Did you miss me?

Hi everyone! I'm back!

Apologies for my absence to those of you that take the time to read this, I'd say I've been insanely busy, but we all know that that's only half true, and much of my time is spent procrastinating.

Anyway, I fully intend to get back blogging again, and I thought what better time to begin again than while digesting the Christmas leftovers. Hope you all had a fabulous festive day and have exciting New Year plans. I'm not looking for sympathy, but whatever you end up doing on 31st, spare a thought for me, as I'll be sitting alone, probably watching a classic 1980's film or cheesy rom-com, sobbing uncontrollably wondering where it all went wrong and missing the ticking over into 2015!

This year has gone incredibly fast, and it seems like I haven't actually done much, but looking back, it has given me some pretty cool moments, I just had to scratch my brain a bit.

So here's my re-cap of 2014...

January kicked off and I got the most unexpected job offer which if I'm honest, I was reluctant to take. I began teaching at the dance school that I attend. I was handed almost 70 students, a script, and the information that the theatre was booked and tickets had been sold. I was terrified. Still, I had no acting work of my own so I stuck my head down and charged through it and managed to come out of the other side still smiling. That was 'Dorothy In Wonderland', and yes, it was as bizarre as it sounds. I was so pleased that I agreed to the job, and watching every single student improve throughout the year has been incredible. I'm so proud of all of them.

March saw me back in Bedford for another week of rehearsed reading performances for StageWrite, with No Loss and LifeBox Theatre. It was brilliant to perform in several plays all in one week in so many different styles and I hope I can do it again next year.

April brought with it the short film, 'Alice and Jack' in which I played Young Alice. I got to get my 1970's on which I loved, and I was really pleased with the final film. My students even watched it and said they loved it, and it made some of them cry! It even made me cry and I was in it!

There was sadly no summer Shakespeare for me this year, but thanks to Blackout Theatre Company, Lesley was brought out of retirement and I got to perform 'Her Big Chance' again, this time in England after my four performances in Kansas City last December, and my fabulous friends were kind enough to come and watch, and tell me I was great, just to make my head that little bit larger! ;)

Next up, I got to play the coolest girl in Rydell High, Rizzo in 'Grease'. I can't tell you how much fun I had, and I was devastated it was over so soon.

Shortly after that, I was lucky enough to work alongside my Kenickie and Sandy from Grease scaring the living daylights out of the people of the town when I pulled on my scaring hat again for Halloween. No Thorpe Park this year, but literally just around the corner at Wicksteed Park. It was smaller than my maze at Fright Nights last year, but equally as fun, and when you make some wet themselves and another throw up, you can't help but feel a sense of accomplishment!



November rolled around and I was the proudest director in the land. 6 months in the making, we put on my production of 'Oliver Twist'. To see a poster with the words 'Written and Directed by Natalie Castka' was something I never thought I'd see. Oliver Twist is my favourite story in the world, and the entire cast worked so hard to make it bigger and better than I ever imagined it would be. Of course I could not have done it without my amazing assistant director, John, who had to put up with my almost weekly breakdowns and worries that things were not going well and that the whole thing was going to be a disaster, but with a few slaps to the face and stern words we got there and the feedback was beyond anything I could have asked for. The cast were even in floods of tears that it was all over, it seems my emotional-ness has spilled over into them, as well as my acting techniques! Oops!

So what's next?

Well, I've applied for the few acting jobs that are out there but options are limited (for once it's the truth when people say there's not much about).
As for my students, half of them will be performing 'Peter Pan' and the other half performing 'Second Star To The Right'. But what's that, I hear you cry! I'll tell you! It is a sequel to Peter Pan that will be written by myself and John. I pretty much just told him he was writing it with me so he had to agree(!) but we have some good ideas flowing already and I'm really excited about what we're going to create! This time I'm not hiding behind a novel and stealing ideas, we're coming with our own original play and that's quite terrifying as well as exciting!

I finished the script for 'Peter Pan' this morning and have been squirreling away this afternoon putting together my soundtrack and I'm getting more excited by the day. As well as bouncing off the walls at the fact that I get to fly the characters!

That's it for now, check back for Neverland progress, I shall keep you informed every step of the way, with nuggets of information like this: Today I spent £22 on sequins for costumes and we haven't even done casting yet. True story. Oops!

See you soon,

Be good

Nxxx

Distractions...

Greetings, welcome back avid readers!!

It's been so long since I last wrote that I have no idea what it was that I wrote about!

Anyway, quick update, my performances are coming up soon! Yes, Lesley is coming out of retirement after her exploits in America, and I'll be performing 'Her Big Chance' at Bedfringe and Reading Fringe Festival in July!

Also, after the success of Dorothy in Wonderland, I didn't get the sack(!) and I'm writing and directing Oliver Twist! The script is 99% done! casting g is complete, I just need to tell my cast who they are playing and get cracking! Huzzah!

Also, tickets are available for the production of Grease that I am playing Rizzo in in September!

