On the glamorous side: crypts, toilet blocks, vans and the Tower of London

Jennie Jones on the glamorous side of being an actor: rehearsing in crypts, vans, toilet blocks and the Tower of London.

Rehearsing THE BIRDWATCHER with British actors (left to right) Helen Dorward, Christopher Reeks - and me.

As I've said many times before, I wanted to be an actor from an early age, and I did it! Moving from acting to writing seemed like the obvious step. Talking to authors of other genres within romance or general fiction reminded me so much of the personas I took on and the costumes I donned while working as a theatre actor, whether the play or the musical was set in modern-day or in the past. 
Usually, the characters in the books we write, and the books you read, are not what they seem. Outwardly, they may portray bravery and showmanship while hiding the fact that they're penniless, and are certainly not as brave as they seem, or as glamorous as they hope they appear to be. Some characters need that showmanship in order to get through. It's not dissimilar to rehearsing - in some ways. 
The end result is glamorous, but the six week period leading to Curtain Up? Usually nowhere near glamorous! Not even close. 
In the photo above (courtesy of a local newspaper) we were rehearsing in a draughty empty building with one toilet and luckily, electricity and a tap that had running water which meant a kettle which meant - coffee. Bring your own milk and Danish pastries.

The crypt

While at drama school in London (Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, sadly no longer with us) I had the pleasure of taking lessons and rehearsing in one of the local South Kensington church crypts. It was…cold. Enough said. Weird place to rehearse, but we didn’t think anything of it.

The toilet block

I rehearsed in any number of primary schools in London while doing children’s theatre (it was almost a right of passage back then. Once you left drama school, most actors ended up doing children’s theatre before those big, juicy, low-paying repertory theatre jobs came in). I did three plays for children’s theatre. In this particular play, I played The Girl (which speaks volumes but there were only three actors, so we each had leading roles, or at least, that’s the way we all remember it).

The Van

If the toilet blocks weren’t available to us on those London rounds of children's theatre i.e. as in morning playtime or lunch break, we rehearsed in the van. (Okay, the van looked a lot better than this one, but this one gives a better impression of the situation.)

But the real glamour came from...the Tower of London

I had the fabulous opportunity   of performing in the Tower of London with a short a play written by a much missed mentor, friend and teacher I met at drama school about the attempt to steal the crown jewels. The play was called Colonel Blood and the stealing of the crown jewels (as to be expected).  I played Mary, and for the life of me, I can’t remember what part Mary played in the situation. I’m sure I wasn’t Colonel Blood’s wife, Mary. I do remember being ‘an innocent’ Mary. No photos, unfortunately. Presume I might have been playing a token young heroine… 

The most wonderful (and hugely romantic) part of being involved in this play was that we rehearsed on a Sunday when the Tower wasn’t open to the public. It was the actors, the director, the ravens, and the beefeaters and their families. We actors were shown around the creepy parts of the tower, and what made it so fabulous was that we were dressed in costumes from Thomas Blood’s 17th Century. Talk about getting a taste…

Jennie x

Photo credit: author's own and pixabay.com