Tiny fish, massive pond...

Oh my goodness. I don't think I could have crammed more into last week if I tried. I am thoroughly exhausted but smiling from ear to ear. 

Lets's kick off with Monday. I finally got around to having my business lunch with the lovely Craig, awesome director chap and fabulous human being. He bizarrely said that he would come to Kettering to meet (voluntarily, crazy!!) and we spent a lovely hour and a bit talking all things film. I'm not going to give details yet, I'll keep you in suspense until I actually start work on it, but I signed up to be co-producer and actor in a feature film in August. I read the script that night and was quite excited. Watch this space!

I then hopped across town to my brothers new house, and had to take his new puppy to the vet to get microchipped. I thought he was going to kick off, but he was distracted by a handful of dog treats and didn't even notice that he got injected. That pup loves his food, he'll fit in to the family well!

I popped back into town for work, and set my 'Second Star To The Right' cast to work and was pleasantly surprised with how much good stuff was going on. Things were starting to come together! My chum from Bedford, Ivan, had demanded that we go for a drink on Monday night, and he caught the end of our rehearsal before we sat down for a few hours and chatted away. Two people willing to visit this town in one day, weird!!

It was back to cleaning on Tuesday, followed by teaching my Corby students. I read out our casting for our upcoming Disney show and everyone was happy with their roles, phew! (Definitely the worst part of the job!!) 

 Wednesday and Thursday also brought scrubbing duties, before I headed back to my employment at Wicksteed Park for re-training on the rides. I've not worked there since November but everything is still firmly imprinted in my brain, but it was brilliant to see some of my colleagues again. It's weird how you get shoved together with a bunch of random people in any job you get, and somehow you end up being good friends... Aaw, look at me getting all mushy!!

A quick spot of cleaning on Friday was followed by dog duties before heading up to the studio to do an afternoons work before teaching. I managed to infiltrate head office and swoop in and grab a load of costumes for my shows, and got shed loads done. Then I had a brilliant two hours of rehearsal. I was happy with my initial casting, and then inevitably I had a wobble, but running through the whole show made me realise that I had made the right decisions. My Peter, Wendy and Tink were all perfect and made me so happy! I managed to squeeze in an hour of dance before heading home and preparing for the following days events...

Back in January I had applied for 'The Sonnets Project' and not heard anything back for a while, until a few weeks ago when I had received an email asking about my availability on the day. As time was ticking on, and I hadn't heard anything, I was thinking that it wasn't going ahead. I then received an email on Tuesday with a schedule... It was happening! 52 people reading all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets in 4 hours at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Sweet. 

I received a couple more emails over the next few days with revised schedules due to people dropping out, but it finally looked set to go, so on Friday night I planned my journey, and finally got around to looking at the sonnets that I would be reading. I know, I know. You should know by now how I leave things to the last minute!!

I drove down to Oxford in the morning and hopped on a Park and Ride bus to find two girls from home there on a hen do! We had a little chat before I jumped off the bus and found the museum. Naturally I was early, and the man in charge wasn't even there. I had a little nose around and waited for the others to arrive. I noticed a girl with similar hair to mine at the opposite side of the room, and we gave each other a wary look and a vague smile as if to say "you look like an actor, we're probably here for the same thing, but I'm not going to talk to you because that's just weird' 

A few minutes later the man with the plan arrived with a gaggle of actors in tow,  and proceeded to set up. 

Everyone there seemed to be what I call 'proper' actors. You know the type, loud booming voices with perfect RP, and a laugh that booms and echoes everywhere for a thousand years. I couldn't have felt more out of place if I tried. What the hell was I doing here? I hadn't even prepared properly! I'm just a girl from Kettering thrown into a mix of posh people, hoping to not get thrown out for trying to be something I'm not. I was absolutely terrified.

Thankfully, my first sonnet was 125, so I had a few hours to watch other people, steal tips, and keep myself to myself. Plus, I wanted to hear them all. I wasn't going all that way for 45 minutes to read 3 sonnets!

