York Theatre Royal

After having a break last week, the Stig team are back on the road.  They did one performance yesterday and two today at York Theatre Royal JoAnne said, “We performed in the studio space at Theatre Royal.  It’s a thrust stage, which means the audience are on three sides.  We had to adjust our set to fit the space so we were acting really close to the back wall.  It was a bit tricky to do some parts of the show and I got tangled in the leopard eyes.”

Dan, “It was very nice to see everyone after our week off. Tim was very helpful and re-blocked some of the play to adapt the scenes for the thrust stage. One tip he gave us was to change the angle of our positions so everyone on each side of the audience could see us.”

Alan said, “I was quite squashed in some of the places on the set, but I think I handled it really well, especially as I’ve got a sore throat.”

Gemma said, “Billy Hickling, who worked with us on rhythm and sound, came to see the show with his family. It was lovely to see him again and he gave us great positive feedback on the show. He said he’d missed us all and brought us homemade shortbread for the price of a Grandma wink!”

Happy birthday Fiona!

Following a great show at Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre, the Stig team give us the lowdown on the performance, and the birthday celebrations for Company Manager, Fiona Johnstone.  Daniel said, “We travelled from Bristol on Monday to Taunton. It seemed quite rural as it had a lot of fields. That evening we had dinner in an Italian restaurant. I ordered the lemon cheesecake, but they’d run out so I ordered the honeycomb cheesecake but that had run out as well so I ended up with the Eton Mess cheesecake – good job I’m not fussy!”

JoAnne, “We got to Taunton and it was ‘another grey day’ as we say in the play – it was wet and misty. For the afternoon show we had a lot of performing arts students in the audience, they were learning about children’s theatre. They were good sports, they wore the hats and did the Mexican wave.

Gemma said, “For Fionas birthday we got her a pyjama onesie which makes her look like a cow (have a look at the photo!), which made her laugh. Paul came again to help us out which we all appreciated. The evening show went really well and Fiona & Charlie devised a new warm up game that was a timed assault course. Grandma had the quickest time!

“The audience were really up for it and we had them doing a Mexican wave”

Daniel 'hanging out' backstage in the dressing room.

After a packed out show at Tobacco factory Theatre in Bristol, we grabbed 5 minutes with all the Cast, Alan said, “I liked Bristol, there is a lot of street art. I bought some disposable cameras and took lots of pictures, I even found a Banksy. The show went pretty well, it was totally sold out. Paul Wilshaw who visited Mind the Gap earlier this year, came and helped out and it was nice to see him again.

Gemma said, “Bristol has been my favourite city so far. There were lots of antique shops for Grandma to poke her nose in! The audience were really up for it and we had them doing a Mexican wave before the show started. The lovely Julia came to see us with Ross, and it was great to see them all the way down here in Bristol.

Daniel: “I saw some of the places where a TV show called ‘Skins’ was filmed. I was extremely pleased about it because it is a TV show I have watched ever since it started. It’s Fionas birthday tomorrow and we’ve bought her a surprise present… but keep it secret!

Joanne said, “I really liked the way Grandma got the audience to do a Mexican wave before the show because it helped warm them up for later. They even clapped in the musical chairs section and I got a round of applause after Lou’s big speech near the end of the play. I had chocolate brioche for my breakfast at the hotel this morning – yum yum!”

The Point, Eastleigh

The team have just performed at The Point in Eastleigh, here is what they had to say.  JoAnne: “I got up this morning and got the 8 o’clock train to meet everyone else in Leeds at 8.30am. Then we set off to Eastleigh. It was a long journey so we listened to music and I spoke to Fi because she was driving. We looked to see if there was a point on The Point theatre… but there wasn’t one! So Gemma asked ‘What’s the point?’ Ha ha!”

Daniel said, “I had my own dressing room at The Point and it was huge! The audience laughed at lots of the jokes, which was great to hear.  When I was giving out programmes at the beginning, lots of children asked me if I was playing Stig. I was very secretive so they must have got a shock when Stig the puppet jumped out of the bin.”

“The audience were the loudest chanters we have ever had!”

The Stig team are at The Albany in London, doing two performances today.  In between shows,  here’s what they had to say about the show and their time in London.  Alan said, “London has got a lot of street art, which I took lots of pictures of.  I went to the London film museum and got my photo taken with C3PO and R2D2 with a light sabre.”

Daniel: “It was my first time in London and it was exciting, big and very brilliant.  I saw Big Ben and the London eye and the Bloody Tower, where they used to keep royal prisoners, like Queen Elizabeth’s sister Mary.

JoAnne said, “We went to Hamleys, which is an amazing place, a huge toyshop. I would like to live there. Daniel got his picture taken with a Lego Darth Vader. I also met up with my sister.

Gemma said, “The Albany theatre was very big and we had a full house for the matinee, and the audience were the loudest chanters we have ever had! The night before we did a quiz and came third out of ten teams – not bad!”

“Gemma got everyone in the audience to sing happy birthday”

The Cast have just done 4 performances at the egg in Bath, here’s what they thought about the shows… and the unusual shape of the theatre!  Daniel said, “The theatre was shaped like an egg, which is why it has its name but we noticed that it is also shaped a bit like a toilet seat.”

All Alan had to say was, “The weather was wet but the theatre was awesome!”  Luckily we can rely on JoAnne to be more chatty, “I really like the egg theatre, it was a lovely place and the audience was saying jam jar, jelly baby really loudly!  Someone in the audience had a birthday so Gemma got everyone in the audience to sing happy birthday to them at the beginning of the show! We went to see a fireworks display on Saturday and my favourites were the swirly ones!”

“After the show they were still chanting!”

The team have just had two days performing at Arena Theatre in Wolverhampton.  JoAnne said, “Arena Theatre was a nice place, the staff were very friendly and we got free access to tea in the green room. The dressing rooms were connected by an air vent so me and Gemma could hear the boys in their room and people on the stage like Charlie and Fi.”

Alan said, “I had been to Wolverhampton before but we stayed in a different hotel from the last time. The jam jar jelly baby chant in the afternoon show was the best so far, because the audience were nice and loud and there were lots of kids from 3 different schools. After the show they were still chanting!

Dan said, “It was great when the kids were chanting ‘jam jar jelly baby’ JoAnne and I didn’t have to get them to join in for long, they picked it up really quick.”