Dipping my toe back in

So!

To introduce myself back into the acting world, I helped a casting director friend out the other week with a new drama that I believe will be shown in 2014. I don't know if I'm allowed to say what it is so to be safe, I'm keeping schtum about what it was.

However, the morning itself was so much fun! Basically, it was a recall for 2 actors (though thankfully not for the same part #awks) and I was reading for them so they had someone to bounce off in their audition. Initially I thought it would be like any normal audition situation - the actor walks into a room where people are sat behind a desk and reads and then leaves. 

Was it like that??

Nooooo.

Instead, I found myself mime-sword fighting - thanks JH for my stage combat certificate, it finally came in handy! Mime-sword fighting whilst trying to play lines in a way that doesn't fuck up the actor you're playing against - it is their audition after all. Thankfully though, I've always been able to soak up lines like a sponge (provided there aren't shedloads) and so was able to flail my arm about in a what I hoped looked like a cool, professional sword-wielding way. 
Both actors auditioning were simply lovely and I was reminded what it was like being in a rehearsal room and that was rather thrilling!

The whole time we were doing these scenes, we were being filmed by the director, which I found unnerving and a new experience. But on reflection, I suppose it was a good one because now I'm prepared if it ever happens again!

In one scene (and there were many), myself and the other actor were playing ex-lovers and had to have a proper fight (whilst trying to stab eachother with swords) and by the end of it, we were screaming at eachother; when the director yelled "Cut!", we were both panting and my hands were shaking, which took me right back to rehearsing Antigone at the National earlier this year. I remember shaking when we finished a scene I had been shouting so much (saying that, that could have been the fact that it was the day after Press Night so...).

Anyway! Little blog about my first little venture back into the wild...

xxx

Glad I had the time out but...

Well, hello!

It has been a while, hasn't it?

I have decided to write this blog because there have been a change recently and I wanted to write about it. Firstly, after taking time off from having anything to do with acting, I have had a rethink and decided that my life without acting is like a world without Channing Tatum - meaningless. At the time, I was so convinced that taking an indefinite "break" was exactly what I wanted to but over time, I found myself cracking a bit.

For instance, I'd be watching a TV drama and break down because I'd realise that with my new decision, that was never going to me; or I'd go and see a show and not be able to switch off thinking how I would have played the character - and then I'd cry afterwards because I knew that I'd never get to work on a script again. I know this all sounds horribly wanky but there ya go. And of course, it all got taken out on poor H!

So... A few weeks ago, I met with my agent and we had a lengthy chat about what we were going to do in 2013 - an action plan, if you will. And whilst no one knows if any of it will come to fruition, it's a plan and that's something I didn't have a few months ago.

So, as of January 1st 2013, I am officially back to being an actress who does some odd jobs on the side and to anyone who might find my flaky, well, find me an actor that's not. However, I will say that if I find myself taking a "break" a second time, that will definitely be it for me. So here goes.

Happy New Year!

Some slightly strange news

Hi guys,

I realise it's been ages since  posted & I apologise for that.

I've got some news that I wanted to share with you on here because it's quite important (to me anyway). I've decided to take a break from acting, and I don't know if that's an indefinite break or just a long one, but it's a break nonetheless.

This is for many reasons, some of which I won't bore you with, but some I will. First and foremost, I have not long ago moved out of mum and Damian's house and set up home with my lovely "H". Rent is not exactly cheap, but it's doable, providing I have a steady income every month. This is, of course, not guaranteed when it comes to acting (or performing in any way I suppose) and being able to make rent, pay bills and not having to rely on H for everything is important to me and I'm not working nearly enough to be able to do that. And it dawned on me not long ago, that if in a few years' time, I'm still working as sporadically as I am, I can't really afford to have a family - not comfortably anyway - and that's something else that is incredibly important to me. Going out socially, be it to the cinema, theatre, for dinner etc., also became difficult because of a lack of income, and that was no life for me. I want to enjoy life because it's too short and scrimping and saving every last penny for the foreseeable future just didn't seem an enjoyable prospect. So that's the financial aspect of things.

