TRAVELLERS on the New York subway contend with some strange sights.
So the spectacle of Janet Prince wielding a hat stand probably didn't raise too many eyebrows – even if the Willerby-born actress admits it was a bit of a trial.
"At one point I thought 'I'm getting too old for this'," said Janet, who'd been buying "English style furniture" for her play.
"I found an old hat stand, which I had to take up five floors of stairs and then onto the subway, accidentally hitting people with it on the way.
"It was all very grassroots."
If the organisation for Murder, Margaret and Me was a grind, the compensation has come with the response from American audiences.
The one-woman drama, inspired by the work of Agatha Christie, has seen Janet win best actress at the recent New York International Fringe Festival.
Janet, who started her career at Humberside Theatre – the precursor to Hull Truck – is now embarking on a run of the play "Off-Broadway" – the theatre circuit, which often acts as a testing ground for productions on Broadway itself.
"My visa runs out on September 21 and my last show is the day before," said Janet.
"I'll be packing my bags and dashing to the airport, before they throw me out."
Written by Philip Meeks, the drama sees Janet playing three characters – the British actress Margaret Rutherford, who starred as Miss Marple on screen, alongside Christie and the character of Marple herself.
"It was from Hull to New York," said Janet.
"Hull Truck was my last gig with the play before this run."
The London-based actress admits she had long thought the play, which highlights the doubts that Christie and Rutherford about the latter playing Marple, would be suited to audiences across the Atlantic.
"As the material is so English, I knew the Americans would really enjoy it," she said.
When the Mail catches up with her, Janet is enjoying her latest working appearance in New York.
She is staying in a friend's loft apartment in the Lower West Side, just off the Avenue of the Americas. From the balcony, there is a clear view of the Empire State Building.
It is a sight she is enjoying waking up to each morning and one that links back to a childhood fascination. When she was growing up in Willerby, Janet became fascinated with America through a neighbour.
"It is something I have always had a hankering to do, because our next-door neighbour was American," said Janet.
"She seemed so exotic. She used to give me American comics and magazines, I had this notion that being there must feel like being in a film all the time."
So when the possibility to take the drama to the festival came up, Janet latched on to the chance.
"From 800 applications they take 200 shows," she said.
"When I found out I'd got my visa, it was like winning the lottery."
The fact her interviewer at the American Embassy in London was a staunch fan of Rutherford's might have helped too.
"When she was 15, she'd named her cat Miss Prism, after one of the characters Rutherford had played," said Janet.
"We spent 15 minutes talking about Rutherford, before she said 'Your visa has been granted'."
Janet has been an actress for four decades.
A former pupil of Beverley Girls School, Janet left her home city at 17 for London, where she gained her Equity Card working in children's theatre.
A few years later, during the mid-1970s, she returned to join the newly formed Humberside Theatre.
It was while working at the theatre that the actor Stephen Frost – known from his appearances on TV shows including Whose Line Is It Anyway? – whom she married in 1978.
Janet's first professional appearance in New York came during the late 1970s with Stephen, through the couple's part in a sketch group The Wow Show.
The group had been invited to perform in New York by a promoter who had seen them in London, and Janet was instantly taken with the city.
"We stayed in the same hotel as the Clash, it was all very exciting," she said.
"It is a changed place now, and is so safe compared with when I first came here in the 1970s.
"It was probably a little bit more energetic then, but now you can walk anywhere."
She later spent three years in the city from 2007, commuting back and forth to London to see Stephen.
Her last stay saw her as a "jobbing actress", in roles including voice-over work, which meant she has a readymade network of friends and contacts in the city.
The pre-publicity for her new show also helped.
After an article in the New York Times, which focused on older people taking part in the Fringe was published, Murder, Margaret and Me was sold out even before the run had started.
As she continues her stay in a humid, autumnal New York, Janet admits she misses the chance to walk out into her back garden.
But the pleasures – and possibilities – are obvious.
"I am Off Broadway now, at last," Janet said.
"The next stage, hopefully, is Broadway itself."
