Blog 33!!! Launch Time!!!

Hey everyone!!!

How are ya??? I'm great! My fingers are close to being stumps today as I've literally been typing, writing and generally playing office since 9am and I'm not used to it! Today is the official launch of this year's course of my summer school West End In Wales. Check out the link:

http://www.westendinwales.com/

It's a one week course where people aged 10-18 who love musical theatre come together to work alongside myself and an incredible faculty of West End professionals and fab teachers to create an end of week showcase. This year I am proud to say is the 5th anniversary of the course and it has gotten better every year! This year I can guarantee is going to be so much better yet again! There are going to be plenty of WICKED things going on during the week and so many new experiences for the students this year! Now, I refuse to use this blog as a form of permanent advertising as that will get dull for you all to read, however the reason I am writing about it now is because I have had a good few emails from people who live outside of Wales asking if it is just for Welsh people! So I wanted to get the word out there that it is open to anyone and everyone between the ages of 10-18 (age has been extended from last year's 10-17 due to popular demand) - last year we had a student from Mexico who was only 13 year's old! We don't provide accommodation but can of course recommend places to stay and if you have family near-by (even chester/ liverpool way is reasonably close) then make what arrangements you can! The feedback we get as faculty every year is over-whelming as there really aren't many courses like this at all where you get to work with West End artistes so closely, for less than half the price of the London courses and with a limited number of students to ensure individual attention is the priority! That's all I'm going to say but spread the word about this! I had a big meeting with the management of WICKED and they think it's an incredible opportunity for young talent and support me and the summer school 100%!

So there we go (It's been a long day and I will be happy to get out for some fresh air once I've finished this!

So the last time I blogged was from the dressing room on our extra matinee last Thursday! I can't believe that even though we did an extra show last week, every one of the 9 performances we did was more or less sold out! The theatre holds nearly 2500 people - makes you wonder where everyone comes from doesn't it!?? The support for the show from the fans is awesome and people really do come from all over the world to see it! I ask so many people who wait at the stage door where they are from and it's thrilling to hear that most people have headed to London specifically to see Wicked - never mind Big Ben, The London Eye and Buckingham Palace - it's clearly Wicked that people want to see - hahahaha!

Thursday after the show my mate Wayne came over for pizza and a couple of drinks and we ended up watching SAW 6 on DVD!!! My god that is disgusting! How someone has the imagination to think of such horrific ways for people to die is beyond me! Urgh! It wasn't scary just hard to watch and pretty awful really!

Friday was a nice day for me last week! I went shopping to buy a couple of carpets, one for my bedroom and another for my entrance/hallway and they are going to be in stock next week! Hurrah! Now that I am living in my flat permanently I have time to do this sort of thing and can be around to wait for deliveries etc - cos we all know how frustrating it is when they say 'it'll be delivered between 7am and 6pm' ...erm yeah thanks for that Mr Carpetright, I'll just waste my life sitting by the front door shall I! Ha!

Then I went to sit in one of my favourite coffee shops! If ever I have a spare half hour or so and I'm in central London you will quite often find me in the cafe of Foyles book shop on Charring Cross Road, which was introduced to me by one of my besties Becca! It's a cool place with great food and drinks and miss-match furniture and free wireless! Perfect! It's got a great vibe! So I sat and did some work and phone calls from there as a change of scenery from my home office - then I headed to meet my Best friend Sal and her fella Olly for lunch in Wimbledon and we had a great afternoon chatting and laughing and discussing adult things like property and pensions etc -
I think back to when Sally and I lived together as students in college and topics of conversation were about musical theatre projects, tap teaching qualifications and Cheeky Vimto's on a Tuesday (Blue WKD and port! Classy) - how times have changed! We have been through a lot me and Sal and it's funny isn't it how some people are just always there, no matter what - I love my friends and Sally's amazing!

What did I do on Saturday? Hmmm Can't remember - My brain is truly frazzled! Oh yeah, I remember -just more or less headed straight to work for the matinee after doing some work at home! I spent a lot of last week learning the songs I had to sing at the Bobby Cronin concert I did Sunday night at the New Players Theatre! He's an incredible composer but he's so clever with his lyrics that they are really hard to learn! So they required a lot of home work! I had an early night on Saturday, after an episode of Grey's Anatomy - I am loving season two! Makes me wanna be a doctor.....

Which funnily enough brings me swimmingly onto the concert on Sunday! So we had rehearsals and sound checks all day which is the norm (I was opening the show and broke the microphone in the dress rehearsal and so I had to start again! Hilarious) - then when it came to doing the show, Hadley Fraser who many of you will know, very talented guy who is actually taking over the role of Javert in Les Miserables from June this year, was given the responsibility of introducing me onto the stage as a voice over (from a microphone off stage like the dude on the X-Factor, you know the one- RACHEL ADEDAAAAAAJI!!!) well he said something along the lines of 'Ladies and gentlemen, please give a very warm welcome to the newest star of Wicked.....Doctor Mark Evans!' Yup he said I was a doctor! He said in the dressing room 'I wanna do something really random like call you doctor mark or something' and he only went and bloody did it! I was laughing out loud as I walked on stage! He's is a funny funny guy! I actually think he was just hoping I was a doctor so I'd give him a physical examination! HA.

So the concert went really well - the audience seemed to really enjoy it which is the most important thing! I had so many people come up to me afterwards saying they read my blog which I think is AMAZING!!! Hello to those people from the concert, hope you're reading again this week! It really does amaze me that when I look at the statistics of my blog and it's readers and the geography of where you're all reading it etc, I have up to 300 people read my blog EVERY WEEK!!!
I am honoured and so pleased you find something about it that either entertains you or interests you!
Won't it be great in a couple of years to look back and laugh at some good times!
So glad I started this blog!

Anyway, after a couple of drinks Sunday night I came home to catch up with Dancing On Ice - now then readers, I have to get serious for a moment. My friend Laura Hamilton and her skating partner Colin were in the skate off on Sunday and they do not deserve to be there - if they were rubbish I'd say, oh well she's had a good time, but they're blooming incredible on that ice and I genuinely think that people last week assumed that they are so good that they'll be safe and people will vote - but clearly too many people thought that same thing, so this week please please please pick up the phone and vote for them! Two amazing people who deserve to do so well from this! I am actually going to watch in the studio this weekend so keep a look out for a guy voting non stop from his seat - that'll be me! Please I ask you, spread the word to vote for Laura and Colin! If they make the final I will post something very interesting for you in a blog! I promise! End of rant!

Monday I had another date at the bank! I was in there for two and a half hours this time! She's really keen. I think I'll be meeting her parents soon! Ha.

Tuesday I went for a swim in the morning then for some physio for a twinge I'd developed in my shoulder (all fine now) then met with a friend to spend a lovely few hours wandering London and chatting and generally having a really nice day! Good times!!!

I swam 100 lengths before the matinee yesterday which meant that by the break in between shows I was sooooooooo ready for food! Went to Giraffe in Victoria with some guys from the cast and my lovely friend Amy who I mentioned did the amazing Panto in Cardiff - she watched the matinee yesterday! By the way - when you next eat in Giraffe (if you ever do) have the Edemame! That's all I'm going to say! AMAZING!

One more thing before I sign off for this week - Jessie J's album is incredible - she's an inspiration to all and a phenomenal talent and......she's BRITISH!!! Definitely recommend her album! Take my word for it, you'll love it!

Thanks as ever for reading folks! Keep smiling cos life is pretty darn good don't you think?!?

Love to all

Until next time.....Sh-Boom!!!

Mark