Well the festive period is officially over! No more busting the bank looking for presents, no more not know what day or date it is, no more eating leftover turkey or (acceptably) drinking pre 12pm. No wonder I feel so frazzled!

Along with all the usual Christmas over indulgence, my festive time has been filled with….musicals! There’s something ever so Christmassy about seeing a musical and being full of festive cheer I decided to treat myself to some pre Christmas song and dance.

Before the ‘big day’ (i.e. the second coming of Santa), I bought a day seat to Memphis The Musical. I’d seen it advertised a couple of months ago and was really struck by how good the songs were even from the short Youtube trailer. I’m not usually one to take a chance on a new west end musical, mainly due to ticket prices being ridiculous and also because I try to support smaller Fringe theatre productions, but I really really wanted to see this one.

I managed to get myself a front row day seat on the 23^rd Dec for a very reasonable £20. It was a matinee show and I’d say the theatre was only just half full – perhaps not unusual considering most people leave London just before crimbo! I’ve never sat right on the front row of a west end musical before and it’s quite an intense experience as more than once I managed to catch an actors eye mid dance lift. However it also gave me a real appreciation of how hard work it is doing a musical like this – you’ve got to be SO physically fit to do eight shows of this per week.

When I did my directors course at Mountview I worked briefly with the musical theatre students on a couple of shows and the energy they had at times was unbelievable. Even watching their morning workout before rehearsals left me exhausted! All of that energy looks so effortless on stage but when you’ve seen the rehearsal process with the endless going over of dance routines, the intense vocal warm ups, and the fact that they are essentially sprinting around all day singing songs a the top of their voice you really appreciate how dedicated you have to be to make it all work. Because of this I was really happy to see one of the students I’d worked with at Mountview in a supporting role in Memphis – he was as excellent as expected!

The musical itself was just amazing, I would recommend it to anyone and it was so refreshing to see a new production that had such good songs – I was humming this one for days afterwards. I only hope that it continues to do well at the box office as I know how hard it can be for a new show (albeit one that transferred from Broadway) to really break through and become a fixture in the west end.

My second musical outing is happening this week – after twenty eight years I’m finally seeing Les Miserables! For some reason I’ve never got round to seeing this on stage so as a Christmas present my husband bought us both tickets to see it this Friday. I’m really interested to see what I think of it as it’s become such an institution, particularly after the film, that it seems almost untouchable now in its popularity. Anyway I’ll be sure to report my findings next week!

House party: Check!

Fancy Dress: Check!

Multiple bottles of bubbly: Check!

ill advised shots: Check!

Room spinning: Check!

Pass out: Check!

Spend Jan 1st in hungover stupor watching all 3 Naked Gun films: Check!!!!

And with that I’d like to wish you all a…..

A little while ago (ten years to be precise) I auditioned for a very well known theatre company to be a part of one of their young adult productions. It involved writing a monologue about your take on the word “tragedy”. So desperate was I to work with this company that I quickly penned a short monologue about the trails and tribulations of performing in an amateur dramatics group. It was a funny little piece about always getting stuck in the chorus and the backstabbing between the leads. Hardly Pinter but a fairly jovial piece that (in my humble opinion) looked at what tragedy could mean without descending into tales of sorrow and woe.

I was beyond excited to be asked to audition for the company at their main site and travelled south to meet the other auditionees for the full day workshop. They all seemed pretty nice, if slightly more self assured than I was. We played some warm up games and it became obvious that a good 75% of them were currently at drama school so already knew the inner workings of ‘Zip Zap Boing’ and eye contact games that made me want to do anything but make eye contact.

It was then announced we would all audition in front of each other which immediately filled me with horror. One after another everyone stood up and delivered their monologue…they were all very earnest and soul bearing. I started to wonder why on earth I’d been asked along in the first place. After each monologue they were asked a question by the panel of three which consisted of an older, respected lady (naming no names) and two younger directors – one male and one female.

It was then time for me to get up and do my monologue. To say I was shitting it would be an understatement. I did the monologue as best I could, trying to be funny and desperately trying to remember it was them who had invited me to audition for them in the first place. I got a lacklustre clap at the end. Now time for the questioning:

Older, respected lady: Kate, what do you think the purpose of theatre is?

 Me (without hesitation): To entertain.

A gasp went around the room and the older, respected lady looked shocked whilst her two director friends smirked at each other. Then everyone started to snigger amongst themselves.

Older, respected lady: But don’t you think it is about so much more than that?

Me: Well…err…yeah…I mean it can…do other stuff like erm…

Director 1: Ok thank you Kate, you can sit down.

As you’re probably guessing, I didn’t get the gig. For years afterwards it annoyed me every time I thought of the reaction I’d got when I’d said entertainment was the purpose of theatre. Why had it been so shocking and laughable that I’d thought that? I reasoned I must have got it really badly wrong and that I needed to quickly find out what the agreed purpose of theatre was before talking to another theatre professional again.

However ten years later I still believe that the purpose of theatre is to entertain. I have been to lots of plays – West End and Fringe- where it is clear that at no point during the rehearsal process the director has looked at the production and thought to themselves ‘yes but will an audience be entertained by this?’. Entertainment to me means thinking of your audience not yourself.

I have been entertained by the saddest plays, the funniest plays, the most violent plays, the scariest plays, the silliest plays, the most frivolous plays and the most thought provoking plays. The key ingredient being that no matter what the subject, the production has been created with me, the audience member, in mind.

I would love to have the conversation with the old, respected lady from the theatre company again and ask her why she believed the purpose of theatre WASN’T to entertain? But alas, my seventeen-year-old self wasn’t quite so self-assured.

Any thoughts from the public at large? What do you think the purpose of theatre is? Give me your comments!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and that can only mean one thing…panto season has officially begun!

This got me to thinking about my childhood panto experiences and it’s safe to say my junior schools annual trip to the panto was one of the highlights of my year as a child. Excitedly boarding the bus to take us up to the Sunderland Empire (showing my Northern roots here!), sitting on the red velvet seats, eating all the sweets your mum gave you before it started and then that booming voiceover announcing “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls…” and the curtains opened and all sorts of hilarity ensued (including everyone going berserk when hard sweets were thrown into the audience)

My absolute favourite panto involved Jet and Cobra from Gladiators (firm favourites) being joined by The Krankies in Aladdin. It’s one of my earliest memories of thinking ‘I want to work in theatre!’ – particularly if it meant I got to work with Jet and Cobra. However, the worst panto I went to was a version of Jack and the Beanstalk where an aging TV star had been cast in one of the key roles. Even as a child I felt genuinely concerned for his health as he looked like he’d just done a stint on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here living on rice and beans for three weeks. Even now I question his suitability for such a role and it really highlighted just how hard work panto is – I mean, you’re singing and dancing throughout the entire Christmas period AND start of the New Year. Most of us only manage that for one day over the festive season!

Despite my childhood love of panto’s I’ve never been to see one of the ‘adult pantos’ that frequent the London fringe scene at Christmas time. A quick look on the Timeout website reveals a particular trend for including the word “booty” in the title so as to distinguish it’s adult content. However I’m determined to broaden my horizons this year and the mission to find the best adult panto has officially begun…now!

PS. Oh no it hasn’t! Oh yes it has! He’s behind youuuuuu!!

PPS. Will be interested to see how the above phrases work in an ‘adult’ pantomime! Oh matron!