These recent times have been some of the hardest challenges we've faced and as a community, it hit us pretty hard. However during these difficult times, here at Pocket Size Theatre, we wanted to spread a little positivity and share some peoples experiences because we are all in this together. Each day we'll be speaking to our friends in the industry to share their experiences with you all so take a read and see how people are getting through these hard times.
Let's stick together, share the love and get through this as a community!
Alex Lodge is currently playing Ledoux in the touring production of Bat Out of Hell and was also most recently playing Jon in tick, tick…BOOM! at the Bridge House Theatre which earned him an Offie Nomination for Best Male Performance in a Musical. His other credits include understudy and played Elder Price in The Book Of Mormon (Prince of Wales); Jay Osmond in The Osmonds Musical (The Other Palace); Frederick Fleet in Titanic (Princess of Wales, Toronto); Bobby C in Saturday Night Fever (UK Tour); Sam in Romance Romance (Above The Stag Theatre); Straight Dave in Closer to Heaven (Union Theatre); Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees (Landor Theatre); Jess in See Rock City and Other Destinations (Union Theatre) and Herschel in Rags (Lyric theatre).
*Some information mentioned in this article may be out of date due to the progress of the current situation. Please keep that in mind when reading*
Alex Lodge is currently playing Ledoux in the touring production of Bat Out of Hell and was also most recently playing Jon in tick, tick…BOOM! at the Bridge House Theatre which earned him an Offie Nomination for Best Male Performance in a Musical. His other credits include understudy and played Elder Price in The Book Of Mormon (Prince of Wales); Jay Osmond in The Osmonds Musical (The Other Palace); Frederick Fleet in Titanic (Princess of Wales, Toronto); Bobby C in Saturday Night Fever (UK Tour); Sam in Romance Romance (Above The Stag Theatre); Straight Dave in Closer to Heaven (Union Theatre); Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees (Landor Theatre); Jess in See Rock City and Other Destinations (Union Theatre) and Herschel in Rags (Lyric theatre).
On Monday 16th March 2020, The Society of London Theatre announced the closure of all Theatres in London. This followed suit with regional venues. Where were you when you found out and what was your initial reaction?
On Bat Out of Hell, we actually found out the Friday before (coincidentally, it was Friday the 13th). Our first venue of the tour was due to be out in Atlantic City, NJ in the USA. We were in rehearsals. We were doing an evening session that day, so would have been working through until 9pm. We broke for dinner at 6pm and found out then that the Governor of New Jersey had closed all public performance spaces, which meant our first venue had to be postponed. Then, the following day on the Saturday, the President announced the travel ban on flights from the UK to the US, so we knew then we definitely weren’t going to be able to fly over the following week, as per the production schedule.
We were gutted, obviously. We’d worked our butts off to put the show together in 2 weeks before flying out to start tech. But I think a lot of us knew it was coming. As days went by and we watched as the global situation developed, it became more a matter of “when it happens” rather than “if it happens”. And as disappointing as it was to know we weren’t going, I would much rather have found out here in the UK, rather than have flown out to the US only to have the theatres & borders closed, and then face the stress and struggle of trying to get everyone home safely. Our general managers and producers were really fantastic about the situation, which has been a massive positive in a time of such uncertainty.
