Southsea, Claritina, Tower/Dover, pre Lanark
So, TF 16 happened and was a very different beast.
With an empty week immediately following Southsea, I finally said yes to Firecat Masquearde when they were looking for actors for their training simulations. A couple of short notice Past Pleasures rehearsals made the whole thing less straightforward than I might have liked, but I had a lot of fun nonetheless. Getting shot by a sniper and spraying blood all over an international aid worker was certainly a highlight, but the best part was probably jessroar and I deciding not to camp out at the training centre after all for the day between the two sims, but spending our fee on a room at the local country pub/hotel and having a really chilled time doing little but napping, playing Dominion, eating, drinking and watching Horrible Histories online. It was exactly what I needed post Southsea and pre the rest of the Summer crunch.
Since then, my time has mostly been divided between the Tower of London (a few days as Bishop of Durham Anthony Bek, but now Artillerist in charge of siege engines Monday-Thursday to the end of the month) and Dover Castle (mainly as Troubadour, but with a day as surprise king last week when scheduled king was ill, which was a nice return to a role that I rather enjoy but have hardly had since Past Pleasures realised that I'm a musician who knows my historical stuff). I also had a Trouvere gig at Dover Castle, which was actually kind of cool. The timing was such that my transport costs were actually covered by Past Pleasures, I managed to avoid camping by offering breakfast-wallah services to that weekends PP crew in exchange for sofa rights in the PP flat and Saturday evening's Past Pleasures/Trouvere combined drinking session was extremely enjoyable. In other Dover news, a C15th hat I'd made (I can't in all honestly claim total maker credit since Katherine Roper sewd about half of it while at Southsea) was a complete triumph. I'd been cursing the tinng in the last couple of days prior to the event since it wasn't turning out at all as the pattern book had suggested, but I managed to make it work well enough. It's far too warm a hat for summer wear, but it keeps the sun out of my eyes and as soon as I cauight a glimpse of my reflection and realised how marvellously it sets off my current Beard of Magnificence (I'm no longer in awe of Rik Sowden), I was reluctant to take it off...
This coming weekend, I shall be north of the border at Lanark for Scotland's Festival of History. It's a hell of trek for (after expenses) less money than I could earn by being available in London, but I operate a first confirmed first booked policy and was secured for this gig many months ago. For all I might not be relishing the train journey from London to Glasgow I have to take on Friday, I have to acknowledge that the rest of Trouvere have it worse since they're currently in Cornwall.... The fact I must be at the Tower of London by 9:30 on Monday morning means I'll have to forego the usual post-Lanark hospitality of Crafty Beggars in their mountainside yurt and meadhall, but that disappointment is offset by the Friday night opportunity to at last accept the long-standing invitation to visit with Dessie and Bria - good people I don't see nearly as often as I'd like.
- Living out - Ggeneral opinion seemed to be that while we missed being able to say "I live in a Castle", it was definitely better to have showers, sofas, a proper kitchen, separate (well, usually) rooms and a three legged cat.
- A smaller team with a much tighter budget meaning only 7 roles and no chance of a 'spare'. The necessary rejigging of what information is delivered in each scene actually made for a stronger show. I spent a few days frowning at how I'd squandered money on superfluous cast members for 15 years before ultimately deciding that actually I'm simply better at my craft than I was in 1996.
- Drastically altered scenes - With three Tudor characters cut, there was a lot of information that needed to be presented in different scenes (only the Armourer remained unchanged), which was probably challenging for all the old hands. On the other hand, I was glad of the opportunity to ditch certain elements that I was no longer proud of. Very liberating to get rid of certain things that had started as a gag, become tradition and eventually apparently become considered fact... But now, no more peacock/bow gag, no more orange/portingale argument, a Cook who is ambitious rather than just a bit crap, an Archer/Gunner who isn't constantly contradicted by the Gunner/Archer and last but not least a Noble who actually empowers the children rather than being simply hoity-toity.
