Frozen excitement, a self-taped audition, and 50 Shades of Neverland...?

So another week has gone by in a flash, and I'm back!

Sadly there wasn't a lot of Neverland action last week. I found myself working an abundance of hours in one of my normal person jobs, and doing very little else.

The school that I teach at had a large dance show on at the weekend, meaning I didn't get to work with my Peter Pan cast, but I did get to see them all perform marvellously on Saturday, and they were all amazing. The whole show was flawless, they typically are just before mine come around(!)

I still kept myself busy with show business though, and had the task of finalising my cast list. It was so difficult, but the decision has been made, and the cast will find out their fate on Friday. I've spent the last few days trying to dodge parents and students who have been badgering me to find out who is playing which role, and as I'm the only one that knows the entire cast list, I've tried to go into hiding for fear of being hounded!! And no, nosy parents that read this, I won't tell you before them! ;)

As well as casting, I was still desperately trying to finish the soundtrack to the show, and putting my voice overs with the tracks to make sure they sounded okay in reality and not just in my head. So far, so good. Of course with two plays, comes two soundtracks, and I found the perfect piece of music to end Act 1 of our sequel. When I heard it, it perfectly summed up the tone of the end of the scene and act, and I was really excited that I'd found such a good track to use. Unfortunately, said track comes from the upcoming '50 Shades of Grey' movie. Fingers crossed that it's only a handful of parents who will have seen it that will notice, oops! 

On Sunday I went to the house of a girl I used to go to school with to try on a very exciting dress. This Saturday I will be Elsa from Frozen at her neice's birthday party! I'm so excited!! I tried on the wig, which was a slightly startling look as I was definitely not destined to be a blonde... But once I put the dress on too, my inner 4 year old squealed with delight and I didn't want to take it off! I think I'll be more excited than the children on Saturday!

And then came today. Yesterday I received an email offering me my first audition of the year. (About time!!) as excited as I was, my heart sank slightly when I saw that I had to self-record it and put it online for them to see. Regular readers will remember the traumas I have of having my father assist me in such ventures, but thankfully due to a change in his working hours, he was unavailable, and so the role went to my Neverland partner. 

I had told him that it would only take twenty minutes to film, sent him the script and waited for his arrival this afternoon. It started off quite well. We rehearsed, did an okay take, and then it descended into madness. I got three complete takes (around 4.5 minutes) and over fifteen minutes of outtakes and bloopers! I haven't laughed so much in a long time, and it was so much fun that I forgot that I was actually auditioning for a job! I might take him along to every audition I do from now on!

We then trundled off to work with our 'Second Star' cast, who, despite giving me the most enormous headache (no need to work on their volume levels), made me laugh so much that it hurt! They chose who they want to audition for so next Monday is their time to shine!

On Thursday the script will be completed! I'm really looking forward to having a final script of our first ever original play, but I'm also really nervous about pulling to pieces what we've already got, and trying to make sure that everything is perfect. So far we've written separately, but now we have to sit down together and fight for our own ideas. I think it's going to be a very long day...! We're also off to a party on Saturday night, I do hope we don't fall out before then! But I guess you'll find out next week!

Nxxx

Natalie's Nugget: Before we've even begun work on both of these shows, I've found the next one that I want to tackle later on in the year(!) Nope, not telling! ;)

Tricky decisions, and feeling proud...

This last week has seen many, many highs, and my (slightly tragic) New Year's Resolution of 'be happy' seems to be taking shape.

In the class that I taught last Monday, our students had been handed the first draft of our script for the Peter Pan sequel, 'Second Star To The Right', but I still hadn't seen all of what my writing partner had written. He was going to send it to me via email, but I didn't receive anything that night, or the following, but I knew he had a lot of other big things on his plate last week so I didn't hassle him, but I was itching to read it and to put it all together.

I was just drifting off to sleep just before midnight on Wednesday when I was rudely interrupted by a text from him asking if I had received his email. I frantically refreshed my inbox but there was nothing there. I like to think that technology is wonderful these days, but it turned out that he did indeed send it on Monday night, and that technology had failed us. He sent it over again, and naturally I had to read it before I went to sleep. I gave it a quick read and drifted off, excited about what I had read, and for the fact that we almost had a full script.

