Uncanny. Not just the back story and mum's Lady B to my Cecily - I left The Central School of Speech and Drama in 1982 having started a BA in Drama and English ... finding myself deeply unhappy in what seemed then a small private school full of people in capes .... and took a job in a Baker St office for an arm of The Sunday Times at £5,000 a year instead. Do we know each other in real life too?
Ooh wow, Cherry. I’m not surprised you had acting ambitions – your reading voice is stunning. How funny that we were living parallel lives at that time!
Great post Wendy! I miss acting so much. I looked into trying for Rada at 18 but the audition fee (£10!) put me off! I was terrible at singing anyway and it seemed that courses wanted you to have both. Interesting hearing about how you got into journalism too!
Thanks, Faith. Galling that a £10 audition fee was a barrier to you auditioning. I know a few youngsters here in youth drama and seems they are expected to be all-rounders to audition for drama schools, though it does depend which course.
What parts did you play at school (or in drama groups)?
I was Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Clara Soppitt in When we are Married. This was at school and I regret not doing it at university, but it just didn't seem to happen 😟
Oh, yes! This whole thing where you have to be an all-rounder really put me off! I did have dance lessons as a child, but I was never really the right shape for it. I sang in choirs, but my voice is too sweet n churchy for the stage, as a result!
Shame. There must be so much pressure on youngsters to do it all, Helen. I sang in choirs too (still do) and, like yours, my voice is definitely more churchy than show tunes!
I love this, and all the newspaper clippings and diary entries. I didn't give up on my dream, but I did give up on someone else's dream for me (mum, my sister). Music. I played violin and piano from a v young age and auditioned for Chethams School of Music when I was about 11. I almost deliberately stuffed up the audition because I didn't want to leave home. My sister went to Chethams for sixth form and went on to play in the Welsh National Opera orchestra for 30+ years. She retires this summer. I didn't want that, I wanted to be a normal teenager hanging out at Woolies on a Saturday morning with my friends, playing with make up, buying records, having a doughnut from the Austrian coffee shop, not on a bus heading to Saturday morning music school. I understand why mum (and my sister) wanted it for me, it just wasn't my dream.
Thanks, Harriet. To have that pressure at 11 is pretty intense! It showed strength of character to know your own mind and find a way to dodge it. Did you keep up music anyway?
It was intense but there was a lot going on at home so it was potentially a simple escape route for me. I carried on playing violin/viola & piano until I left home for university, then I left music behind but would occasionally seek out a piano in a practice room, or borrow a friend's violin to play on. When I became a parent I encouraged the children to learn an instrument if they showed an interest but was careful not to push too hard. Really, I wanted them to grow up with a love of music, whether that meant playing or listening, and they do.
That’s wise, Harriet. All my children played instruments and had the chance to play in local youth orchestras (which are sadly much thinner on the ground since funding cuts and the pandemic). I was sad that my son’s grade seven euphonium exam was cancelled the day we went into lockdown, and he has not picked it up since. But he taught himself bass guitar instead. I think with any arts you appreciate in childhood, the knowledge sticks with you. It’s never wasted.
What a great almost career. There's some fabulous pictures of you there Wendy. I recently saw a Taste of Honey at the Royal Exchange in Mcr. It's one of my favourites and Jill Halfpenny played Helen.
I joined the local am dram when I was a teenager, but it wasn't really for me. They used to play the National Anthem before a performance and my mother refused to stand up. I remember that more than the plays.
I loved reading this. I was taught to type by my Auntie Pat - who was a secretary at Bulmers (the cider people). Almost certainly the most useful skill I ever learned. Slightly more useful than driving.
Thanks, Mike. What brilliant aunties we had! Yes, I always thought touch typing would be redundant by now, but the QWERTY keyboard lives on and I still use it all the time.
Love this. It wasn't Baz Luhrmann directing you in Much Ado... was it? I hate acting (though was in a dire school play) but fantasize that one day a leading autueur will cast me as the lead in one amazing film, after which I'll never act again (like Bjork in Dancer in the Dark).
Hahaha yes! It was all a bit Baz Luhrmann, that production of Much Ado! Any excuse to turn teenage girls into floozies in the ‘70s. I hope you get your swan song, Steven.
