Have you ever had that slightly awkward moment when you bump into someone you know but haven’t seen in years? In fact, so many years they don’t believe it’s you? This happened to me about 80 times over when we had a show in Beverley, my old home town from some years ago.
We performed iWitness at St Mary’s Beverley as part of our stay in Brough (near Hull) and one thing that made this performance particularly special was the fact my Dad got along to see the show. He loved it, though suggested Mike, when playing him in my personal story, needed to grow a bigger beard to really get into character.
We had a brilliantly diverse week in and around Brough visiting two prisons, two youth groups, two churches, a school and doing two wonderful shows. It was a rather bizarre sensation being back in an area I had known so well, everything was the same but yet so different. Plus this time I was there working, not visiting, and it was a little disorienting. Still, it was really lovely to see old friends again. (I was very glad to find time in our crazy schedule for this). I even bumped into a friend unexpected while we were performing in a prison – he is a tutor there, but totally unexpected all the same).
With all this going on during the week, the concept of home really hit me. Beverley was a place I had once called home, but no longer have such strong attachments to. It all go me thinking ‘What is home?’ I came to the conclusion that while it is different for everyone, for me, at the moment, it’s where I hang my hat. This led me to think about where my hat is hung – and how many amazing people have welcomed us Shoddies into their own homes. People willing to host a crazy actor for week or two at a time. Hosts which enable us to take shows and workshops into places where theatre can’t always get. How blessed we are to have people that will share that with us. Thank you lovely hosts!
Stefi
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