So today is World Theatre Day, though it is kind of world NO theatre day if you think about it.
In my world though, it is always theatre day and this all just feels really weird.
I realise that I am a bit unusual in the amount of time I spend thinking about theatre, being in theatres, booking tickets for theatres, reading and planning and rehearsing theatre – but I also know, as evidenced by my social media feeds, that I have almost exclusively surrounded myself with people who are equally nuts. So for us lot, our lives have kind of hit a wall. And not the fourth one.
I think I am still in shock about what has been lost. As things slowly ramped up with plays, shows and even drama festivals being cancelled, ticket money being refunded, theatres being closed I got increasingly uneasy that life as I know it was about to take a pretty depressing turn. Even Corkscrew’s plans that are already in place are not secure.
Saddest of all was the realisation that the Arbury Primary School Class of 2020 were not going to get to do their end of year production, and many of you know how much that means to them.
With a little optimistic nudge from Bobby I started making a list of all the available stuff that wonderful companies who have the technology are offering for free. There is a marvellous selection from the BBC, The National Theatre and many, many others. Friends are sending me stuff and Facebook and Twitter are full of links to click on.
The list got out of hand and I would have to be confined to quarters for about ten years to get through it all. So I stopped trying to keep track of it all and started to think what I could do personally and maybe even a little selfishly to fill the black box shaped hole in my life.
I realised fairly quickly that planning for ‘when this is all over’ was not going to be enough especially as none of us have any idea when that might be although there are a few Corkscrew ideas beginning to peep over the parapet…more on that another time perhaps!
And that’s pretty much it. All of us at Corkscrew very much hope that you can take a breath and read a play or watch a show online or other stuff.
We’ve had one online rehearsal for something that you might be able to access before too long…but that’s a bit of a secret in case we mess the technology up!
So to conclude, well, I can’t; but here is someone who can.