I had Thursday off from my normal person job, and was browsing the supermarket for lentils (which went into a delicious home-made soup if anyone is interested and wants to marry me) when I received another message asking if I'd read it. I was so delighted to have a relaxing day that I had forgotten all about it, which, for those that know how obsessed I get with my productions, is unheard of.

I purchased my lentils, sped home, put both halves together and sat down with a green tea to read our creation. I was so excited! We had constructed the story together, so I knew what was going to happen, and I obviously knew what I had written, but to read it through from start to finish was brilliant. One of his scenes even made me cry, which I was not expecting at all! Not because I didn't think he could write like that, I wouldn't have come up with the idea of writing it together if I thought he would create something awful, but it just really moved me and I had to take a minute to calm down!

That was me sorted for the rest of the day, and I went to bed with a huge grin on my face.

Then Friday arrived. Ah, Friday! After getting through a day of manual labour (not really, but I like to be dramatic), it was time to put my casting hat on. Yep, it was Peter Pan audition day! I had one hour (less by the time we got started) to audition 41 students, all of which were fighting it out for six characters. There are far many more characters in my version, but everyone had their eyes on the same prizes- Peter, Wendy, Tinker Bell, Hook, Smee and Starkey.

The auditions were much more fun than I had imagined they would be. Of course, I was very strict, but every single student was fantastic, and I could see that they had worked hard on their audition pieces. The only trouble was, that everyone was so good that I now have no idea how to cast it! There are so many strong contenders, and there were some very nice surprises along the way, which makes it even more difficult! Thankfully I filmed them so I can look over them again, but it's going to be a tough, tough decision. Maybe I'll give it to someone else to decide!

And so we're back to Monday again, and a night of 'Second Star' work. As John said to me tonight, it's really exciting watching our play come to life. Either the students are being very polite, or they actually like the script, which just amazes me.

Tuesday 20th marks one whole year since I started teaching them, and it's gone so quickly. I've pulled off two shows, and am now working on two more (being performed on the same day, fool!).
It has (mostly!) been a pleasure to teach them all, and to watch them develop as actors has really made so very proud. I've also pushed myself to do things that I never thought I would be doing, I have no idea if I'm any good at any of it, but it seems to be working for now!

My first show with them was a bit crazy due to unforeseen circumstances, but then I got to make my mark by doing a show that I chosen, written and worked my backside off on, and had the most amazing feedback. And now? I'm pushing it even further; two shows, one day, including an original play that we have written especially for them. When I came up with the idea it seemed good at the time, then I started to panic and think it was a truly horrible mistake, and now that we're close to having a complete script, I'm back onto thinking that maybe I'm a genius after all! ;)

I've developed some amazing friendships along the way, the smile has been put back on my face, and not only am I proud of all of my students, but I'm pretty proud of myself for the first time. I've learned a hell of a lot of lessons along the way, and maybe at the time I was angry and frustrated, but you know what? It's made me more determined than ever to prove people wrong, and I'm going to keep pushing forward, do things my way, and smash it!

Never give up...

Nxxx

Natalie's nugget- Tonight I started practising my voiceovers for one of the shows. An actor loving the sound of their own voice... who'd have thought it?!?

The power of a table, and procrastination is my middle name...

It's not, I don't actually have a middle name. Apparently my parents were torn between two names when I was born, but did they give me other one as a middle name? No.

My name isn't the topic of this post, but it seems my ranting is quite apt, as my procrastination has been at an all-time high over the last few days.

When I last left you, it was Wednesday night, and I'd just had a business lunch (that still makes me laugh) and had come up with a storyline for our new play, 'Second Star To the Right', a sequel to the fabulous story of Peter Pan.

Things actually started off quite well. I sat down to my laptop on Wednesday evening and managed to write the whole of the first scene, and once I read it back, I was actually really happy with it. I think the square burger that I had consumed for lunch was still making me happy.

Thursday arrived, and I had to go and do some work in the real world, cleaning people's houses. I know what you're thinking. Glamorous. I know. Thankfully I was only working in the morning, so I had the afternoon and evening to write some more. Now, my usual spot for when I'm working at home is my bed. I wake up in it, go and have some breakfast, sometimes I might get dressed, but then I crawl back into bed and open whatever device I'm using and work from the warm cosy haven. Today, I had a plan. I had been into town a couple of days before and had noticed a folding table in a shop that I was browsing in. At the time I couldn't justify buying it, but subconsciously I knew what would happen if I continued to write from my bed, and so I made the purchase.

