High Flying, Adored......

Friday... 5.30pm ... mad dash to Swansea to make it in time for the performance of Murder at the Wedding ...

Most of the company had been there since about 3.00pm to do our tech rehearsal, which meant that I actually had nothing to do with the set setting and clearing - always a plus as I have a reputation for breaking things.

We watched the first play of the evening ..... which if I am honest, I thought wasn't very good. We couldn't watch the second play, as we were on after and had to be ready to do our thang.

Now, the rules of the Glamorgan Drama League One Act Festival are very strict. Its one hour for your technical rehearsal. 10 mins to set your set, 5 mins to strike it. The play must be between 30 and 50 mins. No alcohol allowed onstage, or to be consumed by participants prior to going on stage. Luckily, Murder at the Wedding only required three 1930's style mic's, one table and a few chairs, so we were on and set in no time at all. And being a radio play performed on stage, we all had scripts in hand to read by. It all went very well. I was a bit hot as was in full suit with trench coat and trilby .... but luckily, my part involved drinking lots of 'champagne' (actually grape juice .. and no, not wine either...) so I wasn't dry as a desert when it came to speak.

Once the final play (us) was over, the adjudicator came down and gave her reviews on each play. I had been a bag of nerves prior to going on (v v rare for me .. I don't even usually get stage fright or any kind of nerves .. just excited) and was a wreck once the tabs closed. So I sat quietly in the dressing room and listened to the adjudication on the pa system. She was very complimentary about all three plays .... and just as she came around to giving her verdict on my performance, another actress came in from the bar and talked through it. I didn't hear a word. I am told she was very complimentary about me though.

By the time I got home, it was very late and I crawled into bed........

Saturday morning, I woke up with about two hours spare before having to head off to pick up the set for A Little Extra Help. Dan had made me a lovely cooked breakfast and we sat down to eat in front of some Kim Possible dvds he has made me. As I stood up from loading the disc, I leaned back .... and sent the table flying onto the sofa. Along with the beans, toast and sausages. I felt like I was going to cry. There was Dan, getting up and making me a lovely breakkie and I just threw it on the sofa in two seconds flat. As an apology, I went out and bought food (I went out to get razors but brought it back as a surprise along with a big Easter egg that was on sale) and found he had made another one! Bless him.

It was a lovely day and I headed down to Landaff to pick Jo up and we went down to Splott to get the set. It was in the van in about 5 mins flat and we set off for Swansea. The tech went very well ....... I was a little concerned about hitting my mark for my spotlight in the dark ... but hit it spot on every time. We managed to get the set up in 90 seconds .... which for a full split set was pretty shit hot, if I do say so myself and after the performance struck it in 70 seconds .... we fucking rule. The show went very well. We had had some concerns about how I was to appear ion the audience for my third scene ... but found a way back without being seen so that I was literally at the back of the auditorium. That worked really well. Apparently, Teri came on at the wrong point once .. but I didn't even notice and I was there!

We then went to watch the other two plays that evening. After us was a fantastic play written by a member of its cast. It had a plot twist that I spotted about three lines in ... but nobody else did so I am just going to assume I am v clever and leave it there. It was mostly a two hander and the guys were brilliant. I really thought this would win the festival .. but it didn't.

The last play was a two hander called Cruise Missile ... about two ladies on a cruise ship. It was very funny but it did lose me for a good 10 mins in the middle ..... and this won the festival. The actresses were both very good, it was a very funny performance, but i do think maybe The Bridge deserved it a teeny bit more.

The adjudicator was again extremely complimentary on my performance as The Supervisor in A Little Extra Help, as she was with all of us actually ... and after a short break we moved to the awards..... There was a Youth Award, which went to one of Thursday's plays, the adjudicator award - again to a play on thu that I didn't see, best individual performance went to one of the guys from The Bridge and rightly so, Jo won best director for A Little Extra Help ... and bloody right too ... and then there was also an award for Best Individual Comedy Performance ..... which was also won by a member of the cast in A Little Extra Help........