Deborah Conway: Monday 20th August 2001
Gosh its been a long time since I sat down and blogged. There is a simple
explanation for that. I was in Melbourne. Ah yes you may recall that heady
missive I tapped out after the first preview and before the big opening
night; and then nothing more – just left you all hanging on... Well take a
deep breath and read on and I’ll let y’all in on the last 5 weeks of my
honky tonk merry go round.
Opening night was a trip. I was nervous for the first time since we’d opened
in Canberra. Backstage was looking more like a florist than a theatre and
cast and crew were all in a mild flap of preparation, first time for the
strings and the Jordinaires, first really big crowd and first time in front
of Willy and Syd. The publicist had done such a job on the show and
expectations were high. Could they be met, exceeded?
It was a dream night, not only did nothing go wrong, everything went
brilliantly. When we came out for our curtain calls, The State was on it’s
feet with my father in the centre front looking like he was about to pop
with pride.
The party afterwards was jammed with friends and family, I was passed from
arm to arm, cheek to cheek caught in a frenzy of love, well wishers and
flash photography. Fortunately for me Syd was at the party staying up way
past her bedtime so I couldn’t do the serious brain cell damage that I might
have otherwise done, being instead a responsible a mother and driving
soberly home at a sensible hour.
Since then we have played 2 weeks at The State and then due to popular
demand an extension week at The Comedy theatre. Punters have been very
happy, critics divided, me, a pig in mud. It’s very womb like in the arts
centre, deep underground, a café serving all your nursery favourites, no
windows, no phone signal, no reason to leave the building once inside.
After-show imbibing is done around the corner at the EQ bar which also
happens to have sensational food for late night bingeing purposes. Parking
on the cheap with the right access cards and security cards to let you in
elsewhere. I really felt like I’d joined the thespian club when I ran into
Garry McDonald in the lift after his last show in David Williamson’s play
(can’t remember what it was called but he was coming out of a swimming pool
in a pair of particularly attractive bathing trunks in the poster) and we
exchanged pleasantries about our respective gigs. Wow what an old pro, me
that is.
We started at The Comedy a week after closing at the State, so a week of
being home in real life, with real work and real wake up calls. (Just a
small reminder how easy it is in paid employment, the real work gets done
with no weekly pay cheque or super.)
The Comedy is a much smaller theatre, when you need to get over to the other
side without the audience noticing, you must cross underneath the stage.
Lots of frantic stair climbing in heels, actually I just took mine off and
went for a little bare foot jog. A cold, old cute theatre but it warmed up
and people had fun. I had a birthday on opening night there and an enormous
chocolate cake appeared in the green room with the lights off and all the
smokers holding up their BIC lighters like a Barry Manilow concert. It was a
very special rendition of that old favourite Happy Birthday.
Now I’m writing this to you from sunny Perth where we open tomorrow night at
the Burswood Casino (or as they said in the Sydney made add, the Boozewood
Casino and when it was bought to their attention the Boreswood Casino)
putting my feet up, wondering quietly what in-house movie I could watch
later or should I just go for a leisurely stroll around the grounds. Now
that’s what I call a proper job.
Signing off
DC
added Monday, 20 August, 2001
