After a wonderful three months in Scarborough at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, I'm back in London. It was delicious to live by the sea, albeit rather a windy part of the East Coast. The seagulls were fat and vociferous and no chip or cone was safe from their dive-bomb raids.
The North Yorkshire accent is a thing of beauty. The artistic director joked on our first day that they could never do a production of 'Toad of Toad Hall'. When I tell you that the exclamation 'Oh no!' is pronounced 'Er ner!' perhaps you'll get the gag...
The theatre itself is a community of supportive and friendly humans who dole out cake like it's someone's birthday every day (and I suppose it is, if you think about it) and where everyone's mug has their name on. I did a fair amount of coaching while I was there, which surprised me. I helped a couple of members of the cast of the Alan Ayckbourn-directed production of Seasons Greetings, a couple of members of my own cast with auditions or who just wanted to brush up their basics, and an ex staff member who wanted an Egyptian accent to match her visible heritage as she tried to get more acting work.
On the whole it was one of the most exhausting jobs I've ever done, but I wouldn't have missed out on the experience for the world. Now hit me up with all your accent coaching needs - I'm back and I'm ready!