Stage Fright!

Time to roll!
John switched off the fairy lights, which were
acting as house lights, plunging The Barn Theatre
into darkness. The audience went quiet, hushed in
excited expectation.
Very, very slowly John turned up the first lamp to
form a pool of green on the centre of the stage. There
was a slight shaking of the black curtain at the back
of the stage and then through the gap emerged the
gloomy spectre of the ghost of Jacob Marley. As
Cressida walked in deathly slow steps towards the
middle of the stage, clanking the chains of sin that
Jacob was forced to carry for all his sins made while
alive on earth, she felt miles away from the sad, dismal
character she was playing. Her character, Marley, was
supposed to be miserable but Cressida felt like
whooping with joy!
Here she was at last!
On stage in their own theatre playing to a packed
audience.
WHAT A WONDERFUL FEELING!
In the deep, slow and mournful voice that she had
practised a thousand times Cressie began.
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