Monkey BLOG
This is the Monkey blog page! I travel to Leeds soon to start rehearsals on 12th May 2008 at The West Yorkshire Playhouse. Our director is Dominic Leclerc. I will be Pigsy!
Sunday 11th May - I arrive at my digs at 2 Ridge Mount, Cliff Road, near Hyde Park! I see two nurses through the window and the very eldery landlady tells me that she is not very well. Oh. Sorry to hear that but as I go up the two flights of stairs to the top floor I have to walk past two separate piles of dog shit (at least I presume it is dog. The digs list says there is a dog and a cat)
Monday 12th 11am - The meet and greet at the HUGE West Yorkshire Playhouse which has a staff of 200 strong! We are shown the Courtyard and get a chance to walk on the stage at the Quarry. Our rehearsal room in bigger than most theatres I have performed in! There is a huge circle of people at the reading but our cast - Jami, Wendy, Craig, Matt, Tink, Tony, Meline and I give it loads at the read through. We see the set model and I am already really looking forward to seeing the aerial work. Rather them than me!
Tuesday 13th. Go for a mooch around the area. Quite a lot of students live here and at the end of my road there are lots of cafes. I am sitting in one now writing this with sticky fingers from a custard bun and having enjoyed an excellent cup of tea. And the owner is allowing me a little more time on the computer for free. You wouldn't get that consideration in London.
Since then:- Rehearsals were full-on physically and left me little free time to devote to this blog. I was so tired that I fell asleep with pan boiling dry on the stove - twice!! We have been open for about a week and ovecame several obstacles which threatened our journey on the road to enlightenment! - Jami lost his voice; Craig had to leave the cast due to a family illness and the day before Press Night, Wendy was knocked off her bike and had to have stitches in her eyebrow and a strapped up ankle. But we had Faith and managed to get there. With alot of bravery and hard work, we picked ourselves up and soldered on - I am pleased to welcome Dominic Gately to the cast to take over as Sandy. Now I have my days free to watch Wimbledon! Come on Andy Murray!!!!
Our last week! Let's hope that the houses reach the size that we deserve. Seeing too many empty seats in the Quarry has, unfortunately, been a constant disappointment in the run.
And lo! Tuesday 8th July the people did come and we had a great response from a BIG audience! And it was a captioned performance so I had a bit of fun with the dot matrix reader - you had to be there!!
The run ends and we all go our separate ways, safe in the knowledge that we rocked the Quarry! I look forward to working with Dominic again in the future. If he casts me again...
