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
