Press Night!

By Ollie Lee

For the last two months, there have been two words hanging over our heads, quite literally as they are written in giant letters across the year planner on our wall, those two words; Press Night.

I arrived at the office at noon on Monday the 12^th July, to find the stage door desk a mass of envelopes, letters, cards, tickets and VIP flyers all being paired and allocated by our female assistants. After the brief hellos I sat down and joined the panel, half expecting the conversation to turn to jam and Jerusalem. Just seconds later, one of our producers - Jenny King - entered, pen poised, ready to do battle with the mountain of thank you cards that lay waiting on the desk. I only really mention this so I can say how beautiful Jenny’s handwriting is. If you are anything like me, the mere flick of the pen by Jenny King is enough to make any handwriting enthusiast weak at the knees. Maybe it was that, or more likely, maybe it was just the chaos of the day, but all I know is the next few hours were just a blur in which I seemed to lap the old Eurostar terminal at least 50 times.

At 4:30, Chantelle and I donned our blue ushering t-shirts and after a brief briefing from our beautiful front of house managers Shane and Siobhan, took our places at the entrance to greet everyone as they arrived.

Moments of interest from this vigil are as follows;

- The arrival Nina Wadia (EastEnders) and her family - I’m a big fan!

- The arrival of a stray member of the public asking if we had any ‘extras jobs’ we could offer him.

- The same member of the public sneaking down into the concourse and talking to Nina Wadia, undoubtedly about any ‘extras jobs’ on EastEnders.

- The removal of that particular member of the public...

- Other star struck moments came with the arrival of Sally Thomsett, an original Railway child, and the fabulous Honour Blackman.

- Finally the removal of a second crazy fan...

From a job, which to be honest we weren’t that excited about, we ended up with one of the best seats in the house for seeing the pre-preshow moments.

At 6:55pm we made a quick dash from our ushering positions, and with a lightning fast change of clothes, we were transformed back to production assistants, and at 7:00 were able to take our places in the auditorium and enjoy the show.

Ten minutes into the show and my eyes caught something shining back at me from the other side of the platform. As my eyes adjusted to the bright light against the darkness of the auditorium, I realised what I was being dazzled by were in fact Jason Gardener’s teeth! Even if a little distracting, I was pleased to see he was smiling and enjoying the show.

Unfortunately, Mr Gardener’s teeth were not the only distraction during the evening. Part way through the first act, an alarm started bleeping, followed by a message blaring out for the Eurostar staff, who of course no longer reside here. Not ideal for press night of course, but thankfully, as anyone who reads the papers will know, the reviews of The Railway Children Live at Waterloo have been brilliant!!

We thank everyone who has seen the show so far, and encourage everyone who hasn’t to hurry up and book their tickets!!!

10th July - Groupies

By Chantelle Francois

As everyone who has spent more than 24 hours with me can tell you, I am a massive Boyband fan. I get a tad obsessive about the likes of Westlife, McFLY, Backstreet Boys and Take That to name but a few. I have missed many occasions like end of year dinners and birthdays because of my need to go to as many of their concerts I can every year. So much so, my nickname at uni became Groupie.

Meeting your heroes is something I think everyone would love to do. I for one would give anything to meet the Westlife boys and have a chat and this is no different in the world of The Railway Children Waterloo.

With the show starting last weekend to big crowds, we have only just began to see what different types of people find our project interesting, but boy the audiences so far have not disappointed.

From the second show, us production assistants (who have no previous experience of the world of fans from this side) were quickly brought up to speed when two men turned up trying to meet Marshall Lancaster. They came over an hour before the show had finished asking to see him. My fellow assistants and I found this all rather exciting. I don’t know whether that was because we have been cooped up in Waterloo with no windows and little outside interaction for too long or not but hey, it was fun.

We politely told them Marshall would be leaving though one door so they might be able to catch him on his way out. But did they listen....of course not. They tried to get back into our offices thinking it was a backstage area. (I suppose the Stage Door signs are a little misleading.) It became a bit of a spectator sport watching them attempt to get “backstage”.

But this show doesn’t just attract fans of actors, but also train enthusiasts. A couple of days ago, when my colleague Nick and I were looking after the model train which is on display, we were approached by a lovely old man who clearly had a passion for trains.

He was telling us all about the model trains real journey and how it is the wrong colour. All of which went straight over our head’s as we have limited train knowledge. This man continued to chat to us for some time before offering to buy the train. He was extremely persistent and no matter how many times we said it was not for sale, he kept on trying.

He was very sweet and in the end gave up, but then said ... he will be back, (I imagine he said it in the style of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but of course that is my sun deprived mind playing tricks on me again!)

So I think we should leave this as a To Be Continued......

Sunshine and Rainbows at Waterloo

By Ollie Lee

When I was little, the answer to the question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” was always the same, “A bird!” Yes, perhaps I was a little confused by the more limited life choices ahead, but I knew one thing, I never wanted to work in an office. Well here I am, in an office, and I love it?

While we do complain about the size of the windowless rooms the old EuroStar offers, we don’t have it too bad. Working on a new production, in a new venue, in my opinion, is one of the most exciting things a person could ever do, there is a huge team working here, and most of the time* they are all smiling as if on some crazy antidepressant.

With first show nerves out the way, and wonderful feedback from audiences after every performance there is certainly a spring in trcwaterloo’s step. My only words of advice for the crew are borrowed from a hero of mine, the one and only Miss Doris Day, “Let’s keep smilin’, let’s keep laughin’, let’s be happy, ho ho ho ha”
Just a few shows down and The Railway Children Waterloo is definitely picking up steam, (ba dum bum) bring on Press Night!

*Everyone has put the hearts into their work here, so are forgiven when they are looking a little stressed.

Final Dress 03/07/10

By Ollie Lee

Having arrived home from a long day of work I jumped in the shower, (this anecdote has a point I promise) half way through washing my face I became aware of an overly fruity smell, only to realise that it was coming from the shampoo I was using. After realising I just washed my face with shampoo, I grabbed the face wash and promptly starting washing my hair with it. This gives you some idea of how tired and distracted everyone is right now from getting this show up and running.

Opening a brand new show in a space never used before, a space until very recently was a disused railway station, is no small ask. In the last couple of hours we have seen two bars appear out of nowhere, a shop suddenly filled with merchandise, as well as the arrival of a popcorn stand, sweet stand, VIP area, platform benches and a whole load of potted agriculture.

Most excitingly, today we see the arrival of our first real audience!

We have skimmed over it lots already but I really feel it needs to be reiterated just what a massive job this is. We are not working in a theatre, we are providing a theatre. We are working in a train station which means we have to comply with reams of rules and guidelines on how we use the space, and you haven’t seen health and safety till you have worked in a station like Waterloo. As well as the staging and real steam train to contend with, we have a whole experience laid up before you even get to your seats, and everything is brand new. This has never been done before!

But all that is left to say at this stage I suppose - is break a leg!