After posting an obligatory tweet complete with picture to show off my new furniture, I began to work once more. Again I was delighted with myself when I managed to write another whole scene and enjoyed what I had written looking back on it. I seemed to be on a roll!

Of course, by the time I'd started on my third scene, my concentration levels had waned, and I began to find distractions in the form of social media, television programmes, and general sitting and staring into space. The table had served me well for a few short hours, but my mind had begun to wander, and surely enough I found myself doing things that I called 'work' but really weren't. Such as creating a list of how long I was going to give myself to write each scene, coming up with mini-deadlines, and bribes for what I would get once I'd finished each scene.

This clearly used up more precious writing time, and inevitably, my third scene did not get completed that night. Even the news that my writing partner had written 'most of Act 2 scenes' didn't spur me on, and I retired to the safety of my bed, throwing a scowl at my computer.

Friday brought with it another full day of toilet cleaning, followed by two hours of drama teaching and three hours of dance, leaving me with only the evening for script work. I was thoroughly exhausted, sitting in front of a computer makes me tired at the best of times, but with working as well, my mind wasn't on the task. The weather was miserable, and by the time I'd got home and was ready to write, it was 9.30pm, and the wind was howling so loudly I was starting to think I might end up in Oz before the night was out.

I had also had lot of new people join my drama classes that night, and panic had begun to set in over how many I would have in the cast for 'Peter Pan', as the number of students exceeded the number of roles available. Tiredness won, and after three lines had been written, I gave in and hoped I could claw back the scenes by Monday, as I was now far behind schedule on my list that I had written instead of the script...

I woke up around 10am on Saturday and dragged myself downstairs to start the celebrations of my mother's 60th birthday. I had been so busy that I hadn't finished, or indeed started her birthday present, much to my brother's anguish, but we cobbled something together (that sounds terrible- we've actually got her a lovely gift, I just hadn't prepared it!), had a family breakfast which included birthday cake (a new course that I have labelled 'breakfast dessert'), and then I retreated back upstairs and began to toil away once more.

I was on a mission. I still had the majority of my scenes to write, and knowing that people were expecting something from me on Monday, I set to it. We had mentioned thunder sound effects when constructing the story, and I logged into Spotify and searched for thundery music (another distraction!). I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did find some thunder and storm sound effects which proved quite useful to listen to as I was writing. I don't know why I find storms therapeutic, but it seemed to do the trick, and I found myself much less distracted, and my writing was flowing. My goldfish seemed to find the whole thing quite distressing and kept trying to get my attention. I relented a few times, and fed them far too much, but they left me alone after a while.

As well as I was doing, I did come up against a few hurdles during the day. We had come up with ideas for the story so quickly that my handwriting was horrendous, and I had no idea what half of my notes meant. I spent a good ten minutes trying to decipher the word 'taunting', which I probably could have guessed from the rest of the sentence anyway, but the scrawl just wouldn't reveal itself to me, and I was starting to get angry.

I gave up quite late in the day, and by the time I finished, I only had two scenes left to write, which was only one more than was left on my schedule.

Sunday brought with it more distractions in the form of going out for lunch again for mum's birthday, with several people coming back to the house afterwards so I had to be polite(!)
I made an excuse to disappear after a while and sat down at my lovely table for the final push. I was still extremely tired, and my scenes decreased in length and detail as I just wanted to push through and get finished, but as it was only a first draft, I was happy to get anything finished.

7.30pm arrived, and it was done. 8 scenes in four days and 90 minutes, on and off due to other things. I know it's only half of a play, but I was quite pleased with what I had done. I printed off the pages and felt a sense of accomplishment. Which was immediately replaced with a sense of fear.

I actually had to present it to the class in less than 24 hours. My class of teenagers who tell it exactly like it is. What if they hated it, what if it sounded good in my head, but everyone else thought it was the biggest pile of rubbish ever written? I tried to forget about it and watched some trashy television to take my mind off it. What was done was done, four days of work couldn't be re-written in twenty hours. This was it.

And tonight came the moment of truth. I was incredibly nervous. Not only were the cast trying it out for the first time, my writing partner, John, would hear it too. Yes, we had constructed the story together, but we didn't know what each other had written and we could hate it.

