This week our blog comes from Angela Thompson our very own Queen! Enjoy!
What does your Internet history say about you??
I walk into the hall beaming. Today’s rehearsal is for all principal cast. I’ve been flirting with the world of showbiz nearly all my life and though I can claim some childhood television success, this is the first time I’ve ever been cast as a principal in a stage production. (I may, or may not, have celebrated this fact with a magnum of champagne..)
I’ll be playing Queen Rubina, Sleeping Beauty’s mother, and I’m delighted to have landed this part. Last weekend I had my 6 year old daughter reading lines with me so I could be “off script” for my audition piece. I also had my 4 year old son watching YouTube clips with me so that I could learn the audition song, which it turns out, will be the opening number of the show. As you can see, landing this role is a family victory 🙂 Back to tonight and we’re all given a copy of the script, ready to begin a full read through. As I look around at the rest of the principals, I feel some nerves start to mix in with my excitement. I may be the oldest in the room, but I am dwarfed by experience. There is some serious acting talent in here!
As the rehearsal gets under way, we all get into character and the nerves melt away. This is the first time we have read through the whole show together and we all find ourselves laughing hysteri-cally at the classic panto jokes and people’s interpretations of their characters. This is going to be one fun show to watch, that’s for certain. There are several cast members missing tonight so we all jump in to read their lines throughout the evening. A particular highlight was Warren, who is playing Nurse Nelly, spending one scene reading in for Princess Aurora..
Elsewhere this week, I’ve been discussing Queen Rubina’s style with our wonderful head of cos-tumes, and choreographer, Fay. Drawing on some of my favourite Queen characters, I’ve had some fun researching a variety of wigs and jewellery for the show. Needless to say, my Amazon “inspired by your browsing history” product suggestions are now more than a little bizarre..