Director's Commentary  When I first saw Making Waves in Scarborough in 2003, I just knew I had to put it on. Firstly because it has what seemed a manageable sized cast, with strong parts for all involved. Secondly, the theme - the often strained relationship between a lifeboat coxswain and his family  - seemed particularly relevant to this area, with the sea practically on our doorstep. The play is funny and poignant in almost equal measures. But above all, it had a feel of authenticity that’s pretty rare. In other words, a real play about real people, and I was very pleased to have that feeling confirmed by Dave Steenvoorden of the Humber Lifeboat, who came to see the play on Sunday, and at the same time took receipt of the money we’d collected for the RNLI. I believe his words to describe the play were, "so accurate it’s scary".
That’s not just a compliment for the playwright, but above all for the cast, who took to their respective characters like a duck to water. We only had two months to put this production together, but everyone gave it their all, and I think it showed. It was just a pity that the performance dates had to coincide with the World Cup quarter finals, and not more people came to see it.  One last thing: I'd like to stress that I can't take any credit for the choreography - the cast did that all by themselves!! Miranda

At Last, Something Decent On The Big Screen!  On 7th July, the Friday following the N.A.P.A performance, we were asked to perform an excerpt from Making Waves in front of the Hull's controversial Big Screen in Victoria Square. We were the "warm-up" before a live link-up with the Royal Opera House for a performance of Turandot. And despite some initial technical hitches, with which the cast coped admirably, we played a blinder! Special mention should go Andrea Houlton, stage manager for the N.A.P.A performances, who had a real baptism of fire, taking over from Ailsa for the occasion. She hadn’t been on stage for ages, and now she was not just performing for well over a hundred people; she was being beamed live onto the Big Screen as well! Then, when she came off stage, she said, "I want to do it again!" So it was something of a surprise when we never saw her again.

Quote, Unquote  I loved playing Jo, she was just so stroppy, it was great fun pretending to be a teenager all over again!!! Doing the Big Screen performance was also cool, it was great to do something outside and using mics - a really good experience all round! Hannah
Making Waves brought back some fond memories for me as I did spend a lot of time on the coast as a wee nipper and some of my dads best friends were part of the lifeboat crew at Flamborough - all of them heroes. I feel very lucky to have known them. I think this is the first straight play that I've been in since Accrington Pals; so it gave me a change to be serious for once - well a bit anyway!!   Just one more thing - I got to snog one bloke and grope another all in one night AND with the approval of my hubbie! Mandy
I knew when I read the script for this one that it had potential. Each of the characters goes through life changing emotional upheaval. Brian played the curmudgeon with such conviction you'd almost think it came naturally! Bruce was a real livewire, so much energy! Andy let me hit him with increasing force as rehearsals went on, although I have to say, his accent deserved it! Hannah was perfect as the stroppy teenager, and should have had the slap that Andy got. Mandy was great as Helen AND looked sensational in leather!  Ailsa
A really fine play, with well-drawn characters, realistic problems and bloody good dialogue. All I can say for myself is that the accent was more or less in the same continent for the duration of the weekend, and I got to play another "charmer", which was nice. Everyone else was spot on and a pleasure to play alongside, and Bruce is a firecracker onstage and off. What a pity we clashed with the W***d C*p Andy

The Audience Won't Notice  At Sam's homecoming dinner, Andy was supposed to take ages opening a bottle of champagne - unfortunately on Friday night the bottle of champagne had other ideas; Andy had barely got started before the cork shot across the stage and the cast had been doused with champagne!