Casting Doubt?

Good morning!

So, last night was the casting rehearsal. Having been beside myself with excitement about this stage last week, I turned up at the adult education centre feeling nervous, stressed, and terribly serious. I couldn't shake off this mood all evening, even after a glass of house red at the Slug and Lettuce across the road.

But I now have a great Andrea, and a brilliant Mum/Suzi, Dad/Barry. I was less sure about my Adam, only because I wanted to hear more from the actor, and it's probably my fault for making the part quite hard to gauge and get right. But said actor got into the swing of it well, and sparked off my Andrea swimmingly, so I'm sure it'll all be fantastic.

Crumbs - the responsibility! I had no idea that playwrights, directors and the like had such a hard job. I thought they just sat on their fold-up chairs, shoulders back, pen in mouth, enjoying the sun.

Certain actors really shone out, and we scrapped over them in the pub, each of us wanting a particular person for our lead female or male, each of us convincing the others that ONLY that particular actor could possibly do... Logistics (e.g. ages, sexes etc) made it harder still, as certain roles were just not suitable for for youngsters or for women etc. So we've done some doubling up, and had to tell some actors that they don't have parts - which is totally horrid. Luckily, that's not my job, but on the to-do list of our extremely dedicated tutor/director, Bev. We also have another director, called Nathan, who came down from Nottingham Hatch to direct two out of the four plays. I got to work with him, and he seemed good, and very committed to the project. Interestingly, he got the actors to swap around male and female roles, which threw me more than a little at the time, but I understood his logic afterwards. It gave a very good indication of how well each actor could get into the swing of the script and run with it, regardless of the particular part they were reading. And it also showed us who read well with whom and how they got on together in the roles.

So next week we're rehearsing at the Curve, in the room we'll be doing the performances in! We'll have our actors in place, and the directors will start directing, and hopefully us playwrights can join in - saying 'Noo, noo, nooooo!' and 'Yes, yes, yeeeees!' at appropriate moments. And I have to ask my long-suffering husband if he can be home even earlier than normal to look after our naughty child while I dash off to be at the theatre early for our extended rehearsal time. Oh crumbs. I feel a day off coming up for Husband, so he can 'chill' (i.e. lie across the sofa watching back-to-back old-fashioned versions of Sherlock Holmes. With the curtains drawn. And on such gorgeous days outside. How can he??!).

The new house is... well... Possibly the less said about it the better. The move went well. I can thoroughly recommend the removal men. And the lovely lady who cleaned our old house for us. I know - VERY lazy of us not to do it ourselves... But the lack of curtains in this new rental house (I should always include the word 'temporary' in that description. It'll make me feel better...), not to mention the massive flood in the kitchen yesterday after my mum had a bath, the dodgy fixtures and fittings and ... well, pretty much everything about this house is ... interesting. We feel totally like students all over again, sleeping on mattresses on the floor, with boxes and bags surrounding us (no point in unpacking much stuff when we're moving again in two-three months), and shower curtains pinned up with washing pegs etc. And there's a nasty drains smell that wafts through the kitchen every now and then, making us gag. Thank heavens it's Spring/Summer and we can open doors and windows and usher the little ones out into the totally concrete but actually quite inviting back garden for a spot of mud-cake making in the sandpit, or saving princesses from mortal danger in the police car thing...

So, I had my doubts after the casting session last night, but actually, I'm very happy with my actors. And with the ones chosen for the roles in the other plays. I think it'll be a smashing night, and one to remember for the rest of our days.

Tune in next time.

Kirstyx