Everyone was so good! Especially the highly attractive gentleman who had learned his off by heart, swot. I felt the pressure mounting as we got further down the list, and even more so when a man from the Royal Shakespeare Company showed up. Oh my days. 

Part of me wanted to impress him, and part of me wanted him to go away in case I screwed it up and cried. We all know that's a possibility. 

I was relieved when he left a good chunk before mine. He had filmed some stuff, and spoken to a few people, he'd had his fill. Or so I thought. He came back about an hour later, just a little bit before I went on! Thankfully I had some supporters in the crowd, my adorable uni housemate Nic and her boyfriend James, and two people I had met while also at uni when working in ASDA! The nerves hit me at sonnet 124 but there was no backing out now. I just went for it, and it was fine! I still felt incredibly out of my depth but I was there, I did it and I was happy. Result. The rest went well too, and after just over 4 hours, it was complete. 

Nic and James said I should go and harass the man from the RSC but I was too scared. They made a move for me and I ended up standing next to him looking sheepish as he complimented my shoes. At least I was memorable for something!

A couple of hours spent with my chums eating cake and talking nonsense ensued, and then began the journey home. I was exhausted, but still made the effort to go to my parents charity quiz night and helped out a blundering team so they didn't finish last! ;)

I finally stumbled through the door at midnight, and started to fret as I wasn't sure whether my phone would automatically change the time for daylight saving or not. Normally I wouldn't mind, but I had rollercoaster duties in the morning and I didn't want to be late on my first day. It was a thankfully easy day as the weather decided to be dreadful so there were only a handful of customers in the park, so I got a lot of catching up done, as well as pondering what would happen if humans had beaks. You had to be there.

It was back to Neverland when I got home, and the construction of my Peter Pan costume began. And oh my goodness it looks marvellous, even if I do say so myself. I'm pretty sure I'll be attempting to squeeze into it at some point!

And that was my week. I still didn't get a lay-in this morning as I took my dad to work befor embarking on another afternoon of show business before rehearsal, but I've accomplished a whole lot in 7 days, and I'm back on track. 

Yes the next few weeks are going to be hectic with working four jobs. But I'm I'm actually cheerful. I know it's not because of the weather(!), maybe it's the accomplishment. I don't know, but things seem to be on the up. I'll continue that I think!

Be good, 

Nxxx

PS, Natalie's Nugget: I bought a whistle to control the kids that I teach. It worked, their faces contorted in fear on Friday, it was priceless!!

Back in the game...

Regular readers will note that I was nice and chipper at the end of my last blog post, and I'm glad to report that that hasn't changed. Phew!

StageWrite 2015 (see previous post for details if you've been living under a rock) put me back in a wondrous headspace, so I eagerly jumped out of bed (well, I wouldn't go that far, it is me after all) and got ready to attack my upcoming shows with a new sense of awesomeness.

The week has flown by, but my productivity levels were at an all-time high. I eagerly raced home from my cleaning job every day to see what delights the postman had delivered, tore open the packaging with all the excitement of a child at Christmas, and whooped hysterically and immediately tried on every costume that had made its way to me. It turns out I can't fit into childrens clothes any more. Who knew?

Meetings were also on the agenda, but naturally being me, I had been forgotten about so they didn't happen(!) but that meant that I got more work done so that was fine by me!

With last week still gloriously rolling around my head, I found myself coming up with ideas for a script of my own to start writing, with the possibility of submitting it to next years StageWrite (which is definitely happening, huzzah!) if I dare.

Thankfully in one of my other jobs I work with a brilliant woman who is delightfully funny and is the basis for the play that I have ideas in my head for, and I spent most of my last cleaning job on Tuesday rolling around on the floor insanely laughing, trying to blink back the tears in my eyes so that I could write down all of the comedy gold that was flowing from her mouth. I told her she was going to be the basis of a play and she loved it, but insisted on me changing her name, and promptly suggesting herself one, and one for me too! So as well as having three plays on the go now, I'm writing my next show for the kids that I teach, and have started this play too. Who needs sleep?

