The fire alarm buzzer is going off. This sounds like a very loud, very angry duck. It's not the fire alarm proper, it's the fire control box. It has two lights flashing, indicating areas it is unhappy about. These areas do not correspond to anywhere in the building, they are the spares. I have called an engineer and set it to mute. Mute is not as ( Read more... )

Too hot.
Too much pollen.
Too much pollution.

Swollen throat, unable to breathe and thinking is difficult, and making me very, very grumpy. I have already almost been reduced to a screaming rage by the fact that Viking (in their infinite wisdom) have changed all of the order codes on all of their products so they are not searchable on their webiste.

" ( Read more... )

And not just because she's usually found in Avenue Q and is a fellow Lancastrian, but because she is mad enough about her work to do something else in her summer hols whilst the puppet show transfers venues.

Two New York Musicals

It's unusual for me to be up for musicals, so get it whilst it's good.  Anyone for either of these - queenspanky I'm looking at you.

Went to Death and the King's Horseman last night. I could start with a massive round of cliches - blown away, dumbstruck, energised, transformed. But they don't express the qualities that roared off the main stage at The National last night.

It's The National, think about what that is supposed to mean - it is our theatre, a theatre that is meant to ( Read more... )

"Are you having breakfast at your desk?" I pause, and look up, cheeks full of cereal in the manner of a greedy hamster, my hand clutching some life-giving coffee. It is possible I could say "no" and I'd give 50/50 on this being accepted, but sarcastic responses would involve spraying the room with Special K. So I just nod, accepting, once again, ( Read more... )

In the empty section of the cafe is a large roll of lino. It has been roller painted matt black to be used in a show. It is glistening and wet. There are trainer marks over it, and then black foot prints over the rest of the cafe, leading up to the actor in front of me who is holding some paint-blackened shoes and an expression of total hiss- ( Read more... )

So, at my shiny new job we Support Developing Artists. What this means is that a lot of the work we get is in progress, and/or by new and emerging artists doing new adventures in performance or script writing. One of the ways in which we help support them is to offer what we call First Bites, which are Q&A sessions after the performance so you can ( Read more... )

First batch of theatre performances for 2009 are now fresh in my brain, and I'm gearing up to book another set soon. Went to watch Complicit at The Old Vic last night, with kangeiko , who gives us our quote of the evening

"I thought it was going to be a period drama,"
"Why?"
"David Suchet is in it"

( My tuppence worth )

To be bloody miserable apparently. Went to watch War Horse withkneeshooter over the weekend, and for all it's awesomeness it is not the fun-packed feel-good Christmas show of the year, I have to say. But it does do exactly what it says on the tin. Being a girl, I of course got a bit upset at the bit where the horses were in peril or being mistreated (this is ( Read more... )

Suddenly, it's gotten very busy. Various folk phoning in sick and whatnot have caused me to spend the morning running around imitating a headless chicken, but I think we are all settled now, touch wood. And I'm also spending the day in the (much) warmer theatre building, which is nice.

Weekend was really good, started early with watching Two ( Read more... )