Friday, September 27, 2019
So.
There is an important little sentence that sometimes you just have to say out loud. And some people say it a lot, and some people hardly at all. It can be a tough thing to vocalize, an…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 02:57AMFriday, August 24, 2018
‘So when are you due?’ asked the young actor stood before me, politely. He was handsome and sweet and barely out of drama school. It was probably one of his first auditions, maybe his fi…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 03:14AMFriday, December 22, 2017
Several years ago I was working as Deputy Stage Manager in a theatre where I cued the performance from a position within the auditorium. I was basically sat within the audience, which gave m…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 07:55PMWednesday, October 26, 2016
There has been so much talk recently about the departure of Emma Rice from The Globe, and I simply had to wade in and express my thoughts via the internet. I mean, I’m a theatrical blogger…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 07:22AMFriday, August 14, 2015
It is two o’clock in the morning.And I am wide awake.I’m lying on an alarmingly soft mattress underneath a wafer thin duvet, staring at the cracks in the ceiling and trying to place the …
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 04:36AMSunday, July 26, 2015
Touring is hard.One of the hardest things you’ll ever do.And they don’t tell you that in your interviews or auditions.On the first day of rehearsals for a tour, I can never help but star…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 04:28PMThursday, July 23, 2015
I am boring.Seriously.Really, truly, fucking boring.Although I had been having suspicions about this prominent characteristic of mine for quite some time, it was only about a year and a half…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 03:18AMMonday, September 22, 2014
I'm not scared of ghosts.Not in the slightest.I don't think I really believe in them and when I lie alone in my bed in the darkest and stormiest nights, it is my tax bill and the Tories whic…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 02:12PMFriday, July 25, 2014
I love ‘Back To The Future.’I do. We had it recorded off the telly onto a VHS (complete with 80’s adverts) and I just watched it all the time. All the time. I don’t thi…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 02:29PMSaturday, July 19, 2014
'Close your eyes, Jessica. Be a good girl and close your eyes. Just count to ten and close your eyes.'I closed my eyes obediently. I was very obedient in the hospital. More obedient than I e…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 04:45PMThursday, June 26, 2014
'Right here is where you start paying. In sweat.'I love the movie 'Fame'. I really do. However, I sometimes wish they showed more of the stage management department. You know, some harassed …
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 05:33AMThursday, April 17, 2014
I published my last blog post, 'That's Not My Job', on Thursday morning not long after I had woken up. I guess it was around 8 o'clock in the morning. I had submitted the brief column to 'Th…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 04:42AMThursday, April 10, 2014
‘That’s not my job.’Yep, I’ve said it. Or mumbled it.Or maybe just thought it. There has been many a tech period when I have sighed, exasperated, at the fact that I am being asked to…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 03:20AMThursday, July 11, 2013
So now I’m in the second week of rehearsals for my next play. During Week One, the cast, director and DSM have mostly been sat around the table ripping the play to shreds. And I’m not sp…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 07:18PMFriday, July 5, 2013
I’m starting rehearsals for my new play and I am actually pretty excited about it. Even though it means that I will have to get up at the ungodly hour of 7am again, it does mean that for f…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 11:12AMFriday, June 28, 2013
Do you ever see people crying on the tube?I do. Lots.And I always try and catch their eye and offer some kind of encouraging smile. Because I know how it feels.I mean, we’ve all done…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 11:59AMWednesday, June 5, 2013
One night I sat up late in a B and B in Inverness. The day before, Friday, I had posted a status on Facebook joking about how there was only an hour left until you could ap…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 08:42AMSunday, June 2, 2013
Dear Nick Starr (Any relation to Ringo?)My name is Jess Gow and I would like to apply to be Nicholas Hytner’s successor as Artistic Director at the National Theatre. I believe …
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 05:50AMMonday, May 20, 2013
Guys!!! Please click here and nominate my Blog for Best Lifetyle in the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2013. Would mean the world!A few days ago I stood, completely naked, in a stranger’s bathro…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 08:21AMTuesday, January 15, 2013
I have arrived in my first digs. Me, my suitcase and my Lego shaped luggage tag (sock present) boarded the first train of many and I am now tapping this out from a lovely double bed in a lar…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 09:32PMMonday, January 7, 2013
Touring can be hard. You are away from your friends, your family and you end up spending pretty much all of your time with your colleagues. I live in London and when I do a show here I do so…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 04:59AMThursday, December 27, 2012
It’s almost the end of the year. I have just enjoyed a particularly fabulous Christmas and rather hope that my readers and friends did too. If you are an actual acquaintance of mine I have…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 01:57PMWednesday, December 12, 2012
What have I learnt?This is a question I try and ask myself towards the end of every production. Being a stage manager can be an odd thing and the skill set required varies from job to job. D…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 09:24AMSaturday, September 1, 2012
Sometimes, being a Stage Manager is pretty shit. There. I said it. It seems to me that admitting this fact or saying it out loud is slightly frowned upon. It’s one of those thoughts which …
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 02:20PMThursday, March 22, 2012
Unemployment.I am currently unemployed.Bad news for my bank balance, my mental health and my general demeanour. Good news for next year’s tax bill and my local off license.It also se…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 06:01PMWednesday, January 18, 2012
It is with great regret that I have decided to leave my little boat. In the early hours of New Years Day, I stood at a bus stop in Hackney and counted down the minutes until I could remove m…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 03:56PMWednesday, January 4, 2012
Why did you get into theatre?This is a question I have been asked many times and, if you work in theatre, you have probably been asked it too. By people interviewing you for a job perhaps. O…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 08:16AMFriday, December 16, 2011
I have done many daft things when I have been inebriated; agreed to run marathons, forgotten I’ve left my mobile in the ladies toilets of a pub, fallen asleep on the night bus and ended up…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 11:45AMFriday, December 9, 2011
Like a lot of people, I’m not really a fan of the Taliban.They do rather nasty things, don’t they? Like banning chess and kite flying and other fun things. And randomly slitting peo…
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 10:14PMThursday, October 27, 2011
Working in theatre is fun. Apparently.I got into this industry under the impression that I would never need to rise from my bed before midday and could skip into a theatre, do some cues for …
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 02:04PMMonday, September 5, 2011
‘One Day’ has come out at the cinemas and unlike the vast majority of my friends I won’t be going to see it. Definitely not.This is nothing to do with how I feel about the book. …
SOURCE: Girl in the Dark at 11:33AM 
