Thursday matinee was always going to be special.  Patrick Jones wrote the play based on his work with the Cwm Taf Choir in Merthyr.  He had taken their stories, their concerns, their struggles with an uncomprehending world, and put them into Before I Leave.  Now the members of the choir were sitting in the Sherman foyer and the cast was in the audience. It couldn’t be anything other than moving and inspiring.  I noticed some things my character has tried to do on stage, such as getting help…

Minimini ma minimini ma mini ma

There is a moment before every performance which is almost my favourite.  The whole cast come together on stage to do vocal warm-ups.  For me it is fifteen minutes where any distinction between principals and community chorus fades away. We get our tongues, lips and vocal chords round the sounds, consonants and vowels and a strangely marvellous noise fills the empty auditorium.  NTW sets out to create a community, and this is a time where I can…

Our lovely director Matthew Dunster left us after the Previews, his job done, and now ours really starts. 

The mood in the wings has lightened as the lines, moves, reactions and exchanges become embedded.  I know what is coming up and am ready.  In the first Preview I hovered anxiously, pages too early.  Now I wait discretely, tucked away but alert and ready.  The oiled machine, company and stage management, technical crew, actors and singers move smoothly into action.  There…

There is a moment, where those of us waiting backstage in the community chorus, see three actors shoot off stage right, shedding jackets, scarves, jumpers and racing round to appear on stage again moments later.  The wardrobe staff grab what they can,  hand out the next layer of clothing and gather up the heaps from the floor. The stage manager listens to her earpiece for the next cue, hand on door, effortlessly ushering someone through. The music rises, the light changes; we can’t…