Perth Theatre legend and celebrated octogenarian Terry Wale, an actor, director and playwright, has written a book about life in the profession.
Terry started as a child actor in 1951 and ‘Pretending to be Somebody Else’ is his story.
In the book he shares his first experiences of working in Perth Theatre.
While Terry was a Londoner by birth, Perth was the place he met his wife-to-be, actress Lesley Mackie and made his home.
Lesley explained that while sections about the Fair City play a sizeable part in the story, Terry’s life was a great deal more varied as he established himself in the business: “He talks about Perth, but the book is about much more than that. I think Terry reaches Perth on page 326 in 1974.
“He has been writing his memoirs for the past twenty five years and, through a chance meeting with a friendly publisher, he decided that it was now or never.”
Given that memories are notoriously short in the entertainment business, and that for many of a younger generation, history began only the day before yesterday, Terry hopes that a few will be interested in tales of many of the ‘greats’ with whom he has worked – like Sir John Gielgud, Tyrone Guthrie, Dame Edith Evans, Robert Shaw, Vanessa Redgrave, Ian Holm, Christopher Plummer, Tom Fleming, Sean Connery, Keith Michell, Timothy West.
He met young actor Lesley when he took up a role as one of the brothers in a production of Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat at Perth Theatre in 1974 and she caught his eye.
That fateful meeting eventually resulted in a marriage, two children and from 1993, a long term home base in the Fair City.
Lesley and Terry started the editing and proofreading last January so what was a very strange and difficult year for so many was put to the best use possible, and in October they managed to get the memoir published.
The book reproduces photographs from Perth Theatre and Pitlochry Festival Theatre from the 1970s onwards, many of which were taken by well known Perth residents, the photographers Louis Flood senior and Louis Flood junior.
On the back of the book Terry writes: “Pretending to be Somebody Else is not a ‘Rags to Riches’ story; far from it in fact. I was never in rags, and throughout a career that spanned more than six decades, I never achieved the riches that go hand-in-hand with stardom.
“What it’s all about is my life as an actor, a story that is uniquely mine, but which will resonate in many respects with at least 85 per cent of my fellow actors, also deprived of fame and fortune.”
An online review said of the book: “Terry Wale’s memoir tells it as it was, giving a realistic glimpse behind the scenes into how totally unglamorous and tough the life of a jobbing actor was - and indeed still is.”
Reader reviewer HM Roberts concluded: “This is a sometimes rather sad tale of the how often success or failure depends on luck and being in the right place at the right time rather than on ability.”
And from JAB Hills: “This is a superb account of a jobbing actor’s life with all its joys, frustrations and hopes, told with humour and sensitivity. I experienced several laugh-out loud moments.”
Pretending to be Somebody Else is available on Kindle at £4.99 and in paperback on Amazon costing £13.99.
To order a copy, go to https://tinyurl.com/y6p32trs