Come and see me!

Her Big Chance tickets available from www.bedfringe.co.uk and www.readingfringefestival.co.uk
Grease tickets available from www.lighthousetheatre.co.uk

Hope to see you there :)

Nxxx

What a difference a film makes...

Lately I've been having another confidence low. I've only got one acting project lined up, and the rest of life seems to be plodding along with nothing eventful happening at all.

Annoyingly I've been finding myself turning to Facebook, in the hope of finding out some juicy gossip or trying to find work through other people, but to no avail. But on Sunday evening I saw a post that brightened up my evening. I saw that the director of the last short film I did was uploading the film to the internet for the whole wide world to watch. 

I eagerly logged on to the website waiting for it to upload, but after 4 hours and still nothing, at 1.30am, I decided to call it a night.

Once I opened my eyes on Monday morning, I remembered the film, and immediately got back online. Lo and behold, it was there, with no views. I was the first one to set eyes on the finished product.

I was apprehensive about pressing play. I'm not really a fan of watching myself back so soon after shooting it, I like to wait a while until I almost forget it, and then be pleasantly surprised (hopefully!)

I could not have been happier with this one. Filming is weird, because you never know what it looks like unless you ask to watch takes back, which I don't. As long as the director is happy. I'm happy.

The film was shot beautifully, it was the first time I had seen the other actors, which was also very exciting. The cleverness of linking the scenes really made me smile, and despite being in the film and having read the script several times, it still managed to surprise me and make me cry. 

As I've said, I don't like watching myself back, and this may sound big-headed, but I thought I was pretty darn good in it! I will normally watch myself once, but after the first viewing, I went straight back in for viewing number two, and even had a few more during the day.

I've never been prouder of a film that I've been in, and the fact that I was asked to be in it by someone who I've worked with before made it that much more special. He had seen what I could do, and wanted me for his (very important) project. 

It was just the boost I needed on a Monday morning to kick my confidence up a notch, and remember that I can do it, I just need to believe in myself.

So, thanks again to Matt and Jamie for creating a beautiful film, thank you to Scott for being an amazing co-actor and bringing out the best in my performance through your work. And thank you to everyone who has supported the film in some way, even by just clicking 'like' on Facebook. After 4 days it's already seen over 400 views, which is pretty spectacular. 

And if you haven't seen it, here it is, just for you. 'Alice & Jack'... Enjoy :)

http://vimeo.com/94864705

Nxxx

Donning the directors cap...

Thirteen weeks ago I landed myself a new job. It was a job that I never thought I'd end up doing, because I want to be in the spotlight myself.

Yes, I am a drama teacher.

Don't worry, I'm still acting, I only teach four hours a week!! 

I took over the job from someone else, someone who had picked the play that was to be performed, had already cast it, had the theatre booked and tickets had been sold. I was given three different classes to teach, and I probably only knew about 8 names out of the 54 cast members that would be in the production.

I felt strangely calm about the situation, thirteen weeks didn't seem long, but with no 9-5 job, I felt like I had plenty of time to sort everything.

The first few weeks went quite slowly, I was getting to know everyone, having to re-cast people in different roles, had people dropping out, it got a bit crazy but I kept my cool and slowly but surely everything fell into place.

At times it felt like I was fighting a battle with some students, I came in expecting lots of hard work and hoping that they would be dedicated to the play every single minute. Of course they weren't, some of them are teenagers!

Eventually they saw that I meant business, and once they saw that I wasn't backing down, I began to see brilliant work from all of them. 

I spent many nights up until the small hours making props and costumes, almost had a mental breakdown over a cardboard tree(!) but I knew it was for the good of the show, and as the one in charge, I knew that I had to keep going. The students were working so hard, and I couldn't let them down.

Yesterday was show day. Thirteen weeks were up, and it was time to face the music. Thanks to all of their hard work, I was able to sit and watch both shows without feeling any panic whatsoever, they knew exactly what they were doing and I had a fantastic group of people helping me out backstage, so everything ran completely smoothly.

The feedback that I received from parents was amazing. Of course people are always going to be proud when they see their children on stage, but the personal messages made me feel brilliant. 

But the thing that has made me the most proud of the show and the journey it has taken to get there is the messages I have been receiving from one of the cast members.

I only found out a couple of weeks ago that it would be his first ever production. He had been working so hard and was so good that I was completely unaware of it. Over the last couple of nights, he has been sending me messages of thanks for all of my help and encouragement, and he rounded one message off by saying thank you for making his mum proud of him. That really pulled at my heart strings. He has already asked when the next show will be, and when our next lesson is, I think I've created an acting monster!

I haven't felt like I've properly gotten into the job yet, my main concern was getting a group of 54 students into something that resembled a show as quickly as possible under a massive time constraint. I have seen them improve during the rehearsal process but to receive messages from their parents telling me how much of an improvement they have seen in their children's acting, and their confidence as people, had really made an impact on me. If I have done that in only a few short weeks, then what else can I push them into achieving in the next show?!? 

