Blog 28!!! Hope you like it!!!

Hi everyone,

How are you all? Hope you've had a good week. 

I'm writing this from the studio in Cardiff again in chunks while I'm not needed on set! It's so nice to do something different to just learning lines or drinking water! 

I have been pretty busy since my last blog last Thursday! (Now there's a surprise eh?!)

Thursday evening I went to the gym as I knew I wouldn't be able to go over the weekend because my sister and two brothers were coming down to stay.

Friday day time was a really long tough day. I was so looking forward to seeing my family that night that the day seemed soooo long! Granted we're working long hours anyway (7am-6pm) but time seemed to drag and we were spending the afternoon re-visiting scenes that needed slight alterations which is pretty soul destroying when you have a mammoth schedule and all you want to do is get through it! So re-doing some scenes was tough, but it was worth doing an good to get it done to ensure each episode is top notch! We have seen clips of the edited programmes and they look great! We are going to be making a pilot in English so that the producer can pitch the idea and the programme to other channels universally. I think it would be great for all kids to have the opportunity to enjoy this programme because it's so fun and new and fresh and very educational!

So anyway, as soon as i finished work on Friday I popped to Tesco to stock up on food to make italian style nibbles for the arrival of my brothers and sister to have with a good few drinks, then prepared everything before heading to meet them at the train station! They were very impressed with my apartment and the view from my balcony! If only i owned it eh?!?

We had a lovely evening and ended up chatting playing cards until about 2am! Perfect!

Saturday morning we all went for a swim in the pool where I'm staying before breakfast then headed into town to do some shopping and i ended up buying a lot more than I thought I would - you know when you randomly just see loads of things that you really like, which never happens when you purposely go out to buy things! So I made the most of it which was nice as I now have a good few additions to my wardrobe!!!

Then we grabbed some food and a couple of drinks before heading to Hollywood Bowl in Cardiff Bay, for a couple of games of bowling - I won the first one which I was thrilled about because we decided that whenever one of us got a strike then the others had to drink a certain amount of alcohol! It was so funny because I shocked myself and my siblings at just how many strikes I kept getting! It was hilarious! I'm usually pretty rubbish!!! Then we had lots of fun in the arcades before heading out to a few bars in Cardiff. My brothers got stupidly drunk and decided to stay out for a couple of hours longer than my sister and I. My body clock is so out of sync with late nights at the moment because of my filming schedule so us two were acting like grannies and heading to bed!

So Sunday morning it was a chore to wake my brothers up in time to head into town for lunch before they left on the train and I went to rehearse 10 dance numbers with the Marcaroni crew! I hate saying goodbye to my family, especially as I know that due to my work commitments this year, between Wicked and various concerts and T.V/Radio stuff and recording my album, I'm not going to be able to get back to see everyone in North Wales half as much I would like! That is the one massive downer about being in London, the distance - but looking at the positive, at least it's only 2 hours 40 mins on the train from Euston!!!

So then Monday morning came and it was back to the weekly routine of getting up at 5am so that I can go for a 40 minute run or swim 60/70 lengths of the pool (loving working out at the moment as the gym is in the complex I'm staying at and is so convenient!) I shall miss that when I leave next Friday! I only have 6 more days on set with Marcaroni and one day left in the dance studio! It has flown by because we've been worked so hard and have had so much to do, but we're still going to be grafting like troopers to get everything finished by 6pm next Friday! This has been a huge project and will be a massive achievement for all involved once we reach the end! Can't wait to see the end product once it aires for the first time in April!

Tuesday evening after work, Myself and Non & Elan who I am working with went out for dinner (Went to Spice Root in Cardiff Bay - it's amazing!!!) and then watched the new film starring Natalie Portman, Black Swan which I thought was insanely brilliant! What an imaginative masterpiece it is! Apparently it's had a mixed response but as far as I am concerned I thought it was incredibly acted, very well written, beautifully shot and perfectly produced! I definitely highly recommend it! So nice to see a film which is based on dance without it being cheesy predictable and slightly naff! I was so impressed by Natalie Portman in the starring role she obviously immersed herself into the life of a professional ballet dancer in training and to prepare for the role! What a stunning dancer! I was very inspired by every aspect of that film! There, that's enough about that I feel!

So… here's a funny story - I woke up at 5am on Wednesday morning and as the gym doesn't open up until 6am I was rehearsing all my Wicked material (as any sane person would at 5am eh?) and I was in the kitchen going through the choreography for 'Dancing Through Life' - my biggest number in the show for those of you who haven't seen it - and was doing this for a good 10 minutes then I looked out the window of my apartment on the 6th floor to discover that a woman in the apartment block diagonally opposite had been watching me, as she was stood there smiling and applauding me! I laughed out loud, bowed and turned the lights off and left the room, slightly embarrassed but also relieved that clearly she thought that snippet of my performance as Fiyero was worthy of applause! Ha! Must have brightened her morning to see some looney 6ft 2 guy doing contemporary choreography in his kitchen at 5am!!!

I open in the show in WICKED a week Monday and can't wait! I'm heading back to London tomorrow night and will be rehearsing for Wicked on Saturday as well as doing an interview and photo shoot for M magazine! I have found out today that some of the shots will be slightly more revealing than I thought! All I'm going to say is that I am relived that I've been working so hard in the gym this month to work off the bits of Christmas that decided to cling on to my body for as long as they possibly could!

Looking forward to touching base with London and my flat and then getting back to Cardiff to kick off the final week of Marcaroni!!! Next week's blog will be the last one before I am back in the land of all things green again! From the green land of Wales to the green world of Wicked!!!

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who send comments and messages and tweets to me! I love hearing from you  (especially my 'early birds' who tweet me between 5-7am to cushion the blow of the early morning!) You are all wonderful. Thanks!

I hope you're all well and happy and are enjoying my blogs!

Keep smiling cause life is great

Mark

Blog 27!!! Written on set!!!

Hi everyone. 

How are you all this morning???

I thought I would have a change of scenery so I am writing this blog from the set of Marcaroni. I have a morning with not as much to learn and a couple of scenes I'm not in so I thought I'd utilise this time I have. Also, I have found that whenever I'm on set and not doing anything I get really tired really quickly (fell into a deep sleep twice on Tuesday), so it's better to just keep going!

I have kind of got into a routine of blogging on Wednesday evenings but i couldn't last night as i had a meeting with someone about a possible Welsh documentary about me that might happen this year, along the lines of 'life as a West End performer. It's in the very early stages and might not happen for a while yet but never the less, last night i had to talk about myself and my life for a good two and a half hours as part of his research, and after a long day in the studio I would've much preferred to chat to him about something a bit more interesting, I know all there is to know about me so would've been nice to hear about someone else. Haha!

Yesterday was a tough day. Basically as far as Marcaroni filming schedule is concerned it is very ambitious, filming more than two episodes a day - however we are now, somehow well ahead of schedule because things have really settled in and it's all running like clockwork…..apart from the choreography days!!! Each episode of the show, my character of Marcaroni composes a new song for the children of the 'big big world' to learn- so every sunday we have to learn 10 dance numbers and every wednesday we have to film them. As you can imagine these days are really long and hard going! Granted, most of the moves are simple enough so that children can pick them up, but that sometimes makes it harder because they're easier to forget. Our choreographer Steve Elias is doing a great job though. He is great at the story telling elements of choreography which is so important with a programme like this because not only is it fun and exciting, it's also very educational so telling the story through movement is equally important as the script!

The bosses at S4C, which is the channel it will be broadcast on are absolutely thrilled with the work we've done. They've seen the rough edits of some of the programmes and they think it's going to be an incredible addition to the programmes they have on the channel already! This is great news for us and nice to get such a good response after all the hard work we're putting in.

I am finding that the 5.30am wake up calls are getting harder every morning. I go to the gym for a run or a swim every day when it opens at 6am for about 40 mins before heading to the studio to be in the make up chair for 7am - which probably sounds crazy to some of you but it keeps me in shape and gets me really motivated for the day ahead. It's just me and a lovely kind looking older lady who uses the rowing machine that are there together every day. We say 'hello' to each other every morning and that's it - we've never chatted because I think there's a mutual feeling of "it is far too early for polite chit chat so let's just get on with what we came here to do in our own little half asleep way"

I open in Wicked two weeks on Monday. I am so looking forward to it. Looking forward to getting on stage with everyone and being back in the Apollo Victoria theatre performing to that incredible auditorium and of course the audience and all the fans! The support that the Wicked company get from the Wicked fans is incredible - it's like no other show, such loyalty and devotion and I think that having such a fantastic group of people showing such support has really added to the success of this hugely successful award winning show! Without sounding too theatrical, It really is an honour to be heading back into the show!

Oooh hang on things have come to a stand still in the studio 'cause there is a strong smell of burning - it stinks! If this place goes up in smoke, I will be heading for the nearest exit clutching my laptop tightly 'cause this bad-boy is a dream! Speaking of which - two days ago, the fire alarm went off here so we all had to evacuate the building! So myself and my co-star Non were stood in broad daylight in public dressed like the most ridiculously colourful, happy, spritely people feeling very stupid getting strange looks from passers by - we then found out upon re-entering the building that is was because someone forgot about their toast in the toaster! It was hilarious 'cause no-one would own up to it!

Anyway, the burning smell this morning is still here but they've decided to carry on regardless, so to all of you loyal people who read my blogs and follow anything and everything I do and show such incredible support, I thank you and wish you well in your lives as i sit here and go up in smoke (because 'we can't stop as we can't afford to lose precious schedule time- nothing like health and safety eh? haha) I'm obviously being dramatic. It is all fine here! - still stinks though!

So last Friday night I went out in Cardiff with my friend Amy from the panto as her guest to their company meal, which was lovely. We went to an all you can eat indian/chinese/thai restaurant (Of course i ate all three and plenty of it too!) then we all went to a bar called 'WOW' as they'd put on a 'champagne' (think it was Lambrini) reception for the company. There were two drag artistes hosting the night and they ended up singing the 'Time Warp' which brought back many fond memories of my time with The Rocky Horror Show! Loved that tour so much and miss all the company very much! Looking forward to getting back to London when I start Wicked so I can actually be there to spend time with friends! 

Saturday daytime I spent a lot of time being productive, working on my summer school, album, concerts, website etc. Then in the evening the MD of my album, John Quirke came over for a few hours to discuss songs and arrangements and ideas! I am so excited about it! I have been wanting to make an album for ages but didn't want to do it until the time was right! I can't wait to get in the studio to start working on it! It is gong to be a real variety of songs, both in Welsh and English and the track list is going to be semi-autobiographical so that there is a kind of through line story going from beginning to end of the album! There are to be a few surprises too which I am saying nothing about until they have been confirmed but it makes me excited thinking about it - l I am having another meeting with the record label next week to make our final decisions before progress begins with orchestrations etc! Sh-boom!!! Scheduled to record in April for a summer time release!!!

I am sooooooooo looking forward to tomorrow night! My sister and my two brothers are coming down to stay with me in my lovely apartment I'm staying at in Cardiff bay! We didn't buy each other Christmas presents this year because we saved the money to just enjoy a good weekend in each other's company, without partners or kids or parents - which has not happened since we all flew the nest about 10 years ago! It's going to be great. They arrive about 9.30 tomorrow evening and are here until 3pm on Sunday! My sister has never been to Cardiff either - she's gonna love it! Love my family!

Just had to take a break from writing to shoot a scene in which I was shovelling porridge into my mouth for a good twenty minutes - now i want to be sick - The glamorous life of an actor eh??? Anyway……

My new website should be live within the next few weeks! I'm loving what my site designer Helen has done with it and also the pictures from the shoot I did with my great friend Nathan Amzi a few months back! Hope you all like it when it is live! I much prefer it!

I'm finding this very therapeutic - writing on set! Takes away the dullness that sometimes comes from hanging around for things to get set up etc! However, I do have a lot to say in this afternoon's scenes so maybe I should get studying!!! 

Get in touch folks - love hearing from you! Twitter name - MarkHEvans, Facebook fanpage - Mark Evans, Website www.MarkEvansOnline.co.uk, My summer school - www.WestEndInWales.com

Also get booking your tickets for the Bobby Cronin concert at the New Players theatre in London on February 27th! I have been sent one of the songs I'm going to be singing already and it is stunning - He's a wonderful composer and it'll be a real shame to miss his first ever London showcase! Here is the link to see who else is performing and to book tickets.

http://www.newplayerstheatre.com/london/events/thesongsofbobbycronin.asp

Right folks - thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed this week's blog.

Keep loving life and smiling because it makes everything feel great!!!

Sh-boom

Mark

BLOG 26!!! You want answers???

BLOG 26!!! You want answers??? 

Hi everyone,

How are we all on this fine Wednesday evening???
I'm good -  A bit achey, because I've had a full day of filming song and dance numbers for Marcaroni. I said after the first song that it was like shooting a pop video as that song was slow and lovely and all about the wind - but then we went immediately into a song about a little grey chicken who lays anything but eggs - which resulted in us clucking about like a load of chickens on acid haha! Such a variety in my day to day professional life at the moment! So yeah, I'm a bit tired BUT I am being treated to dinner tonight which is being cooked for me by Non and Elan who work on the show! They're staying in the apartment next to mine! Treat!!!

So basically a very brief round up of my week for you as the most important thing about blog 26 is ANSWERS!!! - I'll explain in a mo!

So the end of last week was good- lots of hard work on Marcaroni then over the weekend I had a combination of gym, shopping, watching Cinderella panto in Cardiff (which was great), having dinner with friends, and learning dance routines all day sunday!!! So it was busy but nice to do some social things as well as either work on the show or be sat in my apartment learning scripts!!!

One exciting thing- my friend Laura Hamilton is one of the contestants on Dancing on Ice this year!!! She was in the skate off on Sunday night - purely because she's probably the least known celebrity on there - she's a kids TV presenter, but she is going to do so well - she is, apparently, as far as the skating is concerned, the favourite to win, but unless she gets more of a following and a real buzz about her she is going to struggle! I worked with her on the panto I did in Bromley two years ago, which was exactly the time I was involved in the Eurovision reality TV series and she was very supportive of me during that so if you could please vote for her and ask your friends and families to spread the word about supporting her- I'd be very grateful, and so would she!

One last thing before I give you some answers - I watched 'Burlesque' last night at the cinema, which is the new film with Cher & Christina Aguilera. I had heard good things about it but I have to be honest, apart from her good voice (which was kind of over produced on this occasion) I didn't like it. I felt like the characters weren't accurately executed, which i think was more of a problem with the script than the actors, it was very unsure of what messages it was trying to deliver to the viewer! I felt it didn't have enough drama and heart and was quite disappointed!!! Never mind, it's good to watch things you don't enjoy sometimes! I'm only being honest - and I apologise to Cher if she is reading this - actually, Cher, if you are reading this, first of all thank you for following my blog and second of all, use less botox - it might make it easier for you when you try looking sad...or angry...or happy...or excited... or even alive!!! Other than that, I thought you were great in the film! Well done!!!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Answers ............

This week I challenged those of you who follow me on Facebook and Twitter to think of the most interesting question you could for me and that I would pick one question to answer which I thought I could give you an equally interesting answer too and would let you know something about me that you might not already.

Now having read through all of your questions (and there were lots - I was overwhelmed and impressed) I have decided that I will tell you which was my favourite and answer that one first but then answer a few more too which I think you might like to know the answers too!


So my favourite question was sent in from Sarah Jones, and although it may not be the most groundbreaking question to some of you I liked it because there is scope for her to find out a lot about me in my answer - so here it is:


Q - Do you have and life ambitions/personal goals outside of acting/singing/dancing?

A- Although my career is such a massive part of my life and i feel very blessed to be able to do a job that I love so much and have worked so hard for over the last 15 years, and also, that I know so many young ambitious people would aspire to do to - it is still just my job, and i try and focus as much as i can on things outside of work and musical theatre in general. I am currently in the process of collecting everything I need, to apply for a U.S visa so that I can get to New York and work, but not only to work but to experience life in a different part of the world and New York is a city I fell in love with when I first visited in February last year and then again in September and I would love to have the chance to live there - even for a year or two and meet new people do amazing things.
Another ambition of mine is to buy a couple more properties at least - which is a massive task. I bought my flat which is in south east London just over two years ago and love it but would like to settle somewhere else. I love the idea of having a few properties and that's one of the reasons I work so hard all the time so i can make more spondooly.
I know that there will come a time when I don't necessarily feel I want to be working as hard as I do at the moment and I think that time will come when I settle down with someone. I am currently single (which is the answer to someone else's question-ha) but of course, I'm like most people on this planet, and like to think that I will meet the right person to settle down with at some point. I also love the thought of having children - I adore kids and am just a big kid myself really - as you'll see if you catch any of Marcaroni when it aires from April, as all I do is prat around like a looney child who's had way too much sugar on his birthday!!!
So I think by choosing to answer that question it shows you a bit more of what really matters to me. My priorities in life are health, happiness, family, friends and then my job!!!
Thanks for that question Sarah!

So a few more questions and answers now but a little more brief!

Q: Do you have any pre/post show rituals or traditions that you follow
A: Not really other than making sure I am vocally and physically fit for the show my warming up etc. I also, as most actors do, have some little insecurities that pop up and make an appearance in my head sometimes, so at these moments I listen to some calm music and read 'The Secret' by Rhonda Burne which is my favourite book and in some respects proved a lot of things to me about the way I live my life and it gives my reassurance when I need it!

Q: Fancy a pint?
A: After the day I've had - Yes please!!!

Q: If you were stranded on an island and could have 4 people from the Wicked company - past or present flown out to you, who would they be?
A: Good question, with a relatively easy answer - Ashleigh Gray, Caroline Keiff, Lucie Waugh & Oli Tompsett - Ash, Caroline & I were the three amigos when I was there 3 years ago and I adore them. Lucie had been a good friend of mine for years having trained and worked together before Wicked so it was very special that she was my partner in the OZdust ballroom, and Oli - because he's Oli, an incredibly funny, kind, genuine guy who always makes the most of life which would be a handy, being trapped on an island!

Q: What was it like working with Craig Revel Horwood?
A: I worked with Craig in Snow White at Venue Cymru in Llandudno last year. I can honestly say, he is one of the most hardworking people I have EVER worked with. We were performing 12 shows a week and our only days off were the days he had to travel down to London to film Strictly Come Dancing. He was singing, acting and dancing to an incredible standard and above all he's a lovely, lovely guy! he deserves the success he is getting off the back of Strictly! P.S what a director - genius!!!

Q: What skill would you like to learn?
A: My goodness, so many! I would like to learn to ride horses, speak Italian, Spanish and many other languages. I 'd love to play the piano, guitar and many other instruments. I would like to learn a bit more about music engineering and technology. I want to sky dive (not a skill if your strapped to someone but it just popped into my head) I'd like to be a great ice skater. So many!!!

I am going to leave this blog with that exact question for all of you - What skill would YOU like to learn???

Thanks again for all your questions. I really enjoyed reading them and will try and get back to you when I hopefully find the time.

I'll sing off now as this blog got looooong but I shall of course write another next week!!!

Love and happiness to you all!

Keep smiling

Mark

ps ain't spell checked this so I apologise for errors!!!

Blog 25!!! My New Year Antics!!!

Hey everyone,

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!

So this is blog 25 and I am no longer 25 years old! My birthday was on sunday which made it a busy old weekend!

So... I last blogged after getting back to London last Thursday. So that night was spent generally catching up with my life in my flat after Christmas in North Wales and also doing lots of work on my summer school West End In Wales in preparation for the launch at the beginning of February!
I'm really excited about it - more so this year than ever! - For those of you who don't know, I run a week long musical theatre summer school once a year in St. Asaph in North Wales to promote youth theatre and give the local talent (and not so local, as last year we had a lovely young girl from Mexico on the course) the chance to work alongside myself, two other west end performers and a fully trained professional faculty to produce an hour long showcase to perform to family and friends and industry folk at the end of the week.
I started it in August 2006 and this year we are celebrating our 5th Birthday, so it's going to be bigger and better than ever! Anyone wanting more information should visit the website, the address for which i will put on my blog once it's been updated with this year's course details on it on the 1st of February.
So yeah, it was good to get a start on all the hard work and preparation while I had some time to kill.

So new year's eve I met my best friend Sal and her fella Olly to drive up to our friends in Hitchin, near Stevenage to have some dinner and drinks and then we all went to another friends house near-by for a bit of a social/party and to bring in the new year!
Get this - we worked out that I must have had about 3 bottles of champagne to myself that night and wasn't drunk at all - and for someone who rarely drinks that is pretty impressive! My friend Craig was annoyed that I stayed so controlled all night so he was encouraging me to do shots of gin from an egg cup he found to make me drunk and embarrass myself - but alas it had no effect! What can i say ladies and gentlemen, I am hardcore...haha - I am so not, I had half a glass of wine a couple of weeks ago and was DRUNK!
I think I got away with new year's eve because i basically ate the most anyone, or anything has ever eaten in the entire history of eating mammals on this planet throughout the course of the evening so it soaked up any nasty booze!!!

I treated us all to a lovely bottle of Champagne - It was a bottle of 1998 Dom Perignion that had it's own box that was given to me from our director of 'Spamalot' 4 year's ago (legendary director Mike Nichols), as an opening night gift! I thought it was a lovely gesture so decided to keep it until I was offered my first lead role, then forgot to drink it when I was offered Troy Bolton in High School Musical, so I then decided I'd drink it on the first day I moved into my first property, then when I moved into my flat there was so much dust and mess everywhere from all the work I was doing I decided it wasn't appropriate timing, so then I saw it in the cupboard before heading up to Hitchin on the weekend and I thought to myself "Evans, (that's what I call myself when I talk seriously to myself) you should celebrate a great 2010 and welcome in an exciting and even better 2011 in style, so stop being such a plonka and drink your bloody champagne!" So we did - and it was lovely!
I secretly toasted to everyone who has ever supported me and those continue to do so in anything and everything I do, therefore if you are reading this now - I toasted to you on my new year's eve! I would like to re-itterate how consistently grateful I am to you all for your continued support and for your kind words and messages on Facebook/Twitter! I am LOVING Twitter by the way - I really like hearing from you all! Get your friends to follow me and get in touch, it's a great invention!

