His Dark Materials Both Parts in One Day

The day started at 1.45 p.m. with the call for Play One and finished at 10.45 or thereabouts after clearing the studio of costumes and props. There was a break of about an hour between performances for food and relaxation. It was a long day but at least as an actor you can move around backstage and you can chat in whispers with your friends. The audience on the other hand spend six hours in total following the story from a darkened auditorium unable to move from their seats.
With perhaps the exception of one or two of the cast, the actors never really know how something of this size and breadth is actually going - what effect it is having on an audience. If you're playing one of the great Shakesperian roles where you are on stage most of the time you have a pretty good feel as to how the audience is doing but not in a show like this.
My mother in law came to the first play and is returning on Wednesday for Play Two so she doesn't qualify as a six-hourer - someone who has sat through the six hours all in one go. On the other hand, my nephew, Mike, and his partner, Jenny T, did just that and stayed overnight at the Travelodge. Mike has worked with Questors in Ealing. Questors are among the elite of non-professional theatre. They have their own theatre and mount several productions per year ( I don't know the exact number but when I belonged to the Bradford Playhouse they did about 13 - 14 plays per year). The Questors have a studio theatre which is about the size of the Arts Centre but square rather than rectangular. The seating and staging is flexible but it can seat 80 - 100 people. The main Questor auditorium is a thrust on similar lines to Chichester Festival though not to the same scale. The Questor seats 375 which is a good size for non-professional theatre and must take some filling. If the Arts Centre had such a capacity, they could invite bigger touring companies. It has long been a dream of mine to win the lottery in order to build a new civic theatre in Havant with a studio and auditorium on the same lines as above but also a concert hall so that the Havant Orchestras could return home.
Mike and Jenny were both impressed by our production. Another member of the all day audience was Robin Hall. She directed "Art" the award winning production (Guide Awards 2006 as presented by the Portsmouth News). Her opinion can be read at one of the links to this blog - The Adventures of Archimedes - and makes me proud to be in this production. She also emailed me about my thoughts of only having walk ons in Play Two ( I am sorry but I am a theatrical tart!) and said words to the effect that it greatly added to her enjoyment when good actors kept popping up unexpectedly in small roles throughout the narrative. As I derive great enjoyment from Robin's enjoyment, "I will continue to give my all, dahlings" (said breathily with feeling).
The first night nerves were added to to for our leading lady, Charley, who plays Lyra, because she was feeling under the weather. So at the last three performances I have begun to perform one of those little theatrical superstitions that theatrefolk are rather prone to. After warm up and director's notes I enquire about Charley's health and will now after to continue to do so for each and every performance.
We sang "Happy Birthday" to Alice at yesterday's warm up for the matinee accompanied by a fanfare from the sound box. We will need to sing it again on Tuesday 19th for Charley as she reaches the grand old age of 19! (Steph, another cast member, is also celebrating her birthday the same day so how coincidental is that - not her 19th though, I think)
But as that fanfare sounds for Charley (and Steph) it will also sound for the end of my career as a teacher and the start of a new era!