Fringe Fever

Yesterday I arrived home from a mad but wonderful weekend away performing at the Brighton Fringe festival, tired out and achy but content. The weekend has sped by so quickly and I have almost no idea what day it is any more-it feels like I've had four Saturdays in a row. There's this weird atmosphere I've noticed around Fringe Performances-like you're living in a kind of bubble universe separated out from the real one. Everything else temporarily stops existing and your world shrinks down to your cast and crew, the show and the in between time (often spent flyering, eating or getting drunk!). Emotions are exaggerated and heightened and feelings get stretched and flipped about on their head until you're not quite sure what's real or what's not. The same faces become your life-you spend 24 hours a day with them-eating, sleeping, performing and of course sharing a bathroom. You learn each other's habits almost unconsciously-who snores, who isn't a morning person, who spends ages in the shower, who sleeps almost naked, who is a fussy eater, who will hog the mirror in the bathroom. Nerves are pulled taut and strummed like a harp, thoughts don't make sense and you start to feel differently about people just because you've spent all that time together.

And then, like someone taking a needle to a bubble, it all stops.

I always feel a bit melancholy on the last evening of a Fringe show, because I know that that is it, it will never feel like that again. Even if you gathered the same people together it wouldn't be the same without that fevered intensity, without the only thing that matters being The Show, without the stresses and awesomeness of living and performing together as one highly functioning machine made of many parts working side by side. It's always such a come down to reality again, to exams, to deadlines, job applications and work. And while it's always blissful to sleep in your own bed again, you still wake up half expecting to be surrounded by people in various states of undress and sleep deprivation. I always find I need a bit of a readjustment period, to get used to how normal life feels again, rather than the slightly off-kilter world of the Fringe. I find I need to realign my thoughts too, to get used to thinking in straight lines again rather than the topsy turvy helter skelter of trying to have three different conversations at once whilst drowning out several more. It's almost too quiet to be on your own, yet the solitude is lovely after being around people constantly for four days.

The come down also gives you time to think about the madness of it all more objectively, now that the Fringe Fever no longer holds you tight in its grip-time to work out which emotions and feelings were real and which would have never happened in a 'normal' situation. You can forgive people some of the things they did, decide which you want to hold on to and which you just want to forget. You can feel shame at some of things that you did or said, pride or happiness at others. You sink slowly back into your normal life and it's almost like it never happened, like the madness never wrapped you and drove your every move, your every thought.

It's always there though, at the back of your mind, waiting to be pulled on like a comfy sweatshirt the opening night of the next show that takes over your life. And I, for one, welcome it back.

The cast and crew of Titus at the Brighton Fringe, May 2013

Thanks for an awesome weekend folks. Back to reality, for now...

-Jenni-

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Friday Letters The Second

Hello again!
Apologies for not blogging again this week, but it's slipped through my fingers like a fish in a stream and all of a sudden it's Friday again, when it feels like Monday was only yesterday. I've not been doing anything particularly huge, but all the little things seem to have added up and stolen my time from me. And now, today, I am off to Brighton to take part in a show that's running over the opening weekend of their fringe festival.  Some friends of mine have started a small theatre company, and I am in the cast of their very first show-Titus-and thoroughly excited about it. I'm sure you'll get a full blog on the matter next week!
Here's some Friday letters:

Dear People of Brighton: Please look after us, come and see our show and laugh at us. There's nothing worse than performing to an empty theatre, and it is a very good show.

Dear Weather: Stay as lovely as you were yesterday, pretty please. It was glorious.

Dear Body: Please, please let me get to sleep OK in the hostel room with my fellow cast members. It's going to be a pretty rotten weekend for us if you insist on keeping us awake with stupid anxiety, as usual.

Dear Headphones: We've got a lot of train journeys ahead. Please, please last this weekend before you fail completely.

Dear Bag: Please fit all my stuff in OK without bursting at the seams! You've never failed me yet *crosses fingers*

Dear London: I've got three glorious hours to explore you today, be kind to me and please don't let anyone steal my camera again. Camden Market/Covent Garden, I'm coming for you.

Dear Fellow Cast Members: Break a leg and let's have a ball ey? Just please no more crustacean references ;)

Dear Brain: I get it, you think we need a boyfriend again, and that we need one now. Fine. But please can you stop sending me sexy dreams with my friends in, it's getting kind of awkward now.

Dear Future Love of my Life: Can you arrange to meet me soon, if only to shut my stupid subconscious up? I'm looking forward to awkwardly falling for you.