We split the class up into small groups and gave them scenes to read and work on, to see what it sounded like and whether it was going to work, and the results were good! I liked what John had done, and he seemed to like what I had written too. It looked like we were on the same page, and things were going to work out just fine.

We still have 19 days to complete the final script, and with more new members coming in, we may have to write some more characters(!) but the basic story is there and I'm really happy.

It was a huge risk deciding to write a sequel, especially as I have never written an original play before, but I think we're onto a winner. Watch this space...

Natalie's Nugget: My folding table cost me £7.99, and my chair is incredibly uncomfortable.

Until the next chapter...

Nxxx

Motivation vs Laziness

I've had a couple of extremely productive days this week and we're only on Wednesday!

Yesterday I had the unenviable task of filing my self-assessment tax return, and wading through my countless receipts I found that most of my expenses were food-related, and I barely made any money at all. Hoorah for the acting industry!

One thing that kept me going throughout it all was the constant pinging of my phone as emails rolled in (well, my Back To The Future ringtone, but let's not get picky) as progress was made on getting my production of Peter Pan licensed. One more step and I'm good to go! Apart from auditions, casting, rehearsing, making costumes etc, but that's no biggie!

This morning I headed over to Milton Keynes with my fabulous friends Sam and John to watch my final panto of the season, another version of Peter Pan. Judge me all you like, but I've got to get my ideas from somewhere! I have lost count of how many versions of it I have researched and seen, as well as countless spin-offs and spoofs (I may have purchased another box set of a series I found tonight called 'Neverland', oops) so unfortunately I was saturated with it so much I didn't take much away from it, apart from feeling brilliant from chuckling away and joining in with the audience participation and falling in love with the actor playing Captain Hook(!)

Panto done, and we headed back, myself and John stopping on the way for a proper business lunch. I know, get us. We finally had the chance to sit down and decide what on earth we were going to do with our sequel play.

A few months back we had decided on a plan, and I'd come up with a title, 'Second Star To The Right', but that was all we had. So, full of food and with a beautiful backdrop we set to work. A couple of hours later, we had the whole story mapped out, scenes planned, and picked which scenes we wanted to write.

I had given us a deadline of having the script completed by 31st January which seemed quite a short time frame, but I thought it was achievable. Although when I mentioned this morning that I'd decided to extend our deadline by two weeks, I was shouted at and told no, we would have it done by 31st! I'm telling you, that boy can get mean! I need it though!

I had told the students that will be performing the play that I would have at least one scene for them to work on in our next lesson on Monday, and casually asked John how many scenes he thought we could have ready for them for the lesson. If I had been sitting on a chair rather than a squidgy bench I would have fallen on the floor when he replied "all of them."

ALL OF THEM?!? We were on Wednesday afternoon, that gives us less than a week to construct a whole play from scratch. This time I'm not able to flick through the book and take lines from here and there and follow the story in the book. Oh no, I actually have to use my brain this time.

I was terrified. Naturally I've accepted the challenge, and I fully intend to have something for all of my scenes by 4pm on Monday afternoon, but that didn't stop the butterflies from invading my stomach.

I know what I'm like. I can be the laziest person in the world. I can have a vitally important to-do list and still find time to watch a marathon of my favourite TV programmes before even attempting item number one. But this time, I'm going to do it.

And do you know what? I've already completed my first draft of Act 1, Scene 1. Boom! If I can set a deadline and have other people be happy with it, I'm happy to accept their deadlines too. I wanted us to write this play as I wanted to challenge us further. It's all very well picking up a script and giving it to the cast and directing it, but to see something through from start to finish that is entirely ours is something that I really wanted to do, and right now I'm feeling really excited about it.

Naturally I'll be pulling all-nighters, and life will be put on hold, but I know we can create something brilliant, and hopefully everyone will enjoy our new Neverland adventure!

So with the words, "Get writing some scripts, bitch" ringing in my ears, I bid you a fond farewell and head to bed. (It's almost 2am as I finish this post!) Three scenes to write tomorrow. I think it's going to be a long day!

Oh, and as promised...

Natalie's Nugget of Info: For lunch we ate square shaped burgers. Surely I'm not the only person to think that's weird.

Bye,

Nxxx