Anyone who knows me will confirm that I am a worrier. If there isn't anything to worry about already (though there always is), I will find something. And so the challenges of this week have popped into my mind periodically throughout the summer. Occasionally they have kept me awake. Occasionally, over the toast and marmalade I have had to be reassured that it will all be all right. And even though I am beginning - only just beginning - to realise that usually things do work out all right .. there have been numerous moments of anxiety over the past few months Why panic? Three performances of Family Matters on three consecutive days in three different venues with a brand new techie. I should have been grateful, I suppose. The presence of all this uncharted water almost (but not quite) displaced all other unnecessary concerns.
And so the process of things working out all right has been quite pleasant. First of all .. the brand new techie turned out not to be the cause of any concern at all. (Not counting momentary worry over his heavy cold which, had it been flu, would have removed all our rehearsal time.) We had our rehearsals and they went well. He knew what he was doing and did it very well, rarely needing to be told anything twice. The essential characteristics of a techie, I now know, are eternal optimism, utter calm and having the name Toby or, if necessary, Dik. Calm when the lighting stand falls to bits, calm when the buzzing sound won't go away, calm on discovery that you are in charge of house lights, sound effects and all the other things that Ginny originally told you that someone else would do. Toby The Second (to distinguish him from Toby The First and Dik, my other techies) had it all.
The next worry was whether or not we would get to either of the more distant venues on time. Our venue for Thursday's show - Holloway, near Matlock, seemed like the end of the earth and we couldn't leave till 3.30 p.m. Miraculously the roads were clear and we arrived with time to spare and discovered that our venue had a fully operational lighting rig. No need to set up our own, which was a blessing. Not that there's anything wrong with ours, but it is a bit of a faff and it's lovely to be able to leave it in the car. Once the local organiser had got over Toby in his (brand new for sixth form and there hadn't been time to change) suit, he demonstrated that the Florence Nightingale Memorial Hall had everything we needed to make the show a technical dream. To our relief, we also discovered that this audience, unlike most, was incredibly prompt. We started and finished punctually and were home before 11. Phew. One down; two to go.
On Friday the weather and traffic were horrendous. Driving rain, spray, accidents and slow moving traffic from the Avon to the Trent. We weren't travelling by waterways, but Stratford and Burton don't sound so picturesque. And, actually, we were travelling by waterways pretty much, given the weather. I became mesmerised by the ETA predicted by the sat nav as, without apology, it grew later and later and worried out loud to Toby whether or not we'd get there on time. But we were saved by the M6 toll and sat nav lady's decision to take us a different route from that recommended by AA routeplanner. And then, bliss once more, the venue had its own sound system .. so no need for ours. Another technical triumph. Home by 11 again. Just one left.
I can't complain about the journey or travelling conditions to our final venue. This performance was in my own village. It took us all of three minutes to get there. I was able to go home to get into costume. Rather strange, that. We were getting rather good at setting up by now.. and once again were blessed with a venue that boasts its own sound system. All just a little bit too relaxing so .... what did I do? Left the sperm cell in the staff room. So at the moment when Freddie has to pop offstage briefly to go and fetch it from outside the door, I had to run down a corridor, identify the staff room door (which is exactly the same as all the other doors in the corridor) and go and find it, as the audience sat waiting and wondering. Well, I thought it was funny, anyway.
So what's next ... back to Double Booked for next week's performances in Warwick and Stratford. Shouldn't be too much to worry about on the travel front ..or the techie (Toby the First back in charge) ..if I'm not careful I'll start worrying about what to worry about.
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