But first I had an audition to get to! Off I went to London on the obscenely times 7.56am train, listening to my audition song, ‘What I did For Love’ on repeat on my iPod! The journey itself was quite pleasant for an early morning journey. My next challenge was to navigate my way through the tubes to Walthamstow. Due to work being done at St Pancras International, I seemed to walk miles around until I found my appropriate platform. Once again the journey there was quite easy, and the tubes were quiet... So much so that I thought people were bound to hear my heart beating in my chest due to my nerves!
On arrival at Walthamstow station I planted myself in front of the map of the local area to try and find the road I needed. This proved somewhat difficult... I had no idea which way I was facing or which direction I should be heading. My years of doing my Duke of Edinburgh Awards seemed to be useless! I set off in completely the wrong direction and immediately felt that it was wrong so found myself another map which seemed to be equally as pointless.
I did the typical British thing of refusing to ask for help until absolutely necessary but nobody could help me! I don’t know how but I eventually managed to find myself on the right road but heading in the wrong direction! About ten minutes later, walking in the correct direction, I found my destination. I spotted a woman not too much older than me sitting outside so walked straight up to her to see if she was also there for the audition. To my horror and embarrassment she was the assistant director! Brilliant. We sat there in awkward silence until the director arrived about five minutes later. My heart sank as she opened her mouth and her words rolled out in an American accent. The audition was for a musical set in the U.S.A, and to be honest, my general American accent wasn’t completely up to scratch! She also couldn’t seem to understand anything that I’d said in response to her questions. Good start.
I sat outside while they went inside to set up the room (of course I was over half an hour early!) and they brought me out a questionnaire to fill in to take into the audition with me. I noticed another girl arrive and go inside but kept myself to myself- knowing my luck she’d probably be the costume designer or some other big job with the production!
The audition itself went ok. I remembered all the words to my monologue from 42nd Street, and got good feedback on that. I was note perfect in my song too, and left feeling quite pleased considering it was my first audition in about 14 months!
I hopped back on the tube and made my way to Covent Garden to meet my lovely friend Anna for a pitcher of Pimm’s and a burger and had a lovely afternoon! The highlight of our afternoon was having our photo taken with a Johnny Depp lookalike dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow! Beautiful!
I went home feeling a bit sleepy but happy after quite a nice day, and began packing for the final week of the tour!
Sunday took me up to Scarborough (via St Helens). We found the Bed and Breakfast among the hundreds in the town and were greeted by a woman who appeared to have only one tooth! But the place was gorgeous, and I had a lovely sea view from my window. And we only had a 15 minute drive in the morning which was lovely! I can’t remember many of the shows form the week, but I’m sure if anything awful had happened I would have noted it down! So Monday night took us to another B&B in York. There was nobody there to greet us, just a code for the door where we found our room keys. I could only get one channel on the television so I made the most of my Torchwood DVD’s while eating Pot Noodles. Yes, I know, I’m very ashamed! Later on in the evening there was a knock at my door, and Rob was stood outside with a very beautiful man who I stared at for a few minute while he talked to me about breakfast! I was definitely ready for a good night’s sleep that night but was rudely kept awake by a man who was staying in the building but who hadn’t got his key to get in. My room was closest to the front door on the bottom floor but I wasn’t going to let him because it wasn’t my house and he could have been a murderer! About 20 minutes into his shouting rant, I heard a woman’s voice. Someone who was walking along the street had seen him and helped him to get inside which I thought was rather nice as she was a complete stranger.
After my disturbed night’s sleep, it was only another short drive to the morning school. Sadly Rob was almost attacked during the Macbeth scene! One of the children had his mask put on his face, ripped it off and proceeded to threaten Rob with his fists. It’s always a tense time in schools when a child gets angry at you and I could see all the teachers recoiling in horror at him- please note, not doing anything about it! I couldn’t stop the look of fear and disdain on my face and made a very audible tutting noise when nobody stepped in to help. The afternoon show went really well which made up for it. It was then time for another epic journey up to Barrow-in-Furness. About 3 hours I think. Thankfully this time we had been to that B&B so we knew where we were headed.
Wednesday took us to a special school in Barrow where Rob was attacked again during Macbeth! This time he was actually punched, and the teachers just laughed at the boy doing it. Needless to say, we weren’t impressed. Another good afternoon followed but I was secretly wondering how many more attacks would arise throughout the rest of the week.
Cumbria is a beautiful part of the country but Thursday morning’s school was a mammoth one and a half hour’s journey up windy country roads. We saw a horrible car crash on the way too which slightly held us up. We were a bit late for our arrival time, and pretty much ran with all the set and props into the hall as it was a long way through the school. The show went well, and we threw everything back into the van again for another hour and a half across the country, only to annoy the school by asking if we could move their stage so that we could fit our set in. They begrudgingly did it, and when I appeared onstage for my opening monologue, I was baffled by their seating arrangements. Each year group was sat in a huddle in a different part of the hall!
It was a good show, but as we were packing away, the teachers had told all of the children to bring a chair into the hall for their evening show. I walked into the hall after taking something outside to find a boy struggling to hold up our set as he had been playing around with it and it had almost fallen on top of him. I was so angry! We would have got the blame for it if he had been hurt without a doubt.
Friday took us just around the corner from the B&B to a school that I had previously been to last year. The kids were eerily quiet, it was quite unsettling. But we got on with it and slowly but surely, the final show was upon us. Unfortunately we were in an infant school, where the show didn’t go down quite as well as the junior schools. The kids were awful, some were walking around, just horrible. We did a speed show, packed up and did a little whoop as we realised we were finally going home.
I bombed it down the motorways of Britain to get to Manchester Piccadilly station, and managed to get a reasonably timed one that would get me into Kettering by 9pm. Not bad.
My journey would involve 3 trains, and I hate changing trains when I’ve got luggage! My first train from Manchester to Sheffield was quite quiet apart from the two ladies opposite who were bitching about their work. Typically I was stood in the doorway of the train in full view of everyone when I decided to eat the biscuit that I had bought at lunchtime. I had rammed it into the top of my suitcase when I had jumped out of the van at Manchester, leaving Rob in a cloud of my dust, so when I took it out and began to bite into it, the whole thing crumbled all over my face and onto the train floor. Marvellous.
Train two from Sheffield to Leicester was a nice one. I actually managed to get a seat and sat down with my iPod listening to the Sister Act The Musical soundtrack. Well, I tried. The music was getting drowned out by a couple of Chinese men shouting quite loudly. I don’t think they knew they were shouting, but they were! My final train from Leicester to Kettering was a complete non-event. I sat in the doorway again with my suitcase, just so that I could make a quick getaway when I arrived. I received a text message from my dad saying that no-one could come to pick me up because they couldn’t find my brother’s keys to move his car out of the way, so I made the final 30 minutes home by foot. I wasn’t expecting it to be so hot in Kettering as it had been quite a miserable week in Cumbria so I worked up quite a sweat, to add to my already disgustingly sticky self.
I was almost home when I received a phone call from Jacc asking if I was going around to his house to see him that evening. After hurling him an obscenity in my tiredness, I reached home and sat down on the sofa. I was back! I had a few text messages from my friends welcoming me home which was lovely, and also a couple of texts from Georgie telling me which acts I am in for the next Starlight show, ‘Leave That Wizard Alone’ in October....
And so I have begun rehearsals for that too. Who says actors are lazy?!?!
Nxxx
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