One of my new year's resolutions last year was to get back into blogging. I've just spent a furious 10 minutes trying every password I've ever had, trying to log into this account, and upon flicking through my previous posts, it seems I outdid myself. I blogged twice in 2017. In January. Well, nobody really keeps their resolutions, do they?
Anyway, we're almost at the end of March, and I've just finished a run of my first play of the year, back once again in my second home of beautiful Bedford. This blog post comes to you from the depths of post-show nothingness. I haven't yet felt the despair that I sometimes get of missing a show (I definitely enjoyed it), but maybe that's because I've kept myself busy today, and I haven't really had time to think upon it.
The play in question was 'Life x 3'. Again, as in previous posts, I won't divulge details in case of spoilers for people who may see it in the future, but I had enormous fun. My regular Bedford stage husband (as he will now be referred to) recommended me to the director, who gave me a call to chat about it. Not wanting to seem too desperate(!), I said I'd read the script before making a decision, but on hearing who the other actors already cast were, there was no way I wasn't going to do it.
A good chunk of the play was focused on science and space talk. All of which went flying over my head faster than you can say, "the flatness of the Milky Way's dark halo!", whatever that means! And to tell you the truth, it was only today that I actually Googled a few words (unrelated to science) to find out what they meant. I must have done a pretty good job of pretending to know what everyone was saying! And now I can use the word 'lugubrious' in everyday conversation!
It was a good run, and I got to share the stage with some amazing people.
But enough about the play itself. It's been over a year since I did a run of a show that made me feel the way I do right now. Sure, I had work for the rest of last year, and I loved every job, but there was something about this week that made me question myself.
I have a job that I enjoy in teaching and writing and directing shows for my students, but am I pushing myself enough? I want to get out there and do more things.
Why am I not writing things for myself? I have friends that I would kill to work with and produce fun projects with, and I'm not doing that. Why not?
People enjoy the things that I write. People are incredibly complimentary about my performances (even when I think that I certainly don't deserve them (Friday night this week- ouch!)
I see other people out there doing amazing things, and I feel like I'm being left behind. Am I just settling and hoping that someone keeps recommending me for projects or relying on companies I've previously worked for to give me a call? That's not enough, and I'd be stupid to think it was.
So with a bit of luck, I'm hoping 2018 turns out to be more successful. Because something has clicked in my head this week. I want to have the best times with the best people doing the thing that I love. If other people can do it, why can't I?
Watch this space, she's coming back!
N
Showing posts with label Bedford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bedford. Show all posts
Sunday, 25 March 2018
Sunday, 15 January 2017
Tomcat
I'm not going to lie to you, I'm hungover. It's 3pm and I've got back into bed after an epic shower, and I'm wrapped in towels and trying to work out how to lower the brightness on my laptop screen.
I drank a lot of wine last night. I think. I had at least three red wines and two glasses of Prosecco. Turns out I can't handle it like I used to. I probably also need to calm down when people tell me that I can drink for free.
It was the last night of my first play of the year and we went out with a bang!
The play in question was 'Tomcat'. I don't want to give too much away because people may want to see it in the future and I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but let's just say that it wasn't the happiest of plays!
We began rehearsals in September, I popped over the border to Bedford every Wednesday and had a truly fabulous time. The entire cast were phenomenal. I had a smaller role which meant that I got to watch it a lot, and saw it coming together piece by piece which I don't normally get to do. Even though I was in it, and I knew the story, I was genuinely captivated and on occasion forgot to get ready for my entrances because I was so swept away by it all.
The feedback from our audiences was immense. We got to have some cracking conversations in the bar afterwards, and received nothing but positivity. It is such a well written play, and people lapped it up. Occasionally I would take a sneaky peek at the audience to check out some of their reactions to various moments, and every single person was transfixed. Normally in the theatre there are the annoying people rustling sweets or having a little natter between themselves, but every night they were completely silent for the whole 100 minutes. I've never been in a play where that's happened before.
It's a weird feeling knowing that I'm not going to be going to the theatre tonight. Since Christmas I've been over to Bedford more times than I can remember for rehearsals and obviously performing, and now it's over. I have to stay in miserable Kettering. We all said last night how we felt we were just getting started and were ready to do more performances, but we can't. We're done.
