In a little over 6 hours Upstart will be opening its second-ever production. The strangest thing for me is that I won't be acting in it.

Due to my commitments with Cry Havoc (which has since become one of the shows I'm most proud of being involved with) I stood aside from performance duties in 'Othello' and confined myself to promotion/FOH duties. And now here I am in unfamiliar territory watching the final dress rehearsals from the audience POV. It's definitely a different world on the other side of the stage.

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Funny how inspiration can pounce upon one at odd times.

I've been sitting here all evening, enjoying the company of my wife over a good meal, whilst taking in some Miss Marple, and I suddenly have the urge to join a fencing club, write a play, go for a walk (as the first step in yet another scheme to lose weight), and suggest what I'm about to suggest... A poetry corner!

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What a difference a few weeks makes.

No... scratch that.

The only difference a few weeks makes is that we're no longer a few weeks out from the production. We are now a few DAYS out from the production, and things are travelling along pretty much as they should.

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Four weeks out, and the first of our bookings are trickling in. A heartening feeling, but it brings some interesting questions to mind...

Last night I was talking to some punters who came to the show (see under Quizmeister's Trivia in the What's On page), who asked me if I did anything other than host a quiz. I told them that I do a bit of theatre around Perth and mentioned 'Shrew'. They began talking quite excitedly about it, because they'd heard that it was on and were planning on seeing it. It was a wonderful feeling, and it left me considering just how powerful the word-of-mouth phenomenon is.

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Woo! The site administrators have finally allowed me the power of blogging. Ahahahahah! THE FOOLS!!

In point of fact I have never blogged before and I feel, more than anything, a wee bit intimidated. Are my personal thoughts worthy of noting, I find myself wondering? For some strange reason I can confidently write a review full of (sometimes brutal) honesty about a show I've just seen, yet the thought of sharing something of MYSELF is almost petrifying. Could this contradiction be the same as the actor's dilemma? The only reason that I can set foot on stage at all is because I am no longer, at the point of stepping out, ME. I have to take on the persona of another in order to brave public scrutiny... perhaps the difference between writing and blogging is much the same.

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