Dear Me: Enjoy your stage time and your weekend. Just have fun.

-Jenni-

If you're in the area and fancy a giggle, please come and see Sheep Theatre's performance of 'Titus' at The Old Courtroom, Brighton. More details/tickets here.

It's Behind You!

Dick Whittington Kid's Performance in 2011,
In which I get exuberantly pied in the fizzog.

Pantomimes, to borrow a phrase from Marmite, you either love em or you hate em. Me? Well, you can probably guess- I love a good panto. To be fair, I love a bad panto too. While I feel I have grown up a lot recently and grown out of a lot of things I used to love, I don't think I will ever lose my childish enthusiasm for going to/being in a Pantomime at Christmas time and having a thoroughly silly romp. I know that some people just cannot stand them, and it seems that (after talking to some of my colleagues) when you've seen one the general consensus is that you've seen them all because the jokes are always the same and there's always a happy ending. But that's why they're so good as far as I'm concerned, you know that the 'Butter face' and 'Sheepdog bra' jokes* will make you groan, and you know that the good guys will always win but that doesn't stop you from enjoying every thigh slapping, "he's behind you"-ing minute. In no other type of theatre (apart from possibly stand up comedy) can the audience join in with the show in such a way- in fact, the audience interaction is usually fairly integral to the plot. After all, how on earth would the good guys save the day if you didn't tell them that there was a ghost/bad guy behind them and to get out of the way/hit him with a sword? I honestly love everything about pantomimes, from the innuendos that go flying over the kid's heads to make the grown ups titter to the costumes and the sets to the plot-holes that are neatly avoided by sidestepping them altogether to the fact they're inexplicable to people who don't hail from Barmy Britain. "Well it's a fairy tale, right, and there's a man pretending to be a woman and a woman pretending to be a man and it's really very silly *trails off*" Believe me, I've tried to explain them to international students from my university and seen the baffled looks on their faces; I always just ended up saying "It's a very good example of British eccentricity."

My first USLES Panto...and a very good example of British Eccentricity! 

I think for actors as well, pantos are a different experience to any other type of performance. I've told people that I did pantomimes at uni and almost visibly watch them turn their noses up at me like they were too good for comedic theatre. But as an actor in a panto you have to be so much better at skills like not corpsing and being quick on your feet to respond to heckles as well as the usual facing the right way on stage and remembering which way round your lines come. You have to make the audience fall in love with you if you're a good guy, and hate you if you're a bad guy and be OK with being overly theatrical and silly about every movement. You have to not mind getting a plate full of shaving foam to the face, or getting water squirted down your trousers and try your hardest not to laugh/object when the dame sweeps in and steals the scene away from everyone. But they're really rewarding to be in as well- you have freedom like no other to make stuff up as you go along, to improvise, to heckle the audience back and to have as much fun as you possibly can. And you get constant feedback from the people who watch too- cheering for the goodies, booing at the baddies and shrieking "OH NO IT ISN'T" as loudly as they can-it's all such fun. I don't think you can go to a pantomime and not enjoy yourself, because you just get swept up in the merriment and frivolity of the whole thing and come out with a big smile on your face. And here's the thing, they don't need to have z-list celebs in to be a good show-you need local actors who come back time and again because they love to make a tit of themselves on stage so that people will get to have an awesome night out full of fun.

Pantomimes will always be up there with my favourite Christmas traditions, they're not just fun for kids but big kids too. As one of the older customers said to me the other day when I took her ticket "Yer never too old, are yer?" NEVER. Get yourself down to one and shout "IT'S BEHIND YOU!" to see how much fun you can have. Brill.

And so as it's Christmas Eve tomorrow and I shall be working and hopefully watching some of the show whilst I do, I will wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope that whatever you get up to is full of fun and happiness and too much food.

Tata!



*If you don't know I'm not telling you.

The Darker Side of Am Dram...

