Customs House Day 3

23^rd September, Customs House, South Shields. Our last day here, and also our last show for 8 days or so. A very pleasant thought, and a well earned rest for all of the cast. It has been a very tiring spell, with 12 days of rehearsals, dress runs, and then travelling to Skegness, Solihull and South Shields for our first three venues.

The curtains at the Customs House are still not working, so still on duty are the two hunks from yesterday. Colin's phone is not working and O2 have issued a loan replacement. How does life go on without an iphone??????

Most of the cast travel home after the show. Natalie back to Cheshire, Erika and Fay drive back to Yorkshire, and Lily stays with Bill until tomorrow morning when she jumps on a train back to London.

Jenni is off home to Hull too. Her dad Jim is having a rather important birthday party, and so she leaves the Timeless household for the first time in a month. My word it will be quiet in there.

Steve's major decision this weekend is where to watch the Sunderland match on Saturday.

So, next stop Broxbourne, London. Lots of office activity happening with the possibility of shows in Churches, Lebanon, and Germany. Watch this space.

Customs House, Day 2

22^nd September. Customs House, Day Two. Two shows today, with the evening show sold out. Time I think to give you a run down on the new cast, and the old. Just to refresh the brain cells a little.

So, apart from Colin and Marie here is a snippet of the cast.

Jenni Tarr. Jenni is now in her 6^th season with us, and is part of the furniture. Not only is she a singer in the show, but also spends a lot of time helping Colin and Marie. She organises all of the Dance Schools up and down the country, and helps with any other task that might crop up....and it does. Jenni is one of Maisy's favourite visitors to Colin and Marie's house. Maisy for those who don't know, is the pet greyhound.

Steve Paul. A new starter this season, and lives only 5 miles from Colin and Marie. Most singers these days base themselves in London for work purposes, and so it is very unusual to find a male singer in County Durham. A very likeable, pleasant, and polite 30yr old, who is a Sunderland fan. Quite fitting that Colin and Bill are also Sunderland fans. You can probably guess what the topic of conversation is backstage. Steve's biggest fault.........'Marie and Colin are yet to see a video where he does the handjive properly in the Grease section'. Oh, and ladies........he is now single......!!!!!

Bill. Our Stage Manager. Bill has been with us from the very start, and gone from knowing nothing about theatres to an excellent Stage Manager. Bill Bills job is to cue all lighting, change all of the props on stage, and generally make sure the show runs smoothly. Bill and his wife Ann also look after the girls during rehearsals. We hear that Ann spoils the girls with fantastic food, and lots of mothering.

Cordelia Fay. In her second season with us, and now Dance Captain too, which means that she is in charge of keeping the dance routines clean and tight. So far, doing a brilliant job of it too. Fay is one of those quiet, sensible, pleasant natured type of person that you like to have around you. Now the proud owner of a new Fiat too, which looks very sporty and posh.

Erika Wilkinson. One of the three new girls in the cast. Lives just a short distance from Fay in Yorkshire, and so they are now travel companions. Erika is the bubbly one in the cast, who wants to know the far end of a far......oooppps, no swearing allowed, and to say that she is the chatty one is an understatement. A lovely girl with a great personality on stage. You can spot Erika singing as Sandy in the Grease section.

Natalie Cox. Another of the new girls, living in Cheshire. Natalie is in the same mould as Fay, with a quiet nature, and with an obsession for writing things down. Especially dance routines. Poor girl went through about 34 notepads in rehearsals, making sure she had every minor detail written down. A real perfectionist....and that can only be good. Natalie performs a solo ballet section in the 70's section

Lily Philips. The last of the new girls, living in London, and now getting used to spending hours travelling around the UK. In the past we have avoided having anyone from London in the cast, but now with cheap rail travel etc, anything is possible. Lily is another of the quieter girls in life, who just gets on with it. Exactly what a production company needs. Lily can be spotted in the sexy bikini in the 1960's section of the show.

Maisy the greyhound. OK, so not really a cast member, but a part of the Timeless family. Only with Colin and Marie for 5 months now. A rescue dog who ran a lot of races at Monmore greyhound track, and then like most greyhounds was cast aside when she was no longer useful for racing. We got the video of her last winning race as a keepsake. Well done Maisy my Lady. She had her separation anxiety problems when first brought home, but is now well settled in, and is discovering that the settee is quite a nice place to have a kip.

So, that is the cast.

The show itself?? Now it is right, now we have it the way we want it, and now we are getting the response we expect from the audience. The tweaks have worked. Pity the front curtains at the Customs House didn't. They broke during the first show, and had to be pulled by two strapping hunks of volunteers from the venue.

