Music On Stage - The Spotlight

has many volunteers, actors and actresses who have contributed to make Music on Stage the success it is today. Here is just one of them

Back to Latest Show ' Pied Piper II'

Vivienne Wilkes Interviewed for Pied Piper II Oct 2010:

Role in Pied Piper II:  Tabitha the Cat.

Age:  Age is a number and mine is unlisted.

Years Acting:  Involved with amateur stage on one capacity or another for over 45 years and counting (or not counting as the case may be).

Where you initially learn your skills?  School, drama courses, reading, but mostly by watching and doing.  I am a great people watcher.

What are the most memorable moments in your acting career to date?

Acting-wise it would be Deborah in ‘A Little Like Alaska’ by Harold Pinter, and the ‘small’ roles of Peter Pan, Pinocchio and Gollum.  I have enjoyed writing plays (including ‘Pied Piper I) and I have experienced much happiness, satisfaction, amusement and vexation from directing these and watching them evolve from an idea to a performance (and changing a lot on the way; the plays and me).    Not exactly a ‘moment’ as it involves a decade, but being involved with the Moskeetoes Youth Group has been amazing.  To see them grow and develop as people and actors from the age of 8 to 18 has been a funny and moving experience.

What made you decide to be in the Pied Piper II?  I want to find out if my memory is still working.

Give a short but complete description of your character:

Tabitha is a cat who is lazy, bossy and sneaky.  She has many other fine qualities as well.

Who or what inspired you to work in your field? My father and mother had a traveling marionette puppet show that they put on for charity in hospitals etc.  My father made the most amazing puppets and Mom made costumes, and we traveled around in a small van with the puppets hanging up inside the walls of the van; tucked away in individual bags to stop the strings becoming tangled.  I just loved being part of that show biz feel.  I was always trying to get the other local kids to put on shows.  ‘How much is that doggie in the window’ seemed to feature quite often although not by me.   Loved drama at school.  Funnily enough I was going to play the part of a rat at school but the performance coincided with my Father’s annual holiday that year and I missed taking part. 

Who were your heroes when you were young?   I don’t remember thinking about people as heroes when I was a child.  I remember spending a great deal of time reading fiction.  Authors were the people that stuck in my mind.

What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment? 

Surviving so far. . . A special feature of my life in amateur drama has been helping to organise the annual Middle-earth Weekend at Sarehole Mill in Birmingham where J.R.R. Tolkien played as a young child.  Events during this weekend include performances of short scenes from the stories ‘The Hobbit’, ‘the Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Farmer Giles of Ham’ and it has been daunting but great fun writing these adaptations.  These are usually performed by the drama group Shire Productions out of doors within the extremely atmospheric Moseley Bog, where Tolkien and his brother Hilary used to explore.   I have had the privilege of performing the role of Gollum.  I am pretty certain it is to do with size, rather than looks!

When did you know that you wanted to be an actor?   I was 6’ish and playing the role of a blackbird in ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence’.  At a given moment, everyone shot out of the pie except me, because I was standing on my ‘wing’.  Lying in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the pie but undaunted by the total humiliation, I vowed to do better.  I have been trying to overcome this ever since.

Funniest joke you can think of on the spot?  Radioactive cats have 18 half lives.