I Don't Give a Dame

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!

The Prodigal Hubby

It's difficult to sit down and write an account of where I am and what I've been doing for the past few weeks. How exactly does one begin to write a preamble explaining and justifying that one has come home to Canada earlier than anticipated because there was a great theatre opportunity offered by an old director friend? Oh . . . I guess that was the preamble. That wasn't so bad.

The director is a great guy, and I've worked with him before. In fact, his Christmas show two years ago was the last major production I did before the wedding. Brianne and I knew it was a great chance for a fun show, plus a way to see family and friends sooner than originally planned. We accepted the separation as a part of the actor's life (hi diddly dee) and though we miss each other A LOT, we know we're both doing what we're meant to do.

My show is called The Office Christmas Party, and was written by the director. It is a collection of four vignettes with very different characters taking place at four very different work-related holiday shindigs. It's a very funny and entertaining show, with plenty of witty banter and farcical slapstick. I play three different characters, which made for a very interesting task of memorization. First, there's Sean, who uses a false moustache to try to apply to be his own assistant. He's actually a lot smarter than this scheme would indicate.
Kevin the director knows his audience well, and it includes a great many little old ladies. Erego, if there is an opportunity to have his leading men onstage without pants, he takes it. My second character is Lil' Andy the Beauty Consultant. Draw whatever conclusions you wish about him, you'll probably be right.
Last is Randy, the smarmy salesman who thinks that he's just won the lottery and can tell his boss exactly what he thinks of her in his own elequent way.
The cast is very talented, and we've had some great reception from the audiences we've played to. Some people have even hung around after the show until the cast came out in order to tell us how much they enjoyed it, which is the ultimate compliment and very gratifying to know.

The show is a dinner theatre production put on at a Days Inn in Leamington, Ontario, which is about a half hour from Windsor. We're paid and given room and board to come down from Toronto (or Niagara Falls in my case) every other weekend to perform for a mix of local families and office groups. We had a bunch from the local Royal Bank come see us last week, so we altered a few lines to make reference to them. They ate it up. The Days Inn has very comfortable rooms which look inwards to a central courtyard where the pool and waterslides are!

The play only runs alternate weekends, so the rest of the time I am back at the Hodwitz family homestead in Niagara Falls. Mom and Dad are delighted to have me around . . . there is a good list of chores that's been piling up in my absence. Plus, my sister Kat is home for the holidays, and it's been SO long since we've had any extended time together. Good quality time with the family, whether it's checking out the sights of town, running errands, doing yardwork, cooking, or just watching episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I had looked into the possibility of getting a part-time job while I was here, but my unusual schedule made the pickings rather slim.

The coming weeks will include a trip to Kirkland Lake with my Uncle Richard to see my Dziadiu (Polish for "grandpa"), day trips to Toronto, and hopefully catching up with family friends I've not seen much of since the wedding. After the play finishes up on the 20th of December, I'll have a couple of days before hopping my flight to Ottawa to meet up with Brianne when she lands on the 23rd to spend Christmas with the Tuckers. That, my friends, will be an AWESOME Christmas present.

Moments and Memorization

Alas, I am alone in Merry London without a husband, but it is all for a good cause. Andrew has gone to the Windsor area to perform in a Christmas show that embodies the horror that is "The Office Christmas Party", and no, we are not talking about Dwight and Michael from The Office. (Humerous and unconfortable though it may be.) I wish him well and know that if I had kept him here for no good reason that I would be going against everything that he stands for as an artist:struggle.
However, letting my travelling partner go had left me with a rather troubling dilemma: We had tickets to go on a late night host walk of Hampton Court Palace, and I was not going to get rid of my ticket. Enter Matt: our voice over House mate who is a pretty cool bloke and occasionally refers to me as 'mate'. (Yes, he's Australian - not trying to wisk me away from Andrew!)
So Matt was able to join me on my night out ghost hunting - and all I can say is: WOW.

The trip started off with leaving from Waterloo station (Waterloo, couldn't escape if I wanted to!) and arriving around 7 p.m. at Hampton Court. By the way: the sun sets close to 4:10 p.m. at the moment - so 7 p.m. is DARK! The tour began in front of the main doors into the Palace; we couldn't go through them as there was a large archaelogical dig going on but that was not our focus. Our gaze was drawn towards a tiny window in the far right of the building, overlooking where the moat once was. It is the room through that window that a family was staying in Victorian times. The family kept on complaining of hearing a whirring sound late at night. On inspection a door was uncovered that had been walled up, and inside was a room with a solitary spinning wheel - the source of the noise. Historians researched to find the last known resident of that room to be Sybil Penn, the nurse/guardian to Edward, only ligitimate son of Henry the 8th. Sybil Penn became part of Elizabeth l entourage until she died of small pox around 1562. She was buried in a chapel nearby in Hampton. However, the church was hit by lightning and her grave was one of the ones disturbed. since that time (late 1800's I believe) sightings of Sybil have been regular amongst staff and those who work along the Thames river.