I have no acting work lined up for the rest of the year, and who knows how this year will pan out, but if this is the only thing that I will have done in 2017 I'll be happy. I personally got some incredible compliments about my performance from several people, so I'll keep those in my head for a while and enjoy it while I can!
I love how close people get when we work on shows together, and I will truly miss everyone so much. In every show that I do, there's always the talk of meeting up soon just to hang out, and it's always just that, talk. But I do hope to see everyone soon. I learned so much from everyone, and it was so nice to get to know new people, work with friends and just enjoy myself for a while.
There's talk of taking the play up to Edinburgh this year which would be fantastic if it happens, I don't think I'm quite ready for this one to end just yet.
Thank you, 'Tomcat', it's been amazing. I'll get dressed now.
I drank a lot of wine last night. I think. I had at least three red wines and two glasses of Prosecco. Turns out I can't handle it like I used to. I probably also need to calm down when people tell me that I can drink for free.
It was the last night of my first play of the year and we went out with a bang!
The play in question was 'Tomcat'. I don't want to give too much away because people may want to see it in the future and I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but let's just say that it wasn't the happiest of plays!
We began rehearsals in September, I popped over the border to Bedford every Wednesday and had a truly fabulous time. The entire cast were phenomenal. I had a smaller role which meant that I got to watch it a lot, and saw it coming together piece by piece which I don't normally get to do. Even though I was in it, and I knew the story, I was genuinely captivated and on occasion forgot to get ready for my entrances because I was so swept away by it all.
The feedback from our audiences was immense. We got to have some cracking conversations in the bar afterwards, and received nothing but positivity. It is such a well written play, and people lapped it up. Occasionally I would take a sneaky peek at the audience to check out some of their reactions to various moments, and every single person was transfixed. Normally in the theatre there are the annoying people rustling sweets or having a little natter between themselves, but every night they were completely silent for the whole 100 minutes. I've never been in a play where that's happened before.
It's a weird feeling knowing that I'm not going to be going to the theatre tonight. Since Christmas I've been over to Bedford more times than I can remember for rehearsals and obviously performing, and now it's over. I have to stay in miserable Kettering. We all said last night how we felt we were just getting started and were ready to do more performances, but we can't. We're done.
I have no acting work lined up for the rest of the year, and who knows how this year will pan out, but if this is the only thing that I will have done in 2017 I'll be happy. I personally got some incredible compliments about my performance from several people, so I'll keep those in my head for a while and enjoy it while I can!
I love how close people get when we work on shows together, and I will truly miss everyone so much. In every show that I do, there's always the talk of meeting up soon just to hang out, and it's always just that, talk. But I do hope to see everyone soon. I learned so much from everyone, and it was so nice to get to know new people, work with friends and just enjoy myself for a while.
There's talk of taking the play up to Edinburgh this year which would be fantastic if it happens, I don't think I'm quite ready for this one to end just yet.
Thank you, 'Tomcat', it's been amazing. I'll get dressed now.
Wednesday, 11 January 2017
I got this
I am stressed. There's no other way to describe it right now. We're 11 days in to 2017, and I'm stressed.
Technically today is a day off for me. However, I have come to realise that there is no such thing. I'm always busy.
It has recently been the festive season of Christmas, and I was working as an elf just outside High Wycombe up until 3.30pm on Christmas Eve. I spent half of Christmas day asleep, trying to catch up on lost slumber from having to drive down to said elf job every day, and from then on, I've been trying to catch up on everything that I missed, while rehearsing a play in Bedford.
Last week saw my teaching job resume, and I was hoping to have at least half of a script for the next show for my students to start looking at and deciding which characters they would like to audition for in a few weeks time. That didn't happen.
Currently I only have one completed scene. Scene 1. A good one to have completed, I feel. But still, it's one scene. It's pretty good, but I need more. I'm really struggling with this one to be honest. I had what I thought was a cracking idea, and then when it came to actually writing it, I am stumped.
