Most of my friends from school and university have proper jobs. There are days when I envy them with a passion that is difficult to believe and, I am sure, impossible to quantify. Days on tour when it is raining so heavily that your tent has a moat, or mornings when the three vehicles you are travelling in all break down within twenty minutes of each other (don’t laugh - it happened).
But, by and large, the good moments, not to mention the great and wonderful moments, considerably outnumber the bad ones.
For the last three weeks we have been rehearsing in a field (and a greenhouse when it rains) at Church Farm, Wirral, which has views over the Dee estuary to Wales and the Irish Sea. It certainly beats turning up to an office first thing.
Over the past few years this job has provided me with many memorable evenings
at many different venues. I have heard fantastic tales, have met fantastic
people, many of whom are now good friends, and have collected enough stories
to keep me in after dinner speeches for a lifetime.
Whether conducting a warm-up in a Norman choir stall, taking tea with the
landed gentry, drying drenched clothes under a small hand-drier in the ladies’
toilets (don’t ask) or speeding through Dublin in order to catch a ferry,
there is very rarely a dull moment. And if there is one, you relish it!
The biggest thrill of the job is always meeting and working with like-minded,
talented and enthusiastic people. Off the Ground believes very much that a
theatre company is at its best when all the members of the company work together,
all give their ideas, and enjoy the work that they are doing.
Only when a cast and crew know and understand each other and can feel free
to try new ideas, make mistakes and suggestions, can a production be totally
successful. During tour we not only work together, but live and eat together
and, on the odd occasion, drink together.
To be surrounded by a group of people who are as passionate about their work
as you is a genuine pleasure, and I wouldn’t change my job for the world.
On a sad note, Mrs. North, owner of Altamont House and Gardens, one of our
first Irish venues, passed away earlier this year. She was an amazing lady
with a seemingly endless stock of tales, a warm sense of humour and an infectious
vitality.
She will be missed by many, and will always be remembered by all at Off the
Ground.