Apparently me. By the time Friday arrived, I was completely exhausted. So much that I didn't even know what to do with myself, and by 3pm with two hours of teaching ahead immediately followed by a three hour dance class, I wasn't in the mood to speak to anyone. But teach I did, and I was very happy with the progress that we made in lessons. A few more lessons with Nasty Natalie and I think we'll be on track. Fingers crossed.

Saturday saw my sewing machine come out of hiding and I made more costumes for my tiny little actors. The skirts I made them are incredibly cute, but I was very concerned that they might be too small. But then again, I forget how small that humans are at a young age, and I measured them all so I think they'll be okay.

I actually found time to go out last night too! I went out for dinner for a friends birthday, followed by drinks. I don't know whether it was too much food, or impending old age, but we were home by midnight, before all the youths even got out into town, and I was fast asleep in their spare room before they had even made it to their bedroom. It seems my hectic lifestyle really is taking its toll. I had the most beautiful nights sleep and I could have slept the day away if it wasn't for the fact that I had to go into work today for customer service training. Ugh.

It was cringeworthy in the most horrific of ways. Staff members trying to be upbeat and cool when trying to deliver pointless information which everyone with a brain knows anyway (- when dealing with a customer, smile!) and using clips from Beauty and The Beast and Catherine Tate to try to explain good customer service really made me want the floor to open up and swallow me whole. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy my job and the people that I work with, but when companies force things down your throat like that it enrages me. I'm 29 years old, I know how to talk to people and how to be polite. Believe me, my acting degree has been worth every penny when it comes to faking being nice to people. I use it every day, don't lecture me!

So customer service training over, and my first shift is next weekend. I honestly don't know how I'm going to make it through. Cleaning weekdays, followed by teaching at night, followed by working probably both days of the weekend means I'll be working 7 days a week, and that's not including all of the extra hours I have to put into working on my shows that I normally start doing at around 8pm every night until my eyes give in and I fall asleep in the early hours to wake up around 4 am with my laptop burning my face and I'm surrounded by various pages of script from seven different plays.

But it has to be done. There are only 61 days until my Neverland shows, and with a to-do list longer than both arms, there's no time to stop. And my bank balance is pitiful, so I can't turn down any work at all.

I'm set for another insanely busy week, with all four jobs on the go, as well as squeezing in two meet ups with friends, and taking my brothers dog to the vet (first time meeting him, he will hate me!) so I think the next time I'll get a sleep will be next Monday! Wish me luck, and send Red Bull, I'm going to need a bucketload!

Be good,

Nxxx

Natalie's Nugget: Tickets are now on sale for both Neverland shows, tickets available on 01536 414141 or via www.masquekettering.co.uk

New writing? Yes please!

I'm all alone, tapping away at my laptop, with nowhere to go on a, quite frankly, average Sunday. Well, I'm not sure if can be classed as average yet, considering it's only 10.18am, but all I've done so far this morning is check my social media apps on my phone and remove fish faeces from my neglected goldfish tank. I'm a terrible mother.

I'm quite surprised at how un-sad I feel. I've had the most brilliant week that I didn't want to end, but I've come out of it surprisingly buoyant.

Yep, StageWrite week was fabulous. From Monday to Saturday I trundled along the A6 to Bedford to rehearse and perform four brand new pieces of writing. It was the third time that this has happened; the marvellous No Loss Productions and LifeBox Theatre companies started it off in 2013, and I've been lucky enough to have been a part of it every year so far.
I was asked a while back if I was interested in being part of it, immediately responded to the email with a big fat yes, noted the dates and promptly forgot about it. I had also been asked if I would like to direct one of the pieces. I politely declined, I'm only used to shouting at children in my 'directing', I wasn't sure I was ready to take on people over the age of 17 just yet.

I burst through the doors of The Place Theatre with more pizazz than John Barrowman's jazz hands on Monday afternoon. A rehearsal for one of the other plays was just finishing up so my "Oh my God it's so good to see you again" greetings to everyone were done in a tiny whisper and exaggerated facial expressions of glee. I didn't know the actors currently rehearsing so I sat down to watch the end of their rehearsal before getting introduced, and noticed how amazing they were. I hadn't acted in some time, I needed to dig out my skills from somewhere again. I wasn't going to show myself up!