(Source here)

OK. So perhaps the title is rather over dramatic but there is a nastier side to a bunch of people all wanting to get up on a stage together. Performers are inherently a bit of a diva (don't you deny it!) because people don't put themselves up on a stage unless you love the applause. I totally love it, I'm sure many people will agree with me-there's very little in life that feels as good as standing in the middle of a curtain call watching lots of people clap at you. But then there's the flip side of this, when you're stood at the back completely obscured by the row of principles in front of you and you want with all your heart to be in that line but know you'll probably never be offered a chance. Because Am Dram groups have a tendency to be rather cliquey and it's horrible. If you're not in with the "cool kids" then you will never be offered anything more than a couple of lines. I know from experience-I did 10 whole shows with my old drama group and probably had 10 whole lines too. Me and my Dad didn't go to the pub with the main bulk of the group, we didn't socialise with them after rehearsal or at weekends and therefore we were never considered for anything other than a very minor part. I'm not just being completely self absorbed and melodramatic either (I realise I am a bit)-we aren't complete clutzes on the stage who don't know stage left from stage right. My Dad has an amazing singing voice and yet was never given a role that had singing in it. I'd like to think I'm pretty good at slapping my thigh with the best of them but I never came close to my coveted principle boy role. Being in the chorus of a show is pretty damn fun, don't get me wrong, but sometimes you just long to be up there singing that solo or being the one who gets the happy ending, or at least I did. I longed for it with every bit of me, whilst I was standing in the back in the chorus line again. It creates this kind of horrible atmosphere where people start thinking that they're not as good as the people who are picked time and again for the solos, for the main roles, for their chance in the spotlight and it kinda broke my heart a lot. All I ever wanted was my chance to shine!
Which is why I am so glad that I stopped going when I did, coz this big old thing called university beckoned me with its wise old talons. And there I found, to my sheer delight, some Am Dram groups that WEREN'T CLIQUEY. Firstly, I found my USLES who have the motto 'Immature Dramatics' and care very much more about the people than about the quality of the show. While they look to put on as good a performance as they can (and there have been some absolute corkers!) they're much more concerned with everyone having a good time than making sure every line is perfect or that the cast have the ability to sway in time to music. It's a very excellent thing. Plus I fiiiiiiiiinally got to be a principle boy and perfect my thigh slap, which made my life to be honest.

Then in my 3rd year, I made the spontaneous (and probably unwise) decision to audition for a random drama group, simply because they were putting on a Pratchett play. I auditioned with low expectations-after all, if they were anything like my old drama group then the same people would get the lead roles each time and I would be lucky to get one of the small walk on roles. To my surprise and delight, I got offered one of the main roles in the show-the role of Agnes the witch, who is pretending not to be one by running away to sing opera.

This is Agnes. She's a tiny bit of a MASSIVE diva.
I love her.

I have to confess that Maskerade was my favourite show out of all the ones I've performed in over the years. Not only was it an awesome show with a really brilliant bunch of people, but it helped to reaffirm my confidence in myself. Yes, I can actually act and I am good enough to stand in the the centre of that curtain call, regardless of what previous experiences have taught me. It also made me realise that not every drama group chooses its next performance based on the person they've already selected to be in the main role, and that newbies can have a chance to steal the lime light too. It was all kinds of brilliant.

Now I'm back in Nottingham and my Dad recently asked me if I wanted to go back and audition for the next show by my old group. Despite the fact that I am really missing being in rehearsals for some show or other* I decided not to because I know that they haven't changed. I know that there's no point in me auditioning because they've probably already decided who their principle boy and girl are going to be even though they've only just finished performing their previous show. I just don't want to go back to that kind of atmosphere, where there's a definite segregation between the people who have been doing it for ages and the people who are new or not in with the crowd, it's really unpleasant. Instead, I'll bide my time, I'll carry on waiting to get back to Sheffield and get back to The Company and to USLES, the kind of groups where I feel appreciated and accepted regardless of whether or not I go for a drink with someone.

Here's a note for any producers or directors of Am Dram groups though. Next time you're auditioning for a show, why not consider someone new for a part rather than the same old faces? You might just make someone's life-it sure did mine.**

-Jenni-

*This is the first time in about 10 years I haven't known what my next performance is going to be. I'm a bit lost, to be honest.

**And for all my Edinburgh friends, that's the Power of Love.

The Edinburgh Diaries: It's Showtime!

So on Wednesday I returned home from Edinburgh with an empty purse and a million memories, along with the company cold and a buggered left leg* and a hefty dose of exhaustion. It's fair to say that I had an excellent Fringe Fest with some truly wonderful people and that my life feels ever so empty now I'm not waking up to a flat full of them every day. It was a bit of a mad week, and an exhausting one, but it was definitely fun enough to make up for that. Didn't get to see as many shows as I had originally intended to, which was in part because I very rapidly ran out of money and also because I hadn't actually factored in that I would be unavailable across the peak time for shows each day (6-8pm) due to y'know, being on stage and all. I did get to see a few though, favourite of which was definitely The Vocal Orchestra which was a spontaneous last day decision. They were completely amazing-if you closed your eyes you wouldn't know you were listening to something being performed by only the voices of the 6 people on stage, and it was such a great atmosphere that you couldn't help clap and sing along. Also want to give mention to a wonderful performance of my favourite Shakespeare play, As You Like It, done by SEDOS. Despite the fact that it was cut down to be only an hour long, I still loved it as much as I always do and it was performed very well indeed.

