Sunday 15 September 2013

Acting by numbers... 3, the magic number?

So, after a few weeks of cryptic notes scattered throughout these blog posts, I'm finally going to reveal to you my secret project, coming this December. You lucky things!

Naturally there will be a few ramblings first, I'm not that good to you! It's been quite a productive week actually, things are moving in the right direction and I'm pretty much set now for the rest of 2013, which is good, as my normal person job is rapidly coming to an end, with either one or three shifts left.

I headed back to Bedford on Monday to catch up with the lovely (don't tell him I said that) Ivan, who I have had the pleasure of performing with on a handful of occasions. We sat in the pub, drank our afternoon away and naturally discussed jobs, the lack of, and how we're going to take over Germany. Yep, watch out! Mid-way through our shenanigans, I received a phone call from London. Not knowing many people in London Town I warily answered, but it was a job offer! Lovely. I'll be heading back to Peterborough next month to record another book for the RNIB.

The book arrived the next day and I stared at it in disbelief. The thing is huge! I'm booked in for eight days of recording. The last book I did was four days and I almost went insane doing that one, sat in a room with no windows listening to the sound of my own voice. Still, it's a challenge!!

Thankfully I'll be breaking up the days with my other job for next month, working down at Thorpe Park! Yep, I'm swapping one theme park for another! This time I'm not going to be a humble ride operator, oh no. This time I'm going to be scaring the pants off people, for fright nights!

S half of my week will be spent in a box in Peterborough, with the rest of my week spent inside a box in Surrey with people screaming at me. By the time I emerge in November I doubt I'll realise what daylight is any more. Maybe I'll get rickets!!

I'm obviously excited to be working, but it also means I get a nice bundle of cash together for when my secret project starts. Which brings us back to Monday. After Ivan had got me tipsy in the pub(!) I made my way to the lovely David's house for my first meeting and read-through.

As David was explaining things to me and telling me what would be happening, I was getting increasingly nervous and it's not even happening until December! But happening it is. I am joining David's company, Blackout Theatre Company, and travelling to Kansas City, Missouri, USA! Yep, my American acting debut is happening! I'm performing one of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads monologues, Her Big Chance. My first performance in America is a solo show. To say I'm terrified is an understatement.

I'm already starting to panic. I've got to fit rehearsals around both Thorpe Park and the audiobook, I'm going to be absolutely exhausted! I do thrive when I'm busy but I'm hoping I haven't bitten off more than I can chew!

I've spent the rest of my week in bed with the book trying to get through as much of it as I can before my Thorpe Park induction on Saturday, as from then on it's full steam ahead until mid-November. Eek.

While taking a break from reading I've also been trying to find accommodation down in Surrey for fright nights. It's proven quite tricky but I managed to book somewhere for half of my stay. It wasn't until the next day I looked on TripAdvisor and found the shockingly bad reviews. Oh we'll, I'm hoping I'll be busy enough to only have to sleep there, nothing else!

Annoyingly I've had to pay upfront for it, and my next decent pay day won't be until the end of October so it might be back to the student diet of Pot Noodle and biscuits for me next month, although my hotel room doesn't even have a kettle. The things I do for my art.

It's been a time for moving on this week too. I unexpectedly received an email from a guy I did a play with back in Bournemouth when I was studying, and he told me he had made the move to London to give acting a go up there. I was so pleased for him, I remember him being excellent in the play we did, and he told me back then that he'd like to be an actor, so I was excited to hear he'd made the move.

Today I also bade a sad farewell to four of my colleagues at my normal person job. They are all off to university, all in different years, but still, flying the nest again. It was sad to see them go. I didn't think that I'd enjoy my job as much as I have, but it's all been down to the people I've worked with. Yea, there's been a significant age gap between us, but they didn't know that for quite a while, and I've felt like I've gained a whole new group of friends.

I don't know if I'll be returning to the job next year, or if they will, but they've made my summer fun, and although there were days when I really didn't want to go to work, and was having my mini-breakdown over my acting career, they always managed to put a smile on my face. Working at a theme park can actually be fun!

It's all going to be over in a couple of weeks, but I've still got three more jobs to do before the year is out.

I'll be all over the country again, popping here and there, stretching myself thin with rehearsals and performances, but you know what? I know I won't be happier. 2012 was an amazing year for me, and I didn't think I'd top it, but 2013 is doing a pretty good job of catching up! With three and a half months left to go, who knows what could happen!

Nxxx

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