Parting is such sweet sorrow...
March 13, 2012
Words seem an inadequate tool with which to say goodbye to what has undoubtedly been the best job and experience of my short life so far. So I won't say goodbye, I will merely say see you later. Until next time, if you will.
Half a year the Swan Company have lived in Stratford upon Avon and performed on this beautiful stage, with timeless words and wonderful audiences. Written on the Heart, Measure for Measure and Heresy of Love.
Half a year does not sound like long but time seems to have transcended Stratford during our stay so it feels like forever. In the best way possible. A vibrant and innovative forever filled with jokes, ideas, friendship and joy. So much joy.
It's ridiculous, I am sat in my room in the Ferryhouse and my heart aches at the prospect of pulling down posters and folding clothes. We have seen four companies come and go this half year: Midsummer Night's Dream, Robin Hood, Taming of the Shrew and now Twelfth Night. We have been the consistency, but now like a good book we must be finished, cherished and put on the shelf, waiting for the next read.
My time as an understudy has taught me a plenitude of things. I have been a veritable sponge soaking up knowledge and experience from those around me, but now I think it's time I chart my own way, out of the shadows and into the light... if we're using cheesy analogies...which I am not completely adverse to. I have been lucky enough to go on four times and have grabbed every single bull by the proverbial horn.
Two days ago I was called to go on half-way through a show! I was sat backstage, waiting as Sister Lifter to do my next scene change, when I heard a thunder of feet and our Stage Manager Suzy burst into the Locutary and said 'Catherine Hamilton's fainted... you're on!' I had ten minutes to pelt upstairs, tear off my habit, be shoved into a corset and go through the lines twice before I was on! Dramatic doesn't even cover it.
I had no chance to run the scene with Catherine McCormack so I just threw caution to the wind, said a Hail Mary and stepped onto stage... I could feel the eyes of the audience turn on me and heard the flicker of programmes as they noticed that I wasn't who they were expecting. It was incredible, never in my life have I felt so nervous and yet so calm. I was an oxymoron. Or a Stratford swan, floating around and yet paddling away like a demon beneath the surface. Anyway, I survived and have lived to blog the tale.
What. A. Journey.
Stratford is a place of magic. There is a peace to be found here which can't be found anywhere else. It is a place to spark off thoughts and to have adventures, to sit and ponder and then to take action. But it is the people that have made it.
So here's to you Blue Company! I love you all, with all my heart... You might even say it's Written on it.
Laura x
Photos: top - the Written on the Heart company, bottom - the Measure for Measure company.
To see what Laura did next, visit her new blog at www.ferryegg.blogspot.co.uk
by Laura Darrall
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