These were the closing words of my first post in this blog. The
‘adventure’ which followed was certainly big – bigger than I could’ve imagined
then and led on to the greatest time of my life. That adventure came to its
close last week, but in style, making for an unforgettable climax.
Exactly one week before my leaving date, the occasion was
marked by my two favourite celebrities finally walking into the theatre. After
seeing so many famous faces come through the door of the theatre, my week was
made by the two and only French and Saunders strolling in together! We prepped
their interval drinks with a decorated order slip and (through just a tiny bit
of misbehaving) I managed to chat to them both at the interval. They were every
bit as lovely and funny as I hoped. Major high.
On the Saturday following that, we had a shift during which
an incident happened that two days later would make the international press. It
is an astonishing thing to witness a story first hand and then to see how it
gets reported, exaggerated and responded to in the press. I needn’t tell you about it myself: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/4917429/helen-mirren-drummers-rant.html
On the night, it was very funny but we never thought it
would get far beyond the little village of the West End. But when I turned up
to work on Monday, I was greeted by a throng of press: TV cameras and
journalists. Helen came in just afterwards wearing the T shirt in one of the
pictures in the article. I listened to her being interviewed and cleverly
spinning the story in her favour.
The following day, I was on stage door and hoped that it
would all be over. On the contrary – ‘drumgate’ continued with Helen doing a
photo shoot outside with some of the drummers involved. She brought them inside
the theatre, ushering them along behind her at such a speed I couldn’t possibly
sign them in, so wrote ‘Drummers x4’ on the visitor sheet. Since the whole
affair, I have had emails and messages from around the globe and pretended to
laugh at countless customers’ joke about drums.
Also that Tuesday I spoke more to the actor in the cast I’ve
got on the best with to date and unearthed all sorts of ‘small world’ type
coincidences – he knows the villages where I’m from and my sister goes to
school with his neighbour’s son. I invited him along to my leaving do on
Thursday.
Which brings us onto my last day. Thursday 9th
May. I met with Myles, Greg and Maria for a spot of afternoon tea and then we
headed into the theatre early to mess around and take photos on stage. I had
been allowed to choose my position on the rota for the evening and had a nice
shift despite a South American guy who was late twice because he couldn’t wait
to have a cigarette.
At the debrief meeting I was presented with a beautiful card
and present and we headed off to the Phoenix. So many people were there, which
was wonderful. Almost the whole of the bar and front of house teams; box
office; backstage; supervisors; people I have worked with in the past and Paul
from the cast, who came later as promised. We stayed til close, I had a wonderful
time and went back to Myles’ afterwards against my will because I was deemed
too emotional to make it home alone!
My first evening off was spent with Sophie, having a nice
Italian meal in Covent Garden. Then it was back to the Gielgud, as if I couldn’t
stay away for more than 24 hours. It was strange watching everyone come out
from a distance. I met Myles and we returned to his house to make the final
preparations for the next day: The Moonwalk!
We’d been in training – in a fairly loose sense – for the
half marathon walk for several months and were so excited about it! We’d
dressed our bras in sweet wrappers (the theme was ‘space’ so we found a good
excuse to eat lots of Mars, Galaxy and Milky Way bars); donned ourselves in
flashing pink tutus and headgear and headed to Battersea and the pink tent. The
atmosphere was amazing; we had a fab time around the course and there was a
great sense of camaraderie throughout. I am so proud of my team who together have
raised over £1000 and counting for breast cancer charities.
I got home at 8am on Sunday morning, went straight to sleep
and awoke early evening to immediately pack and head down to Kent. And so,
farewell London. And also, farewell to this blog. I will end it with the end of
my time in the city, to close the chapter properly. It’s been amazing and great
to report my adventures here.
Thank you for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment