Oral Histories

Most of what I learned, or certainly a big chunk of what I learned, came through Polka. I’ve been lucky enough to, rather than to train, to learn on the job so to speak. I think probably about 1982, '83, maybe, I started there while I was still at school, basically on a Saturday job, and I was there for a variety of roles pretty regularly for about three years. It was a magical place, it really was, everything about the place, just the detail of the décor and the theming and the displays it was, you know, it was remarkable, really. And there was a real feel of going into the building, of entering somewhere special, 'cause literally, it was like going into an Aladdin’s cave. I remember the, er the beautiful exhibitions which were in the main entrance as you came in, and all the glass cases round the edge, the whole sort of main lobby had these beautiful display cases with fantastic puppets and props and costumes on display with the toy shop on there in the middle, yeah, a really special place to go into. I mean that was even before you’d entered the auditorium. I just loved walking into that auditorium, I remember going through the doors at the front and there was this beautiful sort of display cabinet immediately there with a kind of Arabian Nights themed scene in it. Again, it was almost like going into a grotto you know, with respect it was a relatively small space, about 300 feet or something, it was just a real magical feeling every time. You know it’s almost like a wow moment every time you walked in there you know it was, it was really something special. They always seemed to have a, a long summer, a very long summer show spanning the whole sort of summer holidays and a long Christmas production. I mean I remember Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland with the beautiful marionette puppets and I know when they weren’t within the productions they were in the displays always sort of accessible these beautiful things. The one that always kind of stuck in my mind was “Star rider” which was kind of the big Christmas production and you know even now you can sort of think back and still have quite vivid images of aspects of that show and illusions and certain costumes, what they looked like. At the time when I was working there I was quite into magic and heavily involved in magic. So I started off literally taking tickets and showing people to their seats then er that kind of moved on to er, as well as doing that doing, as I said I was quite into magic at the time and myself and Dave Benson Phillips we used to do a warm up for the audience so we used to go around and do close up magic tricks and you know keep the audience, sort of, the guests, build them up like, warm them up before the show started. So the magic there was you know, the next sort of stage on. Then going onto stage management so I remember doing ASM duties there, you know literally sort of props and backstage, DSM duties, so a couple of the visiting shows that came in I was in the wing calling the show and you know, operating the, I mean at the time I remember, it just seems unthinkable now doesn’t it, but it was the old huge reel to reel tape machines, so yeah, into the stage management, then finally there sort of after about, I dunno, 3 years I guess, sort of the last thing I was involved with there which was, at the time again, was the most unbelievable experience was when Richard Gill very kindly said ‘look you’ve been here a while, you’ve pretty much done all there is to do on that side of it’ and he invited me to appear in the Christmas show, in Pinocchio which was the first professional show I appeared in there over the Christmas, I’m going to say ’84. As I said at the time, you know, when I’m sort of 14 or 15 doing front of house and then doing sort of warm up front of house, I was doing a magic act in the auditorium before the show but you kind of knew everyone in every department because everything was in-house there so there was certainly no sort of separation and I think that’s probably quite unique. I wouldn’t imagine there’s that many venues now where, you know, people kind of, what I guess is now termed as a casual position, you know, socializing or really getting to know the people the other side of the stage. It was just that whole feeling that everyone did know each other and get on with each other and socialize with each other and I suppose at the time as well when you’re 15 you look at the actors and you think of them as far more senior, in truth, you know some of them were probably only five years older. I just remember everyone being really supportive of everybody else. It sounds a bit of a cliché to say it was like a family but it kind of was. Obviously there was quite a high turnover of actors but it almost had a slightly sort of rep theatre feel to it because I think once an actor, you know, came into a Polka production, sort of knew that they’d be back you know sort of two or three shows later they’d be re cast as something else and certainly at the time Richard had a really good way of, of sort of making that rotation so you’re bringing familiar faces back but also refreshing with new faces so I thought it was a really good balance. It really was almost kind of like being involved in a rep season and just having the opportunity I think to do a wide variety of roles, not as in sort of onstage theatrical roles but just sort of around the place. You know I mean, I think that’s probably very unique or certainly at the time was very unique to Polka. I’ve been very fortunate as well seeing that one thing has kind of led to another and the role I’m in now is fantastic to be able to work, you know with some of these artists and people that I would never have thought I’d get the chance to work with. I think that my time at Polka I learned a lot about the industry which I then took on else where so I think it’s just everything that was picked up watching, as I said before just watching actors, watching erm the technique and erm, yeah and just taking as much as you can, was a real place that was of a time and sadly I, there probably isn’t anywhere, certainly in the theatre industry, like that at the moment, but just at that time it was just a terrific place. Many people there will have lot’s of memories and a lot of stories to tell and erm, I just think it’s great this refurb is now you know nearly come to fruition which means it’s hopefully going to be there for many years.