Saturday, February 16, 2008

THE MORNING AFTER THE NIGHT BEFORE...


A day off. Luxury. Sun shining and off to the Lookout for a coffee on the beach front here in Brighton. One week today to baby due date.

So many stories from the show last night and the week before but a sense of satisfaction that the team achieved what it set out to do - to deliver brilliant entertainment. Our audience loved the result of all our efforts and we had 194 seats sold. We all deserve a day off.

I was nearly squashed by the ice floor before the show. I stood in the van about to help unload and Jamie undid the ties that bind the plastic sheeting (it weighs about a ton). Unfortunately the van was parked on a bit of a slope and the sheeting, that was stood on its end fell towards me and pinned me to the van side. Fortunately my knees took some of the strain but it took Richard and Jamie to eventually lit it back to vertical. Half way through unloading our ice repeated it's trick and pinned me down again. The guys had to come and lift it off me again. It's heavy! Lucky nothing got broken or damaged, on me not the ice floor.

I reflect on a week of intense work on show development and content, and then the computer breaking down and no visuals being used as a result. the sound was added in though and that really worked. I've sourced music that fits to the eras I'm speaking of and can skate to those tracks. This is a rich pallete and I loved emphasising the stories with the music.

My guitar playing section with Louise was must stronger, it's wonderful to play for someone to skate to and improvise to my music. A gift.

I feel that I learnt another life lesson. That, no matter what happens the hard work and thought of preparation I put into something pays off. We had a pretty dire situation where people were held out of a theatre for 30 minutes after the 8 pm start time. One person asked for their money back. Technical stuff was not working, ice going down was very late, practise time 15 minutes after a week apart. Do you cancel the show or go ahead with no visuals...?

We went ahead and...

We (I) discovered a new way of presenting the performance that reached peoples hearts, provoked loads of laughter and had much more skating, more repartee, more stories more fun and energy, more of me relating to Richard as props man, Jamie on sound and Louise. The stories came more alive...

Funny how moments of adversity can build something better if we (I) just keep going....

Off for a coffee on the beach on my day off - first one in ages.. yay. Have a great day.


Love

n

1 comment:

bolero25 said...

hi nicky - well done on the show's success so far - i'm looking forward to seeing you at the DOI tour (i'm going 4 times!) and then coming to see you at Ice Times in sunny Scotland in Fife in May.

Good luck with the birth of the baby this week - and enjoy your day off in Brighton!