A crazy couple of weeks. Auditions for the next two shows I am doing, Bronte and Rigoletto, left us with incredibly hard decisions to make. ghastly decisions really, But we will be on our way soon.
teaching in Nottingham for one day, and if I did no other good, I made the staff suddenly appreciate the lovely Victorian building they worked in – all decorated with sculpts of famous artists. None of them had ever looked up.
And so to Cuba, and a long journey but we arrived in the dark, so I saw very little of the city, and I was scared for the lean horses pulling traps and carts….I hope drivers are cautious. But five days at the film school in the middle of nowhere, though a very pretty nowhere. A lovely dining area under a thatched roof and with a great view. The students, well no they weren’t students, let’s call them animators, were all lovely and thirsty for anything we could give them. Some of their work was amazing – very visual if a little dry in the animation area. But what enthusiasm they had for all our sessions, and there were a lot of sessions. Many animals following us around all day, and exotic birds. exotic foods too – too healthy food and my body struggled to keep up with the rice and gorgeous fresh food. The five days raced by, and whilst we saw little of Cuba, what memories of lovely people and lively discussions. I’d peaked by the time the journey home came. I was barely awake when I reached home, but I had tickets for Matthew bourne’s swan Lake. This could not be missed, however tired I was. And there I was front row – hours earlier i’d been in Cuba. And the swans were even more dazzling in a tighter, slightly redesigned production. It is still a chuffing, erotic, imaginative, dark masterpiece.
Animator, Director, Writer