Today the two shows went amazingly well, even if Steve didn't get the handjive right again. His family are coming to watch the show tomorrow so we might just see a few nerves.

We had the children from Karen Shiel Dance School today. Karen's mother Shirley is one of our main dressmakers, so it was good for her to see some of her work on stage, even if she was viewing from the side.

Customs House, South Shields, Day One

21^st September. Customs House, South Shields. Our home theatre, our little baby, where we started this whole theatre show story some 5 years ago, and oh how things change eh? In our first year, this would have been one of eleven theatres we toured. This year it is one of seventy. Not possible without the support of the fantastic audiences who attend our shows time and time again. Thank you isn't enough to all of these lovely folk.

And so to work. 11.00am arrival, Ali the tech manager is there to greet us, and before long we are loaded in, the girls are now experts at ironing, everything is prepared and it is time to rehearse the children. For those not too familiar with our shows, we have ten children in most of our shows, and these are chosen from Dance Schools around the country. They learn their routines from a DVD, and then we rehearse on the day. Today is the day of our choreographer's dance school, Suzanne Stuart. Her assistant Sonya is in charge, and has done a great job of teaching the children. Sons (our nickname for her) is also involved with a lot of the preparation of our shows, helping Marie with costumes etc, and generally helping where help is needed.

Some minor alterations have been made to the show since our first show at Skegness. With a lot of new material in the show since its last outing in 2008, it takes a few tweaks here and there to make the show tight. One or two running order changes, costume changes are in order today, and after viewing the video we can decide if it works.

The show goes without any hitches, and at 5.00pm the cast are on their way home. Doing three days here makes life easy when it comes to sleep and rest.

Tomorrow two shows, and time to give you a little more info on the new cast, now that we are getting to know them all a little better.

Autumn Theatre Tour 2

Friday 17th September, Solihull Arts Complex.

Our second venue, and the routine is taking shape. Jenni and Marie travel in one car. Steve is with Colin in the van, and Bill has the dancers in his car. All organised. Solihull is one of our regulars, but due to circumstances beyond our control, we can only do one day instead of two. The nice outcome being that both matinee and evening are both sold out. Good result. Apart from Marie splitting the back of her trousers in 1970's, there have been no major embarrasing issues, although I'm sure this will change over the next few months. The new cast seem to be settling in quite well. Two good shows and we arrive home at 3am Saturday morning. Thank heaven for a few days off before we do our local venue, Customs House, South Shields, for three days next week.

Autumn Theatre Tour

September 2010. For our regular readers, our blog will take a slightly different format, with the most recent entries at the top of the page, which will hopefully make things easier to find.

So, we are back blogging.......and where to start. Lets start with the introduction of the new cast. Male singer Steve Paul replaces Jamie Rae. Jamie has been offered a management deal in Blackpool, and remains close to the top of our Christmas card list. We wish him every success, and look forward to seeing him at Winsford. Our new dancers are Erika Wilkinson, Natalie Cox, and Lily Philips.

Rehearsals start 29th August with a costume fitting day, which gives everyone a chance to start getting to know each other. This is the most cast changes we have had in quite a while and it does take a while for everyone to gel as a team. Costume fitting not too much of a chore, and Shirley the dressmaker is looking forward to having some sleep during this busy time, which in itself is quite unusual. Karen, our other dressmaker is almost finished all of her work, and so Marie might sleep well at night knowing that costumes are reasonably under control.

Normal rehearsals resume on 30th August and the cast get their first taste of life in the deep end, with a gruelling 12 days ahead. Cordelia Fay our dance captain keeps the girls up to speed with what is required etc, and before long we are getting stuck into what seems like a million routines.

Rolling back the Years toured the UK back in 2008, but there are many new sections being placed in the show, with new songs, new costumes, and new dance routines. Even Colin has to learn a dance routine this time in the new 'Jersey Boys' sections of the show.

After 12 days of solid hard work, the cast get two days off, and most go home for a well earned rest. Dress rehearsals are planned for Monday 13th September with the first show at Skegness on 15th. SCARY !!

Dress rehearsal is as it should be..... a total disaster!!! Bad dress run, good first show is a common belief in this business.

So Skegness is upon us. The cast travel the day before the show, and enjoy a night off before the jitters of first show. We arrive at the theatre in good time. The tech crew are great at Skegness, and help Bill Bill our stage manager to get us set up. Costumes are ironed, sound checks are done and we are off. As first shows go, this was not a bad effort at all. One or two squiffy bits, but you come to accept these. Especially as they are ones that the audience wont notice.