Secondly, my weight. I am by no means a "fat" girl, whatever "fat" means. I am curvy and proud of those curves. My grandmother and mother are curvy so it's genetic and I love it. Weight is so heavily focused on in this industry, it makes me shake with rage sometimes. I've never been told to lose weight by anyone in the industry, but a lot of times when I've lost out to parts, it's almost always been to a very slim, size 8 girl. Now, I am in no way saying she doesn't have the talent as well as the figure, but after so many rejections in favour of someone two dress sizes smaller, one can't help but draw comparisons in appearance. I eat healthily, I go to the gym as often as poss, but I also like my carbs and won't give up spaghetti bolognaise for anyone. Too many girls who I know, who aren't naturally a size 6/8 are practically starving themselves for a part, and if they come out for dinner, they pick at a side salad. That's no way to live as far as I'm concerned. I'm not saying this is the case for every casting director, that they look for the slimmest talented girl, but it's certainly more often than not the case. And I can tell you, that if anyone told me to lose weight in an audition, I'd be out of there quicker than you could say Mr Kipling.

Thirdly, possibly the wankiest of reasons, but one that I know is a sticking point with a lot of actors. The sanctity of this business is non existent, I feel. It used to be that you had to join Equity and become a member of that union before being able to act either on TV or on stage - this is how I understand it from my mum and dad, as it's what they had to do. I trained at drama school - it was the most difficult 3 years of my life and I don't regret them, but they were fucking hard and I will take on anyone who says drama school is a doss. too many kids do GCSE drama, thinking it's a breeze then drop out because they realise it's not. Or at least it wasn't "in my day", waaaaaaaaay back in 2004 ;) Now, it seems anyone can become an actor. With no training, no credentials, and NO TALENT. It's so easy for a celeb to get into acting (as yes, it is for an actor to get into "celebing", something I also don't agree with). Take Chris Moyles playing Herod in The Lord's JCS tour. I'm not a huge CM fan but I've nothing against the guy personally. I don't know him after all. However, I take massive umbrage that he - a former Radio 1 DJ - is playing a hugely coveted role as far as musical theatre actors are concerned. And all because he's Chris Moyles. I haven't seen it, and I don't intend to, but I doubt he would have been cast if he was bad, so I'm sure he was good. However, there are thousands of men who have trained and worked their bollocks off working their way up from being background dancers & chorus members etc., who would chop off any limb asked to play that part. The same goes for Mel C playing Mary Magdalene & Tim Minchin playing Judas. To put it simply, it's plain unfair. I have also recently heard plans for a TOWIE movie. I admit, I watch the odd episode of TOWIE, but mainly because it's a bit of badly done crap to take my mind off anything and everything that went on in the day. Now they're making a cocking movie?!?!?!?!?! I genuinely couldn't believe my ears when I heard and it just shows the new levels people gave have sunk to to make money.
Now, before you all start jumping down my throat and saying "oh but you watch X Factor and indulge in and tweet about that" blahdeblah. Yes, I do. Again, for the same reasons as TOWIE. It's a bit of wind down time and if I missed it if I were out for the night, no biggie. Also, most of my tweets are angry re. the X Factor because it's so shite, so maybe I will stop watching it...

I don't want anyone to think I'm "picking" on the JCS cast or anything, but these are just a couple of examples. Lily Cole might be a decent actress but she's a fucking model and I can almost guarantee you she got seen as soon as her agent suggested her for the role to the CD's.
There is also the thing of placing your career and life in someone else's hands, something which I am entirely uncomfortable with. Constantly walking in to auditions with a big smile on my face and being overly nice to people I've never met before (even if they treat me with complete indifference, which has happened on numerous occasions) and all to get a part that is weeny, in something not great for not a lot of money. It's a shit existence if you're the bottom of the pile. It really is. So anyone considering being an actor, I say, grow a pair before entering in to it. A big pair. And waiting for the phone to ring and constantly checking your emails after an audition can turn you into a seriously dull individual. The Twitter crap I get isn't much fun either. On the flip side, it can be an incredibly rewarding and fun job to do. I've made a dream come true by performing a lead role on the Olivier stage at the National Theatre, which was a trip and so much fun. I'm not slating it as a whole, really, I am grateful for the chances I've been given, and I mean that sincerely.

So, there you have it, I'm taking some time out - how long for I'm not sure yet. If I do decide to leave that side of the business, I would absolutely look in to another side of it (ie. agent, casting director), but that's totally up in the air right now. At the mo, I'm doing a couple of normal jobs, running around like a blue-arsed fly and generally leading a normal existence for a while, which is nice.

Anyway, thanks for reading darling ones. Just wanted to explain to avoid the future "what are you working on now?" questions.

Loads love xxxxxx

Press Night down!!

Hello!!!!!!!!!!!


I seriously can't believe I haven't blogged since the second week of rehearsals. I have been so ridiculously busy with rehearsals that I just haven't really had the time to sit down and write a proper blog (the beautiful weather didn't exactly help my cause).


Anyway, as you might have guessed from the title, we have leaped over the Press Night hurdle at long last! Can't quite believe it but we did it. The really scary part for the guys is out of the way and now, as far as the understudies are concerned, the real work starts. so while Jodie and Chris et al are taking well-deserved lie in, we are in the theatre bright and early ready to get cracking with understudy rehearsals. I cannot wait! 


Miraculously, we're on the Olivier Stage first thing today, which is fantastic, as ordinarily we would be in a rehearsal room so we're very lucky!
I'm rather proud of myself actually, because as last night was Press Night, I could easily have gone down the route of getting absolutely hammered and then turning up this morning looking grey and in need of a fry up! However, I only had 2 beers and spent the evening chatting with friends, my agent, the cast and some industry people. H came, naturally and my best friend. It was so, so lovely to have their support on such a big night. They were, typically, the first people I saw when I came on stage. My first entrance is while the audience is still piling in and so the house lights are still up. I had to tear my eyes away from them, suppress the urge to wave and go "Look! I'm on the Olivier!" and remember I'm a consummate professional! 


Well I shall blog a bit later today as now that I have a fair amount to do in terms of rehearsal, there'll be lots to say!


Until then xxxx 

A rather quiet Tuesday :)

Evenin' tweeple!

There isn't a great deal to blog about today because unfortunately, our understudy read through got cancelled, which was quite frustrating, but what are you gonna do?!

Instead, the guys worked on a scene whereby Creon (Chris) announces he is to take over the throne of Thebes as the previous King (his nephew) died in battle. They worked on it for a good 3 hours - broken up by lunch - and at the end it looked really, really good, so was well worth missing the read through for to get that result.

Instead, we're going to do some work on it tomorrow with Drew, the Associate Director, and I'm really excited about that. Due to the fact that it's only Jo and I who are called (2.30pm - 4pm - lovely!), it won't be a read through, except maybe our scenes. So I'm really looking forward to find out what else we'll be doing. 

What the others have been doing in their rehearsals with Polly, is "actioning". This is scoring the text with a transitive verb for each line. For instance, one of my lines as Antigone is:

"Don't be frightened for me, fear for yourself."

If I were to action this line, it would be "I override you", or something similar to that. It's really useful for some actors; I for one find it quite difficult, but then I haven't actually done it since I was at drama school in 2008. I didn't have the best experience, but I'm sure being at the National will be a whole new experience actioning-wise, and I'm well up for it!

Anyway chaps, must dash! Speak tmrw :) xxx

Better late than never...

So, first of all, I have an apology to make...

SORRY!!!!

(for this being a super tardy blog post)

Ok, that's done. Now on to the good stuff :)

Week 2 of rehearsals ended last week which means we are two down and four to go (three until we move in to the Olly to do tech and dress runs - which is bloody scary!). 

Last week, we began to get stuff up on its feet & it was so nice to do so! All the exercises we've been doing will no doubt be really useful, but it was really great to start doing some stuff that we'll definitely be using in the show. As an understudy, we watch most of the time rather than actually do stuff. Jo and I will be on-stage when we're not understudying, but not doing a hell of a lot, so what Polly's doing is getting the scenes on their feet with the rest of the cast first and then slotting us in after.

On Friday we were sat at the side watching for the day and to be completely honest, I got goosebumps watching everyone, especially Chris. You genuinely can't take your eyes off him when he's working. It's an honour to be sharing the stage with such an incredibly talented cast.

I wish I could show you some pictures of the rehearsal room and the rehearsals themselves but I'm not really allowed. The set's been put up in the room so we can map our movements out easily, and even in that room, without the lights and sound etc., it looks incredible. It's just so exciting, every bit of it! 

Also, I started learning my lines as Antigone, and I think I've just about nailed the first scene - which is really long, and Antigone has about three monologues during it so I'm glad I've got that one out of the way. I ran lines a few times this week with Jo and Ross (who's covering Chris as King Creon), and that was interesting to see how it would sound as up until now, we've only heard Chris, Jodie and Annabelle speak those lines together. 

I had the day off today which was nice, as it meant I had the chance to run a few errands I'd been meaning to run over the last two weeks. However, after the first few were run, I was seized by the most crippling cramps I have ever had (bloody typical). Coupled with the fact that it was a bit of a crap day weather-wise, I lounged on the sofa watching movies all day! Lovely.

Back to work tmrw, where we're having a read through with all the understudies, which I'm really looking forward to! I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

Nighty night!

xxxxx 

17th April

Hey guys!

Hope everyone's had a good Tuesday :) Mine was pretty good too...

At present, I'm being a bit of a chav and watching Made In Chelsea after having had a slightly piggy dinner of spicy chorizo pasta - nom nom nom!!

Today was a pretty standard day in rehearsals. We started off by doing some warm-ups, which included the dreaded CIRCUIT TRAINING!!! Eeeshk. I think we all came in this morning praying for no circuit training but it just wasn't meant to be. Having said that though, we all felt miles better for it - refreshed and wide awake. Which was a nice feeling seeing as the weather this morning was absolutely gross and walking across Embankment Bridge was bloody horrendous, with the rain face whipping you every second. Grim.

After the dreaded CIRCUIT TRAINING (yes, that's right, it's capital letters worthy), we tried to get the uniting done and we so nearly finished before lunch - we had one more page left - but I think everyone's hunger got the better of them and we weren't really agreeing on certain things, so Polly thought it best to break for lunch and come back to it after, which worked a treat. After lunch, we finished the last page and a bit in 15 minutes.

Once uniting was done with, we read through the whole play again for Ben Power, who is the Associate Director of the NT. At one point during the read, I got a searing pain in my head and had to go to the bathroom to splash my face with cold water. It bloody hurt!! Ben seemed to really enjoy the read, which was great. And after having united everything, all the intentions seemed a lot clearer and made more sense. Even though I don't have any lines unless I'm covering Anitgone, I love listening to people as it's an opportunity to learn a hell of a lot.

We finished the read through and got a well deserved cup of tea! After this, Polly set us a task, about which I will go into more detail another time because it's not completed yet and I want to be able to tell you about it properly. The last thing we did before finishing for the day was show some of our research. Only the two of us did it today. Tim's research product was about surveillance in the Stasi (the Military for State Security in Germany) and mine was a woman's role in Ancient Greece. Both went really well, and Tim's project was particularly interesting.

Well, that's all folks! That was all the fun we had today. Tomorrow night I'm going to an art show of H's flatmate's. His entire debut collection has just been bought up by Charles Saatchi, which is a-mazing, so we're going to support him. We probs won't get home till fairly late but if I can, I'll blog, and if not, I'll be sure to do it Thursday! 

Love love love, fnar fnar fnar (specifically for theemi1y xxxx

An eerie afternoon

Evening campers,


Today was a bit of a strange one. We started the day by meeting outside Stage Door of the NT to catch a coach to our second day trip out! We were all on a bit of a high because our director Polly's show "Svengali" (yes the one with Derren Brown) won an Olivier last night, so we were all really happy and bouncing around offering her our congratulations.


We eventually all piled on the coach and Jo and I plonked ourselves down in a roomy area of the coach (Jo is the other member of the Ensemble and Ismene's understudy). Here we all are:

We were off to Kelvedon Hatch Secret Bunker in Essex. It's not so "secret" anymore obviously, but it was a very special thing to be able to see it in all it's glory. The first thing we did was get a cup of tea. Standard. The canteen was an interesting place. No natural light or windows at all which made the whole thing quite claustrophobic but I suppose that was the point...?

Anywho, we then started the tour. Seeing as we didn't have a tour guide, we were given what were called "wands". Because we're a hilarious bunch of actors, we joked that because of this, we were going on a Hogwart's tour. Fnar fnar.... This was the first thing to greet us when we walked in:

It was just so quiet and empty. Really, really creepy. But pretty amazing at the same time. Here's a bit of history for ya...

Kelvedon "Secret" Bunker was built during the height of the cold war in 1952-1953. It was built to house around 600 important members of Parliament, including the Prime Minister, in the event of a nuclear attack. To protect from such an attack, it was obviously really far below ground, about 120 feet. The claustrophobia kept comin', I tell ya!

There were so many contraptions and machines dotted around, I didn't catch what they were all for. Here's some pics of them:

This dummy above scared the SHIT out of me! Look! She's got no arms. None at all!!!

As I said before, the bunker has a creepy feel about it - I'm hardly surprised there are ghost tours that take place there or that it has featured on "Most Haunted". At one point, we were all doing our own thing when looking around and I went off to have a look at what was known as the medical wing. This is what greeted me:

Let's just say I wouldn't let this guy operate on me!!

There were also various dorms with loads of bunks - some of which had dummies in and some of them didn't. There was one bed that housed Thatcher:

Completely surreal. The dorms creeped me out so much that I powered through them and ended up back in the canteen sharpish along with Chris. So the two of us sat and grabbed some chow whilst we waited for the others who soon began trickling in.

We got back to the NT at about 4 and then spent the rest of the day uniting. Everyone was pretty tired, especially Polly & Jodie who had attended the Oliviers the night before. So at 6, I think we were all pretty glad to be going home to a bath, food and bed! The last of which I'm going to do now.

Night night!! xxx

Little outing

Happy Sunday everyone!

Sorry I didn't blog on Friday but as I was totally pooped at the end of last week and just didn't have the energy to think! All I wanted to do was flump in front of the TV and have a pizza (which, you'll be pleased to know, I did).

So Friday! Friday was a brilliant day for us because we all went on a little research to Churchill's War Rooms. It was absolutely amazing and we were lucky enough to have our own personal tour with our own personal tour guide! But I'll get to that in a moment...

We spent the whole morning on Friday going through the script and uniting. I've just realised that when I write "uniting" it looks like I'm writing that we "united" together, but for those of you who have read my previous blogs will know what I mean! We got a fair amount done before lunch, which was just as well because the plan after the war rooms was the pub!!

It was a beautiful day so after lunch in the canteen, the girls and I walked across to Westminster to meet everyone and begin our journey back in time...

The first thing we saw was the Cabinet War Room where Churchill would sit with his men and come up with strategies. It was absolutely incredible. Here's a picture:

Almost everything in the room was original from the ashtrays down to the blotting paper and pencils. Churchill's actual chair (the one at the back behind the red box and in front of the map) apparently has 2 marks on either arm: one for when he had scratched it down with his ring, and the other for scratching away with his nail - it's a stressful business, this strategy malarkey!

After this, we went to the map room:

  

Again, everything here was original from the telephones, the maps with tens of thousands of little pin pricks in them and the various documents lying around labelled SECRET. It made me laugh to think that these were the things Churchill was so secretive about and yet here they were everyone to see. The dummies in these rooms were pretty lifelike (the one facing us bore a striking resemblance to Steve Carell actually...)

This is a picture of the same room but taken from the other side of the room in the 1940's:

After that, we went along the corridor to Churchill's bedroom. Now, he apparently only slept in the bed a grand total of 3 times but it's pretty damn cool nevertheless, what with seeing his desk, various maps etc.

It had a tendency to get quite claustrophobic seeing as were a fair bit underground and there was no natural light or windows, so after nearly 2.5 hours I was glad to see daylight (and a glass of wine, yes). But before we went, Jo and I managed to get a look at the women of this place to get a sense of what we'll be doing on stage when we're not understudying. The women who worked downstairs in the war rooms were typists, secretaries etc.

We've got another trip tomorrow to the Kelvedon Secret Bunker in Essex. The most exciting bit? We get to go on a coach!! DAY TRIP!!!

Hope everyone's had a wicked weekend. Speak tmrw :) xxx

Day #3

Hello hello hello lovely people!


First of all, I just want to say a huge thank you to those of you who read my last two blogs - I was a bit overwhelmed by the response I got so thanks, sincerely.


Right! Today was mainly about going through the script some more. However, the first thing we did this morning was a voice session in the Olivier Theatre (or "the Olly" as it's known at the NT), which is the theatre we will be performing in, in a little under 6 weeks! This is the view from the stage:

I couldn't quite get far back enough (due to "She Stoops To Conquer"'s set being on stage) to take a proper pic so here's one from the side which gives you a better idea:

It's absolutely massive! I believe it seats something like 1600 - gulp. This last photo is taken from a side set of seats (you can see an identical one on the other side). 

The voice lesson was fantastic, we did all kinds of exercises and my voice felt a heck of a lot better for having done it. After the lesson, we went back in to the rehearsal room and carried on uniting the script like we were doing yesterday. This is a pic of our work station:

Those are my scruffy bags you can see under one of the tables! At some point over the next few weeks, I'll get a proper pic of the rehearsal room. It's massive so as to accommodate the Olivier space so hopefully I'll get my camera in rather than just my crappy phone!

After lunch, we did a bit of movement, but nothing like the circuit training we did yesterday. With it being straight after lunch, I'm pretty sure a few of us would have up-chucked! We played a few games, a few concentration exercises etc. It loosened us up and got us ready for the rest of the afternoon which was spent uniting. 

Near the end of the day, we made a timeline of the immediate circumstances leading up to the beginning of the play, so what happened in the hours before the play starts. This is again a fantastic directing technique and really helps set the scene and get you in character.

