Such a Drama!
From my earliest memories, our house always had some engagement with amateur dramatics. One of my silliest memories was the four of us painting several life-size drawings of human skeletons on cardboard with luminous paint. I was too young to really know what this was all about, but I joined in the fun of painting carefully so as to not go over the lines, and later carrying the cardboard into the cupboard under the stairs to test the luminous paint and see how scary the skeletons were. As it turns out, they weren’t very scary because the paint was not very effective, but at my tender age, that didn’t really matter.
The reason for having luminous life-size skeleton drawings in our house became clear when Evelyn appeared on stage at our local town hall, in a show which was all about safety in the home. I don’t recall the sponsors, but I do remember seeing those skeletons dancing across the stage and seeing a selection of short skits all aimed at hazards such as working at height, leaving electrical appliances on etc. Ah, it all made sense now.
In the very same hall (long since demolished) I also remember seeing a production of Guys and Dolls, produced by Evelyn; I was too young to understand the story, but the music was fun and it was all quite entertaining. I had not even been aware of rehearsals for this show, as I was probably dutifully tucked up in bed while Evelyn was out rehearsing. The event had an impact on me though, as it was probably the first ever musical I saw, and later I became something of an amateur musician; the drama didn’t stick but the music did. I remembered many of the songs for many years afterwards. It was also one of Evelyn’s favourite musicals over time, and she often talked about how much fun it was to produce.
Evelyn has produced many musicals and plays over the years. She spent many Wednesday evenings at the YMCA venue in Paisley with a group called the Paisley Players. They were a small, close-knit group and performed plays probably two or three times a year, and they also performed in drama festivals.
She was also a key figure in founding Quintus, a five-person theatre company spin-off from the Paisley Players. With five people in the whole company, their rehearsals took place mostly in the front room of our family home. Performances were mostly festival-based, and as the repertoire for this size of group was limited, Evelyn would often write sketches and one-act plays for them to work on and perform. My brother was also a member of this group- the Hoods had a 40% presence in the company!
Evelyn’s involvement with musicals picked up in the 1970’s, when she started to direct a local amateur musical theatre group as well as our end-of-year musicals at our local high school. She is as comfortable with musicals as she is with plays, despite not being a musician herself.
Evelyn also wrote the musical ‘High-Rise Halloween’, with music by Adrian Finnerty, around 1982; shortly before this, she had collaborated with me in a musical called, ‘Pop Go The Reindeer’; this was written for pupils of the Mary Russell School in Paisley; it was our first collaboration, and it was later published. She and I went on to write six more ‘Hood & Hood’ musicals for the same school, all of which were performed, but are not yet published.
Simon & Evelyn Hood