So midnight was lovely, we lit chinese lanterns and watched them float in a very romantic way into the first night sky of 2011, and it was at that precise moment I realised I was the only single person out of about 24 people that were there, and so, I just appreciated my special lantern all by myself! Ha!

We stayed in Hitchin that night and so on New Year's Day we went into the town for a bit of a browse, a coffee and some food, then Sally, Olly and I drove back to Sally's flat in Surrey to get an early night as we were shattered and it was my birthday the next day! So on the morning of my 26th birthday, Sal and I had breakfast then headed to meet friends for coffee before watching 'Love & Other Drugs' at the cinema (which is the 'movie theatre' for all you cool American folk reading this) (& 'the pictures' for the people like my Mum reading this - love her!)
What a great film - highly recommended! I want to get back into watching more films again - I used to watch more on tour but that's 'cause there's nothing really to do during the day when you're in a city you don't know apart from go to the cinema! Love watching good screen actors that inspire me!
Then the evening of my birthday I visited my friend Dom who I worked with on Rocky Horror and we watched a DVD of the film 'Chocolat' - another great film and highly recommended! Nice to see Johnny Depp as a non-quirky character for a change!
So two films in one day was a good start to the whole I wanna see more films thing eh?!?!?!

Then I went home to pack my case for my return to the wonderful city known as Cardiff and to this great apartment where I am sitting writing this now (when I should be learning script!)!

I had a good journey, however, literally as the train passed the 'Welcome To Wales/Croeso I Gymru' sign... it started to snow, which I thought was just typical, but at least it didn't stick around and out-stay it's welcome this time!

So not much else to report really, other than that I am back into the swing of things with Marcaroni and we're doing well considering the bulk of work we have to get through by early February- it's really difficult to not get frustrated when you have to learn so much script every evening! My life is spent carrying piles of overly-highlighted paper around! Non, (who plays 'Oli' in it) and I have developed a phobia for large highlighted paragraphs because that means there's chunks of dialog to memorise - haha!

But it's good to be working through it and to be back swimming at 6am every morning again to work off the STU-HOO-PID amounts of food I ate over the festive period! Why not eh?!?!?!

Anyway, get in touch as always. I feel I have more to say but if I have left anything out, I'll pop it on the FaceBook fanpage! Follow me on Twitter if you don't already - don't be afraid of it, it's simple, just join up and type away!!! I'm MarkHEvans.

Keep smiling folks. Hope you're all well!?! Let me know how your first week of 2011 is going!

Love your lives

Mark

PS One month tomorrow I open in Wicked!!!

BLOG 24!!! What a great Christmas!!!

Hi Everyone,

How are we all???

How funny that this is blog 24 and I happen to feel 24 pounds heavier now that the Christmas week is nearly over and I have eaten lots and lots of wonderful food! I had a great time!!! I love my family and being at home so much!!! I got back to London this afternoon so here is what has happened over the last week:

I did my last day in the studio before the Xmas break of 'Marcaroni' last Thursday which was great, but I think we all knew that it was the day before a rest, so our minds had already begun to switch off which was annoying because it made the day seem really long and I personally was fighting to keep the lines in my head 'cause my mind was frazzled! But it was a lovely atmosphere and the company had Christmas lunches delivered to the studio for us which was very nice of them! The company ('Ceidiog' run by Nia Ceidiog) really are great people to work for - the production of the programme is great but they also really look after everyone who is working for them, and when you're working so hard and such long hours (7am-6pm) every day it makes it a lot easier knowing your work is gratefully appreciated by the management!
Then i got a train from Cardiff to Rhyl and I was so pleased that nothing was affected by the weather apart from when I got to Chester we had to hang around for a while, waiting for some delayed trains from Euston as they had loads of Irish people on them trying to get home for Christmas because Dublin airport was closed so they needed our train as a connection! Some of them will have had to travel for 22 hours to get home! They were so tired bless them! I felt lucky that my journey was only delayed by an hour and twenty minutes (meanwhile Moma Evans was waiting patiently in Rhyl train station bless her) but I got home eventually!

Christmas eve I was doing Santa duty delivering presents to different family members etc and doing a bit of last minute food shopping with my mum! Then I got home and helped my mum prepare the veg etc for the Christmas lunch then just watched TV.

CHRISTMAS DAY!!! I woke at about 9am. Had breakfast with my Mum, as my Dad was outside on the farm. My Dad always has to work harder than ever at this time of year as all his sheep are lambing. I went out on the farm to help him for a couple of hours Christmas morning to make sure he could finish in time to join us for lunch! It was SO COLD, and the main thing I was given to do was to change the water in each of the sheep pens - This involved smashing the layer of ice which had formed on the top of the buckets with my hands, empty each bucket then run the tap to fill them with fresh water- however, the water pipes are metal and had frozen over, so my Dad said "just cover the pipe with your hand for a couple of minutes and your body heat will defrost the ice"- well...I managed to do this for a good two and a half minutes and......no water came out! - my god that was like torture on a Christmas morning it was so cold! I ended up having to use another tap further away! When I later got in the house, I ran warm water over my hands for a few minutes, but they didn't warm up for ages! Ha. What a wimp! - I'm sure my dad was just doing it for a laugh!

Our Christmas lunch was amazing - Everyone thinks their Mum's xmas dinner is the best don't they?!, but i must tell you, my mum's really is the best (so there!). I was stuffed - not even room for a handful of Celebrations from the tub my Nanna gave us!!!

Christmas evening, all our immediate family members and the kids went to my sister's house and we had a great time just eating and drinking and laughing! The perfect Christmas for me personally is just having plenty of time to enjoy your family and that's what I had this year! I felt very grateful!

Boxing day - There has always been a tradition that we take it in turns to go round to different family member's houses for boxing day but since there have been grand-children and babies etc it is now held at my folks place (aka The Ranch) because we can't all fit anywhere else! Ha.
I got considerably drunk (in a good, happy drunk sort of way) on boxing day and ended up being games organiser which consisted of games like the Cornflake box game - which is basically a challenge to see who can pick up an empty cereal box off the floor with their mouth without putting your hands or knees on the floor - sounds easy but once everyone has done it, then you tear a bit off so it gets smaller each time! I am proud to say that I won - My brother got quite frustrated that I was better than him, so he ended up standing and the box so it was flat against the floor - but in true dancer style I got down into the splits and still managed to pick it up (I could barely walk the next day - drunken splits are not good everyone - remember that!!!) We also had a game which resulted in the 'grown ups' (Dad, Mum, Aunts & Uncles) wrapping their Husband/Wife in toilet roll against the stopwatch to see who can mummify their partner the best - My mum didn't even leave a gap for my Dad to breath! Us kids were on the floor with laughter! Just a couple of the many games played on what can only be described as a bloomin' marvellous boxing day!!!

On Monday the 27th I went with my good friend Aimee to watch the pantomime, Peter Pan in Rhyl. One of my students from my summer school was in it and he was brilliant! I also know Tara Bethan who played Peter Pan and did a great job of it too - she was the year above me in high school and we have worked together a few times since. Funnily enough we were singing together on T.V on Monday evening! It was the concert I told you guys about that I did between Wolverhampton and Edinburgh with Oklahoma! It was held at the CIA in Cardiff and it featured people from Wales who have been successful in reality T.V over the past 5 years! I have to say it was great to see something really commercial on the channel S4C and thought it was a cracking programme!
I shall post the link to the online 'catch up' video of it on my Facebook fanpage - it's in Welsh but i'll let you know where my bit comes in the programme incase your interested in checking it out!

So Aimee stayed at the ranch on Monday then on Tuesday we went to a local pub, The Brookhouse Mill to meet our friends Carys and Helen for lunch. We had a right laugh and a good catch up! I have really enjoyed the novelty of waking up everyday this past week thinking "what have i got to do?, where have I got to go?" and realising that I don't have to do anything - I never give myself time to do nothing but it did me the world of good I think! However, I do think that it's because of me stopping all of a sudden, that I now have a sore throat and bad cold - booooooo!!! But hey, as I'm the sort of person who likes to look at the positives in life - at least it happened when i don't need to sing or even speak in general really!

Yesterday I chilled out all day and learned lots of Marcaroni script for when I return to the studio for 5 weeks next Tuesday! Then last night all the immediate family and the kids came to the ranch again for another dinner (Beef this time!!! No Turkey for a while now). Love my family lots!

So woke up today and my Mum has obviously caught my cold, but worse than me, so I told her she wasn't going to take me to the train station and the minister of our local chapel very kindly took me to Chester as he was driving that way anyway and I got the train from there! It's good to be back in London to be in my flat etc! But although I have said it a few times in this blog- you can't beat a good ole family Christmas and that's exactly what I had! The End!

So 2011 is nearly here! This past year for me has been incredible ....I have met some wonderful friends and worked with some too, toured the UK enjoying performing The Rocky Horror Show, Oklahoma! and the beginnings of Marcaroni. Also my summer school West End In Wales was a huge success again this year! I also loved both my visits to New York - where I will live one day (I hope - just for a couple of years!)....but I have a feeling (and this too is me thinking positive, as i have learned to do by reading 'The Secret' by Rhonda Byrne-highly recommended!) that 2011 is going to be an even better year! I am really looking forward to playing Fiyero in WICKED from February 7th, recording my debut album which is scheduled for a summer release, running my summer school again and having at least one holiday! There are also a couple of other exciting things in the pipeline (a non-frozen pipeline!!!) which i will tell you about if and when they happen!

Folks- that was my Christmas week, hope you enjoyed reading about it! I will say as always, please keep in contact via Twitter and my Facebook FanPage! I love hearing from you and appreciate your time and effort in supporting everything I do!
I want to put out a special mention to one of my fans, Paula, from Ireland, who sent me a wonderfully thoughtful Christmas gift! Thank you Paula, I love it!

Let me know what your doing tomorrow night to celebrate 2010 and the last decade and to welcome in 2011! I shall be at a friends house with a group of friends drinking champagne and enjoying good company!

You are all wonderful and always remember that! Life is great!

Thanks for reading!

See you in the next decade!

Mark

Blog 23!!! IT'S CHRIIIIIIIISTMAS!!!!!!

Good evening everyone!!!

What about this weather eh??!?!?!  I hope you're all ok and safe and warm and healthy! i have had many comments on Twitter and facebook about various problems some of you have had! Let's all hope it calms down soon eh!?!?! Too many people been singing 'I'm Dreaming Of A Whit Christmas' I believe - careful what you wish for as it might come true!!!

So it's been a busy old time for me since I last Blogged ("When is it not?" i hear some of you cry!). The end of the week last week was busy with Marcaroni! It was all going well we were running to schedule at the end of the first week and then the snow came along and because it was so severe the production Manager and producer decided we should finish at lunch time (after they provided Fish & Chips-bonus!) otherwise people wouldn't have been able to get out of the car park etc! So now we are 1 episode behind the whole time which is very annoying! We'll catch up somewhere I'm sure!

