Rita Burdus Interview: Children & Pantomime
Title
Rita Burdus Interview: Children & Pantomime
Date
7 November 2017
Description
Oral history interview with Rita Burdus, sharing her front of house memories as a long-standing usher and head steward at the Theatre Royal.
What's the story?
Rita Burdus retired from the Theatre Royal in August 2017. She was first employed at the venue in 1983, originally based in the Royal Concert Hall, but for twenty-two years up to her retirement she worked in the Theatre Royal on front-of-house duties, finally as head steward.
In this interview Rita talks about that favourite moment for audiences during a Pantomime - when children go up on the stage for the sing-along number. She recounts a particular tricky situation during Peter Pan starring Russ Abbot in 1996:
We’ve had some funny things happen with the children on stage. Because we used to have to pick the children out. So we’d try and ask them when they were going into the auditorium “Would you like to go on stage or no?” Mum would be saying “Yes, yes, yeah”, but they would back out at the last minute and we’d always go and check at the interval as well to make sure that Johnny was going to go on when we needed him.
We’d always take the seat number, so that we knew where they were sitting, so he’ll be sitting in P3 on the stalls, or whatever. You’d go in to get them at the appropriate time to go on the stage and they’d moved to P27 because they’re in a big group and so you can’t find the child. So that used to be a bit of a nightmare. Did that happen quite a lot? Quite a few times, yes. So we used to have to run round and try and look along the row, try and attract somebody’s attention to say is that so and so? It used to be quite funny. And then children, when they go on stage, we used to have to stand at the bottom of the treads to make sure there’s no accidents or anybody falling down the steps.
And I’ll always remember one, well I’ll remember a few, but one little boy, he was so excited to go on. It would be ... it was Russ Abbot, Peter Pan. That would be about 1996, something like that. And he was so excited about going on stage. He’d be about 5 or 6 years old. So looking forward to it – couldn’t wait. Put him on the stage. Took him up the treads. But then he wanted to go to the toilet. And you can tell, can’t you, when some child’s hopping around or crossing his legs. But we had that a few times and I thought, I’m going to have to get him off the stage because he’s going to do it on the stage if I don’t get him off. So I’m sort of mouthing to him “Do you need to go to the toilet at all?” So he said “Yes” So I tried to beckon him off the stage. Then Russ Abbot noticed me standing at the bottom of the treads waving to this child to come off the stage and he said “Does he need the toilet?” and I said “Yes”. So he came off the stage and I picked him up and ran to the toilets with him, because I thought I’d got to be quick because of the set, you know. So we ran to the toilets and I sort of pushed him into the toilet. When he came out, he insisted on washing his hands, which obviously was the right thing to do, but I was thinking, hurry up, we’ve got to get you back on the stage, so we just ran back in and they kept the set going until he got back on stage, which was lovely because I didn’t want him to miss his little performance on the stage and get his goodie bag.
In this interview Rita talks about that favourite moment for audiences during a Pantomime - when children go up on the stage for the sing-along number. She recounts a particular tricky situation during Peter Pan starring Russ Abbot in 1996:
We’ve had some funny things happen with the children on stage. Because we used to have to pick the children out. So we’d try and ask them when they were going into the auditorium “Would you like to go on stage or no?” Mum would be saying “Yes, yes, yeah”, but they would back out at the last minute and we’d always go and check at the interval as well to make sure that Johnny was going to go on when we needed him.
We’d always take the seat number, so that we knew where they were sitting, so he’ll be sitting in P3 on the stalls, or whatever. You’d go in to get them at the appropriate time to go on the stage and they’d moved to P27 because they’re in a big group and so you can’t find the child. So that used to be a bit of a nightmare. Did that happen quite a lot? Quite a few times, yes. So we used to have to run round and try and look along the row, try and attract somebody’s attention to say is that so and so? It used to be quite funny. And then children, when they go on stage, we used to have to stand at the bottom of the treads to make sure there’s no accidents or anybody falling down the steps.
And I’ll always remember one, well I’ll remember a few, but one little boy, he was so excited to go on. It would be ... it was Russ Abbot, Peter Pan. That would be about 1996, something like that. And he was so excited about going on stage. He’d be about 5 or 6 years old. So looking forward to it – couldn’t wait. Put him on the stage. Took him up the treads. But then he wanted to go to the toilet. And you can tell, can’t you, when some child’s hopping around or crossing his legs. But we had that a few times and I thought, I’m going to have to get him off the stage because he’s going to do it on the stage if I don’t get him off. So I’m sort of mouthing to him “Do you need to go to the toilet at all?” So he said “Yes” So I tried to beckon him off the stage. Then Russ Abbot noticed me standing at the bottom of the treads waving to this child to come off the stage and he said “Does he need the toilet?” and I said “Yes”. So he came off the stage and I picked him up and ran to the toilets with him, because I thought I’d got to be quick because of the set, you know. So we ran to the toilets and I sort of pushed him into the toilet. When he came out, he insisted on washing his hands, which obviously was the right thing to do, but I was thinking, hurry up, we’ve got to get you back on the stage, so we just ran back in and they kept the set going until he got back on stage, which was lovely because I didn’t want him to miss his little performance on the stage and get his goodie bag.
Type
Oral Interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Contributor
Interviewers: Diane Jones & Jennifer Sherwood
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