I could really empathise with this! I miss being on stage!
I did GCSE Drama, then Theatre Studies A level, but was scared of applying to drama school as it seemed people had drama tutors who would help them get through the audition. And I felt like somehow I didn't have permission - that if tried, I'd just be told I wasn't allowed. And everyone warns you about how hard it is to get anywhere in acting, so that put me off too.
I was very briefly a member of the Little Theatre in Newport, but not long enough to appear in anything. Then when I moved to Brum, I joined the Little Theatre here (the Crescent). But I found it very hard to balance working full time with rehearsals and performances (three weeks of shows for the panto!), and getting home safely at night (no car!). I did a one year taster course at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama and wanted to do their postgraduate acting course, but couldn't see how to fund it as I was in lots of debt from my degree. I'd signed up to a local extras agency who got people glam gigs like being in the waiting room in "Doctors", but never got any jobs through it. So I had to - painfully - step back from something I really enjoyed! But... The acting experience is great for giving talks, and giving training sessions at work. And making me confident. And as a writer, getting under the skin of characters and the real people in fiction and non-fiction. So it wasn't all bad.
Oh! And it was useful for when I did my one episode of "Murder, Mystery and My Family", including how to walk. Me and these two other people on the programme walked across a churchyard and I did the slightly-angled-walking-across-the-sstage walk to avoid us all walking past the camera in a clump! 🤣🤣🤣 What a pro!
Absolutely! And dare I admit I accidentally brought a pot of stage makeup home with me from the theatre and never returned it because I love the smell?!
Thanks for sharing your own memories here, Helen. It’s a shame that the funding is make or break for so many talented people. But I agree what you learn from an early love of drama never leaves you. It’s incredibly useful in life.
What a fun piece! I love knowing that you were an early thespian. And the transition from one creative occupation to another. How fast is lightning fast typing. It doesn't count unless you tell.
And Wendy, thanks for the sweet mention. I've had fun as a dabbler, for sure, even amid the noise from my inner critic. xo
Thanks, Nan! In the days of old-fashioned clunky manual typewriters my touch typing speed was 80wpm. On my computer keyboard probably faster, but I haven’t checked. Curious now. Might look up an online typing test!
Oh, that is fast! I don't remember my wpm from high school, all I remember is that I loved the typing class. If you do a test, let me know? That might a fun distraction away from the more mundane moments of my day. xo
A very interesting and inspiring piece, Wendy, and timely for me, too, because I found out this week from a friend who has attended a school Easter fair that a photo of me in a production of the musical The Boyfriend from 1987 is up on the Wall of Fame in the (then) boys' school that my all girls' school teamed up with (the boys' school is now co-ed). I had no idea the photo was there! It brought back all sorts of memories.
What a lovely surprise to find out that you're still featured on your old school's Wall of Fame for all the right reasons, Fiona! As ever, I'm grateful to my late mum that if I didn't keep an old photo or news cutting, she always did!
A wonderful memoir, Wendy. I'm not surprised you had a knack for the stage. I was chosen to play Mary Poppins at Primary School, but by High School, the chorus was a much more comfortable fit for the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta we performed. Then I became a music teacher and was the one producing and directing the performances!
Nowadays, I'm fulfilling ambitions by learning and developing my skills in the kitchen and at the sewing machine!
Thanks for sharing your own memories, Ofifoto. Glad to hear your love of music and performance fed into your teaching career. I haven’t had the sewing machine out for ages. I peaked at sewing in about 1973 when I made myself a culotte dress that fitted me for all of two months. I enjoy making curtains – anything with a straight edge!
You've such wonderful material to refer back to Wendy.
I was a guitarist in a band, which was somewhat ruined by the fact that I was talentless and the idea of being on stage would give me panic attacks. There's still a little devil in me that craves it though.
Pick up that guitar, Dean! I think that itch to perform never quite goes away, does it? But I’m with you on the stage fright. Another reason I ducked out early!
Great stuff Wendy. I studied Drama, only at GCSE level. I didn't have any grand plans to become an actress, and was quite a shy teenager, so looking back now, am amazed I had the guts.
