A Bit More Writing and Rep At The Seaside

I managed to get some writing done this morning. Not a great deal, but at least something. I think when you're a writer you spend more time on working out plots and characters, the actual mechanics of a piece, longer than the actual, physical, pen-to-paper (or in my case, pencil.) writing. I suppose it's a bit like the scaffolding on a building site, along with the foundations, the work that goes on before the actual building with bricks and mortar s very important, the undergound pipes, sewers, drains and so on. You need the scaffolding in order to make the process of building easier.

There was a programme on television last night, BBC East, one of the 'opt-out' slots on BBC1 last night, all about the Summer Theatre at Frinton-On-Sea in Essex. I mention this place in one of my earlier posts on here. This company has been going as a weekly 'rep' for something like 76 years, doing a season of around 6-7 plays which run for a week each, and have no more than a week's rehearsal and put in in what is little more than a village hall., what is known as the McGrigor Hall I remember going to see a production of Noel Coward's play "Hay Fever" with my grandmother there when we went on our annual summer holidays when I was quite young and I think it might have been that which sparked off my interest in theatre. The closest I got to that sort of set-up when I was working in theatre was doing a season of four plays at the Century Theatre in Keswick when we each play ran for two days and then changed so we had to 'strike' the set after the show at around 10 o'clock and bring in the set for the next play and then re-light it all, including  re-setting all the furniture and props. Quite a tiring process. I can't believe that they manage to produce a show on such a tiny stage. The careers of quite a few quite well-known actors started their careers there such as Sir Anthony Sher, Gary Oldman, Vanessa Redgrave, Timothy West, David Suchet and Linda Bellingham. This television programme was narrated by Richard Wilson who was in a play there last year called "The Dog." He's of course best known to television audiences for his portrayal of the character Victor Meldrew in the sitcom "One Foot In The Grave."