It's Curtains for you, Chap!

Sewing curtains is not the most exciting job in the world. In fact, I'm listing it among my least exciting and enjoyable activities. It must be done, of course, and I've been mildly aware of this from very early on; during the tour I have therefore been taking extreme care with the show's most unnoticed set pieces. However I cannot prevent natural wear and tear, so we have all been threading needles and stitching these masses of fabric with all the elegant grace of a cat with its head stuck in a bag. (I speak for my personal sewing skills here, not those of the team as a whole.)

Of course, we are sewing because soon the curtains will soon be shielding an entirely new cast from the prying eyes of eager spectators, and covering covert scenery transformations for a different show (most likely Oliver) as Peter Pan is nearing his final voyage to Neverland. I can't say I wish I had longer, honestly I'm ready to go home now, but I've had the most wonderful time here and am looking forward to touring again in the future. So, up and over boys! Time for the final push.

Who's Idea Was Cocktails..?

Today : birthday of the Scotty one.. nickname Cuddles, actual name Jillian. I made cocktails, which were delicious, and am now too drunk for anything requiring more than minimal brain function. Alas, no grand blog this night.

Ciao.

The Last Man Standing

I am now officially the only male member of what was formally Team Tomato (now Team Peter Cover), Joe having been replaced by Faye on Monday and now Molly (who you may remember previously covered for Joe some months back) for the remainder of our tour.

This is rather delightful on my part. Obviously I did love Joe, bloody top chap that he was, and I miss Grace dearly. Now, however, I carry the mantra of being Man of the Team, a rather amusing title as anyone who's ever met me will appreciate. The ironic fact of the matter is I get along exceedingly well with groups of girls, and I've found that my ability to give half decent back and shoulder massages becomes a useful currency when my costume needs sewing. Current exchange rates are rather flexible, as honestly I'll give someone a massage for making me a cup of tea, but it's already helped repair two pieces of my costume. Maybe I've made the wrong career choice after all.

Snow Days and Farewells

A lot has occurred this week. Let us begin on Wednesday evening.

For a start, this evening saw me on the phone more often than the cumulative total of the past decade. I'm still trying to figure out how as one phone call ended another seemed to spring up.. but besides that, and far more interestingly, Grace's cover arrived in the form of a little Edinburgh lass by the name of Jillian. Of course, because of my sudden phone popularity, I didn't get much chance to properly meet her until Thursday.

Nice segway there, and on to Thursday morning: a school with one of my least favourite halls ever encountered. A hall so awkwardly shaped that I had to remove three curtains from their rails and string them up with gaffa tape and prayer, with wings so cramped that you had to leave extra time to edge through the gaps before your entrance. I was not having a good day. The show went ahead without much issue, other than a lot of confusion when trying to exit the stage, but I found myself thoroughly exhausted by the end of it, to the point where I found it necessary to sit down whilst undressing. Joe then complimented me on my energy, in a show in which I thought I'd performed on a sub-par level.. the lesson apparently being that if I'm unhappy before the show the end result is better and I finish up in a tired heap. Read into that what you will. Then at lunchtime things took an interesting turn.

Snow, the kind I hadn't seen since my last ski holiday, was buffering the Tescos we were sat in having lunch. We got a call from the office letting us know the afternoon's school had decided to close due to the inclement (thank you TFL for that excellent word) weather. Immediately we were preparing for battle stations. A last-minute booking could mean a long drive and rushed set-up. Then Joe started dancing in his seat, and after thanking the office, we were given the afternoon off. A blessing and a curse, as it did mean that Jillian couldn't watch the show from backstage as planned. But we had time to get home, relax and then do a full run-through working out her tech and lines.

Friday was an all-day-double, which we were all very thankful for as it was Grace and Joe's last day and emotions were running high. The audiences were fantastic; the teachers some of the friendliest yet; and, for the first time in about 18 years, I had an English school dinner. And I can safely say standards have vastly improved. The end of the shows was sad, but we focused ourselves on getting packed up and home to clean the house in preparation for today's move.