Thanks, Sharon. I was a shy teen, too, but drama provided a challenge and an escape – a chance to pretend boldness! It can be a good choice for shy kids!
Lovely stuff Wendy, I do enjoy a sliding doors tale!
My acting career in full:
Townsperson in the Tailor of Gloucester (I was supposed to be the tailor but got measles).
The whole cow in Jack and the Beanstalk (called Pullover, because I was a Jersey cow)
Scrooge in a modern day retelling of A Christmas Carol (part was written specifically for me)
They were all in middle school. I did have an English teacher a few years later who wanted to put me in touch with a casting director, but I bottled it for fear of bullying. I do still wonder about that.
So enjoyable! It also reminded me of Christopher Ecclestone's comments about how the acting profession now excludes so much talent from working class backgrounds. We were so lucky then to receive grants then. I noted too the copy of Honey which felt so sophisticated then!
Absolutely, Deborah. That freedom of a grant, plus the financial cushion of benefits for the few weeks I needed it (I think it was literally just a fortnight), made all the difference.
I think if I'd stayed at college beyond the Easter break, I'd have had to pay a portion of the grant back (and wouldn't have been able to afford to; nor would my parents), so that detail made my mind up for me!
I think Bert is meant to be reading a newspaper in the Pinter play, but our director (or one of us – I can't remember who the suggestion came from) thought it would be funnier if he was reading a women's magazine! Honey was pretty sophisticated!
Uncanny. Not just the back story and mum's Lady B to my Cecily - I left The Central School of Speech and Drama in 1982 having started a BA in Drama and English ... finding myself deeply unhappy in what seemed then a small private school full of people in capes .... and took a job in a Baker St office for an arm of The Sunday Times at £5,000 a year instead. Do we know each other in real life too?
Ooh wow, Cherry. I’m not surprised you had acting ambitions – your reading voice is stunning. How funny that we were living parallel lives at that time!
Thank you - about the reading - and yes!
Great post Wendy! I miss acting so much. I looked into trying for Rada at 18 but the audition fee (£10!) put me off! I was terrible at singing anyway and it seemed that courses wanted you to have both. Interesting hearing about how you got into journalism too!
Thanks, Faith. Galling that a £10 audition fee was a barrier to you auditioning. I know a few youngsters here in youth drama and seems they are expected to be all-rounders to audition for drama schools, though it does depend which course.
What parts did you play at school (or in drama groups)?
I was Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Clara Soppitt in When we are Married. This was at school and I regret not doing it at university, but it just didn't seem to happen 😟
Malvolio is fun! I think I’ve seen the film of When We Are Married. Just looking it up.
What a shame you didn’t get a chance to continue.
Oh, yes! This whole thing where you have to be an all-rounder really put me off! I did have dance lessons as a child, but I was never really the right shape for it. I sang in choirs, but my voice is too sweet n churchy for the stage, as a result!
Shame. There must be so much pressure on youngsters to do it all, Helen. I sang in choirs too (still do) and, like yours, my voice is definitely more churchy than show tunes!
I'm glad I'm not alone! Maybe we could've done Gilbert and Sullivan, but I'm no Ethel Merman! 🤣
I know! Oh I didn’t realise there was a film! Will have to take a look
I love this, and all the newspaper clippings and diary entries. I didn't give up on my dream, but I did give up on someone else's dream for me (mum, my sister). Music. I played violin and piano from a v young age and auditioned for Chethams School of Music when I was about 11. I almost deliberately stuffed up the audition because I didn't want to leave home. My sister went to Chethams for sixth form and went on to play in the Welsh National Opera orchestra for 30+ years. She retires this summer. I didn't want that, I wanted to be a normal teenager hanging out at Woolies on a Saturday morning with my friends, playing with make up, buying records, having a doughnut from the Austrian coffee shop, not on a bus heading to Saturday morning music school. I understand why mum (and my sister) wanted it for me, it just wasn't my dream.
Thanks, Harriet. To have that pressure at 11 is pretty intense! It showed strength of character to know your own mind and find a way to dodge it. Did you keep up music anyway?
