Now the musical evening performances are over it is time for me to step up a gear and get ready to direct again. Foolishly I have chosen another amazing Farce by the genius pair of scriptwriters David MacGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jr. The title of this one is “The Haunted Through-Lounge and Recessed Dining Nook”; trips off the tongue nicely doesn’t it!
I had quite a lot of interest for this play, partly because word had got round about how great the last one was, and also as we had a few new members join over the last few months. I don’t like having to tell people that they haven’t been cast, but it was nice to have a choice. Some very difficult decisions were made and after lots of deliberation, I had my cast. I made a potentially controversial decision to have my leading lady “Mrs Reece” played by a man in drag. The audition was done so well, I just couldn’t resist. It was a big gamble, but it payed off and it brought a different angle to the character.
Rehearsals went really well, I had a fantastic backstage team and mostly thanks to Geoff, I had a working set very early on, with many doors, a hinged flat that converted the front door into the hall door and a secret entrance in the form of a revolving bookcase. George also stepped in making me a four-poster bed and a car, and Ian produced a “Laughing Cavalier” with glowing eyes and a telephone that expelled “poisonous” gas on demand! The lovely Mick stepped in fairly late on to be my Stage Manager and I am eternally grateful that he did. The rest of the cast and crew were fantastic and all did marvellous jobs.
We had a few problems with the actual performances, but in true show-business style we carried on. The first performance went well, however the second performace left us without a “Felicity” at very short notice due to illness, and with 15 minutes to go until curtain up, I had to find a suitable costume for myself and get made up. Thankfully, due to the nature of the play, me appearing with a script could have been part of it and it didn’t detract from the other performers. I went on the following night too, but was slightly better prepared! I missed out on watching two of the performances, but I can’t wait to see what it is like on the dvd!!
