Hollow bloodletting

Blood is an essential ingredient in my latest stage production The Hollow. It's an Agatha Christie whodunnit and one of the characters is shot. So, yes, without blood it would not work. I won't give away who dies in a pool of their own blood. Let's just say this: The actor who plays the victim could not get the plastic pouch with the blood to burst at the right moment during the final rehearsal. The first time it worked was during the preview night. Perhaps a little too much blood was used. It was all over the stage and the actor's clothes, right down to the shoes. During the opening night performance less blood was in the pouch. But it seemed to really squirt everywhere. Resullt? The stage was sticky for the remainder of the play. Even during the curtain call someone's shoe stuck to the blood on the floor! Warning: use blood sparingly. Spill it sparingly too...

Can we build it?

Get involved in amateur theatre and it's not all glitz and glamour. Take it from me. That's the reason I got involved, of course! But the past two weekends I have been getting my hards dirty helping to build the set at Hamilton Town Hall for The Hollow. And what was the hardest thing, do you think? No, not the skirting boards, which I think I measured, cut and installed quite nicely (thanks for the help, Mike!). Not hanging the curtains. Or even telling everyone else what I thought of their work (thumbs up to Tash!). Instead it was the job that should have taken five minutes and not raised a sweat. Yep, hanging those blasted decorative plates. Every time we tried to drive those little nails into the walls, the board would wobble and we were getting nowhere. Then we opted for a drill, but the material stretched on the wall (to look like wallpaper) kept getting knotted up in the thread of the screw. We ended up getting those pesky plates up, but our sweat and swearing was not all glitz and glamour. So when you come and see the show (every Friday and Saturday in November at Racecourse Rd, Hamilton) look at the plates and be impressed. I got my hands dirty for them...

Changing horses mid-stream

It is down to a matter of days until we take to the stage at Hamilton Town Hall for the Agatha Christie whodunnit The Hollow. I was originally to play prim and proper butlet Gudgeon, but have since swapped to a more major role as house guest and ladiesman Dr John Cristow. Am I the murderer, do I get killed or am I one of the innocent bystanders? Find out at one of our 12 performances. We are on stage every Friday and Saturday night in November and we also have three weekend matinees.