Applause for the girl (Dreaming of Kate blog)

On a morning when all of Europe is in shock about the attacks is Paris, it seems a bit strange to write a blog about some show in a theatre in a town somewhere in England. But as I refuse to surrender to hate or fear, I will continue to write this anyway.

To be fair, the first part of the day was not interesting at all. We left in time, traffic wasn’t too bad and the weather and the scenery were gorgeous. The downside was the lack of a proper motorway all the way to Peterborough.

We arrived at the Key Theatre and instantly spotted a massive poster at the front, which of course made us very happy. The first local crew member I met instantly said he was looking forward to the show. The second local crew member took the time to show me to the dressing rooms and took the time to have a chat about the theatre and their regular crowds. We felt welcome.

The audience in the Key Theatre is situated almost in a semi-circle around the front part of the stage, which gives a very intimate feel. The downside is that there was no white line at the edge of the stage (although I had asked for one), which made the spinning around in Wow almost impossible. Well, not the spinning around, but rather the stopping of the spinning with my face to the audience.

After recovering from the spinning, I had time to actually look at the audience. I saw some regular faces. I noticed one of our most avid fans wearing what must be the only Dreaming of Kate T-shirt in the world. After the show he told me someone wanted to buy it off him. And I noticed the sweetest young girl, possibly the youngest we have had in our audience so far (and we’ve had a fair few by now; this seems to be a show that girls aged 5-8 really enjoy). I usually give my yo-yo to someone on the front row, but I HAD to give it to her (I had been looking if she was still awake halfway through the second set; and she was). I want to thank everyone in the audience for the applause for her, it made the moment extra special and I will definitely remember that!

My quick changes were quite hilarious. Not that they were any different than during any other show, but this time one of the local crew members was sitting right next to my quick change area. While I was throwing clothes around and acting like a whirlwind (there’s no way to do 10 second costume changes and be tidy), he was sitting, leaning forward on the desk and sending messages from his phone as if nothing was happening.

Despite a couple of issues (sorry for screwing up the beginning of Lily, but on the other hand: you did see me fall on my bum while singing “I gotta land with my feet firm on the ground” in Rubberband Girl), we had a lovely evening.

On a show day, we don’t see much of the outside world; we usually don’t even have time to read the news or look at Facebook. Bass player Bobby was the first one to read something about the Paris attacks, in the van on our way back. I don’t want to go into politics on social media, so I don’t want to start a discussion by mentioning the events. My heart is with all who suffer. In Paris and all around the world.

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