5,000 and counting
Come From Away enjoyed two fortnightly sit-downs during August, in the beautiful cities and theatres of Newcastle’s Theatre Royal and Bristol’s Hippodrome. Even the distraction of the last few days of the Olympics couldn’t detract from the mathematical inevitability of reaching performance number 5,000. Each month, as well as updating this website (which in itself I have been doing every single month for at least 17 years) I have updated the document above, counting only full paid commercial productions where I am physically involved in the performance to a paying audience (so not show watches or dress rehearsals, and fringe/amateur theatre isn’t counted). It’s a milestone I had hoped to reach, which thanks to a relatively quiet 2014 and of course the pandemic shutdowns of 2020 & 2021 happened to time close to my 20th anniversary of working in professional theatre.
I do wonder if “here’s to the next 5,000” is realistic - a comment that was left a couple of times when I posted the above image to social media. I find myself enjoying the down time around shows more now that I’m in my 40s, rather than working as much as humanly possible as I used to. And if (it’s a big if) my career trajectory in this industry pushes me more towards Musical Supervision in the next few years, under my current rules the performance count will stall, as technically I won’t be “physically involved in [each] performance”. Still, at least my next (new) show will have the ‘honour’ of being my 40th one!
Back at Come From Away, it was wonderful to revisit those two great bastions of touring, Newcastle & Bristol. The latter was made extra special as three of us decided (as a treat) to pay more for a rather lovely flat just behind the Hippodrome. A quality way of living on tour can make all the difference, if you can afford it, and I do hope that a move to every company member being put up on a tour is getting closer.
Audiences at both venues were brilliant. Marketing had done a good job bringing in punters, and it was clear word-of-mouth was making a difference to numbers in the second week. The first and last performances in both cities were barnstormers, and it really boosted (already high) morale amongst the company. In extra-curricular news, we as a company enjoyed a bowling night out in Newcastle, and a “Band-a-oke” (think karaoke with live band) in Bristol, giving both musicians and singers on the tour a chance to let hair down and perform something different. It’s not always my bag to get on keys and improv along to some well-known song, but I found my calling on the accordion and Ali Barnes managed to capture the moment I finally relaxed and played along to some 4 Non Blondes.
September is the month for Scotland. After a few days off, we take a deep breath and head far north to begin 7 weeks on the road starting in Aberdeen. I love driving in Scotland, so will be taking the car up. We then head to Edinburgh & Glasgow for a week in each place, so looking forward to taking in some local music, food and that famous scotch whisky!