- A shorter working week - I'm not fond of it. It means newcomers get a day to learn, a day to try and only one day to do. Sure, there's more time to kick back and have fun, but I love my work enough that I'd rather work five days out of seven than just three.
- Longer contract - Six weeks rather than the usual three, with the later weeks less densely booked with school groups than the earlier weeks. For example, we could have dealt with all of week 5's children in a single morning. On the other hand, empty afternoons were devoted to maintenance and 'freeflow', with some of the cast repairing/polishing kit and some manning 'open door' scenes for the everyday visitors to the castle. The general state of all my Tudor kit has never been so high and I got to try some experiments with staging (mainly involving using the gate rather than the Time Tunnel).
- Boredom - For all that the line-up changed regularly and I soon readopted the role-swapping policy, I was getting really bored by week four. I had a couple of weekend gigs in York which certainly helped, but I'd have really liked Past Pleasures to have booked me for some of the availability I offered! When a PP colleague offered a Hampton Court Palace 'Yeoman of the Guard' shift at short notice, I grabbed it. The train journey made for a long day and the travel costs certainly ate into the money I actually earned, but the change of scene and pace was very much needed (and it led directly to my introducing the very successful 'gate guard' position in one of our freeflow afternoons).
With an empty week immediately following Southsea, I finally said yes to Firecat Masquearde when they were looking for actors for their training simulations. A couple of short notice Past Pleasures rehearsals made the whole thing less straightforward than I might have liked, but I had a lot of fun nonetheless. Getting shot by a sniper and spraying blood all over an international aid worker was certainly a highlight, but the best part was probably jessroar and I deciding not to camp out at the training centre after all for the day between the two sims, but spending our fee on a room at the local country pub/hotel and having a really chilled time doing little but napping, playing Dominion, eating, drinking and watching Horrible Histories online. It was exactly what I needed post Southsea and pre the rest of the Summer crunch.
Since then, my time has mostly been divided between the Tower of London (a few days as Bishop of Durham Anthony Bek, but now Artillerist in charge of siege engines Monday-Thursday to the end of the month) and Dover Castle (mainly as Troubadour, but with a day as surprise king last week when scheduled king was ill, which was a nice return to a role that I rather enjoy but have hardly had since Past Pleasures realised that I'm a musician who knows my historical stuff). I also had a Trouvere gig at Dover Castle, which was actually kind of cool. The timing was such that my transport costs were actually covered by Past Pleasures, I managed to avoid camping by offering breakfast-wallah services to that weekends PP crew in exchange for sofa rights in the PP flat and Saturday evening's Past Pleasures/Trouvere combined drinking session was extremely enjoyable. In other Dover news, a C15th hat I'd made (I can't in all honestly claim total maker credit since Katherine Roper sewd about half of it while at Southsea) was a complete triumph. I'd been cursing the tinng in the last couple of days prior to the event since it wasn't turning out at all as the pattern book had suggested, but I managed to make it work well enough. It's far too warm a hat for summer wear, but it keeps the sun out of my eyes and as soon as I cauight a glimpse of my reflection and realised how marvellously it sets off my current Beard of Magnificence (I'm no longer in awe of Rik Sowden), I was reluctant to take it off...
This coming weekend, I shall be north of the border at Lanark for Scotland's Festival of History. It's a hell of trek for (after expenses) less money than I could earn by being available in London, but I operate a first confirmed first booked policy and was secured for this gig many months ago. For all I might not be relishing the train journey from London to Glasgow I have to take on Friday, I have to acknowledge that the rest of Trouvere have it worse since they're currently in Cornwall.... The fact I must be at the Tower of London by 9:30 on Monday morning means I'll have to forego the usual post-Lanark hospitality of Crafty Beggars in their mountainside yurt and meadhall, but that disappointment is offset by the Friday night opportunity to at last accept the long-standing invitation to visit with Dessie and Bria - good people I don't see nearly as often as I'd like.