Hey Everyone,
Happy Thursday,
How you all doing? Good I hope.
Well what a week! This time last week I was a day away from opening in Ghost and it's been a crazy ole week since then.
I had a car into the theatre on Friday morning to take everything with me that I needed to move into my dressing room for the next year and the driver was hilarious. A short bubbly chinese lady who got ridiculously excited at the fact that I was opening in Ghost that night - or as she called it, 'The Ghost'. She was asking about what make up I have to wear, if I get flowers brought on stage at the end of every show, if I know famous people. She asked about Whoopi Goldberg who played Oda Mae Brown in the film of Ghost….actually she called her Whoopi Golding - "Oooooh that Whoopi Golding, she put on so much weight, she double in size!!!" I just giggled at her. She was very sweet and put me in a very good mood before getting to the theatre.
I popped for a swim and a steam to clear my head and then headed to buy a couple of extra opening night gifts for Siobhan (Molly) before the final dress rehearsal. The final dress left me feeling prepared and confident for the evening show and I was more excited than nervous.
I was bombarded with gifts to my dressing room. 8 huge bouquets of flowers, at least 9 bottles of bubbly & wine, lots of chocolates and sweets, and some close friends had given me really thoughtful personal things that are only relevant to me from them. I felt so supported and it filled me with excitement for the evening show!
It got to the half hour call and I had a rush of adrenaline that I only ever get before a first night. You can literally feel it pump through your veins for a few seconds and it makes you warm and tingly from head to toe with a slight butterfly/sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. It's like no drug you could ever take I'm sure! It got me really pumped up and by the time I was in my opening costume, microphone and make up on and ready to go, I headed to the stage and simply told myself - "this is it, the moment you've dreamed about, had nightmares about, felt anxious about, felt excited about, felt exhausted about, and so you have to use all of these things to ensure you take a mental picture of this moment and store it in your scrap book of memories!" - And although that all sounds cliche to you I'm sure, it's exactly what I did. I'll never forget that feeling of stepping on with my flashlight for the first entrance and actually taking a photograph with my eyes! I have a collection of those moments really racking up now from different shows and whenever I feel slightly down or negative or find it hard work, it's those mental images that help me remember why I do this and spurs me onward to feeling positive again! Good times!!!
The show went really well. The best a first night show could possibly go which was a relief. I could actually feel the good energy from the great audience willing us to do well. Siobhan and I were thrilled by the time it came to our bows. It was a real "We did it!" moment. I've got a close bond with Siobhan and it's been great to experience this whole thing with someone else. She is absolutely fantastic in the show too!!!
There was a drinks reception for the two of us and our guests afterwards and then it was bedtime. I went home and didn't speak at all until the latest possible moment the next day. By Saturday the whole company where exhausted, some of them had practically done 11 shows that week because of the extra rehearsals outside of the show for the two of us. So I took in a pile of sugar for the cast and crew in the form of Krispy Kreme Donuts and we all pulled together to get through the end of a really gruelling week.
After a glass of celebratory port (medicinal purposes for my voice of course) I headed home and didn't speak at all until Monday. My Sunday was spent in silence, eating great food, watching T.V & films and reading trash and sleeping. It was blissful.
I woke on Monday and did an epic workout at the gym before having a really long steam to try and relieve some of the tension from my neck and my voice from the tough weekend before. I got to work and the show was certainly a lot more difficult on Monday evening because my body had had time to shut down a little on the day off and so cranking it back up to where it needed to be was tough.
By Monday evening my voice had decided it was exhausted, so I went home and slept for as long as I could, woke on Tuesday, had a long steam and a vocal massage and then after a 2 hour rehearsal on stage we decided it was probably best for me to not do Tuesday night's show, but to rest so I could prepare for the end of the week. So I left the theatre and yet again, headed home in silence to have a hot shower and get an early night.
So I woke yesterday morning (wednesday) after 11 hours sleep and was picked up to do a whole day of press and publicity interviews for the show - my voice hated me a little for doing that too haha but after a couple of hours rest in the afternoon and another good steam I didn't give my voice an option - I was doing the show and it was just gonna have to cope! I loved it last night. The journey that Sam goes on from beginning to end through the show is epic and it's a really satisfying feeling to get to the finish line and feel the relief that Sam feels at the end of the show (you'll know what I mean if you've seen the show) and feel content after so much anger, angst and frustration throughout!
I headed home to watch an episode of Grey's Anatomy (nearly finished season 3). I'm gonna be doing a lot of reading, DVD watching and cinema watching as my quiet chill out time around the show. If you have any recommendations of box sets please tweet me your suggestions and tell me why you think I'd like it - or post something on my Facebook Fanpage.
Right I'm off to work for two shows. Woop woop! Love my life, love my job!!!
Ghost is currently booking 'til October 2012 so get booking those tickets folks.
Thanks so much to each and everyone of you who has sent in mail to the stage door, be it fan mail, good luck cards, congratulations gifts. You are awesome and I really appreciate your support.
Love your lives and most importantly…..BELIEVE!!!
Sh-Boom!!!
Mark
