It appears that Andrew does not wish to make any blog entries recently - i am guessing because he might feel a bit embarassed by certain pictures that he has put up on facebook and would have to comment upon should he write about them. All I can say is that I never thought shiny gold boxers would look quite so good on my porcelain husband.
As for myself I have been rehearsing in St. Alban's for Beauty and the Beast which will be touring to schools in the London and greater London area. The first two days of rehearsal were interesting seeing as we were missing our Beast/Prince/Dame character due to an overlap of schedule. I play Belle and the Sorceress (doing double duty of placing and curing the curse), Keziah plays my sister Gertrude as well as Mrs. Bustle (a liking to the Mrs. Potts character) and Claire plays our darling father. On Monday we finally met our Prince Charming - so to speak. His name is Michael and he plays the Prince/Beast/my other sister Esmeralda - this involves alot of extremely funny costume changes backstage - one in particular involving green striped tights. 
Rehearsing for a pantomime has been a big learning curve for me, so much of what is not accepted in 'normal' theatre is a staple of it. At all times my body has to be turned 75% to the audience, almost every line is spoken out towards the audience with only a marginal acknowledgement to the actual character you are speaking to. Energy has to be very high. And one thing that almost every other director would fire you over is expected here: adlibbing. Unlike any other form of theatre adlibbing is almost necessary and requested during a Panto. I have been keeping a little notebook of some of the ones so far and will write them up shortly to share with you all. There are also 'must haves' involved in a panto that every British child expects: There is always at least one dame (a man dressed as a woman) in ridiculous make-up and costume, there is always one part where the audience joins in with the cast for at least 3 "Oh, No I'm not! - Oh, Yes you are!" (I get to do the first one in the show - very funny). There has to be at least one chase scene - we have two - where the characters run off and on stage at least three times screaming out the most ridiculous things that can come to their mind - it is never scripted but frequently rehearsed. Baddies always enter audience left and goodies always enter audience right. Boos and hisses will ensue. Oh, and I almost forgot - there is always at least one character that interacts with the audience and gets them to respond. In our case the two sisters come on stage and yell out "Hello Everybody!" to which the audience is told to reply "Hello Gorgeous!"
I think thus far I love the banter between the two mean sister the most - having a boy in drag with the world's worst make-up makes everyone giggle. Oh - and the pic of me and Keziah as we are rehearsing - someone else was using my camera so I am pretty sure that that is the moment that Belle becomes homesick (yes, crocodile tears are a VALID form theatrical technique).
I shall write a bunch more once we are on the road and I hope to have a few more pics and film clips. Bye Everybody!
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