Acting & Pantomime

What a week in my escapist world, two casting readings, two parts.

The first is playing Richard in ‘Tea for Two’ for St Peters Players, Newlyn, for performance in November. Tea for Two is a comedy/farce; I told you that there is a cross over with being a Town Councillor.

Richard is drunk throughout the play, this is not a piece of type casting as I’m almost tea total, in truth coffee total as I don’t drink tea, not that I have anything against a drink.  I just don’t do a lot of it, I think this comes from the fact that my parents where publicans as I was growing up, enough to put anyone off for life. It also gives me an advantage in that being sober on nights out I have spent a lot of time observing drunks.

For all of that a nice part to play.

St Peters Players have been going for fifty years this year and is one of a very few amateur drama groups still going in West Cornwall, but we as with all groups have problems recruiting new members, I wish I knew the answer but its very hard to attract new young members.

You would think that with so many at college studying drama a few would like to get a little on stage, in front of an audience experience, the song and dance groups seem to do well but not the non musical groups.

The second reading was with Rosudgeon Pantomime, a group I was asked to help with last year, after many successful years the past couple had not gone so well for them, a small group of us from St Peters went along to help, and great fun it was too, I had not done pantomime for a good few years, after playing dame for many years. Pleased to say that all went very well, with good audiences for all the performances.  

It was great to be cast as the baddy ‘Sheriff of Nottingham’ for last year and ham it up I did, Alan Rickman would have been proud. Most of the smaller children in the audiences should be coming out of therapy by now.

Pantomime is a fantastic medium, for the vast majority of people it’s the very first live theatre that you get to see, I know it was for me and gave me a life long love of live theatre of all kinds.

So was looking forward to casting this year for ‘Beauty and the Beast of Rosudgeon’ and even better to see a lot of new faces, young and old. Doing a bit of re-writing of the script so that all the youngsters get at least a line or two, what part did I get……… The Queen!

Yes its back to being the dame, talk about being type cast.