Natalie; relaunched...

Another blog post in quick succession! You lucky readers! I’m attempting to write more about my attempts to crack this blasted industry instead of sitting waiting for the email responses to start rolling in while I watch ‘The Big Bang Theory’ double bill on E4 every weekday afternoon and dreaming of being in ‘Downton Abbey’ hanging out with Bates! So here goes!

Monday found me extremely excited to get myself motivated again. Although I do have a show coming up in a matter of weeks, it finishes on Christmas Eve, therefore leaving me ruefully unemployed again after the festivities.
I hit my go-to casting website of choice and headed straight for the ‘Opportunites’ section. This naturally means unpaid work. I’m too poor to renew my membership to see the paid stuff at the moment, but I figured that the more I get my face around, even for unpaid stuff, the more chance I have of being seen.

I was faced with a broad selection of student final year films to choose from. My first application went to a film involving a girl whose fiancée had been killed by a man whose house she ended up in. It was a non-speaking role, and for most of the film she would have to have a blank expression and glazed over eyes. Off went my application. I received an email later that day saying that I wasn’t suitable. My headshot is pretty much a blank expression with glazed over eyes, what more did they want from me?!? Oh well, on to the next one!

Application two caught my eye for the reason that it was based in Northamptonshire. I live there! Pick me! It was incredibly vague, with the only information being that actors would be typecast with the chance to input dialogue ideas. I sent my application off not really expecting to hear anything for a while, as there was still a week left before submissions would stop being accepted. But yet again I was responded to on the same day. It must have been a slow day for everyone. I opened the email and was asked if I would be interested in being part of the crew selection team. This was getting more bizarre. I don’t know much about crew work! I know they do a bloody good job but I don’t know how to choose the right people! I replied saying that acting was my main focus, as that’s what I’m trained in, but I’d be glad to help out in any way that would be useful. I had another immediate response asking me to email a different address with my contact details. I did this the next day and received a message saying that they couldn’t give anything away at the moment but that I would DEFINITELY be involved. Watch this space I guess!

My final application of the day went to a student film at Bournemouth University about a girl who goes into a cake shop. It sounded amazing! I love Bournemouth, I love cake. Done. I don’t think I even read to the end of the casting breakdown before I started writing my application. Fingers crossed if they hired me they’d pay me in cake! I had to wait for a reply to this one…

Tuesday took me back to Bedford for the read-through of the script for ‘The Wild Things’, more of which can be read on my previous blog entry. With a pre-read though Nando’s, free Domino’s pizza and my very own cheesecake and cupcake offerings, it was a very good night indeed!

Wednesday saw me applying for a pilot for a crime drama. The only role that I was suitable for was the police station receptionist, but I’ll take anything! It was a small role but recurring throughout the series (if it got made!). Sometimes I do remember smaller characters more than the leads, so anything could happen. I clicked the ‘send application’ box and sat back trawling the listings of unsuitable jobs…
And then I found a Shakespeare job. This one was completely different to anything I had seen before. This was an online Shakespeare which would be filmed in different ways and the viewers could choose how they wanted it to go. It was ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ which is my favourite Shakespeare play but one that I have never been lucky enough to be in. Again I jumped at the chance to apply.
I received an email later that day with a script attached and instructions for auditioning. I had to learn the scene, and film it, leaving gaps for the other characters lines to be edited in. I could film it in any way that I liked, there was no wrong way to do it. It sounded fun, so I raced to my printer and collected the pages. I had chosen the role of Helena to audition for and was that the wrong decision! The scene that had been chosen saw Helena with long rambling monologues! It was going to take me a while to learn it, and I only had until Sunday to do it and email it over. I was busy in the evening so I postponed it to the morning.

I woke up bright and early on Thursday to learn the epic scene, spent about 2 hours trying to force it into my brain before giving up and deciding that I wouldn’t audition after all. The lines were going in but I was rapidly running out of time. I had one time gap to do it in on Friday morning and that was pushing it. It seemed like an awful lot of effort to go to just for an audition for a job that wouldn’t get me paid. I knocked it on the head.
I took a look at Friday morning’s casting offers but wasn’t tempted or suitable for anything so I dragged myself into town for my fortnightly visit to the job centre. Thankfully, large Trevor wasn’t there to scoff in my direction, and instead I was directed to a lady who was obviously new to the job. I could tell that she was new because she was incredibly nice to me and helpful. She also didn’t have the beaten-down look about her. They hadn’t broken her yet.

With a skip in my step I made my way to the Lighthouse Theatre to help out with Starlight’s latest show dress rehearsal. It was the first show that wouldn’t include the senior team, but we were all there to help out. The kids in the show ranged in age from 2 to 14-ish, and I was sickened by their incredible talent. I really have to start upping my game!! But their shiny gleeful faces made me smile, and off home I went ready to prepare for a beast of a Saturday.
I arose at 8am, threw some clothes on and got things ready that I would be needing for my evenings activities. At 9am I left the house and again made my way to the theatre. I hadn’t been assigned a job on Friday night, but I was swiftly made ‘runner’ for the matinee performance. I was hoping for a nice sit-down job, but instead I really was literally running all over the theatre building trying to make sure every child was on stage at the right time. Almost-300 of them. And I did it! There was one hairy moment when I thought that Starlight Kids wouldn’t make it on in time for their beautiful version of ‘Hey Jude’ but with a little encouragement, they made it and my neck was spared.


I left just as they were about to take their bows, met my driver (dad) outside and made my way to the next venue of the day, The Hampton by Hilton hotel in Corby. It was murder mystery time! Yes, I actually did some acting work this week! Huzzah! I was looking forward to this one. I had done the story before, and there was only one actor that I didn’t know in it, but she was lovely! We had such a good night, I wasn’t asked any difficult questions, and we got some free food thrown in! Perfect! I normally panic if someone asks me a question that I’m completely unprepared for, but last night’s crowd were of the blue rinse brigade, and I evaded one gentleman’s questions by flirting outrageously with him! He loved it, and was really upset that I was the murderer as he really liked me! Ha!

Job done, it was back to Kettering to meet up with some beautiful girl friends of mine and to ignore anything I ever learned from every single one of my voice and singing teachers by yelling at each other in loud noisy pubs and doing awful karaoke with incredibly drunk boys.
I woke up today with everything hurting, and feeling that I wouldn’t be able to speak for a week, but what a glorious night it was. Theatre and murders and jobs, oh my!


No rest for the wicked! ;)