Playing a pantomime dame - answers
1 Before curtain-up
To slap make-up on - to apply make-up quickly, carelessly without finesse
2 From 10 - 25 minutes.
3 Someone's aunt or a dolly-bird.
A dolly bird - informal dated, but still means an attractive but unintelligent young woman
4 You can get away with things.
A phrasal prepositional verb is a verb followed by two 'particles' eg, put up with = tolerate
They are never split round the object.
Get on with your work. (= start)
He nearly got away with murder = He nearly escaped being found guilty and punished for murder.
5 1) One finds the rôle quite liberating - it's like wearing a mask.
2) One loves what it does for an audience, ie the enjoyment an audience gets from it.
3) The laughter you don't get in any other rôle.
4) The actor can be cheeky (= irreverent, impudent) and this carries on (continues) backstage.
5) One actor enjoys the experience of acting a woman, having a bust*, moving like a woman, being loose in the hips and imagining what it's like to be a woman.
6) Another enjoys wearing high heels.
In sculpture * a bust (singular) is a sculpture of the top half of a person - head, shoulders and chest. It also means a woman's breasts, as here and elsewhere. In women's clothing the sizing usually mentions bust, waist and hip measurements eg bust size 16 for a woman's top.
6 That in costume you are 'everyone's favourite person', (because you are so easily recognised, and funny), everyone wants to talk to you, but when not dressed up you are 'a weird nobody' whom no-one recognises afterwards.
7 Hairy legs, muscles and tattoos.
8 No, he can at the same time still be a man (a bloke) - he can come out of character ('slip out of character'= come out of character quickly and easily) and make comments about events which reveal he's 'acting' and the audience also know he's acting -they know the 'game' that is going on.
9 Yes, one hates being ready at the side of the stage. He says he gets terrified before he goes on stage.
10 1) One finds the hardest thing about acting a dame is the quick costume-changes.
2) One mentions that a producer who makes a change in stage directions can reduce the time for changing a costume from 4 minutes to 40 seconds. (This is where a 'dresser' would help the actor.)
3) One tries to wear something different - a different outfit - every time he goes on stage.
11 That you might have, for instance, 10 costume-changes, and you are not just changing your dresses - frocks - but also tights, shoes, jewellery and wigs, so it can be a complete change of costume every time.
12 He lost weight - 3 stones in weight. He says he was down to a size zero (a tiny size).
A stone - 14 lbs = pounds = 6.35 kilograms
3 stones = 19.05 kilograms
13 He was thrilled to bits.
thrilled to bits - informal - absolutely delighted
14 a) Running around on stage, b) changing costumes, c) sweating, d) pulling wigs off, e) just getting on stage in enough time for a routine, sometimes f) having only half an hour between performances after the curtain comes down.
