Rebekah Pickering-Wood Interview: A Christmas Carol - Costumes and Accidents
Title
Rebekah Pickering-Wood Interview: A Christmas Carol - Costumes and Accidents
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 gets into character with a costume and a wig but has an accident as she makes her entrance.
For this part there was actually a speaking role as well. I played Martha Cratchit, so I was Tiny Tim’s big sister. I had to be fitted for a wig, which I’d never worn in my life before. And so I had to send my head measurements to the wig mistress to have my wig made and it was a very beautiful curly orange number, which was hideous, but at the same time, once you put it on, you felt very much like you were in character. And so I had to do my hair in little pin curls and have the stocking on my head with all the grips in, so that it was all neatly put up. It was great and there were a couple of different roles that we played within that as well, so whilst Martha Cratchit was my main role and I still remember my one line, which was … (actually I say that, but now I’m going to completely forget it!). She comes in and Tiny Tim and all the family and Bob Cratchit etc are sitting round the table and they’re like “you’ve been quite late” and I was like “I know. We had a lot of work to do and I had to clear away this morning”. And that was it. And I was a milliner’s assistant and I had the most glorious blue bonnet I wore and wherever this bonnet is in the world, I hope somebody is loving it because if I’d have got to keep it, I would have been the happiest person in the world. It was like a cobalt blue bonnet with beautiful ribbons that I tied under my chin and when I wore it, I just felt so glamorous. It was a wonderful piece of costume to get to wear.
There was one time, when I was entering as Martha Cratchit, that I had a bit of an accident and I remember it really well because a couple of friends of my parents had come to see the show that night and so I was trying to do my best performance. And what had happened was, the set was made up of two bits. You had the floor bit that flew in from the side and then the backdrop which dropped down and was supposed to sit nice and neatly parallel to it. And the door to the house was on this drop down bit. What they hadn’t managed to tell me before I went on was that there’d been a miscommunication and there was a gap between where the backdrop had come down and where the floor bit was. So there was about a foot gap and I wasn’t expecting it, and so I did no more than open the door, come to say my line, put my foot in the gap and fall straight flat on my face as I walked on. And I really hurt myself. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. It was just that I just hadn’t seen that there was a gap. And it was really embarrassing because I was still holding onto the door handle as I went over. So I went down on the floor and I remember thinking “Oh great, my mum’s friends have come to see me and it’s the one day I fall over on stage. How embarrassing!” But that, I suppose, is part of the memories of the show.
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 gets into character with a costume and a wig but has an accident as she makes her entrance.
For this part there was actually a speaking role as well. I played Martha Cratchit, so I was Tiny Tim’s big sister. I had to be fitted for a wig, which I’d never worn in my life before. And so I had to send my head measurements to the wig mistress to have my wig made and it was a very beautiful curly orange number, which was hideous, but at the same time, once you put it on, you felt very much like you were in character. And so I had to do my hair in little pin curls and have the stocking on my head with all the grips in, so that it was all neatly put up. It was great and there were a couple of different roles that we played within that as well, so whilst Martha Cratchit was my main role and I still remember my one line, which was … (actually I say that, but now I’m going to completely forget it!). She comes in and Tiny Tim and all the family and Bob Cratchit etc are sitting round the table and they’re like “you’ve been quite late” and I was like “I know. We had a lot of work to do and I had to clear away this morning”. And that was it. And I was a milliner’s assistant and I had the most glorious blue bonnet I wore and wherever this bonnet is in the world, I hope somebody is loving it because if I’d have got to keep it, I would have been the happiest person in the world. It was like a cobalt blue bonnet with beautiful ribbons that I tied under my chin and when I wore it, I just felt so glamorous. It was a wonderful piece of costume to get to wear.
There was one time, when I was entering as Martha Cratchit, that I had a bit of an accident and I remember it really well because a couple of friends of my parents had come to see the show that night and so I was trying to do my best performance. And what had happened was, the set was made up of two bits. You had the floor bit that flew in from the side and then the backdrop which dropped down and was supposed to sit nice and neatly parallel to it. And the door to the house was on this drop down bit. What they hadn’t managed to tell me before I went on was that there’d been a miscommunication and there was a gap between where the backdrop had come down and where the floor bit was. So there was about a foot gap and I wasn’t expecting it, and so I did no more than open the door, come to say my line, put my foot in the gap and fall straight flat on my face as I walked on. And I really hurt myself. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. It was just that I just hadn’t seen that there was a gap. And it was really embarrassing because I was still holding onto the door handle as I went over. So I went down on the floor and I remember thinking “Oh great, my mum’s friends have come to see me and it’s the one day I fall over on stage. How embarrassing!” But that, I suppose, is part of the memories of the show.
Type
Oral History
Location of item
Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Rights
Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Contributor
Interviewers: Sally Smith and Phil Smith
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