We kicked off our rehearsal for the first play that I would be performing in, 'Voucher', which saw a wide variety of characters locked in a supermarket and forced to talk to each other. Since the last StageWrite I have written several of my own scripts, only for the children that I teach, but I began to see things from a different perspective. When I was reading through the script when it had been sent to me, I found myself thinking how differently I would have done things and I realised that maybe I could actually write something myself... Anyway, It wasn't for me to judge, but to perform it as best as we could so that the writer could see how it worked. With the writer in the room it was an unusual rehearsal, but she didn't say a word and let us get on with it. It was only a short but sweet rehearsal time on Monday, so I raced back for a lesson with my Neverland actors, full of beans after a fabulous afternoon.

Tuesday was a very mixed bag. I had to be at the theatre for 9am(!), but of course in my madness I had decided to get up even earlier than I had to for a morning swim. I had absolutely no idea what the first play I was in was all about! That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but if you asked me to explain it to you I probably wouldn't know where to start! Thankfully our wonderful director had dug up information on a story that was part of the play, so it began to make more sense to me, but I'm not going to lie, I was still pretty clueless! It was the second play of the week in which I would remain pretty motionless, too. In 'Voucher' I spent half of my time on stage unconscious, and in 'Stranger To Myself' I had a lovely time just sitting in a chair staring out in front of me pretending to be blind! Who said acting was tough?!? ;)


Another play was rehearsed before I got to tackle my next script of the day, so I tried to distract myself in the theatre, half-listening to the rehearsal happening, without wanting to know too much about it before I saw it being performed later in the week. I was quite successful at doing that, as I was pleasantly surprised when I watched it on Friday night, despite having heard bits and pieces that filtered into my brain as I was deciphering logic problems in my puzzle book. Don't judge me!

Then came a glorious rehearsal. 'Intercourse'. From the title you can probably imagine what the theme of the play was. From the very minute we started the rehearsal, right through to the end, we laughed like loons. It's an incredibly funny script, and the character opposite mine was such a bumbling fool that I was falling to pieces every 30 seconds at least. I have absolutely no idea how we managed to get through the whole script, but somehow we made it, and I went home with an aching stomach and a stupid grin on my face.

Wednesday arrived quicker than you could say 'show pants' and it was the first night of performances! Not only was I excited to be performing, but I couldn't wait to see the other pieces on offer too. 'Voucher' was on last, but there were two more plays before, so I settled down to watch 'Fit Piece' and 'Winter Light'. (I won't give too much away)
All I knew of 'Fit Piece' was that it had something to do with a gym, so I was quite shocked as the play developed in a way that I really wasn't expecting, and I began to see one of my friends who is a personal trainer in a while new light...
'Winter Light' was a ten minute piece that was beautiful, and made me cry at the end. It also brought to my attention the culinary wonder that is 'Egg In A Cup'. Google it, see if you can find it. I was tempted to have it for breakfast the next day, but I settled for a poached egg instead. I should have had egg in a cup, I managed to drop half of the shell in my poached egg... but that's another story.
We performed 'Voucher', and settled down for the post-show discussion, which I thought might take a turn for the interesting. It didn't go the way I thought, and some really constructive criticism came out for all three plays actually, and people were left very happy. Job done!

I rocked up again for the afternoon on Thursday for another rehearsal of 'A Stranger To Myself'. I began to find more understanding in the play during this rehearsal, and started to like it a lot more than I did during my first read, when I didn't have a clue! We had a mammoth tech, but (from what my blind self could see) it looked beautiful and the sounds that were used were brilliant. It had an amazing atmosphere.
We were on second that night, so I took my place in the audience again for the first piece, and was shocked and very pleasantly surprised to see my amazing friend and work husband John walk through the door. He hadn't told me he was coming, and it was so nice to have support there, and for him to come all the way over to Bedford to take a chance on something he knew nothing about was awesome. This is how it should be!