Tomorrow, we're all going to Winston Churchill's War Rooms on a little field trip. What with our set being a War Room-esque type design, it'll be really interesting and helpful. I've got my camera on charge so will try & get some photos to show you over the weekend!

Hope you've all had a good Thursday and again, thank you so much to anyone who is reading, enjoying, recommending and RT-ing my blog. It means so, so much!

xxx

My limbs aaaache....

Evening all,


Today was my second day at the NT and boy was it intense!! We went to the pub last night after rehearsals for a quick drink ad whilst there, we got an email with what we were going to be doing today in it... The first thing we noticed? CIRCUIT TRAINING!!!! FIRST THING!!! For those of you that don't know, circuit training involves various different exercises at various different points (ie. stomach crunches, press ups, the "plank"). We had 7 stations in our rehearsal room and after about 10 minutes of running and skipping and jumping around the room, we got on it! It was hard, but actually turned out to be super fun. We were in pairs going around the different stations and I was with Annabelle, who's playing Ismene. We were giggling the whole way through - as was everyone to be honest! 


After that, once we'd dried off and had a well deserved cup of tea (and a banana and yoghurt in my case), we sat around in a big circle of tables and began dissecting the script. It's a bloody short script (and hour and 10 when we read through it yesterday) and there won't be an interval so I reckon it'll be rather popular seeing as the audience can get into the bar before 9pm! Our director Polly likes to "unit" her scripts. "Uniting" is basically breaking the script down into scenes and then breaking these down further, depending on when the mood on-stage changes. It takes a fair amount of time but is well worth doing and if I were ever to direct, I know I'd do the same.


It was a beautiful day on the South Bank today so at lunch rather than just stay inside (especially as I wanted a little nap after the circuit training), I decided to go for a little walk and it was very nice indeed! I don't get to go to the South Bank often so am taking full advantage of my time there.


After lunch, we had a lady called Laura Smith from UCL come in and talk to us about the play. She's a lecturer of Classics and therefore knows her stuff! We were throwing all kinds of questions at her and she was just knocking them out of the park! We got so much information, my little notebook was busting with notes!!


Once Laura was gone, we carried on dissecting the script until the call ended at 6pm.


All in all, a bloody good day! 


I took a photo of the rehearsal room to show you but I'm at H's this evening so can't upload it properly - will do that tmrw!! In the meantime, here's a poster of our production:

Night night!! xxx

PS: Please can I ask you all to check out another blog:

theemi1y

theemi1y is a comedian and a twitter buddy - she's fricking hilarious on that  & even more so on her blog. You'd be silly not to have a gander! xxx

New job, new blog...

HELLO EVERYONE!!!!

Well, as the title suggests, I have acquired a new acting job, which means a whole new set of blogs recording the rehearsal process and the run itself.

This time, the play I'm doing is "Antigone", a Greek tragedy by Sophocles. It's set BC but we're going to jazz it up a bit and set it post-WW1 but with a hint of it still wafting about. The part I'm playing is Ensemble which is basically background - but important nonetheless. I am also getting the chance to understudy Antigone!! The lead bloody role!! And not only am I understudying the lovely Jodie Whittaker, who is playing Antigone, I get to do it at the Royal National Theatre in London. It's like the Holy Grail for actors and huge, huge deal. I couldn't be more excited to tell the truth!

This will be my home for the next 3 months:

Yes, that's me outside the National theatre, looking pleased as punch with myself. I really am so chuffed. It was something we used to joke about at drama school - "oh yah when I'm at the Nash, chuff chuff". And now I am, it's a bit surreal to be honest!!

So today was day 1, and even though I thought I was going to be late, I was ok and got there in the nick of time! We started by doing some name games and getting to know eachother exercises - there's a heck of a lot of us (though only 5 girls which is nice!!). Then we had a look at the set, which is AWESOME!! It's so cool, and because it's in the biggest theatre at the NT, it's huge. As I said before, our director Polly is going for a sort of post-WW1 thing with a splash of modernity, so if anyone's been to the Winston Chuchill War Rooms Museum, you'll have an idea of what I mean. We broke for lunch and the girls and I ate in the canteen specifically for NT staff members - which was a bit of a thrill!! I then bumped into a friend from drama school who turns out is doing a play at the NT too! Very small world...

After lunch, we read the script and then had a talk with various staff members from the NT - including a health and safety talk. Then it was up to costume for costume fittings. None of us really know the kind of thing we'll be wearing, but I'm jolly excited to find out!

I managed to grab a picture outside our rehearsal room before we finished.

Well, I'm totally shattered now so have to hit the sack!! Night all xxx

The End Of The Road...