Our next stop was the Great Hall of Henry VIII - an amazing piece of work by day or night. Along the sides are 6 or 8 (of a set of 10) tapestries that are valued as the world's most expensive tapestries. About 80% of the work is done in gold or silver thread. There is also a spot on the ceiling that shows the original paint and design - but only visible at night with a flashlight. Here we were told how every sighting is investigated and how many of them have a very dull reality to them. One night a guard was walking through the palace, doing their rounds. They came into the Great Hall and shone their torch along the walls to make sure everything was fine. As the torch light hit the far end of the room the guard saw the ghostly white outline of a woman in a nightown - and promtly fled the scene. As our guide told the story he moved his torch along the wall - and low and behold as it shone on the far side of the room we saw the vision for ourselves. However - upon inspection the anomaly is revealed to be refracted light from the hidden system protecting the tapestries. Proof that one should always find a reasonable explaination before assuming it's ghosts.

Onto the next room - Henry's audience chamber where he would be greated everyday when leaving his personal chambers by people asking for favours and money. Here we sat in the dark (with only torchlight) yet again - on benches as we were told about the Haunted Gallery - the rooms beyond this one. It is considered to be so for these reasons: Henry the VIII took as his fifth wife the young Catherine Howard (cousin to his second wife Anne Boleyn). Historians place Catherine as young as fourteen to as old as seventeen upon her marriage to the fifty year old King. She had at least one affair that we can confirm - possibly two - and when Henry found out she was placed under house arrest in Hampton before being moved into Syon House and subsuquently the Tower of London to be executed on February 13th 1542. There is however one day where we believe that Catherine escaped from her guard at Hamtpon Court only to run down the gallery and bang on the door of Henry's private chapel, pleading for mercy. She was promptly dragged back to her rooms and it is rather obvious that she did not receive the requested mercy. Grace and favour residents have reported hearing hurried footsteps alongside the gallery as well as strange occurrances with the door that we know to have lead to Henry's private chapel. One statistic is clear: of all the places that people have fainted in and around Hampton Court Palace there is one spot that has four times as many reportings as any other: and that is front of the very door that Catherine would have banged upon. With this our guide then told us that each of us would go - one by one or in pairs - into the Haunted Gallery lit only by candlelight. My heart started racing. I'm not joking - I had Matt feel my pulse and it was pounding, my hands and feet began to sweat and I was filled with the anticipation of wanting to run and wanting to see what was there in the dark. One by one people were pointed to the door, and about halfway down the group it was our turn. Matt and I went through the door into a long corridor lit only with the occasional candle light. I put my hand to almost any doorknob I could see, wondering if I might be hit with a spark telling me I had the right door. As I moved halfway down this one corridor a chill passed through me. I turned my head to the right and there on the wall was the darkened portrait of Henry, gazing down towards me. I couldn't see the face, but the stance was unmistakable - how odd that while passing this particular painting I should feel the chill.

Onwards and around a corner - and suddenly - like a light going on in your head - I knew I was in the actual part of the gallery that was supposed to be haunted. There was nothing marking it, nor the door that we were looking for, it was not different from the other corridor in style or decor or lighting - it just felt different. I couldn't pinpoint which door was the right one, but Matt did find the broom closet - literally. At the end of the hall we joined the rest of our group as we waited for the other half to finish their walk.

Other stories that we encounted are as follows:

1. A private apartment that the historical chefs use when they are staying at Hampton to prepare the 'historically accurate meals'. Their front door has three bolts to lock it. During one stay they returned to the apartment to find the door unlocked and wide open. When this happened a few days in a row they decided to have someone lock it from the inside as well, place a chair up against it and leave by climbing out one of the windows. Upon their return that evening the door was again unlocked and open and the chair halfway down the front hall.

2. A staircase where the figure of a woman in a nightgown carrying a candle has been spotted many times. Tradition has it that it is the ghost of Jane Seymour who died at Hampton 12 days after giving birth to Henry's son.
3. A room where a private resident decided to place the framed portraits of the actors from a popular BBC show portaying Henry VIII and his six wives. On at least two occasions the portraits have been found on the floor in the middle of the room, their frames smashed and broken

And of course the crowning glory:

In 2003 during the middle of the day (11:45 a.m) a strange occurrance happened three days in a row. Security was first alerted the first day when an alarm went off. Someone had opened the fire doors in a more remote part of the Palace. Upon arriving at the scene they found the fire doors closed, and so they suspected (it being mid-day) that a member of the public had decided to use them as an exit point. Upon inspecting the CCTV cameras there was no one caught on film either opening the doors, heading towards the doors on the inside of the palace or away from them on the outside of the palace. (I say away as there is no handle on the outside of the door and on the inside it is a push bar to open the door.) The same thing happened the following day at the exact same time and spot. On the third day it happened again, but when they reviewed the tape that day they caught what has been now named 'Skeletor'. (Google or Youtube it if you like.) On the tape it shows the doors flinging open in unison. Eight seconds later a figure appears in the doorway and proceeds to close the doors. The figure as a pale face and is clothed in 'clothing of the period of VIII' as put by some. Our group stood outside these fire doors in the dark night air, and as we were told what the guards found really odd about the occurrences - the doors flung wide open! Except standing on the other side was one of the other guides - just doing his job well and giving us all a good start. As we entered the palace through the doors we were able to see that there was no where for someone to hide off camera and that the doors did need a great deal of force to open them up. Ghost? Or an elaborate hauxe to convince tourists to come on these late night tours?

Either way it was a brilliant night out.

On to other things - I am memorizing my script every day in anticipation for rehearsals this week. Nothing much to tell there as it's well - memorizing words off of a page -oooh, exciting...

In terms of part time jobs - I am still catering and this past week I have served the Duke/Earl of Wessex - three times. He's a decent bloke, fairly normal and has been kind enough to laugh at me at least twice and values my advice. The story behind it is this: I was serving a private party he was holding at Frogmore House and most of the attendees were Canadian. I was speaking of the wonder that is Ice Wine when HRH came into our group and agreed with my taste in liquor. I don't know if that means that my tastes are expensive or if his are cheap...

From that point on in the evening he and I had good repore, so that when it came to the moment that I accidentally dropped an (empty) cup of coffee rather close to him, he was able to bring some humour to the situation. To those in my family who think this might be a step up - please stop dreaming, it's just that of all the Royals, Wessex is the most down to earth.

And so back to memorising...

The Woman in Black

Brianne and I had our fill of Halloween chills a little late this year. Last night we went to the Fortune Theatre near Covent Garden to see the acclaimed "spine-chiller" play The Woman in Black. We had been told by that this play is genuinely as frightening as a good suspense/horror film, and we can both assure you that the hype is totally believable.

The play is based on an English horror novel of the early '80's, and is presented as the tale of an old man named Arthur Kipps who has hired an actor to help him tell his story "which must be told" in order to exorcise the personal demons the experience has left him with. The show is presented in a very intimate space with sparse sets, simple costumes and only two actors . . . plus, of course, the ghostly spectre of the completely uncredited Woman of the title.

The show is genius in it's simplicity. It relies on deft lighting, masterful sound design, the art of misdirection, and the superb storytelling skill of it's actors. One could say they use the same tricks as a campfire ghost story, and yet they are pulled off magically. I kid you not, the audience was screaming in fear by the end, us included. The chills were on par with my best experiences of Hitchcock.

After the show, Brianne and I hung around the stage door to let the actors know how much we enjoyed the performance. The younger man who played The Actor, was appreciative but had to hurry off to catch his train. The older gentleman who played Kipps was positively delighted to stop and chat with us, and in fact we strolled and chatted all the way to Charing Cross station discussing our acting experiences. He had recently played Gandalf and Elrond in the West End production The Lord of the Rings, and years ago had taught privately in Toronto! I was particulary keen to speak with him as he played multiple characters in the play, which is a challenge I am often given in my shows. His advice on this task was inspiring; I was beaming by the time we parted ways. What a wonderful night in the theatre.

Cousin Emily comes to town

We've been missing our family a great deal during our conquest of Europe, and so it has been a blessing to share this past week with our dear cousin Emily, who hopped the Channel from uni in France to visit us. She bunked on the spare single bed in our room, and was treated to breakfast in bed every morning with a hot water bottle. Only thing we neglected were mints on the pillows. Seriously considering opening a B&B after this.

Em arrived on Sunday night, just in time to see my show at the Palladium. Our first full day together began with a considerable lie-in on Monday morning; as Emily reassured us, "It's okay, I'm on vacation." We made our way down to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery at Trafalgar Square, stopping by a discount booth in Leicester Square to pick up tickets for a West End show - which fortuitously ended up being Wicked on Halloween! After made the lengthy trek from Trafalgar to the high street shopping area - stopping to see the wonder of Hamley's Toy Store - and introduced Em to the trippy experience of shopping at Primark. We managed to drag her away just before it closed.

Tuesday began our serious sight-seeing, and what better way to begin than with The Tower of London. Brianne and I actually purchased a Royal Palace membership this time out, meaning we can visit the Tower and four other palaces for free as many times as we want for a whole year!

It's a real shame that you can only be a Yeoman Warder ("Beefeater" Tower guide) after being the British armed forces for 23 years, because Brianne is the ultimate guide for the Tower. We actually had a mother shushing her children so as to hear B tell the history of the stronghold. We inspected every inch of the the Tower, took part in a demo of medieval siege engines, then made our way to the picturesque Tower Bridge for nighttime snapshots.

