Posts Tagged ‘ Me and My Girl ’

Respect your character?


I seem to have a problem.  I get cast in a role, large or small.  I begin rehearsals full of excitement and trepidation.  I learn the words and movements.  And before long, I realise just how much of an idiot my character is.  Once upon a time, I would defend my characters. I offered a sociological justification of Torvald Helmer’s actions in A Doll’s House, for instance, which absolved him of all blame for the play’s ending, and I even managed to find a motivation for most of the things that Roger got up to in Grease.  But no longer.   I simply can not remain blind to my characters’ shortcomings…

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2007
02/11
CATEGORY
Ramblings
Theatre
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5 comments

Singing Librarian flashbacks: Disasters


This week, I have given much thought to those times when theatre just goes horribly wrong.  When the set decides to cave in, the follow spot overloads the electrical system, the pyrotechnics explode three scenes too soon, or everyone forgets what they’re supposed to do.  It happens to everyone involved in theatre at any level sooner or later, as I have been reading.  In Great Operatic Disasters, one discovers terrible disasters that have overtaken performances in venues as prestigious as La Scala and Covent Garden, while the ever popular Art of Coarse Acting describes the ways in which amateurs and others essentially bring such disasters down on their own heads.  The schadenfreude-seeker in me is now anxious to get hold of a new compendium of real disasters called Stop the Show!, and of course there are many further examples to be gleaned from the biographies of our great stage stars.

Of course, over the years, I’ve encountered a few of these wonderful moments, though nothing to top the more outrageous events recounted in these books.  Continue reading →

2007
01/28
CATEGORY
Musicals
Opera
Singing Librarian flashback
Theatre
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3 comments

The Singing Librarian’s 2006


Well, that’s it.  Just a few more hours of this year left to go, so it must be time to sum it all up, take a look back and prepare for 2007, whatever it may bring. This has been quite a year for the Singing Librarian, so I thought I’d share ten of the things that have made the last twelve months so interesting for me.

Changing the library.  During the year, the Library of Doom has gone through a number of changes in the way we work, meaning changes of responsibility, working hours and working relationships.  Some of it has been good, some of it bad, but it has been most interesting.  The changes will continue as we look towards a new building in 2009 with many further challenges to offer, not least moving several hundred thousand books to a new place.

Being Gerald in Me and My Girl.  2006 brought me my first principal role in a show since I left school in 1997, and it was a corker.  I achieved more with my performance than I believed I could.  I pushed myself in acting, singing, dancing and general stagecraft.  I made some friends.  I lost a lot of weight.  I showed everyone how to panic, and I covered up my extreme nerves every second I was up there on the stage.  I felt anxious, excited, nervous, elated and numb in no particular order.  And I finally managed to enjoy a performance just in time for it to come to an end.

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2006
12/31
CATEGORY
Meta - about this blog
Ramblings
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Singing Librarian flashbacks: Dreams


I don’t often remember dreams.  I’m not sure why this would be.  It could be due to my sleep patterns, or a side-effect of my utter lack of a visual memory (I cannot picture anythingin my head), or maybe I just don’t dream as much as other people.  Whatever the reason, I very rarely wake up knowing that I’ve had a dream, and it’s very rare indeed that I remember what I was dreaming about.  I do remember two different dreams where my house went up in flames, though, and my dream self has killed at least two people I know (so watch out, mwah ha ha!) for some reason.  However, I do normally manage an anxiety dream in the days or weeks leading up to a performance, and this is the focus of this flashback.  No insights into the strange backstage world of the theatre, I’m afraid.  Just into my head!

I’m sure most performers of any kind and at any level have had the usual anxiety dreams – turning up late; forgetting the words, or the steps, or the music; turning up with no clothes on…  But that’s kid stuff!  My sleeping mind seems to be able to come up with some wonderful variations on this theme. Continue reading →

2006
10/19
CATEGORY
Mental illness
Singing Librarian flashback
Theatre
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6 comments

Singing Librarian flashback: Preparation Fugue


My second flashback is cheating in some ways, as it’s to an aspect of my most recent show, and I have already discussed it, as it was happening, on an h2g2 discussion thread.  But I think it might be an interesting insight into the joys and woes that go into making the near-impossible seem effortless.

Spring 2006.  The Marlowe Theatre.  Me and My Girl. I played the Hon. Gerald Bolingbroke, an upper-class twit and one of the principal roles.  This involved a number of marvellous costumes and a couple of essential props – a monocle, and an engagement ring.  The poor fool spends most of the show trying to persuade a perfectly awful woman to marry him, so the ring made several appearances, and the monocle had to be worn with all of the costumes, being secreted away in a range of waistcoat or shirt pockets.  Learning how to use a monocle was an entertaining struggle in itself, but I mention it as an aside because it’s vaguely relevant to the scene in question.

The scene is the last one in the first act, the preparation for a grand party (which will soon be interrupted by the famous Lambeth Walk), and the beginning of the scene made us all break out in a cold sweat every time it approached.  The Preparation Fugue.  Continue reading →

2006
08/20
CATEGORY
Musicals
Singing Librarian flashback
Theatre
TAGS

5 comments
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