And so the first week of rehearsals draw to a close, and jolly fun it was!

I won't lie. This is pant wetting fear I have right here. Oh yes. There's so much pressure on us to pull this off it's almost unreal. We need to do this, and do this well so...

1 - The last seven months weren't a total waste of time and energy and... seven months.
2 - The Arts Council recognise how truly awesome we are, and fund us.
3 - Potential sponsors see we're more than an "idea".
4 - We can make some darn pesky cash money.
5 - We can live the dream, baby.

Shakers has overtaken Bouncers in terms of the amount of work done, probably because Bouncers seems to gain a choreographed sequence every hour, including the now legendary "Gay Cowboy Dance" and our scarily convincing lady-dancing! (Especially mine I was told - not sure if I should be proud or worried.)

The whole "Ooooh you're a theatre company you must have money falling out of your arse" way of thinking continues. Venues are charging a fair old bit of the moolah, one so much we had to cancel. 60 seats, and they wanted £100 off us! A venue we're playing with 170 seat is only charging us £14 more than that! MENTAL!

We're trying to convince the copyright owners of Bouncers and Shakers to allow us to pay the copyright fees after we finish the tour. This isn't because we're cheap, well, not JUST because we're cheap, but mainly because it would mean a lot less work for us and them. But it seems we're going to have to apply and send a cheque off for every show we do. We don't mind, but it's going to make a lot more work for somebody down in London. I just thought it would be more practical for us all, and easier for them, but apparently "they don't ever do things like that".

Which is odd, really. Three weeks ago I was told it shouldn't be a problem, and that they do it all the time. Pretty severe change of policy there methinks!

Myself and Alistair have bounced a lot of ideas for Dracula off each other in the 70 mile trip to Scarborough each day. Ideas involving red silks, wigs, trapeze swings and castings. Things are also looking up on the Castle Museum frontas well - I'm just waiting for a phone call or email to set up a face to face meeting!

So... I'm sunburnt, still full of last nights BBQ, I get a slight lie in tomorrow (bed past 8am? Get in!) before zoomingback to Scarborough to construct the bar room set for Shakers!

But now... I'm off to play GTA : San Andreas until I can't keep my eyes open.