I am creating an adaptation of 'Beauty and the Beast' set in 1920's New York. Sounds great, you may think.I thought so too. Last year I managed to pull off a cracking production of 'Cinderella' set in the 1980's, by far the best thing that I have done, ever. And that was easy to fit in random characters and extra storylines. But this time my brain just doesn't want to play. In fact, my lessons this week have consisted of "Right, there are the characters in the play, you know the general story, make something up for me so that I can steal your ideas!"
I know that I will get there, even if it takes longer than anticipated, it just seems like a monumental task right now, and I just don't have the time. Well why are you writing this blog if you have no time, I hear you cry. Well, I'm hoping that by doing a nice little rambling blog post, that my brain will remember how to write once more, and it will unclog my horrendous writers block that I've got going on. Plus I didn't blog in the whole of 2016, and I decided to make it one of my New Year's resolutions to get back out here, so here I am!
One of the reasons that I have no time currently is that I'm appearing in the aforementioned play in Bedford this week. It's a really good play, and it's really nice to be part of something really quite dramatic. Thankfully I'm not in it too much, which has allowed me to attempt to do some work backstage or in my dressing room from time to time. But again, it's taken up quite a few days in the last few weeks, and as I still don't live in Bedford (I will one day, watch this space), it's not just rehearsal time, but driving time that keeps me away from my writing desk.
Aside from creating 'Beauty' for the majority of my students, I'm also putting together another production involving my students at the other school that I teach at. After having to postpone the production last year due to performance clashing, I was then let down by the venue completely, and have only just managed to secure a new venue and date for them. Having cast the play months ago, I have since had more students join the class, which is wonderful, but I'm now having to find more things for them to do in the show, as well as fitting in students from another school that I don't teach. Plus I've got 15 students participating in a speech and drama competition in March, for which I need to help them find monologues and poems, and find the time to rehearse them in between all of their other classes and shows. It is building up!
With all of this work sat at my computer, it was inevitable that I would become larger in size(!), and it's no surprise that I don't fit into most of my clothes any more! So on top of all of that, I've got 50 pounds of weight to lose. Thankfully I live a two minute walk away from a swimming pool, my favourite activity, plus I've found some motivation to get running again. An advert popped up on my Facebook for a company called Medal Mad. They have running challenges which you pay to enter, you run, logging it on your running app of choice, submit your evidence and get a lovely medal through the post on completion. If that wasn't good enough, a portion of money from each medal goes to a different charity. Perfect! Thankfully you don't have to do complete the challenges in one go either. So far I have received my 11km Remembrance medal for November, and my 12km of Christmas medal. I've got 3 more medals that I've paid for, so I need to get to work on those challenges too. I can't resist a bit of bling, me!
With all of this going on, for now I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I'm trying my best to keep to my resolutions for the year, and try to spend as much time with other people as I can. I've told myself that I will have Sundays free from work, that hasn't quite happened yet, but this Sunday WILL be the first!
I'm also trying to not do work outside of work hours at night. This means that when I get back from teaching, I'm switching off. No answering messages from parents, not at the weekends, I need time for myself. I will do it. I'm very much a people pleaser and will gladly put everyone else before myself, but I've come to realise that this is probably making me a bit of a pushover and I need to stand my ground.
I know what I need to do, and I also need to push myself in order to actually make some money this year, because lord knows I'm fed up of living penny to penny every week!
But for now, I will love you and leave you, as I must have my dinner and get ready to go to my dress rehearsal in Bedford. Tomorrow is opening night, it's going to be a good one. I'll post details below.
Happy New Year, and I promise I'll be back next week.
Nxxx
'Tomcat', The Quarry at St Luke's. Thursday 12th-Saturday 14th January 2017.
www.quarrytheatre.org.uk
Technically today is a day off for me. However, I have come to realise that there is no such thing. I'm always busy.
It has recently been the festive season of Christmas, and I was working as an elf just outside High Wycombe up until 3.30pm on Christmas Eve. I spent half of Christmas day asleep, trying to catch up on lost slumber from having to drive down to said elf job every day, and from then on, I've been trying to catch up on everything that I missed, while rehearsing a play in Bedford.
