Susan Spencer Interview: The Show Must Go On
Title
Susan Spencer Interview: The Show Must Go On
Date
2 September 2017
Description
Oral history interview with Sue Spencer, who, aged 12, performed as a dancer in 'The Pied Piper', the Theatre Royal Pantomime in 1968.
What's the story?
Susan Spencer was one of the young locally recruited dancers for 'The Pied Piper', the 1968 Theatre Royal pantomime, starring Freddie Davies and Mark Wynter.
She was a member of the Tozer School of Dance and this was her first professional job on the stage.
Still residing in Nottingham, Susan was one of the first people to come forward with her Theatre Royal memories and has shared with us her scrapbook of photos and letters from that time, which can be found elsewhere on this site.
This clearly was a very special moment for Susan and her memories reveal some fun backstage antics and stories.
In this extract Susan talks about the time it snowed heavily during the Panto run and the methods her mother had to take to ensure she got to the Theatre Royal in time.
Even the day it snowed, and I mean, and it snowed, where there was no transport – every road had come to a standstill and I had to get to the theatre, so my mum just stopped a car and put me in a car. Would you do it now? No. Yet she stopped a car and said “please take my daughter to the theatre, she’s got a performance today”. I think it might have been a Saturday. And she literally shoved me in this car with this man and he dropped me off at the stage door, but there was hardly anyone there because the buses couldn’t get in. Cars couldn’t get in. Literally everywhere was gridlocked with this snow. It was massively snowy. Massively deep. And the performance still went on, but there was hardly anybody and you can only just see the audience can’t you? There’s only certain points when the lighting’s right. And it was weird, but we still did it. We did it with great gusto, as we would with any other performance, you know and then we couldn’t get home at night and I had to stay with my friend and I was all for it one minute and then I just wanted my mum, I wanted to go home and my mum didn’t drive so I had to stay over, you know, and that was quite strange, but I always remember the snow and her just pushing me in a car, and thinking would you ever do that now? Times have changed.
She was a member of the Tozer School of Dance and this was her first professional job on the stage.
Still residing in Nottingham, Susan was one of the first people to come forward with her Theatre Royal memories and has shared with us her scrapbook of photos and letters from that time, which can be found elsewhere on this site.
This clearly was a very special moment for Susan and her memories reveal some fun backstage antics and stories.
In this extract Susan talks about the time it snowed heavily during the Panto run and the methods her mother had to take to ensure she got to the Theatre Royal in time.
Even the day it snowed, and I mean, and it snowed, where there was no transport – every road had come to a standstill and I had to get to the theatre, so my mum just stopped a car and put me in a car. Would you do it now? No. Yet she stopped a car and said “please take my daughter to the theatre, she’s got a performance today”. I think it might have been a Saturday. And she literally shoved me in this car with this man and he dropped me off at the stage door, but there was hardly anyone there because the buses couldn’t get in. Cars couldn’t get in. Literally everywhere was gridlocked with this snow. It was massively snowy. Massively deep. And the performance still went on, but there was hardly anybody and you can only just see the audience can’t you? There’s only certain points when the lighting’s right. And it was weird, but we still did it. We did it with great gusto, as we would with any other performance, you know and then we couldn’t get home at night and I had to stay with my friend and I was all for it one minute and then I just wanted my mum, I wanted to go home and my mum didn’t drive so I had to stay over, you know, and that was quite strange, but I always remember the snow and her just pushing me in a car, and thinking would you ever do that now? Times have changed.
Type
Oral interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Contributor
Interviewers: Julia Holmes & Sue Threakall
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
