was bitterly cold with the cast wrapped in duvets and sleeping bags backstage before having to go on stage in skimpy summer clothes as the play was set in the heat of a French summer!
Anyway, back to your play - I hope you manage to cast it and would dearly love to be considered for the narrator. If not, I'm still keen to be involved in some way.
I'm looking forward to hearing the outcome of the casting decisions.