Hello to my gorgeous, lovely followers!


Well, we came down on Saturday 25th February 2012. And it was a date to remember! The last 3 shows were absolutely brilliant and we were all incredibly emotional by the end of it.


I'd had some end of production gifts made for the rest of the cast and decided to give them before the matinee on Saturday rather than the evening performance. It was a photo of the 6 of us from Press Night in a small frame and on the back was written "Bloody Poetry Press Night 2012" and one of Byron's quotes from the play: "I begin to enjoy myself greatly with you lunatics". It made some people well up and others burst out laughing but then we all had a huge group cuddle (some people were halfway through changing so it was a semi-naked cuddle) and gave everything we had to the last 2 shows. 


Here's a picture taken in the interval during the last show:

(Secretly we're weeping on the inside...)

The last week of "Bloody Poetry" was practically sold out, was fantastic morale. It was a great book end to what we all agree is possibly one of, if not, THE best job any of us have had in a very long time. And on Friday, somehow, H managed to get himself a ticket and surprise me. It was the 3rd time he'd seen it - you couldn't get a more supportive boyfriend!

While I'm incredibly sad it ended, that lovely saying comes to mind:

"Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened."

Which is exactly what I shall do, because I know I've made friends for life and that makes me feel incredibly warm inside!

Most of Saturday night after the show was spent in a lovely little West End pub called The Captain's Cabin and after that we moved on to a club in Soho called Freedom, which was great fun! We were dancing for what felt like hours - H accompanied us - and I remember laughing a lot! 

After finally stumbling in at around half 5, I fell into a deep sleep very content and happy :)

Saturday night would've been incredibly depressing had we not had a cast meal arranged for Sunday night (last night). We went to our director's house and he'd cooked an amazing meal! We had lovely, melt-in-your-mouth ham and roasted vegetables with red cabbage, and for dessert, apple and cinnamon crumble. Yum-my. I think at one point, one of our lot had us in hysterics by remarking "I think it's really nice to see a spice used as a predominant ingredient". It doesn't sound funny when typing it, but it was probably a "you had to be there" situation. Trust me. Hilarious.

So that's the end of my "Bloody Poetry" journey for now, but as I said before, these people haven't just been my colleagues, they've turned out to be my friends and I am truly, truly chuffed about it. 

I'll update the blog as and when things happen career-wise, but for now, thank you all so much for coming on the ride with me! It's been a blast :)

Lots of love xxx

Long time no speak!!

Hello lovely, loyal followers!!


A huge apology that I've not written in an absolute age! This last week or 2 has been absolutely crazy what with going up and all. There's been so much to think about and do.


We went up officially last Friday and it was brilliant! So much fun! Here's a pic of us all at the after-show party:

(From l-r: Nick Trumble; Rhiannon Sommers; David Sturzaker: me; Joe Bannister; Joanna Christie)

These are the guys that I've been spending the last month and a half with and have become a second family. I love them to absolute bits and am having the time of my life working with them all.

All in all, so far, our reviews have been really positive. Here's some links to the reviews:

Reviews Gate

The Arts Desk

The Daily Telegraph

Remote Goat

The Independent

Time Out

What's On Stage

As you can see, it's all pretty good so if any of you would like to come and see, please do - it'd be brilliant! I do not want this journey to end.

xxx

First Day In The Theatre

Greetings everyone from a very excited actress!!

I am unbelievably excited about this production and got even more so when I walked into the theatre this afternoon and saw that the set was up, the lighting was being rigged and the desk for mixing the sound and lighting was set up in order for the Technical Rehearsal to take place.

I didn't end up rehearsing today, but we did get our dressing rooms (boys V. girls) and ours has zebra print tables which are very nice indeed! I shall endeavour to post a picture later on this week.

Look at what greeted me when I got to the theatre:

If you look super closely at the poster - that's my name on it! That made me super happy :)

A lot of the time, techs can be quite laborious and time-consuming, and while they are definitely the latter (think everyone is finishing around 10pm tonight having started at 1pm - some much earlier), it doesn't feel laborious because everyone seems to be having such a good time.

For those of you who don't know, a tech rehearsal is to fix the lighting and sound in place before we do a dress run (which is doing a full run of the play with complete make-up, hair, costume, sound, lighting, set etc. without stopping). The dress run is due to take place on Wednesday afternoon, on the day we go up!! 

I should be doing my bits tomorrow and am very much looking forward to putting on my costume! Depending on how my make-up and hair goes, I'll put up a picture - want you to get the full experience, so if it's a bit shoddy tomorrow, I'll leave it till Wednesday!

