Ensemble member Keith Osborn on recharging the batteries with a few days off.
A bit of a break
Since last Friday's performance of Dream, we Dreamers've had six days off!
This is a bit of a freak occurrence for this stage of the season but Shrew and Merchant have been on all week, the understudy rehearsals are done and we don't start Hamlet ‘til Monday; time to recharge the batteries and gird our loins before immersing ourselves in one of the greatest plays ever written ... oh alright THE greatest play ever written.
So, I've had a fairly lazy few days at home, did my own thing, cooked, caught up on some guitar practice, watched crap television etc. My son Laurence paid us a visit from London last weekend, he's revising for his A-levels and his Warwickshire pad serves as a place of calm for him to chill out and do a bit of reading without the distractions of the big city … well that's the theory anyway.
Tuesday and Wednesday I had to go to Dudley. I'm doing a computer course at the moment to get a Microsoft qualification in the C# programming language, its mostly distance learning but Tuesday and Wednesday I had an in-centre visit as part of the course. Why the hell am I doing a computer course? Well being a closet geek I do find that kind of thing quite interesting and have always had a penchant for science and logic, in fact – oh dear, confession time! – I did physics and maths for my A-levels and intended to get a good degree behind me before running away to the oh-so-precarious life of the circus. However, it didn't quite work out like that, I went to Bristol University to do physics, dropped out after a year, auditioned for, and then went to Central School of Speech and Drama. The circle was completed much later as I did a science degree with the Open University graduating in 2000. Anyway I digress, basically the computer course is because the slings and arrows of outrageous showbiz mean that an alternative source of income is necessary for most actors, and whilst I've been temping in London when ‘resting', I'm hoping to get higher-level programming work that pays better when I return to the all too frequently re-discovered bourn to which most of us thespian travellers inevitably return. So … as and when, in a few months if anyone needs a junior programmer in C# and the .NET Framework around that time do get in touch.
Yesterday (Thursday), some family and friends paid a visit. Today I pottered about the house and took the dog for a long walk. How the country has burgeoned in this early summer especially after the rain, our young boxer loves the long meadow grass running through it with a truly Tigger-esque bouncing gait, her back and head appearing and disappearing like a terrestrial, canine dolphin as she moves through a sea of buttercups, yellow and green. The smell of earth, and grass, and blossom pervade the air. The lambs have grown and populate the fields; we walk carefully by and try not to panic them. Naturally she's on the lead and is curious as to what these strange dog-but-not-dog creatures are, as she is likewise with horses and cows. Warwickshire truly is a beautiful county, my wife, Zoë and I bought a house and made it our home here the February before last and absolutely love the place.
Now its time to go back to work so into the car and forth to the theatre for the evening show; I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again and hearing what people have done in their own time off. Six days is not too long a break, but the first time back can be a little like returning to a road one has used only once; the twists and turns of a relatively new production are not yet hard-wired into the brain and need to be carefully negotiated.
It is now Saturday morning. It was great to see everyone again looking rested and keen to get back to the show. The return performance went very well, although there were some problems with the set. Near the beginning of the play in the confrontation between Oberon and Titania, the huge reflective perspex screens suspended to make up the back wall suddenly acquired a life of their own and started thrashing around like things possessed making the most appalling rumble for quite a few seconds. As Oberon was berating Titania at the time it looked like he'd summoned up thunder and lightning to press home his point so hopefully the audience just thought it was rather groovy special effect, in fact the screens'd got caught on something and so were the subject of much scrutiny by stage management and staff for the rest of the evening. To us on stage it was quite alarming especially as there was an accident last week in the changeover from Dream to Merchant when one of the screens came loose, fell and hit three of the crew. The demon screens misbehaved again later near the end of the performance when, on being lifted and lowered again, the middle ones decided to hang at a worryingly rakish angle during the Pyramus and Thisbe play-within-a-play. Anyway we got through safely without any major disasters, the audience were very warm and responsive AND there was a do after hosted by NFU Mutual who sponsor much of the RSC's development work, such as the Open Day (this year's is in August and well worth a visit). They were good company and laid on a very flavoursome late supper for us. What a bonus, free food + free drink = happy actors; a very civilised end to the evening!
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