Don't mention the 'C' word...

No, not the naughty one, you can mention that one as much as you like as long as I don't hear you, I despise that word. The 'C' word I'm talking about is Christmas! Sorry, I'm very aware that we're only at the beginning of September but you have to plan ahead in this career! Monday saw me back in Bedford with No Loss Productions to workshop this year's Christmas show entitled 'The Wild Things'. It's based on Maurice Sendak's 'Where The Wild Things Are', a classic children's book with probably less than 100 words in it from start to finish. How can you make that into a play? Well that's what Monday was all about.

The show was first mentioned to me during a journey to rehearsals for 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'in June and I was excited just hearing about it, and when the boss said she was thinking of me to do choreography I practically jumped out of my seat into oncoming traffic. A couple of days later, seamstress was added into the mix and I agreed to that too. What? I like a nice big workload! A few emails had come my way saying who was in the creative team, and I was over the moon to find that it was a jolly lot of people that I had worked with before, it sounded marvellous! I had half pushed it to the back of my mind as I was stupidly busy dashing forwards and backwards to London for rehearsals for the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games (more of that when I get round to writing it!) but the arrival of a piece of music meant that I had to focus and create a dance/movement piece to teach at the workshop to see if it would work/I was on the right track. I had jumped at the chance to do it, but I'm in no way at all a professional choreographer! The first thing I ever choreographed was for the Christmas show last year, and that lasted less than 30 seconds. Someone clearly had faith in me though, so I sat myself down, got out a new notebook and pen and began to scribble. I was quite pleased with myself, after half an hour I had put together some moves for half the track, so naturally I treated myself with a snack and left the rest for another day.

Then came the mammoth Paralympics rehearsal schedule, followed by the ceremony itself, and I realised on Sunday that I hadn't finished. I had 13 hours to finish it, sleep, and get to Bedford, oops. I whacked a couple of bits onto the end and hoped that someone else could come up with something on the day that I could take credit for. Being a Twitter addict (@nataliecastka), I was eagerly following the writer of the show and teasing him about his nerves for the workshop. He was absolutely terrified that his work would be awful and that we would all turn on him. It hadn't hit me until that point that people could possibly ridicule everything that I had done too. The Paralympics had left me on a super-high, making me feel invincible and that I was capable of anything, but what if it really was incredibly awful? I kept my mouth shut and told him everything would be fine. Monday arrived, I grabbed my notebook and ran to the station to get my train. I was feeling happy to be back in Bedford, it's starting to feel like my second home and I couldn't wait to see all of the lovely people that have become my friends as well as work colleagues. We all greeted each other with plenty of hugs and whoops of glee, and then it was time to get busy! We kicked off with learning the songs that have been written for the show, and the lovely muscal lady Sophie seemed suitably impressed with our abilities (good start!) I then got to hear the rest of the music that she has composed for the rest of the show and my choreographers hat slipped back on while the music whisked me away!

Next up, we did a few physical exploration things which would lead into me doing my teachery thing. Which actually went really well! I was happy. I worled with 4 others and I worked through my notes and got them all moving where I wanted them to go. Thankfully the bits that I intended to be funny got a some laughs and it was simple yet effective in how it worked. Chuffed! The very talented Matt then showed us some magical creations that he had come up with for the show (none of which I could possibly tell you about) and we all stood around in amazement, he's so clever! A couple of items of costume were handed out and it finally began to feel real, I was getting excited! Then came the script! I have no idea why Dave had been so nervous, it was fabulous! We all laughed, the characters were awesome, we had so much fun acting it out. It's going to be a fabulous show! :) And that was Monday! It felt so good to be back with creative people. I loved every second of my Paralympics experience, but jut being a number and being told where to stand rather than being a part of the creative process was a tad infuriating for me. Being back and being actively involved in the process felt so good, and reignited my motivation for writing my own play. Oh yes, I'm doing that too! :D So the next few months are pretty sorted for me, choreography, costume making, and with a little bit of luck, hopefully I'll land a part in it too... I am an actor after all! Tickets are available now, so get booking! And here's a little treat in the form of the poster for the show. Christmas is coming....!