Monday 25th March 2019

Spent the whole morning ignoring emails (so many of them) and rehearsing the HG show, which has it's first two house show previews this Saturday - the first one around Claire's, the second at our house with a 'selected' audience (which is pretty much just Rob, Alison, Alan and Alan).

I can't stress how proud I am of this show. I've long been confused about where I fit; I'm not really a stand-up (but have just about been getting away with it, and Ali keeps booking me up for nice gigs), I get bored by conventional theatre (the whole...well, vibe, of am-dram is just so village-ee and community spirit and all the things I generally get frustrated by) (I appreciate I live in a village, go to daffodil fairs and have recently found a new 'local', but let it go, okay?), I just want to write something that both entertains but has a point to it. This one does - it really does, there's enough stand-up bits in there to keep those who watch my shows happy, but it's really giving out a strong message, as well.

But to rehearse it has been an absolute bastard. Not only does it involve running, in a suit, for a majority of the 56 minutes, but it involves tight, fast conversations with pre-recorded dialogue which is always a risk (but played so brilliantly by Alan H and Kate, and mixed so well by Alan H who has really got into this one). It's also prop heavy and the ending is so dark. There's actual tears, I am actually crying at the end.

There were moments during the first run-through today when I thought, "shit yeah, this is it - this can work." And then during the second run-through I just had to sit down, it's physically RIDICULOUS.

It's a long way off, but I'm going to push this one.

All of that stuff doesn't make any money, though, of course, so I then went out and taught 4 private lessons in a row - the first three felt slow and were merely rehearsals for Thursday's gig, the final one, with a pair of siblings who don't want to play the showcase, was actually really great. They're both struggling for confidence so have declined the gig offer (which is fair enough, as I have 20 performers already which is 10 more than I wanted) and I always feel like I'm on the verge of losing their interest but this is really starting to work now. And Georgina, the mum, is great and something she said triggered an awesome sitcom idea which I then went home and started making notes for...

Still need to finish the script for Emma.