So it took literal years; even before the whole world went to hell, I was ALWAYS stuck overseas at the exact moment any one of My Jellicles booked a new West End job or came anywhere near me on tour and it was driving me crazy. So much of life and circumstance got in the way and I'm not sure the frustration about all the shows I missed is ever going to really fade - having been back to the theatre again now it's stirred up a little bit of irritation in me towards my past self, a kind of "Well you could've made it happen if you'd tried harder" and whether that's true or not it doesn't matter because my resolve to go on to make sure I make it happen to get back to the theatre whenever I can is at an all-time high. Was it the feeling of walking into an auditorium and smelling the dry-ice and spotlights, was it that insane rush of delight that overtook me completely the moment Ben Mundy first appeared on the stage and we had that silly moment of me thinking "HE'S HERE!!" at the same moment there was this little look in his eyes of "YOU'RE HERE!!" or was it the feeling of standing out in the cold autumn air talking all things theatre with someone as delightfully good and wonderful and talented as Lovely Ben? I don't know, it was most likely a combination of all of those things. But I think I started planning my next trip to the theatre before I'd even got done walking away from the Bolton Octagon that night. (It'll be another trip to see Lovely Ben, and I intend to use my time at stage door next time I see him with trying to bribe him to just always tour so I can never be too long without experiencing just how sunlit his whole being is both on and off the stage!) I feel like this first post back after so long should be something more informative or coherant or should go more in depth about The Book Thief as a show, the Bolton Octagon as a theatre and stage door and Ben as a performer (exceptional) and human (radiant) but really I think the biggest and most important thing I have come away from the experience with is a deep and profound appreciation for the theatre, for stage door, for performers and the sound of the air before and after a show and the feeling of glitter sticking to my cheeks. I think maybe I forgot my own advice for a moment back there and I feel the need to keep repeating it to myself over and over again now: the whole world of the theatre is a unique kind of magic, it's a precious spell that gets cast on Monday nights and matinees and in dark, dry-ice-filled air where good and talented people tell winderful and wild stories and it should never, ever be taken for granted that something so special and improbable is right out there within reach, proving magic is real and starlight isn't so far out of our reach.

Not all of my pictures or write-up are on the page yet, but I will be working on it soon so if you're interested then pop back in to the visit page later for more in-depth thoughts and some pretty pictures of Bolton (which was truly a wonderful place and perfect for a theatre trip!)

So, as I hope you will have noticed, the site maintenance/revamping has now been completed and published for you all to explore, with some more content added in places such as the Hints & Tips page and all the profiles for My Jellicles, including the addition of a new member: Mr Benjamin Yates who you should all go and read about and fall in love with too!! I am continuing to work on uploading the many photos and stage door stories which are not yet on the pages as well as adding to the existing pages for all my stage door trips as best I can, but this is a tricky and time-consuming process, so I hope you understand why it might still be some time before every page features the detail of the early stage door pages. In the meantime, I am exciting to let you know about some projects of mine which you will be seeing more immediately, however:

• Possibly some blog post or video blog will soon be posted to My Theatre Diary where I will talk a little bit about my thoughts on the changes that have been made to Cats during its recent London and Blackpool revivals.
  
• The addition of some extracts of previous theatre-related writing of mine to my Fiction pages.
• An improved (and completed!) version of My Stage Door Playlist.
• Uploads of all the remaining tracks of my recordings of the Cats 25th Anniversary Cast to the Audio & Video page. I am also considering sharing some of my audio of the Cats UK Tour Cast 2014.

I hope you are enjoying the new At The Stage Door and I look forward to bring you this new content in the near future. Thank you for visiting and reading my site! xxx

Some long-awaited changes have finally been made to my 'Dream Cast' page! I've been waiting a long long time for the good people in charge of the Cats Official Site to release the brand new promotional photographs taken of the show following their April cast change in order for me to be able to move the amazing Adam Lake and the fabulous Cassie Clare from my Dream Cast's swing section and up into the roles that I have come to love them playing: Alonzo and Cassandra! As well as moving these two lovely, talented people into the main body of the cast, I've added a whole load of 2014 UK & Europe Tour Jellicles into the swing section, bringing the swing section up to being 30-people-strong meaning, you guessed it, there are now more swings than characters in the show! But I simply couldn't do without adding Adam Salter, Ben Mundy, Ben Yates, Callum Train, Dane Quixall, Filipo Strocchi, Hannah Kenna Thomas, Kathryn Barnes, Natasha Mould, Ross Finnie, Ryan Gover and Zizi Strallen to the ranks - and my reasons as to why can now all be read on the Dream Cast page. Incientally, because I clearly have far too much time on my hands, I've also named the dance captain, his assistant, the musical director, the resident director and even the company manager! So the question is...do you agree with me?! Enjoy reading and thinking it all over!!