The first performance that night was 'The Interview', about a man going for a job interview in a school. Again, this was all I knew of the piece. It was brilliant! It took so many twists and turns and was so clever, and despite laughing almost all the way through, I felt so sorry for the central character. Absolutely amazing. Well done to all of the boys involved. Top marks to you all.
Stranger was next, and I felt surprisingly nervous. I wasn't sure whether I was more nervous for the performance, or the questions afterwards. Even though I had begun to understand the play more during the day, I would not know what to say at all if someone asked me a question about it! Thankfully it went well, and the questions asked at the end didn't really have much to do with the characters, it all kicked off in a discussion about surveillance in life, and how much we are being watched. I really thought punches might start to get thrown! Still, a lively debate always brightens up a Thursday night!

Friday made me smile. A lot. We rehearsed and performed 'Up Your Prana', which was set in a yoga centre. My character was the new receptionist, and encountered some of the most bizarre and brilliant characters that attended classes there. We only had the afternoon to rehearse this one, but it was fairly straightforward a story. It was also amazing to be directed by the wonderful Andy, who wrote a piece that I performed in at the very first StageWrite, and then saw perform his solo show in London last year. It was fascinating to see him in a directing sense, and I loved every second. I got the chance to flex my funny muscles, and eat sausage rolls at the same time. Perfect!

Also performed that night was 'Domino', the play that I was half listening to on Tuesday. Again, truly stunning performances from everyone involved, and it really did reflect a real cross section of humans, every character was incredibly well observed, you just knew that you have encountered someone exactly like that in each character.

And then came Saturday, the final night. It was another 9am start and time to get my kit off in a very chilly auditorium! Intercourse. We actually did really well in rehearsals, there were only a couple of moments in rehearsals when I completely lost it, but we found a lot more in it this time, and it was definitely my favourite piece of the week.
This time, we were performing first, and I've never been more glad. My nerves were at an all-time high. It is such a brilliant piece of writing and I really didn't want to screw it up. Nervous tweeting from the green room ensued, as did sweaty palms, and a feeling of nausea, but as soon as I stepped out onto the stage, it all disappeared and I had the most fun performing it. And as a bonus, nobody ran away when I took my clothes off, huzzah! :D
I was incredibly proud of myself for not breaking out into laughter, especially since the play had reduced me to hysterical tears only hours before. I came out thinking we had done it justice, and I spoke to the writer afterwards and he was incredibly happy with it, and was highly complimentary. Phew! I'd love to work on it again. Hmmm...

The final piece of the week was 'Cyprus Sunsets', written and performed by the aforementioned Andy. He was phenomenal. It was the third of his plays about a character called 'Me', and this time, he was in (any guesses?) Cyprus. I don't want to give anything away because I know it's going to be performed again, but it was just brilliant. Look it up, and go and watch it!

And that was it. During the Q&A session for Andy's play, it hit me that the week was finally over, and I had to wipe away a couple of tears with my poncho.
This week has not been about acting. It's all about the writing, and helping the writers to develop their work, but it's really given me a huge kick. It didn't take me long to realise how much acting means to me. I have been the happiest this week than I have been in a very long time, and it's because I've been doing the thing that I love most in the world, with some of the best people that I know. I've met some amazing, wonderful and stupidly talented people along the way, and hopefully I'll get to work with them again.
I know now that I need to focus on getting back out there. It's all very well people saying to me that they have plans and would love for them to come together, I need to make them actually happen instead of waiting for things to be confirmed.
And if no-one else wants to hire me, than I'll write something for myself! I've already got an idea in my head, I'm going to put it into action.
Who cares if it's terrible? It's my first attempt, everyone starts somewhere. And thanks to things like StageWrite, I know that there's people out there willing to help and get stuff out.

So thank you, StageWrite, you have been brilliant in more ways than you could ever imagine. New writing? Yes please!

Moving forward, stepping back, and various states of undress...

Here we are again! I'll try to be concise, I don't think anyone actually expects a dissertation-length post every time I post a link to this, but I feel like it's been a while since I was last here. Wow, already rambling, I do apologise.

