Today is a special post, to my friend Jane McLeod, who is having a birthday today and who is also leaving Bath and leaving The Egg (Theatre Royal Bath) for warmer, sunnier climes. Ok that’s a lie, she is going to be moving “up north”, but her sun will be metaphorically burning bright as she dedicates herself to her creative pursuits and talents. Just remember you saw her here first (or maybe on YouTube, or at the Egg, or in one of her other performances), when she becomes a famous gazillionaire!
Before you get excited, friends, I don’t expect that I will write a blog to everyone on their birthday, although I might if you treat me really really nicely :). But I am missing the final opportunity to say goodbye to Jane before she leaves Bath, because I am performing tonight and can’t make her birthday/leaving party, and she is someone important to me.
A little bit about our history. I first met Jane when I started working at the Egg in 2010, many a Monday night was spent in the Egg chatting about the dissatisfaction of life and dreams and goals for the future as well as stupid comedy moments with Jane, myself and Shane Morgan after we had finished workshops and were closing up the theatre for the night. We quickly became friends outside of work, I felt an acceptance with Jane and we had a lot of fun. I began to realise how talented Jane was when I heard her perform her poetry (she was also dabbling in standup, which I have still never seen her do), so I asked her to perform at a couple of events that I was organising and when Jane got together with Ruth and created Hepzibah Theatre Company, I jumped at the chance to get them to perform at TedXBristol. Check out their website for clips of their work.
I don’t just love Jane for her talents, on a personal level she is spiritual, understanding and has a lot of integrity, our values are similar and I find it easy to share things with her and the best thing about that is that we can chew the cud over life dilemmas and dramas and then change the subject and move on to a more joyful focus, a friend who you can do this with is so important and it is easier said than done. I have been through so amazing and some crappy times and she has this ability to be empathetic but not to dwell every time. Jane’s poetry and the work she has done with Hepzibah is really inspiring to me.
So, I leave you with a couple of videos that Jane and I made together being silly and talking about teapots and how to boil an egg (I’ve strted it part way through because I’m told it gets better at that point), and Jane’s interview with me about my gymnastics:
If you want to keep up with Jane and all her pursuits you can find her on twitter:
@Janey_McLeod or @HepzibahTheatre
Or on Jane McLeod YouTube channel- go there to see all her amazing poetry.
Happy Birthday Jane, have an awesome day and I will miss you.
Becky
xx
1 Comment