PACE serve up another treat
Paisley actor Chris is back for Jack and the Beanstalk
And for the Paisley guy in the glad rags, Chris Alexander, that has meant getting in shape for the long run of Jack and the Beanstalk, which opens at the town’s arts centre tonight.
“Every day I do one press up and eat several doughnuts,” he joked.
“It’s funny because I was doing a show just before I started this and I was on tour for about nine weeks and I thought I would actually get really fit because it was a really physical show.
“And now I’ve come on board and I’m more unfit than I was last year, so I’m trying to catch up on myself!”
Last year was Chris’s first year as the dame in the panto, which is staged by the town’s PACE youth theatre company. The actor said it was a real eye opener.
“The audiences were fantastic and really big- hearted, the full bhoona,” he said.
“We got a really, really nice reception from people.
“I really enjoyed myself, it was a good laugh.”
And Chris had no second thoughts about taking on the role again this year.
“I said last year I’ll need to see what happens if they’ll ask me back and take it as it comes,” he said.
“I was delighted when they asked me back.
“I really enjoyed it, really enjoyed the company, and the kids were great.
“There were so many sharp minds.
“The kids’ improvisational skills blew me away actually.
“I was taken aback by how good they were.”
As a pantomime dame, Chris is taking on a role that is adored in British theatre, and one that he sees as far removed from the female impersonation of drag acts.
“A dame is definitely a man,” he said.
“Everybody does it differently but I think for me it’s a guy dressed in a dress and that’s the comedy.
“The role is defined by being a man in a dress rather than it being someone trying to impersonate a woman.”
Appearing alongside Chris in Jack and the Beanstalk is former PACE member Erin Hare, from Lochwinnoch.
Now a professional actress based in London, the 24- year- old is playing the princess-type character in the show.
“I was a member of PACE for 13 years it must have been,” she said.
“I started PACE when I was four, funnily enough to build confidence apparently. “I was shy. “I did panto as a child and was in the chorus for eight years.”
Erin vividly remembers her very first panto with PACE.
“I was about nine and I did Aladdin. I came out of a basket at the beginning,” she said.
“I popped out of a basket because I was wee and cute. “So that’s my first memory. “Panto was my favourite time of year always because you got out of school and had so much fun and you got to watch the main cast. “I just loved it.” The former Johnstone High School pupil confessed to being slightly nervous to be back playing on home ground as a pro. “A wee bit, yes,” she said. “You want to do well for the people you know and the people that you’ve grown up with and the company that I grew up with and love so much.
“I want to do well for them but it’s also really nice to see everybody.”
Jack and the Beanstalk opens tonight and runs until Hogmanay.
Shows are at various times and prices.
General booking is on 0300 300 1210 or at www. boxoffice. renfrewshire.gov.uk.
Group booking is on 0345 130 5218.