Manchester Direction

Yesterday I crossed the Yorkshire border. There was snow on the Pennines. Except when it comes to cricket, I always consider myself a bit of an honary Mancunian, having been a student there. There's a pride about Manchester, and why not?

I was attending a directing workshop at Contact Theatre by Mark Rosenblatt and Orla O'Loughlin, both young JMK award talents, who've worked at good theatres. I went along more to inform my writing, which it did. It also made me realise how hard and unglamourous it can be to work as an actor or director. We spent several hours in a black box studio theatre with no daylight. I think I'd get SAD having to do that too often. As Irene, whom I'm working with at the moment said, 'Welcome to the real world of acting'.

Met some interesting people, such as Szilvi Naray-Davey (who's in 'Fencing for Losers' at the Lowry 29th-31st Jan, if anyone's over that way).

Came back and my lovely daughter was home (well, she was really out on the town most of the night, but popped by to eat). Lots of rain today. To be honest, I love rain, but it comes back to too much of a good thing, especially if you're in York a lot (always flooding) - or poor Cumbria just now.