After Show Party 1 & 2

"DAD, LOOK OUT FOR THE BEAVER!!"
(Cass Harris)

After show parties are, by their very nature, loud, eventful and debauched affairs. This stems from the fact that a small group of people over about three months have spent an increasing amount of time together in increasingly pressurised conditions, in which they are encouraged or, in a lot of cases, expected to make a complete idiot of themsleves on a regular basis whilst completely sober. This makes for an interesting time when alcohol is thrown into the mix, particularly bearing in mind the outgoing or attention seeking nature of those who want to be on the stage, and how few inhibitions are left over after intensive rehearsals.

There is always a considerable amount of gossip after an after show party. And just not of the usual kind... there will always be the "guess who snogged/sucked/shagged who" stuff, but there is also always something a bit beyond. There's the person who slept in a skip with a tramp or the person who woke up in a sheep field with his trousers around his ankles (both of these thengs actually have happened... but not to me. Sorry to disappoint.).

The aftershow party on Saturday was no different. The build up to it was pretty eventful in itself; the make-up lady and costume girl getting it on the night before wasn't exactly common knowledge but for those who did it made for an interesting image. Another thing that wasn't exactly common knowledge was the fact that my tiredness on the Friday wasn't ONLY down to a long lost best friend coming up and staying over and the gossiping carrying on until 5:30am, but also had a very cute camera man (who had been filming the show) in the mix as well.

Those who were in the know about the cute camera man and the cast clown (also known to the readers of this blog as "Newbie"), had been piling the pressure on saying that all eyes would be on us at this party. As a small cliff hanger I must decree that I have never been so upstaged in my life...

To be continued...

UPDATE: I have a very specific type of man that I find highly attractive. Ask any one who knows me even a little bit and they will probably be able to describe that type without too much trouble. I don't restrict myself to only going out with men of this type but I do always swoon over them. That type has brown eyes (a la Johnny Depp), longish curly dark hair (a la Alex Zane or Guy Secretan), a bit of stubble or beardyness (nothing too clean cut or boyband) and a bit of an indie style. In a perfect world this type would be fairly creative: a bit artistic or musical in some way. He also has to be very funny, or at least as funny as me (so not that funny then...) and have enough confidence to tell me to shut up (otherwise I won't).

So the party then. All started fairly tamely, breaking down the set and clearing away costumes and props, a glass of wine in hand. Then the drinking started in earnest. Then it got messy.

The lighting director is forty three and until that point I had assumed he was gay. The costume girl is twenty and gorgeous with a hearty boob job and tan. The moment I saw them in the middle of the stage, her legs wrapped around his waist and both of them gyrating and snogging furiously I realised that the party had reached the point of no return. In comparison the first kiss between myself and the dark curly haired, dark eyed stubbly camera-man was fairly low key... someone said a comparison between Casablanca and Shortbus fitted quite well to describe the difference between our smooch and their gymnastics.

We left the party at around 5:30am while it was still in full swing; the two Namibian guys who had been dragged in off the street were helping it swing even further, as was the serious pole dancing being practised on the scaffolding poles at the back of the stage by several cast members, one of whom was filming all of these shenanigans. I was glad to escape at that point. On my way out I saw an item of clothing that looked suspiciously like the costume girl's top being thrown over some of the seats in the auditorium.

Once home I went to bed, and spent the next day and night with the very funny camera-man, who told me all about the show he was musical director for, the musical he will be performing in next month and the new thing he and the director of my last show are devising for christmas.

On Monday he emailed me and asked if he could see me again an hour after he had left me.

Ka-ching!