under another sun

First night Lorraine and I drove the props and costumes to the Marlborough, while the others taxied over. Once in I left Beth, Mark and Callum to cover boxes in foil, organise the lights and get themselves ready. Lorraine and I off to collect Mum and Mas from the train station, and taken home, before I left again for the theatre. The afternoon spent on rehearsals. A dire dress rehearsal ramped up the tension even more, with me rather tetchy. Not my finest hour. Ate some surprisingly great chicken burgers and then it was time to roll. Our sound and lighting person Becky arrived with an hour or so to spare. I sat nervously downstairs with Mum and Mase, Paul arrived with a lady friend Channa and then between about 7:15 and 7:45 not one person arrived. Then, thank goodness, several groups of people turned up at the last moment and suddenly there was an audience. I lurched upstairs with Tarik, and introduced Pack of Three show and off they went. First was Wrong , which had been perf...

My life is a soap I decided today, that living at the Old Church Hall is currently like inhabiting a soap opera. There is the daily sporting of alien costumes and piratical roaring of the rehearsals. Regular visitors turn up to add colour to the story, such as Cath today returning an umbrella she borrowed yesterday and for a fast wee, and there are comedy moments with random pieces of machinery or IT malfunctioning every day, and cats gambolling about and having hissy fits. Lorraine and I popped up to the Twitten and saw Dawn hard at it. She has also liaised with the builder, and work will start shortly on the garden and kitchen. It is all costing a small fortune. Then off to the Marlborough Theatre with Beth, Mark and Callum to meet Tarik to discuss staging the show on Friday and Saturday. Very haphazard organisation, and the venue has added nothing to our marketing other than distributing the flyers I provided. Luckily Beth has been an absolute star in this respect, and we...

Yaar! Toby's last morning in Brighton. A large breakfast to send him on his way. Toby, Lorraine and I went for a walkabout through Brighton before seeing him off at the station. It had been great to see him, and I was pleased at least we found some time to talk here and there. Sad as ever to see my brother leaving, and wished we could live in the same town. But at least I get to travel to Toronto to see him and Romy, which is a bonus. Home to a phone call from Mum wondering what day Toby was returning, and the manly business of screwing newly-waxed bookcases to the walls with L-shaped brackets to prevent one of those ghastly book crushing accidents you are always reading about. Then emptying boxes of books and placing them on the shelves: naturally my books filled these up in a trice and there are still several unopened boxes. Sam here too, helping Lorraine sort out an old computer. I gave him a thick philosophy encyclopedia, as he will probably get way more use from it, goi...

Fish business and rehearsals Calliope tearing around the room like a mad thing in the night with her claws out. In the morning at last being able to get down to moving boxes around like fury. Lorraine and I dervishing about in the morning, as Betty and Mark sat quietly on the gold sofa. Then off to the Twitten to rescue the fishes. Lengthy business of draining the tank and bagging up all of the fish, pausing only to cope with a leaking bag, emptying gravel and stones into buckets. Then to transport cabinet and tank and fishes to the Old Church Hall. Everyone arrived safely, and we set up the tank and the fish all alive and accounted for a few hours later when released back into the water. Callum arrived and Beth Mark and Callum began a very noisy rehearsal upstairs. So Lorraine drove us up to the fish shop where I bought some new plants, and the tank looks well in its new environment. Fatty Basil one of the tabby cats, is a great fish fancier and is well pleased. Home and...

Read-throughs Slept like a large log after last night's wild dancing. After returning to the Twitten and attending to a few chores and matters, I listened again to the CD recordings, and marvelled at what Matt and I have achieved. Very exciting. I returned to L's house where I met Betty, Mark, and Callum to discuss the new plays, and brief Becky who is going to be our production elf. Had a first run through of Betty the Spacegirl , which will be excellent I think. Mark's play Pirates Anonymous coming on very well too. Mark is I think going to do extremely well when he slopes off to do a degree in comedy writing next term. Nice to see Callum, who I've not seen since Wrong in March. I am looking forward to our 'Pack of 3' night greatly. Then Lorraine came back armed with loads of shopping. And after the others had left, and Betty had left for work in Eastbourne we ate lovely roast supper and sat watching the Swedish Wallander, before I returned home to ready mys...

It's alive! Walked home this morning after slurping tea in bed made by Lorraine. A beautiful day. Busied myself rehearsing and tidying, until a nice Romanian man came to the Twitten at noon to replace my hard disk, like a heart transplant but less messy. He also fell in love with Calliope as she poked her head into the open computer next to him, and walked on the desk watching him typing. Now I have a Frankenstein's PC freshly loaded with Windows, and got busy downloading my bits and pieces, copying files across and trying to get on with all the business, and by 7.00pm had almost reassembled it. The day interspersed with rehearsals and I am feeling more confident about being able to give a good account of myself tomorrow. Had many windows open and wondering slightly afterwards what people would have made of all the passionate bleating indoors. This interspersed by calls from Beth who had urgent faxes to send to secure a place in a shared house when she goes to college, and almo...

Wrong goes very right The big play day today. Rushed about doing a few jobs before going to meet Beth, Mark and Callum at Lorraine's house. Beth and I taxied to The Marlborough with props and we met Amy there. Much of the day spent setting things up, running the play, making phone calls, while Amy fiddled with sound systems and the lights. Nice to see the actors with costumes, make up, fake blood and wounds etc. plus slices of turkey and cranberry to eat off the corpse. I was also liaising with Tarik, who runs the Theatre with David. Everyone behaving professionally and well all day. Much relieved to see Beth and Mark run through Wrong unscathed in rehearsal -- it was great to see all three just go for it in a very uninhibited way. Broke for a late pizza in a local restaurant at 3:30 as everyone was suddenly starving. Lorraine and Glenda, Mark's Mum, arrived early bringing calm and organisation. I repaired down to the bar for a steadying few drinks. Learned about people droppin...

Wrongful intent Off to Lorraine's house this afternoon to see the Beth, Mark and Callum put the show on for my my 'writer's review'. I am delighted with what they have done with the material. The first half which combines my zombie piece A bite to eat , with another fragment of mine Mistake , a piece by Mark Amdram Timmy , and Job Application by Tim Gallagher flow together surprisingly well. Lots of interesting gear changes but all part of an organic whole. I can take almost no credit for this, but they have made it work. Wrong itself is beginning to flow too, although they still need to run their lines more for last ten minutes of it. Beth particularly funny in it. Made me feel very happy as at last this piece might get the decent airing it deserves, and also see Beth with the opportunity to show what she can do with some comedy. Callum McIntyre is clearly an excellent actor, and Mark his usual ebullient self, breathing real oomph into everything he touches, and C...