Treading the boards this summer 

Hi everyone!

I would love to say it’s been a month full of writing my next book and other exciting things, but the truth is I have spent most of it nursing the cold from hell. It may have been the dreaded C virus, but I didn’t have any tests at home and didn’t want to risk spreading my germs by leaving the house to buy one.

All I do know is that it floored me for two weeks. Two weeks when I was supposed to be rehearsing and, more importantly, learning my lines for my upcoming thespian adventures. As my brain was in a complete fog, I am now desperately playing catch up, which is scary as opening night is tomorrow!

For those of you who don’t follow me on social media (and why don’t you, may I ask?) I volunteered to take part in an adventurous amateur production of Shakespeare’s War of the Roses by the Canterbury Shakespeare Festival (CSF) to mark its tenth anniversary.

CSF is a community theatre that performs Shakespeare and related works for example, we are also offering free performances of Marlowe’s Faustus and unknown works by local dramatists.

I joined them last summer after watching a friend act in Richard II. Then I took on the Merry Wives of Windsor, then over the autumn played Queen Gertrude in Hamlet, and am now playing two roles in three history plays – Warwick and the Duchess of York – in the adapted versions of Henry VI (part 1), Edward IV (Henry VI parts 2 and 3), and Richard III.

In total, we have had twelve weeks to prepare three two-hour plays.

I plan to use this experience as the background to the fourth Mike Atwell book and have already warned some of my fellow actors that they may appear as characters in my next book.

But for now, with the clock ticking to our first show, I need to drill my lines.

See you on the other side!

Love,
Penelope
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