All I had was a title.

Welcome back to our weekly (ssshh) blog posts, and this week’s comes courtesy of our “Ay Up, Hitler!" scribe, and the man responsible for all this: David McCulloch. Take it away David!

“Did you know Hitler visited the North?” “Of England?” “Yeah!” "Where did he visit?" "Erm...I think it was Liverpool." "Oh, that's a shame!" "Why?" "Imagine if it was Yorkshire…” Imagine that indeed… But what was the cause for this conversation? Why was it about Hitler? And what would it be like if Hitler had visited Yorkshire back in the day? Back in 2017 I was cast in BlackBox Theatre Company’s production of “Bouncers” a show about a quartet of Bouncers (who’d of thought), set in the 1980’s, on a typical Friday night at a night club in Yorkshire. During a break in rehearsals, we were sat around talking, one thing led to another, and before you know it, the topic of conversation had moved onto Hitler – As you do. We discussed Hitler’s excursion to the North of England, along with our disappointment for Adolf popping over to Liverpool. "Imagine if it was Yorkshire, because then people would be greeting him by going: AY UP, HITLER!” “That would be a good name for a play.” Suddenly our director Chris Hawley’s ears pricked up, and the rest, as they say, is history. For the rest of rehearsals, myself and my fellow actors would riff off each other, imagining what life would be like had Hitler taken up residence in Yorkshire- accents, flat caps and tweed included. Granted we probably should have been making the most of our less than 2 week rehearsal period to actually rehearse the play we were being paid for… but then we wouldn’t have this play, would we? Most writers will come up with an idea, research, plan it out and formulate all of this into some sort of script, whereas we came up with the title and then I made it up from there. Well... I say made it up from there, it was actually over a year until I came up with anything beyond the title and the image of Hitler draped in tweed. Blame it on it my self-doubt, call it imposter syndrome, or just call it plain laziness – Answers on a postcard – but it did take me over a year until I finally put pen to paper (or should that be fingers to keyboard) and began to write. You have Chris Hawley to thank for me getting off of my proverbial arse and finally writing he play. Were it not for his constant encouragement (nagging?) combined with the fact he'd been telling others I was writing this play when I wasn't - I wouldn't be where I am today. Now I've got a full script under my belt, I've been able to finally set up the long intended theatre company with Hannah Harrison (which we would have gotten sorted 3 years ago had we not gone and bloody started dating instead!) and we're lucky enough to have Chris on-board as a co-producer and Director.

I am equal parts thrilled, excited, nervous and terrified, whilst also feeling insanely confident, and yet somehow way out of my depth at the same time. Either way, I cannot wait to see where  this play takes us. PROST!