Rebekah Pickering-Wood Interview: A Christmas Carol - Being Paid by Charles Dickens!
Title
Rebekah Pickering-Wood Interview: A Christmas Carol - Being Paid by Charles Dickens!
Date
21 November 2018
Description
Oral history interview with Rebekah Pickering-Wood about her childhood experiences of performing at the Theatre Royal in Great Expectations in 1994 and A Christmas Carol in 1995.
What's the story?
Born in Nottingham in 1983, Rebekah Pickering-Wood performed as a child in two Christmas shows, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol at the Theatre Royal in 1994 and 1995. These two Dickens stage adaptations replaced the traditional Pantomime for two seasons.
From the audition process to performing on stage, Rebekah provides a vivid account of this period in her life, as well as an insight into the life of the theatre.
Rebekah receives her first pay packet with the image of Charles Dickens on the banknote.
But I do remember how much I got paid. I got paid £10 a week. Looking back now I think “Gosh, that wasn’t very much”. £10 a show or even more than that would have been better, but no, £10 for a full week and I remember it took me the whole of the time I was working for Great Expectations and the whole of the time I was working for A Christmas Carol and I saved up £200 and I bought myself a television with it. And to this day it makes me think that it was the first actual money that I earned. And what was really nice about it was that at the time they used to pay us in £10 notes in a little brown envelope and it was when the £10 notes featured Charles Dickens. So it seemed very apt that we were being paid with Mr Dickens’ face for doing our work on a Mr Dickens’ play. So that was quite an exciting time.
From the audition process to performing on stage, Rebekah provides a vivid account of this period in her life, as well as an insight into the life of the theatre.
Rebekah receives her first pay packet with the image of Charles Dickens on the banknote.
But I do remember how much I got paid. I got paid £10 a week. Looking back now I think “Gosh, that wasn’t very much”. £10 a show or even more than that would have been better, but no, £10 for a full week and I remember it took me the whole of the time I was working for Great Expectations and the whole of the time I was working for A Christmas Carol and I saved up £200 and I bought myself a television with it. And to this day it makes me think that it was the first actual money that I earned. And what was really nice about it was that at the time they used to pay us in £10 notes in a little brown envelope and it was when the £10 notes featured Charles Dickens. So it seemed very apt that we were being paid with Mr Dickens’ face for doing our work on a Mr Dickens’ play. So that was quite an exciting time.
Type
Oral Interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Rights
Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Contributor
Interviewers: Sally Smith and Steve Smith
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton