The clickety-clack of my fingers on my iPad keyboard seems obscenely loud from my seat on this my second of three trains for the day. I'm making my way from Halifax (my home town, in Yorkshire) to Sunderland to restart the tour at the Empire Theatre and I've somehow ended up in the quiet coach. I'm totally allowed to be typing away like a tap dancing centipede but I'm feeling acutely awkward and aware all the same. Mind you it's better than the 2 hour journey in the luggage rack I took a few weeks ago....
The Annie Get Your Gun company have had a week long break from the show due to the scheduling of the various venues and I'm absolutely itching to get back on the stage and back with the team. Whilst it's wonderful (and essential) to have some quality time at home with friends and family, the company have been working in such close proximity that suddenly being without everyone feels plain wrong. In fact on Thursday when I made a brief jaunt to London for all of 28 hours to see some friends and clear out of my rehearsal digs properly, it seemed only sensible to meet up with some of the Annie Get Your Gun girls and catch a bit of theatre from the auditorium together!
This next leg of the tour is 5 weeks long. My incredibly supportive parents are making the trip to various venues over the tour, including Sunderland, so I know I'll be seeing them again soon but there was something truly heartbreaking about waving goodbye to my beautiful 2 year old niece last night, knowing how much she'll have changed when I next see her. Touring is hard work on families. Hard on those travelling around but probably harder for those left behind, where life continues apace but with a definite void. It's understandable, therefore, that so many of our cast will be trying to get home between venues to see their families whenever possible.
Although this is a holiday week, we haven't really stopped as promoting a production is a constant business and, with so many venues to cover, there are a lot of radio stations and newspapers that want to have a quick chat. Interviews can be great fun - time consuming, but fun. They're an essential part of this industry and it's particularly wonderful when you're as enthusiastic about a project as I am about Annie Get Your Gun. I love this show. LOVE it. Talking passionately about it brings out the most effusive, Tigger-ish side of my personality and that, dear Reader, makes me probably quite annoying,... and loud! Whilst I try my best to do phone interviews in private, sometimes matching up schedules doesn't allow for that and on Thursday the passengers on the 11:45 Leeds-London express had to endure my yabbering away to Katherine from the Oxford Mail for half an hour, albeit in whispered tones!
Friday's interviews brought a whole other set of awkwardness. I was busily flitting around London from meetings to coffee catch-ups and mistakenly thought I was chatting to a couple of newspapers, so was happily mooching my way around Islington waiting for the call. Fortunately Matthew, our PR extraordinaire, reminded me in the nick of time that it was actually for Chris and Emma of Gaydio Breakfast. Cue me running around like a headless chicken in a desperate attempt to find somewhere quiet enough to be suitable (thank you Travel section at Waterstones) for a radio pre-record, followed by a somewhat husky (and out-of-breath) chat with two of the bubbliest presenters going!
Thankfully, once we're back in the theatre I'll be able to hole up in my dressing room or the company office for interviews. I've already got three lined up for Tuesday before we begin rehearsals and as long as people are prepared to keep talking to me, I'll keep talking to them. And believe me, I can talk!
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