The Baskervilles Cast warming up fabulously on the Mile.
(Techie, Frederick, Lady B, Holmes, Mabel, Director,
Watson, Watson's Moustache, Bellatrix, Marple, Lestrade)

Our shows (http://www.twoshadesofblue.org.uk/) were pretty damn fantastic too. I managed to see the other two shows (Sherlock Holmes and the Sound of the Baskervilles and Quantum Battlestar Deep-Space Voyager Tardis Wars: The Million Dollar Space Epic**) 3 times each and play the "Trying to make people corpse" game on the last night which was a little bit too much fun. They were really well done and so very enjoyable to watch every time and even though half of the casts were suffering with 'Fringe Flu', you couldn't tell by their excellent performances. And Back to the Future:The Pantomime? Well that was pretty awesome too.

1.5VOLTS!
(Stolen from Biff, who hopefully won't mind)

We sold out every night PLUS 2/3 of the seats for an extra charity performance that we added last minute and I just had the most amazing time performing it again and again. I danced, I sang my heart out, I jiggled (there was a lot of jiggling) and I finally finally got to use my crazy Welsh accent on a stage-something I have wanted to do for a good while. We pulled stupid faces at each other to make everyone corpse*** and I exuberantly pied Biff in the face every night whilst trying not to cringe at the Flux Capacitor. It was truly wonderful.
But what really made my Edinburgh experience was the people. Bearing in mind some of these guys I met for the first time in June (and some of them only in Oxford 2 weeks ago) I was trepidatious about spending two weeks constantly in their company and sharing a house with them and introducing them to Morning Jenni (Aka Sleepy Monster). Now, I'm not sure why I was worried at all. These are all LIGHT ENTERTAINERS, they're my people-the ones that properly get me, no questions asked. I have laughed so much over the last fortnight that I've probably toned up my stomach muscles to a level they've never toned been before. There were so many completely awesome people there, such a mesh of personalities that you couldn't help not find your home. If you're reading this guys, thank you. You made my Fringe in so many different ways.
And now I'm back at home in the real world, which is dull and much less fun/giggly/jiggly and gives me very little incentive to get out of my pyjamas each day. It feels very weird to think that it is only a week ago tomorrow that it was opening night-this time last week I was in Edinburgh learning how to flyer and trying not to get lost and it's all gone so quickly. I won't be forgetting it in a long time though, because it was really really really awesome. Here's hoping it won't be my last Fringe adventure!

-Jenni-

P.S If I never hear 'The Power of Love' again, it'll be too soon. Just typing the words sets it off in my head, sigh.


*Yeah...so I managed to get it trapped between my train and its platform in Edinburgh by falling down the gap...don't do this folks, it's bloody and painful.
**Think how fun it was trying to say that when flyering
***For you non-theatrey people, corpsing is when someone breaks character and laughs on stage when they're not supposed to. Trying to make your co-stars do it whilst not doing it yourself is something of a talent. But of course, we're much too professional for that...*shifty eyes*

The Edinburgh Diaries: Part 1-Oxford

15/8
18.20
Huzzah! Finally finally packed! I have a ridiculous number of bags- 1 large suitcase, 1 holdall, 1 bag with bedding in it and 1 small rucksack. It's not like I have to carry them for miles or anything...oh wait. Going away for 2 weeks should not be this difficult!
19.18
On the train with a friend who has a similar number of bags-so that's alright then! We're on our way!
21.50
Train finally arrived in Oxford...late. Now to find where I am staying for the next couple of days. Decided to be brave and fearless and forego the taxi so I can prove to myself that I am not as pants as I think I am at following directions. Yeah, take that Pessimistic Me!

22.30ish
Well I found it OK, but WHY THE HELL DID I NOT TAKE A TAXI?? Past Me, you're an idiot. All of me is aching and sweaty. Why the hell have I brought so much shit? Anyway, I'm here, I'm all "checked in" and I have a bed to collapse into-it's such a relief to know that I don't have to sleep on the floor tonight. Mmm bed.
On that note, I think it's goodnight from me, the hard work starts tomorrow.

