waiting in the dressing room

Not really!

So, the ridiculous problem of getting online. Why is it so difficult? Do I really have to get a dongle? I don't object to the price, it's the name I can't stand. It embarrasses me. Doesn't it you?
The Grand Theatre, Leeds does not have wifi. Well, of course not. Why would they want to be able to connect mobiles and laptops to the internet from anywhere in the theatre? Shall I bother answering that question?
If this goes on, with every theatre in the UK feeling that not only is it OK to have seating that was put in in the 19th century but it's also OK to completely ignore the march of technology then I am going to have to withstand the embarrassment and invest in a dongle (you can surely feel me shudder at the use of the word?).

I sit back stage on a lovely sunny afternoon listening to my fellow thespians slogging their guts out on stage and I have no other choice but to write my blog and post it later when I get back to civilization.

We all had a very interesting chat earlier about the playing of comedy on stage. The quandary is do you pick up the cues and keep the pace of the play up, a crucial thing in the playing of farce and comedy, or do you wait and see if there is a laugh that might come if you don't stamp on it by plowing on?
I think it should always be possible to leave a tiny breath to see if the audience is going to laugh. You don't want to talk over one. It will put the audience off and if you do it too often then they will actually stop laughing. But, at the same time, you can't leave great big hiatus everywhere. Again you will lose the audience. It's a subtle thing. The secret is, I believe, that you get a move on between laughs. This buys you the time to allow the tiny intakes of breath that are enough of a gap after what you believe to be funny lines to judge whether there will be a laugh or not. Thus endeth the lecture. I am available for a lecture tour in the summer.
Interval. Time for a shave and a sh.... shy look at my lines.
Mike x