So, I think when I last left you, things were actually going well! Apart from my shower wobble, which I have been informed was 'sharing too much', sorry Ivan!

I've actually found time to spend with my friends recently, which is exactly what I needed. I spend far too much time working (I can't help it though, everything has to be perfect!), but it has been nice to catch up with people that I haven't seen in a very long time and talk about normal life whilst eating chicken. Lovely!

I also decided to take a week off from thinking about my upcoming shows, which has probably set me back a little bit, but I do feel better for taking a step back and not panicking about every little detail that I can't do anything about until the week of the show.

But things are getting back on track now, our Peter Pan sequel script is complete (unless we change things as we go along!), rehearsals for both shows are coming along nicely, and I'm pretty chuffed with our progress. A little breakdown every now and then seems to do me the world of good! I'm now just on the perilous hunt for props and costumes for almost 80 children, no biggie!

Personal life wise, my life is still a constant joke, another classic example happened last week when I plucked up the courage to go speed dating, for nobody else to show up(!) but hey, that's another chapter in my autobiography, and possibly another scene in a farcical play of my life that I probably wouldn't even get cast in!

I headed back over to Loughborough last weekend to participate in Chorus Theatre's Play-In-A-Day, which pretty much sums up exactly what it is! We were given 10 props and had to create a play around them and perform it at night in front of an audience. We ended up creating a very funny whodunit involving (amongst other things) a banana. (You had to be there!) I was a magicians assistant, one of my childhood dreams came true!

I had a very strange few days last week when I received emails and job offers with one recurring theme, and I began to wonder if someone was spreading rumours about me. I was offered a film job that I had applied for a couple of weeks beforehand, and was quite happy about it, until I got to the bottom of the email which read, "I just thought I'd make you aware that there is a sex scene involved but it isn't graphic and there's little nudity. Hope that's okay." Erm, what now? Nowhere in the casting breakdown did it mention any of this, and the next day, once the shock had left me, I wrote a very polite but firm response stating that I wouldn't be taking the job. What else would they spring on me while I was there?!? I think not!
I also had a message from someone I worked with at Halloween, asking me if I would like to audition for a play that he is doing later in the year. Obviously I said yes... turns out the character is a stripper! The next day I received another script that I'd be working on, and my character in that is a hooker! Either I've become highly desirable or someone is spreading stuff around about me that I'd rather they didn't! It's probably the latter!

Next week sees me back in Bedford for the always fabulous StageWrite festival, a week of new writing which I am lucky enough to be performing in every night. I'm acting in 4 very different plays, all of which are miles apart from last years selections and I'm really excited to be heading back and getting stuck in. (You can find all the details on my Facebook page)

Tomorrow I have another business lunch(!) regarding a film project, and I received an email on Monday night about a play that is hopefully going to be performed in the autumn too. Naturally I have done even more research for my next script, for which I have also been reprimanded. Sorry, John! (Seriously, I can't win with these men!)

After a couple of months of feeling miserable, I decided that for the whole of March I would try to find something positive in every day (and non work related) to make me realise that it's not actually all bad and that I do have lots of fun things going on in my life, and take a photo of it. It's only 4th March, but I'm doing alright so far! Plus, I bought myself a fabulous new handbag after work today, because a little bit of retail therapy always helps things along! I also bought myself a poncho cape at the weekend, my goodness I look fabulous in it! ;)

Helping me along with feeling good is knowing that I have done something good for other people and this week has been a double-whammy already. I've donated literally half of the clothes in my wardrobe to charity (now I really don't have anything to wear!), and I donated my seventh pint of blood! Saving people's lives never felt so good!

I shall try and post lots of exciting things during next week's StageWrite but I'm not promising anything, I'll be juggling that with all of my other jobs too, and I'll have to find at least 1 hours sleep a night!

Be nice to people,

Nxxx

Natalie's Nugget: This week it isn't show related, but... I have bought myself a beret! I'm totally bringing them back. Watch this space! Bye x