Resuming normal service

Okay, I know, posts have been few and far between in recent weeks. For the past month and a half, my days were swallowed up with learning lines, worrying about learning lines and (on bad days) taking my mind off worrying about learning lines by playing computer games.

We had a good run. Two of the three evening shows were sold out with actual “Bravo” shouts on Saturday night. I’d say we had an absolutely fantastic run – and maybe it was – except I came a cropper at the Sunday matinee. No, it wasn’t the speech that had given me so much grief. I finally mastered that sucker. It was a line I’d had trouble with throughout the rehearsals. I thought I’d got past it, but no. On Sunday I got the cue for one line and said another – one from half a page later. Thank god we had a prompter who got me back on track, but for the rest of the scene I was on autopilot, unable to remember, when the scene was over, saying any of my other lines.

I’m sure all the other actors and everyone else who said the audience wouldn’t have even noticed were right, but I sure as hell noticed and felt I’d let myself and Donna down. So, a good run, rather than an absolutely fantastic run.

Oh, who am I kidding? When I went to shop in the village yesterday several people told me how much they’d loved the play, that it was one of the best productions we’d ever done, and that I’d been wonderful. Aw, shucks. Maybe I was.

And, damn it, fear of ever nailing my lines notwithstanding (two thirds of the way through rehearsals I was still swearing I would never take on another acting role), I had so much fun working with five of my favourite people on the island. (Dave, who directed, is missing from the picture, for those of you who counted.)

Anyway, the play is over. There is a great deal of overlooked garden and outdoor work to keep me busy for the rest of the summer. And I also need to get back to writing something every day. Until such time as an idea for a novel or a new play takes hold, said writing will be here. It may be a garden update, it may be a rant or it might involve a tussle with the old black dog. It may be short, it may be long, but I have to get back into finding/making writing time.

Watch this space.