I hope I am not always painting a picture of doom and gloom. Every so often I receive an amusing request. “Can you do a workshop on The Thames?” I am so tempted to reply “do you have a boat in mind?”
Not as silly as you may think. When we were asked for a performance on London Zoo, we never realised they actually wanted us to conduct some plays on a stage right by the monkey arena. So, there we were acting with the little blighters upstaging us and stealing the limelight. The late, great W. C. Fields got it right “never work with children or animals”.
One of our finest challenges was an approach from a successful retired business man wanting a play as part of a celebration on his wife’s 60th birthday. She loved Shakespeare and, in particular
“A Midsummer
Night's Dream” So, we went to work and created a lavish 60 minutes portrayal of
“The Lovers”; scenes featuring Hermia
– in love with Lysander · Helena – in love with Demetrius · Lysander – in love
with etc. etc. I rather enjoyed my cameo controlling the many kids as “ELF and
safety”.
Thankfully, it all invariably comes together, and everybody
loves it. I won’t bore you with the get-out!