So Friday afternoon/evening was lovely. I made sure I did absolutely nothing and just watched TV and did things online! It was exactly what I needed! And a half bottle of Red too! - Cheeky!!!

Saturday morning I hit the shops in central Cardiff by 10am to beat the crowds and that I did! It was about time i started my Christmas shopping! I thought i'd start it and finish it in that one day! And I did near enough! But my goodness, it's exhausting isn't it?!? Trudging round the shops in the snow for 6 hours! Glad i only did it for one day! Had to buy myself a couple of treats too of course! Actually it was just a new pair of boots I felt I needed for the snow, but I liked them so much I didn't want to wreck them in the slush! I soon got over that and they barely leave my feet now!

Saturday evening I went to watch a few friends of mine who are in Mamma Mia which is playing the WMC in Cardiff Bay until mid January! Was great to see them and the show was good! Seen Mamma Mia about 8 times now in different places! Worth seeing! It's fun! Then I spent a few hours catching up with my friends after the show until the wee hours of the morning and consumed rather a lot of alcohol and wow did I feel it on Sunday morning!!! I remembered then why i don't drink much!!! I wouldn't change it though, it was a fun night!!!

So sunday morning i was a little delicate then I went to the gym for a couple of hours before meeting my friends again for a healthy Wagamamas in the Bay!!! Lovely!!! Then I more or less got an early night!

Monday morning started with my daily swim (I've been getting up at 5.45am for the past week and a half so I can fit in 50 lengths of the complex's swimming pool before getting picked up to be driven to work by 7am) Then a good day on set! It was the first time we had another actor on set (Rhodri who plays Roli Odl) instead of just myself and Non who plays Oli Odl! We were so relieved to hear someone else talking so we could have a bit less script to memorise! So that was good! Monday evening it was an early night for me as usual.

Good day again on Tuesday and then after work last night Non knocked on my door (she's staying in the apartment next door!) and joined me for a chill out night with no script to learn because today was the first Choreography day for which we have an autocue (TV screen with the words on it)!!! We were suppose to film 10 numbers today of song and dance - we only completed 4!!! They're blooming great though! We have Steve Alias (West End actor and choreographer) as our choreographer who is great especially with the story telling of a song which is important with kids' stuff!
So we're now a little behind with the choreography stuff too! Booooooo! it'll all come together though! - My legs are aching now though! Little did I know that Marcaroni was gonna be giving it whack kicks and pencil turns and full on ballet movements!!! I was soaked with sweat - We heard the words "OK just one more take" about 17 times before we actually did finish! Ha!

So that brings us up to the present time where I happen to be sat on my sofa in my wonderful apartment! I'm about to pack my stuff to head home to North Wales for Christmas! I can't figure out weather to get a late train tomorrow after work or weather, by doing that I run the risk of getting stuck at some train station in the snow in the middle of nowhere until the early hours of the morning or weather it's best to wait and try and travel home on Christmas eve! I just want to get there to see my family asap and get in the festive spirit!!! I'll wait and see what the weather's like i think!

So.... a few things to announce - I am on BBC Radio Cymru (Welsh Radio Wales) tomorrow morning live between 9-10am if you want to listen! Also Christmas day I will be on the radio talking to Margaret Williams (legendary Welsh singer) again on Radio Cymru, about 4pm i think it's on! Then i will be on S4C - The concert I did at the CIA in Cardiff sometime ago which was a collection of the Welsh people who have been successful on reality TV which will be shown on the evening of December 27th!
New Year's Eve I will be on a programme called Cyfle Cothi on Radio Cymru which I believe is being repeated New Year's day too!

ALSO: Looking forward to this one - I'll be singing at a concert at the New Players Theatre in London to showcase the music of American songwriter Bobby Cronin who will be there on the night too! It's a great line up of very talented West End Performers so come along if you can - it'll be fab! All the details I'll put on my Facebook Fanpage! I'll also be posting reminders in the new year etc on Twitter and Facebook!
I think that is about it!

Folks - It's Christmas in 3 days!!! I can't wait!!! Hope you're all prepared and all looking forward to it! Let me know what you're doing!

I won't blog again before Christmas day now so I would like to wish each and everyone of you a very merry Christmas - and I have looked through the settings of my blog page and have been overwhelmed with the amount of people who read my blog and also - in so many different countries - and so, I have decided to wish you all a Merry christmas in your native language as a gesture to say thanks for your support and continued interest in what I'm doing - I hope to meet you all someday if I haven't met you already! I have used my 'itranslate' app on my iphone so don't blame me if they're not right! Here goes...

U.K - Merry Christmas
U.S.A - Merry Christmas
Netherlands - Vrolijk kerstfeest
Ireland - Merry Christmas
Germany - Frohe Weihnachten
Australia - Merry Christmas
Russia - (Some letters I don't have so I'm using a * instead, sorry) - C Po**ecTBOM
Malaysia - Selamat Hari Krismas
Spain - Feliz Navidad
Thailand and Japan - I'm afraid I only have the English letters on my laptop to type but I wish you a very Merry Christmas and my iphone has taught me how to say the words in your languages so I am saying them out loud to you now!
And a special Nadolig Llawen to my Welsh Folk!

Festive greetings to all you lovely people!!! May your Christmas be filled with love, joy and happiness!

Life is great and don't forget it! Embrace every moment good or bad and treasure it, learn from it and never forget it! That's my philosophy on life!

Big love

Chat soon

Mark

Blog 22!!! Marcaroni has been born!!!

Hi everyone!!!

How are you? hope you're all well.

