Tuesday 13 November 2012

The Last Hurrah

Well, the last two weeks of Theatre by the Lake's summer season flew by in a blur of chesty coughs and as many activities we could squeeze in weather-permitting as well as making the most of our remaining shows. For some that meant a flurry of 'important' industry type people who came to see Roma & the Flanellettes which has gone down so well in the studio with all kinds of different audiences. I'm still baffled by the one night when we had at least a third of the audience  bored and restive all through the show, culminating in us doing a curtain call to several utterly glum faces and zero clapping. Ok, on the other side of the space, another lot from the same college were whooping and screaming like they were at a Lady Gaga concert. Turns out they were all blown away by it- they were studying drama somewhere nearby and I guess were a little over excited.. You never can tell.  It's a real lesson in not judging your audience. So many actors come beetling off from their first scene in front of the live audience and complain about it being bad; it's such nonsense! The idea that 80 never mind 380 strangers can all have agreed to be collectively uninspired by your work is tosh. 'Bad' usually  just means quieter ( or just different) than last night's.. bad is when people start booing, throwing things and walking out!!
There are lots of useful things I learned from good actors when I was starting out and trying to understand the audience, one of which is that an audience is an audience is an audience; don't get all beside yourself  just because Steven Spielberg is in the house. It shouldn't make any difference. Your performance should be for any one out there and sometimes the smallest audience can be one containing just one person who might offer you a job so the pressure to be your best should be the same every night. Once you take that on board, that's actually a liberating thing and you will have much more chance of turning in a focussed and living performance and of having fun with your fellow actors in each scene. I guess some of us are never happy; they have the belief perhaps that as an artist you can't ever be satisfied because you might get lazy or arrogant. Poo to that too! We have to be able to have some idea of giving ourselves our  own positive  feedback- it goes back to the idea of actors needing to be director-proof. Not a nice idea but a true fact that you will at times find yourself working with someone at the helm who doesn't seem bothered by the burning questions you've had about your part, so you must when necessary take care of yourself; take responsibility for yourself. Likewise with the other actors. We can't expect to hit it off with everyone we get paired up with so we can't expect that other actor to agree to play a scene the way we think it needs to go even if it seems blindingly obvious in the way it's written! So long as we then can drop the self-protection as soon as we realise that we can trust our colleagues, it's all good skills, baby!
 On our final show, we lucky Dry Rotters got to meet the wonderful widow of the author John Chapman, Betty  who had learned all our names on the train up and who told us all that we had restored her faith in the play.  We also learned John had written Dry Rot  so that they could make enough money to get married. Not a dry eye in the house that night!
Weather-wise, the mountain goats in the company were able to enjoy a couple more outings up them thar hills when the cold weather brought a generous dusting of snow on the tops, thus making those snowy caps the objective. It gave a tiny hint of the deeply harsh conditions that can strike in these parts above 700 metres. With warm sunshine in the valleys below, we struggled up a north-facing slope in knee-deep drifts that were starting to thaw, soaking our legs and creeping down into our boots. Looking up, we stared straight into the sun just peeping over the top ahead of us, making us quite blind to whatever we were walking into! The view at the top was totally worth it  though and it reminded us that snow had still clung to the tops when we'd all arrived back in April. Eons ago.
Somebody dug out a photo taken of us all back on our first day and the sight of those innocent little faces all those months ago really brought home the experience  quite literally in the flesh. Most of us back then sporting neat little hairstyles, now all bedraggled by nightly curling and wigging our hair into submission with sprays and mousses; several faces  now several pounds lighter from the exercise of three different shows seven times a week and all of us looking sooo much younger before  our marathon!! Signs that a holiday is much needed by all. Or a break to go and do another show for those with packed diaries!!
 I think we must have had about four end of season parties one way or another, my excuse for not posting last week, with copious amounts of 'we must do this or that thing as it's the last time we'll get to (delete where appropriate):  drink in Magnolia/  Toast marshmallows on an open fire at Nick's/  Go for a swim & spa at the Lodore/  climb Castle Crag/ go to Cottage in the Woods for lunch/  dance at the Loft/ kayak around Derwent Isle/ breakfast at the Filling Station/ skim stones on the Greta/ feed ducks/ ride horses/ spot red squirrels. The list is nauseatingly long I'm afraid as this has been an epic job when it comes to quantifying all the excellent things we got to do on and off stage.
To end,  George insisted ( as a half Polish person) that we take part in a Polish toast on our final, final last night party. So for one last time in Magnolia, thanks to Phil of course for allowing us to take the place over once again, we all went round saying one thing to each other that we liked about them and one thing we wish for them in the future, followed by a shot of vodka.  Needless to say it all got very messy very quickly, with people just standing about clinging to each other and mumbling 'I love you!' over and over again. This wasn't just the actors thank you very much, but Sam our wardrobe queen, Tara, Daisy, Jasmine, Robyn and Jo Jones our awesome stage management team. All blubbing away like troopers! Even those folks who had maintained rather distant demeanors throughout the seven months crumbled in the face of such warmth!
So on we go with our lives and careers with an experience under our belts and tucked in our hearts forever. I think it was Jess who said that if this job were to be the last one she ever had ( no way ) then she would always know that she had had the most amazing experience and done the best
work that she could be proud of.
I have some fantastic new friends and some of the most incredible memories as well as a fist full of great reviews to show anyone who might not have made it up to Keswick, unlike Chris Monks, David Thacker, Peter Rowe, Joe Sumption and other show biz folk who made the effort to see our work. Steven Spielberg was unavailable for comment.
To everyone who walked with me, swam,  built fires, drank, sang, danced,  shopped, ate and movie-d with me. You know who you are. Thank you.
It's quite an achievement to get along with so many people for so long and to do such good work too but we did it. Hats off to the whole Theatre by the Lake Summer Season 2012 team. I will miss posting this but it's exactly what I wanted it to be: an amazing record of a tremendous year. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard and to Ian, Stefan, Mary and Abigail who gave us the opportunity to do so.
Thanks for reading!

1 comment:

  1. A thoroughly enjoyable read as usual. So glad it all went so well for all concerned. Best of luck to you and your colleagues for the future. Mo xxx

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