It was intense but there was a lot going on at home so it was potentially a simple escape route for me. I carried on playing violin/viola & piano until I left home for university, then I left music behind but would occasionally seek out a piano in a practice room, or borrow a friend's violin to play on. When I became a parent I encouraged the children to learn an instrument if they showed an interest but was careful not to push too hard. Really, I wanted them to grow up with a love of music, whether that meant playing or listening, and they do.
That’s wise, Harriet. All my children played instruments and had the chance to play in local youth orchestras (which are sadly much thinner on the ground since funding cuts and the pandemic). I was sad that my son’s grade seven euphonium exam was cancelled the day we went into lockdown, and he has not picked it up since. But he taught himself bass guitar instead. I think with any arts you appreciate in childhood, the knowledge sticks with you. It’s never wasted.
What a great almost career. There's some fabulous pictures of you there Wendy. I recently saw a Taste of Honey at the Royal Exchange in Mcr. It's one of my favourites and Jill Halfpenny played Helen.
I joined the local am dram when I was a teenager, but it wasn't really for me. They used to play the National Anthem before a performance and my mother refused to stand up. I remember that more than the plays.
Thanks, Margaret. A Taste of Honey is a great play.
I can imagine your mother's National Anthem protest being more memorable than the am dram!
I loved reading this. I was taught to type by my Auntie Pat - who was a secretary at Bulmers (the cider people). Almost certainly the most useful skill I ever learned. Slightly more useful than driving.
Thanks, Mike. What brilliant aunties we had! Yes, I always thought touch typing would be redundant by now, but the QWERTY keyboard lives on and I still use it all the time.
Love this. It wasn't Baz Luhrmann directing you in Much Ado... was it? I hate acting (though was in a dire school play) but fantasize that one day a leading autueur will cast me as the lead in one amazing film, after which I'll never act again (like Bjork in Dancer in the Dark).
Hahaha yes! It was all a bit Baz Luhrmann, that production of Much Ado! Any excuse to turn teenage girls into floozies in the ‘70s. I hope you get your swan song, Steven.
I could really empathise with this! I miss being on stage!
I did GCSE Drama, then Theatre Studies A level, but was scared of applying to drama school as it seemed people had drama tutors who would help them get through the audition. And I felt like somehow I didn't have permission - that if tried, I'd just be told I wasn't allowed. And everyone warns you about how hard it is to get anywhere in acting, so that put me off too.
I was very briefly a member of the Little Theatre in Newport, but not long enough to appear in anything. Then when I moved to Brum, I joined the Little Theatre here (the Crescent). But I found it very hard to balance working full time with rehearsals and performances (three weeks of shows for the panto!), and getting home safely at night (no car!). I did a one year taster course at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama and wanted to do their postgraduate acting course, but couldn't see how to fund it as I was in lots of debt from my degree. I'd signed up to a local extras agency who got people glam gigs like being in the waiting room in "Doctors", but never got any jobs through it. So I had to - painfully - step back from something I really enjoyed! But... The acting experience is great for giving talks, and giving training sessions at work. And making me confident. And as a writer, getting under the skin of characters and the real people in fiction and non-fiction. So it wasn't all bad.
Oh! And it was useful for when I did my one episode of "Murder, Mystery and My Family", including how to walk. Me and these two other people on the programme walked across a churchyard and I did the slightly-angled-walking-across-the-sstage walk to avoid us all walking past the camera in a clump! 🤣🤣🤣 What a pro!
It all comes in handy. You never forget the skills!
Absolutely! And dare I admit I accidentally brought a pot of stage makeup home with me from the theatre and never returned it because I love the smell?!
Theatrical equivalent of paperclips!
Thanks for sharing your own memories here, Helen. It’s a shame that the funding is make or break for so many talented people. But I agree what you learn from an early love of drama never leaves you. It’s incredibly useful in life.
What a fun piece! I love knowing that you were an early thespian. And the transition from one creative occupation to another. How fast is lightning fast typing. It doesn't count unless you tell.
And Wendy, thanks for the sweet mention. I've had fun as a dabbler, for sure, even amid the noise from my inner critic. xo
Thanks, Nan! In the days of old-fashioned clunky manual typewriters my touch typing speed was 80wpm. On my computer keyboard probably faster, but I haven’t checked. Curious now. Might look up an online typing test!