Today was the hardest part. The five of us herded into the van with all our worldly goods and set off. Stopping off at a train station, our goodbyes were short and sweet as Joe and Grace set off on the next steps of their journey, and the three of us continued on ours. To possibly the biggest accommodation we've had for the entire tour. Seriously it is huge. And gorgeous. I could happily holiday here in the middle of nowhere. But that's another story.

Previously in Peter Pan

This blog is coming dangerously close to adopting a weekly post status. This has been due to a number of things, including my desire to get earlier nights and an attempt to not use my phone before bed. I've also been feeling a little down lately, and I'm not entirely sure why. So, a recap of recent noteworthy events:

A boy in a special needs school made us all cards and flowers for the show, a gesture which threatened to melt my normally granite heart.

In another school, a child wrote the word 'shit' in the dirt on our van. Unlucky for him, a teacher was walking past the door and caught him in the act. He got some classic primary school teacher speeches (why did you do it, were you trying to make people laugh, what do you think your dad will say, etc) and had to wipe the profanity off with a paper towel. That evening we washed the van.

Joe spent the weekend on a mandatory trip to Butlins with the other TMs and I went to a school reunion in London (read all about that in my other blog. Hint: lots of drinking.)

And today I serenaded a teacher who's face looked as though I was presenting her with a plate of dead rat. The teacher sat beside her was absolutely howling.

We're now into Joe and Grace's last week (which may have something to do with my current state of mind; that combined with a month without internet leaves me rather in the dumps) and I'm going to miss them dearly. As my first team I'll always have fond memories and maintain that I couldn't have asked for three better people to live and work with for six months on the road. The silver lining is that in two and a half weeks I will be in York and then back to London and civilization. How times flies.

Previously in Peter Pan

This blog is coming dangerously close to adopting a weekly post status. This has been due to a number of things, including my desire to get earlier nights and an attempt to not use my phone before bed. I've also been feeling a little down lately, and I'm not entirely sure why. So, a recap of recent noteworthy events:

A boy in a special needs school made us all cards and flowers for the show, a gesture which threatened to melt my normally granite heart.

In another school, a child wrote the word 'shit' in the dirt on our van. Unlucky for him, a teacher was walking past the door and caught him in the act. He got some classic primary school teacher speeches (why did you do it, were you trying to make people laugh, what do you think your dad will say, etc) and had to wipe the profanity off with a paper towel. That evening we washed the van.

Joe spent the weekend on a mandatory trip to Butlins with the other TMs and I went to a school reunion in London (read all about that in my other blog. Hint: lots of drinking.)

And today I serenaded a teacher who's face looked as though I was presenting her with a plate of dead rat. The teacher sat beside her was absolutely howling.

We're now into Joe and Grace's last week (which may have something to do with my current state of mind; that combined with a month without internet leaves me rather in the dumps) and I'm going to miss them dearly. As my first team I'll always have fond memories and maintain that I couldn't have asked for three better people to live and work with for six months on the road. The silver lining is that in two and a half weeks I will be in York and then back to London and civilization. How times flies.

Bobbing Along

I haven't written anything up this week because, in all honesty, nothing new has happened. Nothing has stuck with me so dramatically that I felt the urge to put thumb to screen and share it with you, I do apologize.

However, now we are in the final few weeks of Peter Pan, and change is in the air. As it happens, the other three team members are continuing on to perform in the M&M summer shows (I'm spending some time settling more permanently in London before dashing back to the road again), and circumstances of a rather interesting and somewhat complicated nature mean that Joe and Grace will both be leaving Team Tomato two weeks earlier than planned to begin rehearsals for their new shows, leaving Emily and me to do the entire show alone! All right, not entirely alone, we will in fact have two new performers for the final weeks and Emily is being promoted to Tour Manager (cue the party poppers and prossecco). But we don't have to even think about that for at least another week, and as it happens I'm in London this weekend for a good old reunion. More about that over on the London blog.