So...having been speaking about it since the beginning of my Blog a few months ago, Marcaroni is underway and the character himself has well and truly been born!!! Ha.

But before I chat about where i'm up to with it all let's catch up on what I did the end of last week.

So Thursday I had be at the Apollo Victoria theatre (Wicked) to have some costume fittings for when I start in February! The tailor they have making the suits for that show is a genius!!! I have never had anything fit me so nicely in my life. i had some costumes still there from when I understudied the role three years ago but upon trying them on again, I realised that working my butt off in the gym for the last couple of years, has in fact made a considerable difference to my shape as I could barely move in them - I looked like I was trying on my little brothers clothes or something. Very funny, and it's resulted in new clothes so I'll be feeling wonderfully smart on stage. Hurrah! Now all i need to do is remember what I'm doing and I'll be fine. Hahaha!!! I cannot wait to begin!!!

Thursday evening, i went round to my lovely friend Lucie's flat to have a good old catch up with her as it's been a while. We were at college together, and we've also worked together on two pantos, a few TV dancing jobs, Opening ceremony of the WMC, Night of 1000 voices (Twice), Chess in concert, and she was my dance partner in Wicked when we were in the ensemble! She's a wonderful girl, a good friend and VERY talented!

Friday I met my friend Graham in the morning and my friends Hollie and Michael in the afternoon which was all lovely. Michael had to leave early as he's playing the lead in the new show the Three Muskateers which is playing in kingston at the mo. Hollie and i wondered around Spitalfields market in east London for a couple of hours having a laugh and catching up.
Then I met my friend Dom (who was Rocky in the Rocky Horror Show) for a cuppa tea before he had to go into work as he's the assistant Dance Captain on Legally blonde!!!

So the end of last week was wonderful, just relaxing and making the most of some time to meet friends i hadn't seen for a while. The week was topped off by spending Saturday afternoon with my best friend Sally in the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park drinking mulled wine and eating christmassy treats. mmmm Yum!

Saturday night i sat at home learning Marcaroni script, setting up my new Macbook (which I'm writing on now - lovely) and watching the X-Factor! Not gonna talk about the X-Factor much as it's over now and i think it's consumed enough of our lives already, however I thought that all four acts in the final deserved to win. They were all very different but extremely talented in their individual ways and I believe they deserve a medal for dealing with the pressure!!! I had not even 1% of a glimpse of what they went through when I did the reality show Your Country Needs You for the BBC two years ago and that was stressful enough!!! It is really really hard trying to put yourself in a place in your head where you don't let things distract you and effect your ability to perform the best you possibly can in the live shows!!! Matt Cardle I think is great and deserves every success!

So then Sunday I travelled down to Cardiff (with an overpacked suitcase) to settle into my wonderful apartment which they have provided for me. I stayed at this complex 6 years ago when I worked on the Opening ceremony of the WMC here but this apartment has amazing views and it is lovely to have all this space to myself so I can focus on the job and learn scripts each night in peace!!!

I went in on Monday morning to discuss a few ideas with the choreographer of the programme Steve Alias who is great and we were working on the physicality of Marcaroni as I wanted him to be very animated and full of theatrical gestures (as he's an eccentric quirky composer) so that was fun. Then the exciting bit was deciding what he should actually look like. The costume has been made since a few weeks now but there was nothing decided on hair and make up etc, and daft as this may sound - it's actually very tiring sitting in the make up chair for hours having different things tried out on you. I think it's because I'm the sort of person who is always on the go that when you stop and sit still for a long length of time tiredness hits you! Anyway, we have decided on a look that I'm very happy with. The hair is slicked back starting with a ridiculously large quiff at the front that works it's way back into a long pony tail which our hair/make up lady, Linda, attaches every morning to my hair and it's tied together with a red ribbon! Not camp at all! Haha! It fits really well with the outfit. We all agreed that the hair looks the same as when the beast gets turned into the prince in Beaty and The Beast, the Disney film! Ha!

Yesterday was my first day on set and it was fun. Discovering the characters little 'isms' and what makes him quirky! I have based a lot of his theatrical arm gestures on what I used to do as my Emerald City character in Wicked three years ago. Very flamboyant and quite over the top. It's such fun! However keeping that energy at the moment is fine as we've completed 4 episodes but when we're on maybe episode 43 of 52 I might find it a little harder to look so fresh faced and jolly. Ha!!!

So all in all I am happy to be working on something so completely different. I'm very comfortable here in Cardiff (there's a pool so I go swimming every night - lovely) and all that I need to say is it's Christmas in less than 10 days now!

10 DAYS!!!!!! I cannot wait!!! I hope the weather stays ok for us all and that everyone of you stay safe during the wintery spells of snow and ice. Please be careful.

I shall blog next week which will be my last one before christmas. Hahahahahahahaha. Exciting! I'm starting my Christmas shopping on Saturday here in Cardiff. I'm only really buying for my nieces this year - everyone else in my life we just arrange to spend special time together instead which is more important to me than some jumper from Next that doesn't fit properly!!! Ha.

Keep in touch folks - 'Mark Evans' for the facebook page, MarkHEvans to follow me on Twitter (let's see who the first person to 'tweet' me on Twitter is, to tell me what the H stands for in my middle name!!! There's your challenge!!! Also my website address is www.MarkEvansOnline.co.uk (which will not be updated as soon as we thought I'm sorry to say, early new year now but still gonna be cool).

Stay happy folks - if you're feeling down think of how ridiculous I must look with a ponytail on the back of my head with what looks like a little girls ribbon on it! ha that'll make you smile (i'll post a picture as soon as they have been done and i'm given permission to- you won't believe how different, and young I look)

Big festive love to you all and warm hugs all round.

Mark