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Happy new year Kwaanza Dilawi etc.
Posted Monday, February 09, 2009
Thanks for all the nice comments re: Live at the Apollo. I really enjoyed playing the Hammersmith Apollo as my previous experience of the place was supporting Bebop deluxe in 1978 and Terence Trent D'arby in the eighties.I've never done a PROPER gig there ,although I've performed in most places..so it was a serious closure to actually tread the boards at the place where I'd seen James Brown, Ben Elton , The Wife etc...
Since then , I've been working on Othello. Yes ,that's right- there'll be a bit of press coming out now about me 'Risking life, limb and tongue' in pursuit of the grumpy moor.
I'm loving the rehearsal process..I've never had more than ten days rehearsal for anything before-I must say though , as this is my first play , and also my Shakespearean debut-I'm not knocking the process.
Thing is, the script has to be adhered to -you can't adlib this stuff - there's no improvising around the text...you have to be exact, although Richard Griffiths has great stories of Donald Wolfit , the great actor manager , during the war -having to sort out payment for the electricity man , half way through a performance by improvising in iambic pentameter ,where his assistant might find the cash to remunerate the man..
Barrie Rutter is a master story teller , an orchestor if you will of performance. He's not scared to roll his sleeves up and show you what he means. He doesn't just sit off and to the side , with his head in the book. He's
constantly up and tweaking ,cajoling , demonstrating,encouraging .it's great. The cast are being incredibly tolerant too- I've got huge respect for them because they've done SO MUCH theatre -it's amazing. The first day of rehearsals they got up on their feet and from act one onwards they threw themselves into their performance to the extent that I thought they'd been rehearsing without me. I was told that they always roll like this .Yikes.
I've had to grow a beard , so at the moment , I do look like the proverbial rat looking through a lavatory brush. I'm in the gym every day with my Leeds trainer Anna , from fitness fusion -
she's really good and talks A LOT. But we're getting the job done. I feel better anyway.
There are some great curry houses in Leeds , The Magrah , Cafe Guru to name but two..
really good food. So I have to be careful or I'll eat it all! Muhahahahahahahahah...
I can tell I'm going through a thing here because ,for the first time in my life, I"ve got high blood pressure..Rah!Ya'all know how black folks have that hypertension ,dammit.
So-I'm gonna go: Cab driver jokes -
Hey Len - The Big Winalot factory up the road's gone bust...they've had to call the retrievers in....
Hey, Len, Len - Poundstretcher's have bought Marks and Spencer's they're gonna trade under the name - Stretch Marks...
Gotta love them Cabdrivers....
Peace
Lenxxx
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