May 2009 Archives

…and in no way am I saying I’ve got it; I gave it back years ago, and am not quite sure when I’ll have it again, but my ramblings this blog are about selling yourself. Not in a ‘fish net tight bathed in red light’ or a Mr Bumble ‘boy for sale’ sort of way, more of a convincing people to employ you manner!

As actors we’re forever selling ourselves and trying to make out that we are the best person for the job, whether it be through audition, a CV or interview. So how far can we go? How much is too much? When do you cross the line from confidence into becoming an arrogant fool?

It has been very busy in Wonderland this week, not just performance-wise, but rushing from one venue to another.

One of the necessities of touring is coping with the amount of travelling, along with living out of a suitcase — preferably one that you can pack and re-pack easily. I have managed to fail at both this weekend. After driving the tour van back to London on Friday evening, and getting stuck in the inevitable bank holiday traffic, I missed my train (by 52 seconds exactly). There were no more trains going far enough west that evening to be useful to me, and so I dragged my bags over to Victoria coach station only to find that all the coaches going in a vaguely west-ish direction were full. As it was getting late, and to the best of my knowledge my friends in London were all absent this weekend, I decided to have a small breakdown before successfully finding a hostel for the night.

The next morning, I broke the zip on my suitcase. This was not very helpful.

And the moral? When touring, take a big bag and leave plenty of room so there is little danger of breaking the zip. Always have useful contact numbers to hand (having just got my hands on a new phone, I didn’t even have the number for National Rail Enquiries), and when possible avoid holding phone conversations on the street late at night, because aside from the obvious dangers, a drunk Frenchman might just propose to paint you as a chicken, naked.

This last week has been a good week in the wonderful land of April. The company I’m working for offered me the rest of the tour, which obviously I am thrilled about, since I am enjoying the performance and, of course, being in work and getting paid!

I was also offered a tour in the autumn, which starts right after my summer work, which means I am in the fortunate position of being secure in employment for the rest of 2009. This particular tour requires me to move to London, and I am very excited to have the perfect excuse to finally take the expensive plunge! I am eagerly anticipating my week off next week, when I fully intend to use my pay to get a haircut and the extra time to pack a new set of clothes. Living in the same few t-shirts and jeans can get very boring!

Yesterday I found time to meet Jack Sparrow and randomly pulled up at a petrol station alongside the truck carrying the Hogwarts Express. (If any readers are interested, Jack Sparrow is for hire and I can thoroughly recommend him — his impersonation was flawless! If you are in London, keep an eye out for him in Covent Garden.)

The coming week sees the company back in Norfolk after a confusing week in Glasgow. (My entire family is Scottish, but I still struggled to understand the accents!) I finally found time to sort out a new phone since my previous one broke almost two months ago, so from tomorrow I hope to find more time to keep up to date with industry news online.

Having spent a lovely weekend in Greenwich, one of my favourite spots in London, I have spent the last half hour listening closely to a group of German passengers on the train in an attempt to improve my questionable German accent. Although at least “questionable” is more than can be said for my non-existent Birmingham accent.

Accents aside, the show this last week (touring around Norwich) has been going brilliantly — well received, and no major hiccups. The cast I am working with are fantastic performers, lovely people and, I think it’s worth mentioning, entirely unpretentious. I have had the misfortune to come across so many pretentious actors at auditions that I was beginning to worry that we were all like that.

It’s been lovely to explore this part of the country, in what little time there has been between performances, and the coming week takes us to the other side of the country up in Glasgow.

I am finally getting to grips with the multitude of roles I am playing, alongside my technical/backstage duties and remembering which costume I’m changing into next (in my state of brain-overload last week I failed to mention that the production is a musical version of Alice in Wonderland). My main causes of anxiety are actually nothing to do with my own performance, but rather to do with difficult scene changes, whether I can squeeze the van into parking spaces, and what I’m cooking for dinner. You may laugh, but there is a lot of pressure when you’re cooking for people you hardly know. Of course, having mastered a potato peeler, I’m ahead of the game.

More updates on my adventures in Wonderland next week.

I return to the Grads’ Club after somewhat of a bloggers’ sabbatical. I have been in America for the last month filming a very exciting new film, destined to be a blockbuster smash next year. I haven’t been able to update ou on any of this because as yet it’s all under wraps. I am playing a student nurse in a new psychological thriller and that is about all the information I think I can legally reveal thus far.

In case you hadn’t already rumbled me, all the above is a big fat lie.

On Monday last week, just as I had arrived home from my stint on the boat and had begun preparing myself for another period of unemployment, I received a phone call asking if I could get to London the following day to rehearse. I said yes, and here I am.

Of course, there is a little more to that story than simply receiving a miracle phone call. The original actress in the show fell down the stairs on Monday morning, and is subsequently out of action. The company needed another actress immediately and I had auditioned for the part before Christmas. It was a stroke of luck that the offer coincided with the monkey gig coming to an end. (Obviously not so lucky for the actress who fell down the stairs!)

The week has been what I would call “completely mental” since that phone call. For the rest of the day and well into the night I was putting finishing touches to my thesis which I had to get to Liverpool the following morning, since I would now be on the other side of the country come hand-in date (next week). Then the next day I was in London, being taught some of the songs by one of the cast on the way. Then I spent three hours getting from central-ish London to somewhere further north where I was staying with a friend. (With such little time to prepare, I have very little idea of where I am!) Then I rang my old voice tutor in a panic because the following day I was supposed to be rehearsing in an Irish accent, a Birmingham accent, a French accent and a German accent, none of which I could do! So after an impromptu voice lesson down the phone (I must owe my tutor about fifty drinks in thanks!), I tried to learn some songs before crashing out.

I spent most of the night awake, worrying about all the songs and script I hadn’t learned yet, then suddenly it was 6am and time to walk to the bus stop, try to get on the right bus, hop on the tube and look puzzled. At this point, some men told me I looked confused and was I alright, and to cut a (very!) long story short, they told me how to get to the theatre more quickly on a bus. I got on the wrong bus and ended up at a hospital, which was mildly funny because I had been poorly all morning, but mostly annoying because I had to try to find a bus from there that was going in the right direction.

Once I got to the venue, I rehearsed all day and then took the long journey back to my friend’s house. More accent work, some line runs, a few hours sleep, and it all starts again. Three days after the phone call, I’m performing in Norwich.

It’s been a completely crazy week, fun and incredibly stressful all at once. Since I have learned to drive the company van, I am spending the weekend at a reunion in Lincoln. Of course, I will have my ipod and script with me the whole time!!