As we love to do when we have guests in town, B and I treated Emily to dinner at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, and she sat in Charles Dickens' seat noshing fish 'n' chips. We made our way back to the Tower afterwards for The Ceremony of the Keys, considered the oldest continuous military tradition in the world, in which the Yeoman Warders ceremoniously lock up the Tower for the night. Free to the public, but limited in numbers, so B had to write ahead to the Tower for tickets. Unfortunately, the night decided first to rain on us and then send hail and snow, chilling us to the bone! Wonderful to experience the Ceremony, nonetheless.

Wednesday took us out of town to Warwick Castle, a site B and I have been meaning to see for some time. It's a very Robin Hood-esque castle, exactly the type I love. We climbed the ramparts, took in a falconry display, enjoyed the waxwork scenes of castle life, and braved the chills of the interactive "Ghosts Alive" experience in the aptly named Ghost Tower (actually reputed to be haunted by a former lord.)
Below is a clip of a Singing Plague Victim. Kudos on playing a vintage instrument, but does her warbling remind of a certain sister-in-law of mine?

Thursday took us out to Hampton Court Palace, a very grand place with labyrinthine halls and expansive grounds. We made our way through it's fabled hedge maze in record time. We also saw a demonstration of regal Tudor clothing. Every guide we came across assured us that the palace is brimming with ghosts. None could swear to seeing one, but felt presences, unexplained sounds, and eery temperature changes were widely reputed and vouched for.

We decided to take it easy on Friday, and went on a glorious stroll through some of the parks which London maintain so well. The autumn sun in Green Park was wonderful.We found the Canada Monument, something B and I had not been able to locate previously. It is a large slanted waterfall-style fountain with intricate maple leaves worked into the motif, commemorating companionship and joint service in war.We joined the throng at Buckingham Palace, watching the guards move around (no official Changing, though) and took in the Victoria Monument.After cutting through St. James Park and enjoying the company of ducks and squirrels that are surprisingly accustomed to the humans around them, we managed to track down a pair of honest-to-goodness big-hatted guards outside St. James Palace. They looked just as serious and implacable as one could imagine, despite being very baby-faced youngsters.We allowed Emily a longing look at the wing of the palace where their Hignesses William and Harry reside (they weren't in, sadly), we trundled along to the Horse Guard palace. Very interesting helmets, and just as immovable as their brothers in arms.At Emily's request, we tried to hit all of the iconic London sights today, seeing Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey (just the outside) and the London Eye, before swinging back up and around to Covent Garden.We finished off our Halloween with a night at the theatre, taking in a performance of Wicked. We were right at the back of the upper balcony, and it was still a pretty good view. Brianne and I actually ran into a fellow stage-combatant from Toronto at intermission while buying ice cream! The show was spectacular as always, though I admit that I'm so used to hearing American accents with the lyrics that proper RP sounded a bit jarring.

Saturday morning saw the ladies brave the drizzle to take in Portobello Road market and a bit of the British Museum while I stayed home to work on my script for the show I'm doing at Christmas (more on that another time.) Upon returning, we lounged in the warmth of home before heading of to a home-made dinner treated to us by our pal Ed. We spent the evening playing board games (Emily whipped us soundly) and watching a scary movie to commemorate Halloween, followed by a cartoon to take the edge off.

Our final day with Emily took us out to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich where we straddled the Prime Meridian, the heart of global timekeeping. We poked around a food and doodad market on the way back to the heart of town where we caught the beginning of Evensong mass at St. Paul's Cathedral. It was our first time making inside the cathedral, and it is beyond awe-inspiring. The choir really added to the experience. We will have to return for a more thorough tour. We made one last stop at Primark (Emily was suitably restrained) and then made it home for dinner out our favourite local Thai place and leisurely packing. We were up at 5 the next morning to take Emily to St. Pancras train station for a misty-eyed farewell. It was an incredible week of new experiences, one of our best of the trip to date.

Me & My Girl

7:30pm Friday October 24: I began the 48 hour Showtime Challenge, rehearsing and mounting Me & My Girl at the London Palladium in two days with a cast of 127! Tiring, but rewarding.

Admittedly, my part was rather small -- I was in one number as a member of the Cockney ensemble. But I played it to the hilt nonetheless. The show went beautifully; even I was amazed at how well it turned out with so little group rehearsal. My adoring public (Brianne, cousin Emily who made it to town, our friend Ed and our new flatmate Matt) enjoyed the show very much, despite the bad seats I managed to procure for them. Please find below a few pics from the rehearsal. I actually didn't get a chance to really know people during the whole process, as there just wasn't time. I snapped pics here of costumes I found entertaining!