Sunday, April 26, 2009

Illustration Friday - Theatre




In loving memory of Leroy the cat!
From the age of 11, I was brought up in a single parent family with two sisters, a brother and a young male cousin. My mother frowned on television and couldn’t afford to buy one anyway, so us kids mostly created our own entertainment. One of our favourite games was playing ‘Theatre’. We’d dress up in old clothes, rig up some curtains (usually a blanket
stretched across a doorway) and we’d play act for hours, making it up as we went along. One day we realised we had a ready made stage if we used the wide windowsill in the bedroom with its heavy drapes. I remember that day like it was yesterday. My young brother, playing the spurned boyfriend, announced to the world (well the four of us really), that he was ‘leaving this place forever’ and with a dramatic flourish of his right arm, accidentally opened the out swinging, casement window with his other hand and promptly disappeared backwards through the opening. He fell four feet but lucky for him his fall was into a freshly dug flower bed. The rest of us, not realising how serious the situation could have been, were left rolling around in fits of laughter, which only increased when Gerry reappeared through the doorway covered in mud and bits of vegetation and a very cranky look on his face. Magic!

It wasn’t until I was in my mid 30’s that I had my first experience of viewing live theatre and I LOVED it. I knew I would!

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