Post 7: “We will send you regular pupdates”
Adverts. This post was brought to you by an advert for a charity set up to support dogs in some way that i haven't paid attention to. I love dogs. But I never ever want to receive regular “pupdates”. Now some of you, my performer friends, make a good living from playing “ordinary dad” or “girl with broken down car”, and I'm genuinely happy for you that your rent is paid. But with very few exceptions, I can't stand adverts. I can't bear the way that they interrupt whatever I'm
Post 6 - "Sabbatical salutations"
I work a lot, and always have done. I've often had multiple jobs or roles which involve a large amount of prep. Now working in theatre and especially comedy, I'm often busy both day and night, including Saturday nights and Sundays. I'm writing, rehearsing, marketing, watching gigs, running gigs, watching plays, directing plays, meeting people about projects, panicking about having no projects... As you'd imagine, some days it's hard to find quality time with my husband and ki
Post 5 - "And that, my friend, is what they call closure."
Mark Creeger can confirm that I like a proper ending*. When it comes to books, films, plays or even someone’s story about what happened at work the other day, I find it infuriating if the story comes to an abrupt stop or just peters out. It’s worse than being interrupted or waiting for the next episode. (In fairness I’m also rubbish at waiting for the next episode and find season finale cliffhangers fairly traumatic). I don’t mind an ending that leaves you wondering, if it’s
Post 4 - “Reading between the lines”
I had to fill in a form a few years ago, and one of the questions was “Which newspaper do you read regularly?” At the time, the nearest honest answer would probably have been either Heat Magazine or What's On TV. My tastes are certainly more sophisticated these days and should I have to complete a questionnaire making the same enquiry I would be able to proudly respond “Metro”. There are a lot of things I really like about Metro. It's an uptempo kind of newspaper that deals w
Post 3: “Do you know Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub?”
Here's the 3rd installment of Aryeh Myers and my month long writing challenge. A bit of fun following yesterday's more personal piece. Hope you enjoy it! I love Chigwell, a leafy town in Essex where I grew up. It’s twinned with Mantes la Ville, don’t you know? It has idyllic rolling fields, beautiful hundreds-of-years-old cottages, quirky little village shops and bags of character. Until I changed schools in 1985, I didn’t give it much thought, it was just a lovely place to l
Post 2: “Don’t you forget about me.”
Here's the 2nd piece in my challenge. Feel free to scroll on or just blame Aryeh Myers under your breath if you choose to read it. His stuff is amazing, btw. You might want to read that instead. Those of you who know me "in real life" are probably aware that I have a neurological condition following an illness about 17 years ago. I have been challenging myself to write about that period, and might well share it here at some point, but today I’ve been thinking about two areas
Post 1: “Yes, and...”
Aryeh Myers (my collaborator on An Insomniac's Guide To Ambulances, brilliant writer and old friend) has got me doing one of those writing challenge things. I'm going to be posting something every day. Some of it will be true and some made up stuff, feel free to scroll on if you like! As I'm coming to it a day late there will be two today. Sorry. It'll be over in a month. I recently participated in an improv event in Jerusalem where the facilitator ( Amir Atsmon ) took a trad
