Blogger gets her hands dirty making a theatre

POSTED ON MONDAY 14 MARCH

Well hello there my dear Jabberwockies, your resident blogger Gemma Hirst is back this year hoping to fill you in on the latest goings with the Jabberwocky Market events this season.

For those of who you may not know me, I am a third year journalism student at Sunderland University and Culture Editor of Kettle Magazine. I used to perform but now I prefer to be on this side of the stage reviewing theatre.

Usually working behind a laptop, I decided to get my hands dirty and go to the Jabberwocky Market to help turn the Cattle Market into a suitable performance space.

It was my first time in Darlington and I was looking forward to the work that had to be done. Arriving in the afternoon, I finally met Caroline and Jade (after only conversing via email) and they introduced me to the rest of the team who would be turning this place into a fabulous venue.

No messing around the Jabberwocky volunteers like to get to work straight away. The first task on the agenda was to clean and sweep out the auction ring (theatre and auditorium) to make sure it was spik and span, after a good measure of sweeping and elbow grease the place looked fit for Shakespeare.

We here at Jabberwocky want to make sure you feel as comfy as possible when you experience a show with us, so we turned the animal pens into a cafe like sitting area- decorating it with cardboard grass, flowers, plastic bugs and of course lots and lots of bunting for you guys to relax and talk about the fun shows that we have at Jabberwocky Market.

I had not realised how hard it is to turn an everyday cattle market into a theatre, well done to the team of volunteers who managed to make it look Jabberwocky ready.