Week 21: Big News in a Small Town
August 24, 2012
23 March 2012
On my way to work, I rode my bicycle (avec panier) past a school group learning how to safely cross the street. Pairs of children were assigned adult chaperones. Everyone was in fluorescent jackets.
I suppose they were glad I rode through the lesson, there seemed to be no other traffic on this residential street for them to avoid.
I started my day at the Courtyard Theatre, where Chairman Nigel Hugill ended months of speculation as he announced who would take over from Michael Boyd as the new Artistic Director of the RSC.
Nigel said 'It's one of our own: Greg Doran.'
There was ebullient cheering from staff and friends. Greg has worked at the RSC for decades, and has probably worked with everyone who has been in the organisation for more than a few years.
As a newcomer to Stratford and to the RSC, I felt a bit like a voyeur. I'd never met Greg before, but liked what he had to say. He described himself as a 'hedgehog' who knows one thing very well, Shakespeare, who intended to surround himself with 'foxes' who knew everything else.
I wondered how many of the people in the theatre were questioning how fox-like they are.
I was.
This in mind, I went to the wig department, to get the low-down. Like any good hair and makeup outfit, the ladies there know everyone and everything. As I walked into her peroxide-laced lair, I found Head of Wigs Sandra Smith. She was giving Greg a post-announcement haircut, which she said she's done for the last 25 years.
Stratford has a population of 25,000 people; the RSC employs 1,000. I work for a big family in a small town.
After introducing myself to the newly-appointed Artistic Director of the RSC, and giving Sandra a hug and a kiss, I went back to my bedsit, and attacked the nettle in my garden, before returning to the theatre for the evening's show.
'Our little life is rounded with a sleep.'
(The Tempest. IV. i. 157-158.)
by Ankur Bahl
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