16/8
23.50
And what a long day it was. Only just got back in after leaving the flat at 9.30am! Spent most of the day learning dance routines for the show...I didn't even know there was going to be dance routines but there you go. It was good fun, although incredibly tiring after 5 hours of it! Ow my legs!
Sorted lots of props out too, and started making some of the ones that are missing. Having not left the flat where we ate dinner until gone 11pm, it's been something of an exhausting day! Must be bedtime now!!

18/8
1:00amish
Well that's it! No more rehearsals now! Tomorrow we journey up to Edinburgh and then it's on with the show-hurrah! In these last 3 days we've learned 3 different dance routines, done our first (disastrous!) prop run through, changed the songs, got our costumes and run through the show enough times to almost make us sick of the finale song. Almost. We still have a few kinks that need ironing out, but we're very nearly almost there. And it's excellent.
Tonight was our preview night, which meant we got to see how the other half perform and see one of our sister shows (Sherlock Holmes and the Sound of the Baskervilles) for the first time. (The other one is still a mystery to the majority of us, for now.) It was pretty flabbergasting to be honest, everyone was just absolutely brilliant, it's completely hilarious and very very well done! It did make some of us in the Back to the Future:The Panto cast worry ever so slightly that we couldn't match them in terms of brilliance, but we needn't have fretted! While BTTF:TP is a little more rough and ready in places than Baskervilles, it's still a fantastic watch (I reckon) and SO MUCH FUN to be in. We're an explosion of neon and noise to contrast with the Baskerville's Victorian costumes and brilliantly worded songs. We bounce up and down like an excited puppy while they are much less raucous but not less fun. Plus they have a truly epic sword fight whereas we go for the pie-to-the-face comedy fist fight.
I really really enjoyed myself tonight, both laughing myself silly at Baskervilles and also frolicking around on stage too.
SO. Here's the plug, but I truly now can say you will be missing out if you don't get to see at least one of these shows (plus Quantum, which I know will be just as brilliant even though I haven't seen it yet!) So yeah...if you're around Edinburgh this week, come and see why I am having SUCH a brilliant time with this fantastic bunch of people: I can guarantee you'll leave with a smile on your face!!!

Back to the Future: The Pantomime, Paradise in Augustine's-Venue 152, 18.50
Sherlock Holmes and the Sound of the Baskervilles, Paradise in Augustine's-Venue 152, 14.20
Quantum Battlestar Deep-Space Voyager Tardis Wars: The Million Dollar Space Epic, Paradise in Augustine's-Venue 152, 22.25

Edinburgh Rehearsal II

Last weekend the entire cast of Back To The Future: The Pantomime assembled in Harrow for rehearsal number 3 (Technically my 2nd as I didn't get to the first one).  It was really good to finally meet everyone and get a full rehearsal under way, and more so because since the previous weekend one of my closest USLES friends has joined the cast. We basically spent the weekend bouncing off each other (literally, in some of the fight scenes) and making everyone else think we were a little bit odd, which is saying a lot considering the cast is made of mostly Light Entertainers. Oh but I had fun, I always enjoy the rehearsal process of a show, almost as much as I enjoy being on the stage itself. To say that I am in the chorus, I've got a lot of stuff to do which is excellent-there's nothing worse than spending the majority of a performance stuck in the dressing room just because you're not an important character.

Homework from last time:

• Learn lines/songs Check!
• Perfect an American accent that doesn't sound Australian Passably, for the 10 lines that I have. As long as there are no real Americans listening. (Sorry G-man...)
• Learn to fall over without injuring myself or overbalancing Mostly. I only have to do it once and it seems to pass inspection, and I didn't hurt myself. I call that a success.  

Things that I still have left to do:

• Learn my cue lines. Knowing what to say isn't much help if I don't know when to say it. Doh.
• Practice the fight scenes so that it feels more natural to be fighting people rather than going through the motions.
• Find costume bits and bobs so that I don't have to be naked on stage (ooer!)
• Pack for rehearsal week!

We've now done our first show run through (albeit without songs) and it's starting to come together and feel like a show! Always an exciting moment in any rehearsal process. And now rehearsal week proper starts in about 5 days-we have 3 days of intense rehearsing and then a preview performance in Oxford. Then it's up to Edinburgh and the show opens on the 21st August. 

I am EXCITED. 

