Guest Blog: Katherine Senior On The UK Tour of MURDER, MARGARET AND ME

Matthew Parish and I have been touring for 12 years. Our first production was Shaffer's The Private Ear and The Public Eye, which we rehearsed in a cowshed (with cows looking on) and staged in a shifty-looking pub in Exeter - the city where we trained to be actors.

With Amanda Knott - our artistic director at the time - we continued the 60s vibe for a couple of seasons and produced further chamber pieces The Lover, The Knack, Travels with My Aunt and The Anniversary, touring to more pubs, skittle alleys, village halls, mills and, well anywhere anyone would take us!

We produced the show, created the artwork, built and put up the set, rigged the lights, made ice cream, sold wine in the interval, acted in it, took it all down when the "curtain" fell, packed it away in our postal van and drove to the next venue to do it all again the next day! This was the only way that Matthew and I were able to perform fantastic roles in great plays: creating it ourselves. And running Tilted Wig has been the most rewarding way of working in the theatre.

Some things have changed since 2007 - we don't pile the set and actors in a van any more; we have an HGV lorry and tour to some of the biggest theatres in the UK - but it's still just Matt and I running the company. Apart from making ice cream, we still do most of the above!

Thankfully, we have THE BEST technical team as part of our ensemble and a wonderful pool of actors we can call upon to create a superb company for each show. That is at the core of what we do. We are actors ourselves and we strive to nurture the team for each production, as we know how important it is to have a happy, cohesive company.

Murder, Margaret and Me is our 22nd show and we can't wait to get stuck in. We have a fantastic cast in Lin Blakley, Sarah Parks and Gilly Tompkins and are so excited to see what they and director Damian Cruden do with the show. Philip Meeks has written a wonderfully funny and touching play, which goes behind the scenes of one of the biggest film franchises of our time - Miss Marple.

It's a great time to be touring this piece. Not only is it for three, strong, mature actresses, but it tells the story of two of the most famous women in TV during the height of British cinema. There's a big push for touring work of this kind to the regions, but for us it's the obvious route - it's all we've ever done. Regional touring is in our veins! We constantly find ways of producing a vast range of plays that's affordable for venues and exciting for audiences.

One important thing we've learned from our time touring is that we must collaborate - with creatives of course, but also with theatres. We've produced our latter shows with Malvern Theatres and Churchill Theatre Bromley, and it's a successful template. We share the risk so we can deliver great plays that perhaps wouldn't otherwise be seen in the regions.

Murder, Margaret and Me tours the UK 26 September-6 November - full dates and venues here

photo credit: Carl Proctor, Craig Sugden

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