Standing there in my pants and tights I am struggling to do up the poppers on my blouse, an ordinarily simple task that today, for some reason, was turning my fingers into clumsy sausages. Finally, I manage it and get the rest of my costume on, meanwhile I can hear the scene progressing on stage; my cue was getting close. I dash behind the screens to dress the chairs for the next scene, just about managing to get my mask in place when disaster strikes - a clasp in the wig of my mask has got tangled in the front part of my hair, preventing me from pulling the mask down over my face. I am literally tearing my hair out in order to get the mask down over my face, in doing so I catch a glimpse of my costume; all of my buttons and poppers are done up wrong. Sarah has now walked passed me, about to give me my cue; now I start to panic.
"What amazed me was the ease in which you moved between scenes, the trickery of it", an audience member said after the show.
If only they knew.
We're over a third of the way through the tour and with a standing ovation In Liverpool and personally being shown how to perfect hospital corners by nurses in Exeter, the highs have definitely outweighed the, looking back, minor wardrobe and mask malfunctions. A personal highlight was performing at the New Vic Theatre in Stoke; being a theatre in the round proved challenging both on a performing and technical basis. The staff at the theatre supported us beautifully, helping us to adapt the set and create a makeshift tunnel to prevent audience in the balcony seeing our costume changes. This was a tunnel I beautifully ran into and brought down during the first ten minutes of the show; if you did not know already you can see very little in a mask!
As the show needs to be tightly choreographed it can be easy as an actor to fall into a predictable rhythm with the performance, inevitably, losing some of its vitality. This new performance setting was refreshing, keeping us all on our feet and for me has been my best performance.
With the Easter break coming to a close we're back to it on Friday, watch out Kirton in Lindsey, costumes are washed and pressed, we're coming for you!
Marissa
This had me laughing out loud in public - I can confirm that it is all so true!!
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