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Day 121 - Tuesday 14th July 2020

Location: London, UK

COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak


Lockdown

Love & Information - Part 2

Performance Day!

At 6:30pm the countdown timer started - we'd be going live to the world in 30 minutes!  And yes it really was the world, we had viewers all over the country and abroad.

After a minor technical difficulty which was dealt with by producer and tech guru James with utter calm and professionalism, we were live, looking into our cameras and performing our socks off.

I was in 11 scenes which meant 11 costume/hair/earring changes for me.  And although I changed my top half 11 times, my bottom half remained in my trackies and slippers which was quite a joy.

In between scenes, I could use my own bathroom for make-up and hair alterations and bedroom for wardrobe.  I'd pop down to the kitchen to get my "champagne" for Wedding Video or to feed the cat.

So there are definitely some advantages to performing from home.

I've performed in lots of places - outdoors on grass, outdoors in extreme heat where we were upstaged by some very loud bugs, in pub theatres on stages no bigger than a shower cubicle, at the Olympic Stadium, the Royal Festival Hall, church halls, school halls, lounges in care homes... The list goes on.  However, they all had one thing in common.  An audience.

This is by far the weirdest part of performing on Zoom.  Absolutely no live feedback.  Zero. You don't know if you have an audience, if they're listening or asleep, let alone if they're enjoying it or not.

We actors are very needy - we need feedback.  Even if the audience didn't enjoy something, we need to know.  To discuss it, in as much detail as possible.  Fortunately, lots of lovely family and friends immediately got in touch after "curtain down" to say they'd enjoyed it - including lots of people we didn't know who had been watching which was quite exciting!

We re-convened on Zoom for the "post show drink in the pub" to have a debrief and a long goodbye.



Showtime!

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