I've woken up all croaky!
To be fair I've felt like I've been hatching something all week and have been trying to keep it at bay with a combination of Buttercup syrup, Covonia and various tablets!
The voice wasn't great during last nights performance but this morning it was a mere crackle of what it should be. It was also accompanied by a banging headache!
Hubby has been great and let me have lies in where he could all week but today was the mother of them all!
But boy I needed it.
But then so does poor hubby. These 5 am starts are killing us both.
Still tonight is the last show of this run and my emotions are mixed with a tinge of sadness, a touch of relief and a generous dollop of anxiety!
My character Beverly is rarely off stage. She pops to the toilet in the second act for all of two pages but apart from that she holds court from comic start to tragic finish. Ironically there is no access to the toilets from backstage at this theatre so I can't actually go which is a shame as I'm bursting at that point due to the sheer amount of "drinks" we get through. Bev offers G&T's incessantly and in Act 1 alone we get through a litre of fake "gin", half a bottle of fake "Barcadi", half a bottle of fake "scotch", a small bottle of coke and 4 tonics as mixers!
By the interval we are all desperate and have to get the stage management to hold the auditorium doors so the cast can run to the loos we share with the audience. You don't want to see the punters at half time and spoil the allusion so after a quick tiddle it's a mad dash through the front door, out onto the street, in costume and a quick run round to the back of the building to come through the stage door!
All very interesting when you're doing Shakespeare. I had some very funny looks one light spring evening as I belted up the road in full period costume!
Passers by are going to get more than they bargained for when we do Calendars Girls next autumn!
So lets hope the voice holds out and the last performance is as great as the others have been!
Saturday audiences expect a good night. After all they have paid their money to leave the warm and comfort of their own homes to be entertained. We're up against X-Factor and Strictly these days and it's tough to pull people away from the lure of a take-away and the telly.
And after all they're going to expect to be able to hear the leading lady....