I don't know who will read this, but thank you to all of the cast for doing such a great job, the cheers and thunderous applause was all for you, you deserved it. Thank you for bringing smiles to my face every week, I look forward to our next show together!

Nxxx

The Art of Kissing...

Firstly, if you've been awaiting a post for a while, a thousand apologies, life got pretty mental for a while! Rest assured that this time next month, I will be back with a vengeance!


So, kissing. It's a funny old thing isn't it?


Last week I was back working in Bedford as part of StageWrite 2014, the same new writing showcase week that I was involved in last year.
In one of the plays that I was in, two of my fellow actors were playing boyfriend and girlfriend, and the script called for a 'passionate kiss'. I won't name names, but for one of the actors, it was their first stage kiss. We had a long amusing conversation talking about the art of kissing acting, brought up by the question 'We don't have to use tongues do we?!?'


The consensus was no, of course not, you should just do what you're comfortable with, and there's no point in using tongues as the audience can't see anyway!


It got me thinking back to previous productions where I have had to kiss people. As of this week, my total has raised to four.
The first time I had to use my stage kissing skills was in a production of 'Much Ado About Nothing' in which I was playing Beatrice. Unfortunately the gentleman who was playing Benedick and I had had a very large falling out and pretty much detested each other. Quite a good thing for most of the play, but when the kissing scene occurred, it required all of my acting talents to make it look like I had at least a little bit of affection for the bloke.


The first time we kissed, it was slightly uncomfortable, but I quickly realised that I'd have to be kissing him every day for three months so I just had to get on with it and in the end it was fine. Around half way through the tour, we had an even bigger falling out, and the play started to suffer in the romantic scene. No matter what happens between myself and a fellow actor, if I'm being employed by someone to do a job, I'm going to do it the way in which I'm directed. Him, not so much.
He began a tradition of just cupping my face in his hands and pretending to kiss me, when it was blindingly obvious that his head was quite a distance away from mine, and even if both our tongues were fully extended, we still wouldn't have contact!


I didn't want to bring the issue up with him for fear of creating another argument and causing a large rift in the cast, but as the show was being performed in schools, the kids we were performing to liked to speak their minds, and after one show in which a child shouted out, "Well that was sh*t, he didn't even kiss her!!", full lip contact resumed the very next day.


My next stage kiss happened at StageWrite 2013, in a play which called for another passionate kiss, in which my character took her boyfriend by surprise. I was quite shocked when it came to rehearsals, the guy I had to kiss asked me if I was comfortable with it, and I could tell that he was thinking about it more than I was. It had never occurred to me that someone else might be more nervous/uncomfortable with it than I would be. I went in for a snog but he pulled away quite quickly(!) and that's how it stayed. It was fine, and I laughed it off and added it to my tally!


Kiss number three came in another production of 'Much Ado About Nothing' last year. This time I was playing Hero. Hero doesn't say very much at all, and when introduced to Claudio, the man who she is due to marry, she still doesn't even talk to him, they don't speak until their wedding day. We were still in scenes together, but ended up spending the majority of our time together standing at the back of the stage kissing, while everyone else was doing the hard work. What a job ;)


This was the first time that I had to do a stage kiss while I had a boyfriend in real life. My Claudio kept joking around, saying he was going to really ramp up the kissing scenes when he came to watch, and I admit I was slightly nervous about it but it turned out to be fine, he understood it was my job.


It's really strange, I went on a date recently, and was really nervous about the idea of kissing at the end of it. What sort of kiss do you go for on a first date? If you do at all. I didn't kiss him in the end as he had a cold and he told me he didn't want me to catch it. Don't jump to conclusions, we're still in contact, he wasn't just blowing me off!


But my point is, it's much more nervewracking kissing someone for the first time in real life than it is on an acting job.
I turned up to the film I was shooting this week and met the guy who would be playing my husband. Thankfully he was absolutely lovely in every way and I felt completely at ease with him, unlike some actors that I've worked with(!)


We were playing a married couple so obviously our job was to make our relationship look convincing. We didn't shoot our kissing scene until day 2, so we had a bit of time to get comfortable with each other. All of day 1 was shot outside in the freezing cold, so between takes we were huddled together and cuddling to keep warm which started our bonding process! :)


When day 2 rolled around, it didn't seem awkward at all. Obviously it's not professional to make a fuss about it, it was written in the script and that was what was required. But I still can't get over how 'easy' it was. It's just a weird thing to do, it got me thinking at what a bizarre career I have. In any other career, no-one would be asked to kiss another person, people would kick up a proper fuss! I must admit I had to supress a giggle when I felt a tongue make a dart for my mouth, especially after last weeks conversations, and I guess that's what sparked this post, and set my mind wandering on a Sunday afternoon.

Anyway, here's a sneak preview of said film, 'Alice and Jack', from behind the scenes (a couple courtesy of Scott). I can't wait to see the final cut!