You should definitely all come along if you're around the Fringe in the last week: details for all three Two Shades shows are here and they're all promising to be corkers. I shall hopefully be keeping the blog updated whilst I am up there as I will be taking my laptop. I'm also hoping to get to see as many shows as I possibly can, because, after all, it is the biggest arts festival in the world-and you'd be a bit mad to pass up on an opportunity to experience it properly.
Basically, I'm just really looking forward to getting up there and getting involved with everything and just having a whale of a time. Not so looking forward to having to share a house with lots of people again, but I will just have to cope with that. I'm taking lots of books and I'm just hoping that my ridiculous brain will let me sleep more than it did over the rehearsal weekend. I'm sure it'll all come good. Most of all I am looking forward to treading those boards and doing the show for 7 straight nights with some wonderful people.

Here's to that then!

-Jenni-

Ed Fringe Adventures Part I

In August of this year, I am going to be in the Edinburgh Fringe with Two Shades of Blue, a lightly entertaining company which I know about because of USLES. This weekend was my first rehearsal weekend with the cast of 'Back to the Future, the Pantomime!' and it went a little like this:

07:51
It's 8AM on a Saturday morning and I have braved Nottingham's torrential downpour to make it to my train, after a nervous car journey where I wasn't sure that I would. But I did, hooray, all is well. In 2 hours time I will be arriving in Cambridge (if all goes to plan) where I hope they are having a little less weather otherwise my walk will be wet and my feet very squelchy in their canvas shoes. Looking forward to getting there and meeting everyone, and getting started, woo!

09:39
Just left Ely for Cambridge, not long to go now. And it's not raining, yay!

10:00
Arrived safe and sound and the sun is shining, huzzah!

10:18
Left the station (eventually!) after having to queue for a ridiculously long time for the loo (Perils of being a girl!). It's also chucking it down. Bollocks.

10:35
Shoes are decidedly soggy, have bought some cheap flip flops to stop them getting ruined completely. Sun comes out as I leave the shop; bloody typical.

Closer to 11am than it should really be, onwards
Arrived at the rehearsal (at King's College, lovely) fiiinally. Met the assembled cast fiiinally and they seem like a lovely bunch thus far. Onto warm ups and singing through the songs in the show, which I still have stuck in my head a day later! A rather sophisticated lunch (2 types of hummus. I'm not sure I've ever even been to a lunch with hummus ever before!) and my terrible attempt at an American accent later, we landed at the end of the day. It was long, but really good fun! (That's what she said ;p ) We worked hard but got a lot done for it, and it was really enjoyable to boot. However, whether we can still remember any of it tomorrow is another story!

5:30ish onwards
Back to the HoLE (House of Light Entertainers) for dinner, chatting and (for me at least) falling asleep on the ridiculously comfortable sofas. Twice. Everyone else played Mao* whilst I dozed until gradually airbeds, sofas and cushions were claimed for sleeping places around 1am, as we were somewhat exhausted. Ready to do it all again tomorrow!!

Sunday, 22:39
Currently twenty minutes from being back in Nottingham station, after some slight train confusion left me getting the indirect route via Leicester rather than the direct train from Ely. No matter, I am only half an hour or so behind where I would have been anyway, and I haven't been charged any extra, phew! I'm terribly sleepy but I've enjoyed this weekend immensely so I have a light heart. Today was complicated warm ups and stage fighting and tryingnottoactuallypunchpeopleintheface and remembering the stuff we did yesterday. To say this is only the 2nd rehearsal weekend we've had, both with people missing, everything seems to be running smoothly-everyone has a wonderful grasp of their various characters and it's lovely to see them coming to life as flesh and blood rather than just words on a page. More than just the general fun of the show though, I've enjoyed meeting all the people that I am going to be in it with-these are my kinda people, who instantly understand me without me having to explain anything because they're exactly the same. They're the kind of people that I want to fill my life up with because it's so easy and enjoyable to exist in their company. They're my "theatre" peeps and they get it.
It's been a good weekend =)

Homework:

• Learn lines/songs
• Perfect an American accent that doesn't sound Australian
• Learn to fall over without injuring myself or overbalancing.

But for now, my bed is calling me into its soft embrace, and who am I to resist?
Goodnight!

http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/theatre/back-to-the-future-the-pantomime

Book now to avoid disappointment, as it looks set to sell out!

Also why not come see the other Two Shades shows while you're there?

Sherlock Holmes and the Sound of the Baskervilles 

and Quantum Battlestar Deep Space Voyager Tardis Wars: The Million Dollar Space Epic

*I don't think I could ever explain this to you. It's basically a game where no-one knows what's going on and the rules change constantly throughout. Russian accents optional.