One of the best things about today, was the fact that every cast member and Tom brought in some home-baked goods. I didn't however, because like a pillock, I forgot. But I will!! Those were some good home-bakes!! Yummy yummy yummy.

Here's a cheeky little pic of the stage:

In this photo is Joe (Shelley) and Rhiannon (Mary) sitting next to our lovely SM (Stage Manager). That strip of light at the back is known as "West Brook". I'll break it down for you: Harriet's last name was Westbrook and she drowned herself in the Serpentine River. So for the majority of the play, we will allude to her link with water using that back part of the stage. So we "cleverly" renamed it "West Brook", like a watery brook... Geddit...? Clever ain't we?

Anywho my luvvlies, I have one long arse day tomorrow (10am-10pm) and will no doubt be throwing myself about the stage so need to get some shut eye. Poor H, supposed to have a quiet night to himself tomorrow but I've ambushed it because getting back to mine from his adds nearly an hour on to my journey and I need to get into bed asap!! Bless him, he's such a good'un!

I'll speak to you all tmrw!! 

Lots of love xxx

26th Jan

Good evening everyone :)


Today was another pretty short day. We did our third run and out of all the ones we've done so far, it was definitely the one that was the most full of life and energy. Tom told us to be free and try out new things, even if we weren't sure about them, so that was what we did.


One scene in particular, which I'm not in, had me in utter hysterics. It's a scene in which the others act out the allegory of Plato's Cave. It challenges what we perceive to be real to what is actually real. It's quite convoluted so I'm not going to go into it now, but basically, it's quite a complicated and wordy scene. However today, the guys mixed it up and had a great time with it. We had the Artistic Director of the Jermyn Street Theatre in today to watch and he said that what makes the play is the spirit of it - fun. And that's what he thinks we've captured, which was great to hear.


I tried some new things in my speech, which I've yet to hear Tom's opinion on! We get our notes tomorrow so I'll let you know how it went down...


xxx

A walk in Hyde Park...

Good evening loyal readers,


So today, I have a bit of a treat for you... I took myself to Hyde Park and had a little walk around the Serpentine (where Harriet killed herself) and I filmed it. I shall upload them in just a moment...


Today, we had a sit-down day and received our notes from the run yesterday. They were definitely shorter than Monday's notes - we had 6 pages this time instead of Monday's 9 and it took an hour less to get through. 


We then had this "Italian rehearsal" that I mentioned yesterday. What I initially thought it was, was doing the lines at super speed in an Italian accent and I was sort of right, but there aren't any Italian accents involved. It's basically to test that we know the lines when put under pressure, like having to do it at high speed. And for the most part, we were fine!


After that, we had another costume fitting and... I got my costume!! It's brilliant. I don't want to say too much about it yet as I'll post a proper picture when it's all done properly, but what I can say is that it's fantastic and I'm very chuffed.


It was another relatively early finish today so before meeting H from work, I went off to the Park and here's what happened...

So there you have it! 

And to finish, I took a spooky photo...

xxx

Rehearsal photos...

Also guys, here's a link to the website which has some rehearsal photos of us doing our thang!! Take a look:

Rehearsal Photos "Bloody Poetry"

1 week today people!

I can't believe that this time next week, we'll be nearing the end of our first preview performance. Utter madness! And so exciting!!


We had an incredibly short day today so this won't be the longest blog in the world, but I'll fill you in the nonetheless.


Today we did our second run, which was considerably better than the first - and even that one was pretty good. (I think) Tom made less notes than he did before so fingers crossed he thinks this one was better, considering we'd tried to take on all the notes he'd given us yesterday on board.


We had a bit of an audience today. As well as the usual Tom and our Stage Manager, we had the Development Director and the Lighting and Sound guys in, as well as the Marketing Manager. It was the first time they'd seen or heard the piece since the readthrough and the reaction we got was great! It can only get better :)


We finished at lunchtime and if I'm honest, I was a bit of a lazy cow and spent the rest of this afternoon having a duvet day in bed catching up on all my favourite programmes and eating things I shouldn't. Then again, my last day off was just over 3 weeks ago, so I don't feel that bad...


Tomorrow should be fun - we'll be doing what Tom calls an "Italian Rehearsal", I'll fill you in as and when!!


Until then my lovelies, sleep well & I'll speak to you tomorrow!!


xxx


PS: Hello to my lovely new twitter followers - a massive thank you for the support, it means the blimmin' world!!