Imaginary friends

I think that it was during the day on Thursday that I received a friend request on Facebook from a lady named Doris Miller. By the time that I saw the request she already had four mutual friends (if I remember correctly) and I will admit that I had to stop and think for a few moments whether I knew anyone called Doris Miller (I quite literally didn't recall the name). Of course as soon as the penny dropped, I clicked on the add button, despite knowing that I would never meet the lady in person.
What a stroke of brilliance this proved to be for the whole Copa family from the amazing Richard Poole. It proved to be a topic of discussion from the moment that people arrived in the evening, with everyone trying to work out who Doris really was and having a wonderful time discussing who it may really be. Richard was honest throughout and found some great ways of avoiding either lying or telling the whole truth!
For those that are still not quite with the plot, Doris Miller is referred to repeatedly throughout the script in Copa. She is the missing showgirl that Lola is recruited to replace early on and we later discover that she disappeared from the Copa not long after an earlier visit by the gorgeously masterful Rico. With support from the passionately sexy Conchita, Rico does explain that she had an unfortunate accident after trying to clean his revolver: one can only assume that she had insufficient experience and it shot off in her face.
It proved to be a lovely distraction and a real community builder for us all in talking about Doris, who became a mysterious company member and a real topic of conversation.
It was an added bonus for us all therefore when we found a review from Doris posted to the wall of the men's dressing room (and general Rah, Rah, there's a performance coming up room - thanks for those Jen and Amy!). Richard has denied having written this particular review and given his evasive honesty at the start, I rather think he's telling the truth there. So whoever was Doris for this, thank you. I've posted it here on the blog as one of our web pages, so that you can all read a review that seems to have been written by someone who actually attended the show, took the time to really consider the parts that people had played and the effort that had been put into them, and generally recognised the whole team who came together.
For now I would just like to say a huge congratulations to Richard for coming up with the idea to create Doris Miller and for following that through with action. On stage and off stage you're a star!
And to everyone else who friended Doris - what are you like! Now get on with adding Richard instead.
See you all soon,
Rico
(PS the asterisked comment on the Doris Miller about meanings of incredible is all thanks to the villainous aspect of Rico - let me know if you want it removed!)

The Copa has closed

At the end of an incredible week, with high energy, much fun and good audiences, it's a real shame that we have had to close the doors on our production of Copacabana.
One of the lessons that we learned during the week was how hard it can be to write a good review of the performance. With so many people playing a role in making it look and sound fantastic, I guess that the only honest comment that I can make is that we were a fantastic team, with everyone doing their bit to bring it all together so well.
Thank you to everyone.
We had a very brief review in the Derby Evening Telegraph, which you can find online if you hunt for it. We also had a smashing review from the elusive Doris Miller, which I hope to be able to post on here soon for you all.
For now, it seems that most of the cast and crew have hit that post show blue. We're back at work, the sun has gone in and there is no hope of bright lights, make-up, good music and most of all that amazing supportive community feeling that the show brought.
In another couple of weeks we will be working together again as we start to prepare our Autumn concert. In the meantime, remember that although the clouds are in the way just now, the sun is still shining brightly.
See you soon!

On facial hair

As someone who’s other half firmly believes that a smooth skin is the only one that deserves getting a goodnight kiss, there have been more challenges than I had expected in growing the villainous Rico moustache!
Challenge number one is in trying to grow sufficient length to make it visible from the front row, never mind the back row (we have a full house on opening night, so I need to make sure that they have something to see!). I hadn’t realised that when growing a moustache your facial hair would hit its own version of a wall and appear to do nothing after the first couple of days. Thankfully seven days in it now seems to have started again and I think that there’s some hope that it will be a good show on Tuesday night.
Challenge number two, as is so often the case now, is the impact of ageing. I am so saddened at the quantity of white hair that has decided to come poking its way through my upper lip. You would think that when I’ve never grown a moustache before it would have the decency to take its chance and appear with the sort of colour that the rest of my hair used to have! At least this particular challenge will be easily surmounted with the application of copious amounts of mascara.
Thirdly, and most surprisingly for me I think, is just how difficult it is to consistently shave a moustache into the desired style - especially bearing in mind challenge number one and realising how long it will take to rectify any mistakes. Having spent a bit of time on Google images looking at different approaches to growing a pencil moustache (apparently the quickest sort to grow) I decided to go for something like a cross between Clark Gable and Tony out of the original series of 24. So that requires shaving straight down from my nose - whilst keeping both sides even; harder than it looks.
Sam Silver has also grown an impressive pencil moustache, whereas Carlos has shaved his beard off.
I wonder whether any of our ladies have had to go to such troubles with shaving etc to look the part for the show?

Shoulders just a little stiff

As some of you may be aware, I am playing the part of Rico in Copacabana with Belper Musical Theatre in just under two weeks time now (how scary is that thought). Anyway, one of the challenges that our director, Jen Lewis, has set for me personally is to stop swinging my arms when I walk. Jen maintains that swinging arms is a sign of weakness and that Rico is a strong, determined character who would not swing his arms when he walks. So now, as well as trying to suck in my stomach and keep my shoulders back when being Rico, I have to relearn how to walk without swinging my arms.
I have a 20 minute walk from the train station to the university each day, which has allowed me plenty of opportunity to practice the gut sucking and shoulder back approach. This morning offered me the first chance to also try the walk without arm swinging. Now what I've discovered here is that in order to be able to do this, I have to put my head into Rico mode, which means stopping smiling and adopting a sort of scowl. In general this helped me to fit in with the early morning feelings of most of the folk in Manchester it seemed. However, when I tried it again at lunchtime, walking around the corridors here, I found a few of my colleagues appeared to be a little taken aback at my grumpy expression.
I do hope that is because it was such a change from my usual sunny demeanour, rather than that they were trying to work out what was wrong with my arms.