At first, as I moved around the country, at every stop in every town and village I joined a local drama group, or at least phoned them up and asked to be on their mailing list, but never had to courage to go to a reading or a rehearsal, so convinced I was that I would have to stand on the stage and do a routine, have a speech prepared, a turn, a song and a dance, with critical theatre lovies smirking and laughing, so low was my self esteem that I never once turned up to any of these groups, until I moved to Uckfield.
I signed up to the mailing list for Buxted Players, for two years the emails came in and out of my inbox but I never thought for a moment I could go to an audition, to a play. A real play that people would come and pay to watch.
At Uni I studied Drama and directing I performed in several plays and Videos, but that was for friends, when I left Uni I went on the audition circuit for a year and it came to nothing, confidence knocked I chose the rd more travelled and went into admin, and there I stayed… but for the emails with the hint of theatrical sparkle tempting me from my inbox monthly wherever I went.
Then I got three emails about a play, and a bit of the theatrical sparkle stuck, and I though, what if? What if I answered? What harm could it do, then I got three more… about the same play, “…desperate for ladies and gentlemen for play” it said again and again. So tempting it was, and in a moment of excitement I phoned, actually phoned one of the many groups I had watched from the periphery, “come along said a friendly voice, come to the reading.”
Not knowing what a reading was, I assumed I’d be on stage with a script auditioning, heart pounding I donned my favourite, young looking, casual but smart outfit and took a deep breath, or six.
“Theatrical sparkle is now a large part of my life and something I miss hugely when its not there.”
I found the village hall in a small village in Buxted, East Sussex. Walking in, a large group of friendly happy jovial people, no lovies, no velvet coats and cigars, just lovely down to earth friendly people, we sat in a circle, and read the play from the script… “marvellous, thats everyone cast. Here are the dates, see you next week”
I walked through my front door and fell on my sofa laughing, “Im in a play!” I screamed and laughed and hugged my husband, “They want me! Im in a play.”
And it was fantastic, from start to finish. And even though some lines are easier to remember than others, the saving grace is the audience rarely knows all the lines, and we are such a close team, we have each others back, so there is never (or hardly ever) a pause in the play, and there is definitely never a dull moment!