Tuesday 11 June 2013

A-Z of Acting: S is for...

Surprises, sets and, erm, snogging!


The last week and a bit was just what I needed to get my head back in the right place to be getting on with Much Ado. Fortunately I have a summer birthday, and (although it happens on the same day every year) it was perfectly timed.


Although I was insanely excited to be back in acting work again, I hadn't been too happy with the work that I was doing, so I needed a kick up the backside to get me going again.

Annoyingly, I'd volunteered to work my birthday at my normal person job, but the sun was shining, and I was working with a guy who made the day go really quickly as we had quite a lot of fun, so that was a bonus. I was then taken out by my parents for dinner! Normally my dad is the kind of man who will take us to a bog standard 2 for 1 pub, but he chose well and paid full price for everyone's meals! It seems people can change, haha!

My other half came along with us, and gave me my birthday gifts while we were all sat around the table. I won't list what I got because you'll all be jealous(!), but the first thing that he handed to me was an envelope with a piece of paper in it. He had told me that we were going out for the day, but he hadn't told me where. I opened the envelope and found out that we were going to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour! I almost screamed with excitement! Good job Mr Boyfriend!

Wednesday rolled around, and I was beyond excited. We went out for breakfast before driving down to Leavesden, and I was buzzing all the way. Once the tickets were in my hand I practically bounded through the doors, and was snapping away with my camera at everything in the entrance, we hadn't even got in yet!

It sounds stupid, but once the tour started, it really was magical. It begins at the doors to the Great Hall, and once I saw them, my jaw dropped, and a wave of butterflies took over me. It was like I was a child again.

The tour couldn't have been better. There were set pieces, costumes, wigs, props, everything I could have wanted. I went and knocked on the Dursley's front door in Privet Drive, got on the Knight Bus, sat in the Ford Anglia, stood outside my favourite shop in Diagon Alley (Flourish and Blotts, by the way!), it was perfect.

The other half knew that I wanted to go, as I had been moaning months before that all of my friends were going and I wasn't, but I don't think he understood what good it did me.

Being in that environment where everything around you comes together to create something beautiful is amazing. People there were surprised at how much goes into films, and although I'm no expert, I know that it's a big job. It reminded me of how much I love doing what I do, and on the way home I couldn't wait for the next day to arrive when I would be back in rehearsals. I didn't think it would have that effect on me, I thought that I'd just be another excited Harry Potter fangirl, but it just gave me that push to get my acting head back on and work hard, so that maybe one day I'll get to hang out on sets like those as an actor, rather than just a spectator.

I woke up on Thursday ready for action, but had to wait a few hours to do my stuff as I wasn't called to rehearsal until 1.30. I drove myself to Bedford belting out a load of power ballads (some days my iPod just knows how to make me happy) so I was in the best of moods when I got to the theatre.

We rehearsed the end of the play, another scene where I don't really have a great deal to say(!), but there's a few things for me to do. Of course, everything is resolved and people get their happy ever after, which is marvellous for my character after what she goes through. The lovely Jacob, who plays Claudio, decided that to show his happiness at the end, he would pick me up and spin me around. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I HATE being picked up, I know how much I weigh and I'm just terrified that I'll break the person doing the lifting. He was having none of it. Before I knew what was happening I was in the air screaming at him to put me down. The rest of the cast thought it was highly amusing. I didn't. I pleaded with them to not let it happen, but Jacob told me that I was being ridiculous, and threw me over his shoulder like a caveman and marched me round the field before I begged him to stop as I was falling out of my bra!

I didn't mind his nesxt character choice so much, as it involved a cheeky snog, haha! That was also another reminder of why I love acting so much! You can do what you want on stage and no-one gets offended because it's not real, and it's work, that I get paid for! What other job is there where you can say that?!?

Saturday's rehearsal was pretty much the same too, I only had one line to say in the scenes that we rehearsed, and it involved another kiss. We've been joking around saying what dull characters Hero and Claudio are, but to be fair, they seem to be having fun in this play! Haha! Jacob joked around asking when my other half was coming to watch as he was going to crank it up and make him worried... there might be fisticuffs at dawn!! Ha!

My week had been perfect, lots of surprises from my man, including the trip that had got me back in the right place, and a couple of bloody good rehearsals. I'm back, I'm happy, and I'm ready to go!

Nxxx

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