JUNE 2008 DIARY ENTRIES

Wednesday 25th June 2008
Yesterday brought about a bit of drama!  Henry Metcalf, who plays Jacob/Potiphar, was not in by the 15 min call and Tim Anscombe (our Company Manager) told us that Henry wouldnt make it in for the matinee performance, what was more, Dave who has recently joined us hadn't been rehearsed yet as the understudy!  Tim our Company Manager is also a performer (and a very good one) and had gone on as Jacob before so there was a mad rush to get him into costume and he was going on!.............trouble is the last time he played the part was a good 5 years ago!!!  As you can imagine, the cast was quite excited at the prospect of seeing our Company Manager "tread the boards".  I was up for it too as I get on with Tim really well and he has been a fantastic Company Manager (and friend) to me and has a lot of experience and helped me through some of the rough patches earlier in the tour so I was looking forward to him playing my "dad" for the day.  It all went fine and apart from a couple of blocking positions (and forgetting to put the cigar in my mouth as that move wasnt in the last time he played the part!) Tim was word perfect as Jacob and Potiphar and the show was a really good one. Be sure to check out a photo of Tim and I in the Craig and Friends section of my website.  I must add on a completely seperate note that there is a NANDOS right next door to us, for those who dont know, Nandos is a restaurant specialising in chicken.  This is PERFECT for me as I could pretty much live on chicken!  They flame grill it all so its nice and low fat and healthy and they also do takeaway and are still open after the evening performance!  So I am sorted for lunch and dinner for this week. 


Thursday 19th June 2008
Well the matinee went well and I think Emily did a fantastic job of the Narrator and I think the cast thought that as well.  She has a lovely voice and i'm sure can get even better now that the 1st one is under her belt.  A few of us went for dinner in between shows and I have to mention the fact that for some reason, Antony and Alistair got into a bizarre bet in which Antony bet Alistair that  for a fiver, Alistair could not eat a heaped teaspoonful of english mustard..........Alistair said "what, a fiver!!??" and proceeded with no hesitation to do the deed and pocket the money!  I was baulking at the site of it!  Anyway as I write this it is half time of the second show and all is going well, i'm looking forward to a lie in and two late back to back shows tommorow.  I met Alison today (and I can't for the life of me remember what user name she uses on the thread?) and she has very kindly offered up her home for me to stay during the week of Dartford.  That is a very kind gesture and I shall look forward to it! 


Wednesday 18th June 2008
Today I had a fantastic rest through the day and went into the show tonight feeling energised and strong both physically and vocally.  I had the strongest show I felt for a while and love it when I can go through a show and everything seems so easy and I can just relax and enjoy myself 100 percent.  I am encouraged now for the future shows after tonight and feel very happy how quickly I have overcome my illness of last week.  Its the turn of the new understudy Narrator, Emily, to have her debut in the role tommorow afternoon and while i'm sure that she will naturally be nervous, i'm sure she will do great and it will be a fun day.  I'm glad Tara is finally getting a rest after doing 6 weeks of 12 shows. I think she has done fantastic to get through that and has settled into the cast really well.  I'm starting to get to know some of the new cast a bit better now and they all seem lovely.  I spent a large part of yesterday talking to Maria, one of the handmaidens and we had a lot to talk about which was nice as aside from Eve, i've not been able to connect much with the other dancers so far on the tour, dont ask me why, but its nice that the new people are opening up and getting to know me.

Tuesday 17th June 2008
I enjoyed opening night last night here in Crawley.  I felt like my voice and performance was solid and although I dont think I am quite back to my 100 per cent best after last weeks illness, I think I am nearly there.  The theatre is kind of in the middle of nowhere but is a nice place to perform and I have a nice big dressing room to myself.  I had a lovely relaxing Sunday in Birmingham and Jen and I were going to go to the cinema but ended up just relaxing in the house all day, very lazy!  I am staying in a hotel this week a short taxi ride away and its basic but comfortable.  I realised that after Stephanie left last week there are now only 4 of us left from the cast that started back in August, myself, Dean Read, Chris Dilley and Lloyd Warby.  Credit to those other 3 guys for staying on till January and by then will have done a year and a half performing 12 shows per week, keep it up guys!

Well after nearly 6 months without missing a show I had to miss a total of 3 this week, performing 7 out of 12.  I suppose it had to happen sometime although I was still disappointed as I wanted to keep it going even longer.  I caught a viral infection which caused my nose, ears and throat to get inflammed.  I have managed to recover quickly however and came back to perform in the Friday night show and then all 3 today.  St Albans has been a mixed week as on the good side, I had beautiful digs this week staying in a lovely bed and breakfast 5 mins walk to the theatre, but then I was ill and I have to say that backstage has been the worst for dressing rooms and facilities so far.  There is only one toilet cubicle and 1 shower for the whole male cast and crew to share and I have been sharing a dressing room with Ant this week but it is actually just a 6 ft x 6 ft box room with a tiny mirror and 2 chairs!!  Antony and I nicknamed it "The Harry Potter under the stairs cupboard"  we agreed that Antony was Harry Potter and I was Hermione Granger............hmmm.  Also Jen cant be here till tonight as she is attending her best mates barbeque party today so I missed her last night although she is driving today from Birmingham to Lincoln to be at the party for a few hours, then she is driving from there to St Albans to pick me up and then we are driving back to Birmingham!!!(check your google maps to see this road trip she is making today, bless her.)  I left my camera at Jens last weekend so there are no pics unless I take some on the day off tomorrow but trust me.....you havent missed much this week!  I think we are going out for lunch somewhere tomorrow and then go to the cinema to see "The Incredible Hulk".  I feel a lot better today and hope I can go on another long run without missing shows.

As I type this I am looking out to a gorgeous day here in Birmingham and Jen and I decided to go shopping this morning and buy a load of food for a BBQ!  We got burgers, chicken legs, lamb kebabs, bbq ribs, bramley apple sausages, potato waffles and loads of nibbles and puddings! I'm going to have to watch or my loincloth may be a bit snug tommorow night!!  Last nights show I felt went excellent and Oxford has been one of my favourite venues, a few of the cast were leaving so there was a real buzz about the show as they were giving their all for one last show and we were bouncing off that with our own positive energy.  I love the way the website is looking and evolving and I have added a new "Craig and Friends" photo site alongside the blogs and the Joseph journey in pics sections which I hope you all enjoy.  I feel like I have such fantastic fans here and I want to try and give back as much as I can so you can live the journey I am on with me as and when it happens. I'm sure you are all enjoying your respective Sundays in the sunshine and I am looking forward to the week ahead in St Albans xx 

Last nights show went well, it seemed like such a quick days work going in to do one show and then home again!  My Oxford dressing room is potentially my favourite as it is very big and comfortable, seperate bathroom, shower room, t.v, fridge AND free wi-fi.  I could just stay there for the week if I was allowed!  There is also a lot of good shops around so I will have a wander around in between shows today seen as the sun is out and its not bucketing with rain.  I've started reading a lot lately and I have taken quite a liking to reading fictional thrillers. I am on my fourth book now which is called SEVERED by Simon Kernick.  The others I have read are called RELENTLESS also by Simon Kernick and two books by an author by the name of JEFF ABBOTT called PANIC and A KISS GONE BAD.  There is something about getting engrossed in a book and getting on board with the principle character and going on that exiting journey full of twists and turns.  I have always enjoyed reading and I have seriously considered writing a book myself one day.  I'm not sure i'd have the ability to write a full length intense thriller but I have often thought that I could write about behind the scenes of a reality television contest and talk about the things that go on that the public don't get to see.  I have even written a first "chapter" but I guess only time will tell if I actually do it!  Anyway I asked Jen to find some nice swimshorts for me for the holiday and after a few options I thought these were my favourite, what do you guys think?? Click here.

I had a good solid 2 shows today and my voice is feeling good at the moment, the review I got through was nice so all is well on that front.  I am SO EXCITED about spending the day in bed tommorow!!! I have missed my tranquil Wednesday afternoons and will be making full use of it doing.................................nothing!  I met the new cast, albeit very briefly, today.  I had a quick drink after the show to get aquainted with them. There is 6 new cast altogether, 2 brothers, three handmaidens, and a "swing".  I met the two brothers (the new Simeon and Isechaar) and one of the handmaidens. They seem very nice but I probably won't get to know any of them properly for a while as they will all be rehearsing like mad in time to open on Monday night!  I met "alphak" for the first time and I thought she was quite a sight for a first meeting with her Craigette badge and Antony badge and soaked to the skin!!! bless her! She was a lovely lady and its always nice to put a face to another Craigette, along with all my other fantastic fans.  My digs this week is funny............. i'm staying in a house with this lovely, but slightly batty, older lady.  She is only charging me £12 pound a night which is a real bargain and its a typical well kept but slightly old fashioned house.  She likes me because I am polite and very neat and tidy (she asked Jen if I was neat and tidy over the phone before she let me stay so Jen went on to tell her all about me.....!!) which is just as well that I am because she wants my baked bean tins rinsed out and then squashed down, my tea bags left in a seperate t-bag bowl, my bread heels not thrown out but left in a bowl for the birds, and I MUST NOT scare or unsettle IN ANY WAY her precious cat who is the most unfriendly cat I have ever met and runs away if I get within ten yards of it!  Aside from this she is actually a really nice lady and when I got in tonight she had left me 5 different varieties of leftover homemade cake that she had baked fresh today for some sort of gala or fair that she is chairperson or commitee person (or something like that!!) on with a note saying to please eat my fill and enjoy.  That's the great thing about this tour, every week is a different adventure and my life is certainly varied at the moment!!!.  I will end this blog to say that I HAVE PROVISIONALLY BOOKED MY HOLIDAY!!!!! I just need to phone the resort with my reference number tommorow and then book our flight and im good to go. Only 8 months to wait now...... anyway, before I get too excited i'd better concentrate on getting a good rest and be up for it tommorow night.  I'd also like to quickly say that Alistair will be stepping in to cover the Joseph role from now on and I wish him the best of luck for the matinee tommorow.

Well I am just getting ready to go to the train station and head to Oxford.  I must write about Saturday night in Aberdeen.  During the interval, there is a safety curtain that comes down supported by a 4 ton steel mesh behind it.  When act 2 was about to start the steel wire that supports it SNAPPED!  So the thing was stuck and couldnt get lifted up!  There was a huge delay and at one point there was a real possibility of us lot going out and doing some sort of improvisation sing through of act two in the 5ft length of space across the stage with no option of entrances/exits or costume changes!!! I think that would have been very funny!! However the crew managed to get a replacement wire and motor so all went well albeit 45 mins late!