SHHHHH!!

By Ollie Lee

Late last night while I was sitting at stage door there was a sudden cacophony of noise that is probably best described as a loud ‘shhhhhh’.

Earlier in the day our site manager Jason Nunn had told us that due to the large amount of rain there may be a leak in our office, so this was my first thought when I heard the noise, “Oh my goodness the roof has caved in!” Thankfully that wasn’t the case, with the office still intact I walked out into the concourse, walking a bit like I was in some cheesy spy movie fearful of what I was about to find, but the concourse was clear, the noise however was much louder.

On a mission now, I walked up the secret staircase that leads to the main station, and there, on platform 19 sat the source of the noise, a massive steam train!

Excitement overwhelmed me, I ran back down the stairs to grab my phone so I could take a photograph of the engine, when I got back to the platform, I joined the mass of public, including a health number of train spotters, all taking photographs and all completely exhilarated.

While fascinated by train-spotters I have never considered myself one of them, I am more of a train-spotter-spotter, but there is something about a real steam train that is just magical. It’s the sound they make, the mass of steam they produce, and because they are from another time, I think, that makes them so magnificent. I can’t imagine the Hogwarts train would have quite the same affect if it was electric, or Brief Encounters to be quite as romantic had it happened on a modern day platform.

It is something I love about our show, the excitement that was produced last night on platform 19 happens eight times a week in our theatre, even a friend of mine who saw the show recently noted, “Everyone claps the train when it comes on, they get so excited, it’s amazing!” While you might not consider yourself a train-spotter now I defy anyone to attend our show and not get a little swept away by the romanticism of a real steam train.

Daddy! My Daddy!!

By Ollie Lee

Watching Jenny Agutter run across the platform shouting “daddy my daddy” every Christmas is somewhat of a tradition in our family. I think it is mostly down to coincidence, it’s the one time of the year we are all together, and The Railway Children will always happens to be on television the same time we are gathered in the sitting room.

“Daddy my daddy” is undoubtedly the most iconic moment of The Railway Children story, and if you think it is emotional in the film, you ain’t seen nuthin’ to you have seen our show. Having worked as an usher I have now seen the play seven times, and every time our own Sarah Quintrell (who plays Bobby) rushes across the stage to the arms of her father, I get always get a little choked up. I think there is something about live theatre, about the lighting, the music, about Sarah Quintrell, that makes it all the more emotional.

But onto my main reason for writing –

A couple of days ago I was working in an ushering position called ‘foyer float’ which involves me being plugged into a radio and making sure the audience are where they should be. When the show finished, and I was saying goodnight to everyone as they were leaving, a girl about 6 came up to me, tears streaming down her face. “I’ve lost my mummy” she stuttered through sobs.

I reassured her, and sent a message out on the radio to say there was a missing child. While we were waiting I suggested to the girl that when her mother appeared again, she should do just as Bobby did at the end of the play and run and give her mum a big hug, I didn’t imagine she could execute it quite as well as she did. When her mum appeared (from the toilets) the little girl caught sight of her, took a deep breath, and ran across the foyer, shouting “mummy my mummy!” finally leaping into the arms of her mother, maybe not quite as iconic, but still rather dramatic and just like the mother says in the play, “Things do happen in real life that are rather like books, sometimes.”

Fashion is a lifestyle, It's a choice...

By Ollie Lee

When my friends at school were reading The Beano and The Dandy I was reading Vogue, I was obsessed with the clothes and the models, the fabrics, the beauty of the styling... I could go on. However, having very basic artist ability, I was never going to be a designer and gave up hope of ever working in the industry when I was very young, but it seems fashion will always follow me everywhere.

Since I moved to London four years ago most of my closest friends have been stylists, fashion buyers or student artists, and just last week I moved to a new house in Fulham with three of the housemates working for companies within the industry, but I never thought it would follow me to The Railway Children.

One of The Railway Children’s most inspired qualities is that it takes place on a real train platform, and if anyone has seen the show, or spent any time on the old Eurostar platform you will not be surprised that one of the platforms is going to be used as a runway during fashion week. It’s a horribly beautiful industrial space, a mess of concrete, steel and glass, and if you catch the platform at the right time of day, and when the sun is out, eerie shadows are cast across the lonesome tracks and the dusty space is like something from Studio Ghibli.

So for the last few weeks I have been showing people round the platform, like a proud father, only too happy to show off the amazing space we are using for our production, as various people scribble down notes and sketches.

There really is little more to say on the matter for now, apart from I cannot wait for fashion week, and they are going to have an amazing show!

This blog is definitely to be continued...!!

P.S. Word to the wise for anyone attending the fashion show in September... pack some flats!

Unsung Heroes: Shane and Siobhan

By Ollie Lee

On one of the first weeks of The Railway Children going up, I remember standing in the foyer during the first act, when Siobhan came running past me and up the ramp leading to platform one, from where I and a few others stood, we could make out a woman screaming, not in pain, but in red rage. To go into explicates of what this woman, and her child were saying, I feel, should be avoided, this blog is for a family show after all, but needless to say, the words coming out her mouth were not nice ones. Minutes into the argument Shane had also gone to the platform to assist, but the presence of any human figure only seemed to be fuel to her fire.

The problem was small and also needless of detail, but the point is, there are difficult customers and there are difficult customers, and while the worst of them are few and far between, I don’t believe I would have had the emotional strength to deal with them, Siobhan and Shane however certainly do.

As self confessed “negative people” nothing but positivity was displayed when we discussed their roles here, “I enjoy seeing something evolve, that’s why I took this job” says Siobhan, “I really like the energy of it all, and solving various problems.”

“We just find the difficult customers funny,” continues Shane. “I like the sense of organisation about the job...people being rude to us is just a necessary evil.”

Our front of house stars had previously been working at The Royal Court, so it’s not surprising that it takes a lot to throw them. “I always knew what I was getting into,” says Siobhan. “I was excited about seeing something grow from nothing and dealing with the challenges ahead.”

From the outside it can look like quite a glam job, Siobhan and Shane (or Shavane) are often seen impeccably dress strutting through the corridors with radio headsets on, but it only takes a screaming woman, or hearing that someone has used a bin as a toilet, to realise it is not all sunshine and roses.

With a legion of new ushers to train and whip into shape, the name of a certain German dictator has been thrown around a few time in relation to the two, though I couldn’t possibly mention by who, I can say however, that while extremely efficient, they are pretty nice people to work with.. and even slightly inspiring. (I don’t want to go to over the top.)

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......