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March 28th, 2006 by Chris RankinHey guys, I must once again apologise for not updating this journal or a long long time…. so i’m going to cheat and fill it in from other journals i’ve been keeping…
BUT things are going well., the first week of Wuthering Heights is gone, we opened last week in Lincoln to very happy crowds who enjoyed the play very much - which is all we can ask for! WE’re on a week off now - which sounds very lazy - but i think we all needed it - it’s been an intense last couple of weeks! Anyways…. here we go….
MARCH 1ST
so i’m currently in Brighton staying with family friend and mad-lady Jilly, which is fun :> as you can see by the title of this post, it’s mostly about Wuthering Heights which started rehearsing on monday. it’s going really well, i had my first set of rehearsals yesterday and they went really well - Ian, the director, works like a train, just pounds through it at such a speed. We worked for about 4 and a half hours and i was exhausted when i got home. Today i’ve got to be there half hour early to do an interview over the phone with a newspaper, along with Michelle who is playing Cathy. The cast is lovely - there’s Michelle, Barney (Heathcliff), Harriet (Isabella), Katie (Nellie), Robert (Hndley), Tony (Joseph) and Ollie (Hareton). And they’re all great - i’m running late now - so better make a run for it - suffice to say we all get on really well and it’s going to be ok doing this show i think…..
MARCH 8th
well, i’m typing this from my bed at jilly’s house in brighton, suffering from a slight hangover and really can’t be bothered to get out of bed! I had a day off yesterday as did michelle, and she rang me late afternoon to suggest we went out for a drink in the evening which was good and to be honest, just what i needed! I met her at the train station and we got a taxi down to the pier, where i had it on good authority that there was a karaoke bar open 7 nights a week (not in the winter season it would seem!). So we met up with Patrick (stage manager) and went to a pub for a drink and then made our way to The Queens Arms where karaoke was also on… Well the fact we’re in brighton and the pub is called The Queens Arms should really have given it away! The pub was FULL of very young boys in tight white t-shirts and on stage singing some dreadful tune was a guy who must have been somewhere in his mid 50s in full drag…. we left very quickly in a fit of giggles, poor patrick looked like a fish out of water - it didn’t bother me or michelle, but poor patrick is very northern and very very in touch with his masculine side, and clearly didn’t fit into that scene at all!!
So we moved on to a place called the Candy Bar, which was the complete opposite of The Queens Arms, it was a “ladies bar”, as it was introduced to us by the girl with shaved head on the door…. Patrick and I (as men) were allowed to stay on the proviso that we behaved ourselves (which ofcourse, we did!) Patrick however, being a boring sod left before the karaoke started - but me and Michelle stayed and did a bit of singing, well, one song each… I did summer of 69, she did i’m so excited. twas a good and well deserved night out!
MARCH 23rd
so wuthering heights is coming to the end of it’s first week of shows…. it’s bizarre how quickly the lifestyle that comes with working in the evening has become the norm… i’ve not been to bed before 3 any morning in the last week, i think i’m living on CST at the moment!
The play seems to be going down quite well on the whole, although the audiences aren’t huge, they certainly seem to be enjoying it! which i suppose is the main thing and then news will spread and reviews will come out!
so there we go!
More soon i promise - we’re in Windsor next week - so no one in the London area has an excuse not to come!
Love
Chris
xxx