Much Ado About Nothing - The End

Hero (Myself) and Count Claudio (Leigh)

 preparing backstage for their wedding.

As any actor will know, after months of rehearsals and then an intense week of panic; once the first night nerves have subsided, the week or so of shows are a breeze (most of the time). After you've spent such a long time, forming a family with your fellow actors. The evening after the last show always hits hard.

This is how I found myself last night, at home, by myself with only my cats for company. I had nothing to do. Now most people would welcome the break after such a busy week but I did not! I was having withdrawal symptoms from the theatre world, the atmosphere, the thrill and more importantly the people who made the production as amazing as it was, even if I do say so myself.
When I first started out on my Shakespeare adventure, as Hero, I was fairly nervous, this was the first Shakespeare production I had ever done. Luckily I had studied "Much Ado About Nothing" at GCSE, so knew the storyline well, although it did need to be refreshed in my memory. Whilst I enjoyed Shakespeare in school, I didn't know if it would be the same as Acting in it. Learning such a huge amount of lines as well as understanding it all was very daunting. However you cant judge until you try, so try I did and the end result... I thoroughly enjoyed it.

L-R Margaret (Vicki), Ursula (Chrissie), Hero (me)

and Beatrice (Tanya).

Due to it being an Elizabethan period drama, we had to hire our costumes meaning we didn't have them until 2 days before the show; the day we moved into the theatre. For some actors this can be quite hard, as they find the missing piece in their characterisation through the help of a costume.

Often it is very rare to be given a costume you like. So you can imagine my joy at being given two costumes, both of which I really liked!! Hero's everyday costume was a lovely deep turquoisey blue, with black velvet on top and long period flared outer sleeves as well as cream blouse like sleeves on the inside, which where tied in on the shoulder. Hero's Wedding dress which she wears for Act 4 and 5 was lovely a period princess like dress. Cream in colour with delicate white embroidery. The sleeves were slightly puffed with silver and blue ribbons as well as similar detailing on the waist line. I was very lucky to love my costumes, but that makes the ending even harder.
On Saturday 3rd October our last day, we had a matinee and evening performance. I received lots of little gifts and cards as a momentum of the show. I have to admit it is one of my favourite parts of the show. I love giving presents as well as receiving them, my dramatic family are so creative, (as you can imagine). I love seeing what ideas for little gifts they come up with. I have to admit that my favourite card this year, was made by Vicki, who cut out parts of the script into a heart and matched papers to the colours in my dress it is so pretty. My favourite little gift was Glittery Bath Bombs, I mean who doesn't love bath bombs and glittery ones!!!! A-MAZ-ING.. Tanya thank you so much :)

All in all for anyone in any doubt about Shakespeare, just do it, you don't know until you try it!!
I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed remembering it!

Love You
Little Lelo xxx