Oh, that is fast! I don't remember my wpm from high school, all I remember is that I loved the typing class. If you do a test, let me know? That might a fun distraction away from the more mundane moments of my day. xo
Aha! 78wpm on Typingtest.com ! (Taking the two minute benchmark test.)
Loved this Wendy and your photos are amazing! x
Thanks, Fi. Bless my mum for keeping the cuttings. (My number one fan!)
Did you act (alongside art, music and writing?!).
A tiny foray into drama towards the end of school (improv!) but was not a natural!
Thanks for the shout out!
A very interesting and inspiring piece, Wendy, and timely for me, too, because I found out this week from a friend who has attended a school Easter fair that a photo of me in a production of the musical The Boyfriend from 1987 is up on the Wall of Fame in the (then) boys' school that my all girls' school teamed up with (the boys' school is now co-ed). I had no idea the photo was there! It brought back all sorts of memories.
What a lovely surprise to find out that you're still featured on your old school's Wall of Fame for all the right reasons, Fiona! As ever, I'm grateful to my late mum that if I didn't keep an old photo or news cutting, she always did!
A wonderful memoir, Wendy. I'm not surprised you had a knack for the stage. I was chosen to play Mary Poppins at Primary School, but by High School, the chorus was a much more comfortable fit for the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta we performed. Then I became a music teacher and was the one producing and directing the performances!
Nowadays, I'm fulfilling ambitions by learning and developing my skills in the kitchen and at the sewing machine!
Thanks for sharing your own memories, Ofifoto. Glad to hear your love of music and performance fed into your teaching career. I haven’t had the sewing machine out for ages. I peaked at sewing in about 1973 when I made myself a culotte dress that fitted me for all of two months. I enjoy making curtains – anything with a straight edge!
You've such wonderful material to refer back to Wendy.
I was a guitarist in a band, which was somewhat ruined by the fact that I was talentless and the idea of being on stage would give me panic attacks. There's still a little devil in me that craves it though.
Pick up that guitar, Dean! I think that itch to perform never quite goes away, does it? But I’m with you on the stage fright. Another reason I ducked out early!
I think if I had some talent it would be easier. Also, when I play in front of one person I tighten up and it all goes wrong.
Great stuff Wendy. I studied Drama, only at GCSE level. I didn't have any grand plans to become an actress, and was quite a shy teenager, so looking back now, am amazed I had the guts.
Thanks, Sharon. I was a shy teen, too, but drama provided a challenge and an escape – a chance to pretend boldness! It can be a good choice for shy kids!
Lovely stuff Wendy, I do enjoy a sliding doors tale!
My acting career in full:
Townsperson in the Tailor of Gloucester (I was supposed to be the tailor but got measles).
The whole cow in Jack and the Beanstalk (called Pullover, because I was a Jersey cow)
Scrooge in a modern day retelling of A Christmas Carol (part was written specifically for me)
They were all in middle school. I did have an English teacher a few years later who wanted to put me in touch with a casting director, but I bottled it for fear of bullying. I do still wonder about that.
The whole cow called Pullover! Love it, Lewis!
It's such a shame when fear of bullying puts people off drama (or dance or music, or whatever else it might be).
So enjoyable! It also reminded me of Christopher Ecclestone's comments about how the acting profession now excludes so much talent from working class backgrounds. We were so lucky then to receive grants then. I noted too the copy of Honey which felt so sophisticated then!
Absolutely, Deborah. That freedom of a grant, plus the financial cushion of benefits for the few weeks I needed it (I think it was literally just a fortnight), made all the difference.
I think if I'd stayed at college beyond the Easter break, I'd have had to pay a portion of the grant back (and wouldn't have been able to afford to; nor would my parents), so that detail made my mind up for me!
I think Bert is meant to be reading a newspaper in the Pinter play, but our director (or one of us – I can't remember who the suggestion came from) thought it would be funnier if he was reading a women's magazine! Honey was pretty sophisticated!
Bert's choice of reading did make me smile and must have been far more enlightening than a newspaper!
Ha, yes! And I meant to say thank you for restacking, Deborah.
You are very welcome!