Last week saw my teaching job resume, and I was hoping to have at least half of a script for the next show for my students to start looking at and deciding which characters they would like to audition for in a few weeks time. That didn't happen.
Currently I only have one completed scene. Scene 1. A good one to have completed, I feel. But still, it's one scene. It's pretty good, but I need more. I'm really struggling with this one to be honest. I had what I thought was a cracking idea, and then when it came to actually writing it, I am stumped.
I am creating an adaptation of 'Beauty and the Beast' set in 1920's New York. Sounds great, you may think.I thought so too. Last year I managed to pull off a cracking production of 'Cinderella' set in the 1980's, by far the best thing that I have done, ever. And that was easy to fit in random characters and extra storylines. But this time my brain just doesn't want to play. In fact, my lessons this week have consisted of "Right, there are the characters in the play, you know the general story, make something up for me so that I can steal your ideas!"
I know that I will get there, even if it takes longer than anticipated, it just seems like a monumental task right now, and I just don't have the time. Well why are you writing this blog if you have no time, I hear you cry. Well, I'm hoping that by doing a nice little rambling blog post, that my brain will remember how to write once more, and it will unclog my horrendous writers block that I've got going on. Plus I didn't blog in the whole of 2016, and I decided to make it one of my New Year's resolutions to get back out here, so here I am!
One of the reasons that I have no time currently is that I'm appearing in the aforementioned play in Bedford this week. It's a really good play, and it's really nice to be part of something really quite dramatic. Thankfully I'm not in it too much, which has allowed me to attempt to do some work backstage or in my dressing room from time to time. But again, it's taken up quite a few days in the last few weeks, and as I still don't live in Bedford (I will one day, watch this space), it's not just rehearsal time, but driving time that keeps me away from my writing desk.
Aside from creating 'Beauty' for the majority of my students, I'm also putting together another production involving my students at the other school that I teach at. After having to postpone the production last year due to performance clashing, I was then let down by the venue completely, and have only just managed to secure a new venue and date for them. Having cast the play months ago, I have since had more students join the class, which is wonderful, but I'm now having to find more things for them to do in the show, as well as fitting in students from another school that I don't teach. Plus I've got 15 students participating in a speech and drama competition in March, for which I need to help them find monologues and poems, and find the time to rehearse them in between all of their other classes and shows. It is building up!
With all of this work sat at my computer, it was inevitable that I would become larger in size(!), and it's no surprise that I don't fit into most of my clothes any more! So on top of all of that, I've got 50 pounds of weight to lose. Thankfully I live a two minute walk away from a swimming pool, my favourite activity, plus I've found some motivation to get running again. An advert popped up on my Facebook for a company called Medal Mad. They have running challenges which you pay to enter, you run, logging it on your running app of choice, submit your evidence and get a lovely medal through the post on completion. If that wasn't good enough, a portion of money from each medal goes to a different charity. Perfect! Thankfully you don't have to do complete the challenges in one go either. So far I have received my 11km Remembrance medal for November, and my 12km of Christmas medal. I've got 3 more medals that I've paid for, so I need to get to work on those challenges too. I can't resist a bit of bling, me!
With all of this going on, for now I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I'm trying my best to keep to my resolutions for the year, and try to spend as much time with other people as I can. I've told myself that I will have Sundays free from work, that hasn't quite happened yet, but this Sunday WILL be the first!
I'm also trying to not do work outside of work hours at night. This means that when I get back from teaching, I'm switching off. No answering messages from parents, not at the weekends, I need time for myself. I will do it. I'm very much a people pleaser and will gladly put everyone else before myself, but I've come to realise that this is probably making me a bit of a pushover and I need to stand my ground.
I know what I need to do, and I also need to push myself in order to actually make some money this year, because lord knows I'm fed up of living penny to penny every week!
But for now, I will love you and leave you, as I must have my dinner and get ready to go to my dress rehearsal in Bedford. Tomorrow is opening night, it's going to be a good one. I'll post details below.
Happy New Year, and I promise I'll be back next week.
Nxxx
'Tomcat', The Quarry at St Luke's. Thursday 12th-Saturday 14th January 2017.
www.quarrytheatre.org.uk
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