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?!?
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