I had wanted to post this from the balcony of my hotel in Rhodes, however, time was not on my side so instead I am writing from the sofa in my living room!

I have just got back from Greece where I was playing the role of Jacob (the dad) in a corporate, customer experience film for a well-known travel brand.

It all came about rather quickly – on Tuesday I got the call that I had booked the job and on Saturday afternoon I was on an aeroplane filming as the other passengers boarded (nothing like starting under pressure).

We landed at midnight and by the time I got to bed it was gone 2 am.  Call time was 10 am next morning and after a brief chat about costumes we were on a minibus heading for our first location – ‘arriving at the hotel’.  While I shouldn’t complain about the sun a couple of hours in 30 degree heat wearing jeans was definitely a touch uncomfortable – although I was definitely luckier than Sam (who was playing my wife) who was also in jeans along with a jumper and carrying her coat?!

The next couple of days were amazing (if busy)! Basically we had to have a ‘family holiday’ in three days, filming various activities, whether it was having a romantic meal, sightseeing, eating ice creams or relaxing by the pool (tough gig I know!).

The time in Greece flew by and before we knew it we were back in the UK with one more day of filming at a house in north London.

I felt quite sad as I said goodbye to the cast and crew who were all fantastic and who had made making the film so much fun. I can’t wait to see the final film and finally have some material to put towards a showreel.

 

Last Thursday, I attended the inaugural session of Scene Gym at the Old Vic Workrooms, a new concept, which is the brain child of Julia Taylor and brings together actors, writers and directors to meet new people, try out new writing and also flex our acting/directing muscles.

I was working on a play called The Club by Jim Mannering, with direction from Rafaella Marcus and alongside actors Connor Mills, Adam Wittek and Charlotte Woolfe.

Without giving too much away it is a black comedy about a ‘club’ of serial killers and I was playing ‘A’ the head of the club.

It was a fantastic scene, which had so much potential that we had a great time playing around with the characters.  We then ‘performed’ the scene to the other groups who fed back on the scene.

The only thing I would have liked is more time!  I only felt we’d scratched the surface of the characters and Rafaella’s ideas and suggestions coupled with the other actors openness made the whole thing so much fun.

Fortunately, Jim is looking to do another scene from the play as part of a new writing drop in group at The Actor’s Centre in September, which I can hopefully be involved in and (as I know the other actors have also expressed an interest in doing it) continue the journey we started oh so briefly.

Last weekend I was in Cambridge playing Ratty in Toad of Toad Hall at the illustrious Trinity College as part of an alumni event the college was holding.  The event took place on Sunday and involved carrying out workshops with the children in the morning to prepare them to take part (yes, take part) in a performance after lunch

Just after 10am on Saturday I met director Barry and the seven other performers and group leaders who would somehow in 24 hours manage to make this thing work.  My friend John was going to be the ‘storyteller’ so at least I knew someone in the room.

As a cast we immediately bonded – which was fantastic given what was facing us on Sunday – and throughout the day it was like working with old friends rather than just people I had met that morning.

With such little time we dived straight into working out how we would run our workshops in the morning – mine being to teach them all a song entitled ‘Friendship’ (which has somewhat depressingly stuck with me ever since).  This done and lunch consumed we stumbled our way through the performance.  The sequences where we had a script went well, it was just when we came to the bits where we would have children involved that things got a little woolier.

So, with our day’s rehearsal in the bag we prepared for the following day when we would get to meet the 100 or so children that would make up the rest of the cast.

Sunday morning arrived and at 10am the gates opened and the families streamed in. After a short meet-and-greet we were into the workshops which went well – although teaching under 5s a song in 25mins is something of a challenge.

Lunchtime arrived and, unfortunately, so did the traditional British summer weather.  We huddled around a large table under an equally sized umbrella to eat our lunch and work out how we needed to adapt the performance based on what had (and hadn’t) been achieved in the morning.  I also had to deal with a PR issue over lunch in full costume, which was somewhat surreal – see previous post about worlds colliding!

Fortunately, almost as soon as the guests started to return from lunch the rain stopped.

And so the performance began….

I think it is fair to say what proceeded was surprisingly organised chaos!!  Somehow though, through ad-libbing, physically manoeuvring children, thinking on our feet and frankly just making it up we got through the entire show with no injuries, loss of life or crying children.

Our success was, I think, in part down to sheer dumb luck but mainly to Barry’s leadership and the group of people he and John got together and who all pulled together to make it through.

They say never work with children or animals – having survived this weekend, I say bring on the animals?!

There has been a couple of things written in the press recently about the challenges of supporting yourself while trying to carve out a career in the Arts – whether it be as an Actor, Director, Stage Manager or, frankly, anything!

I can well remember working full time at The Globe as a young twenty-something – sadly behind the bar in the restaurant and not on the stage – and Saturdays at WHSmiths to earn just enough to pay for my rent, bills and some sort of life.  As well as giving minimal remuneration it also gave precious little time to even go to the theatre let alone do very much Acting.

Nowadays, I am very lucky – thanks to my time away from the industry – to have developed the skills and contacts to build a moderately successful PR & Marketing consultancy which gives me the flexibility and income to pursue my Acting career.  Obviously it involves some compromise on both sides but, personally, I find it allows me to continue doing the bits of PR & Marketing I enjoy as well as giving me a bit of grounding (it is a wonderful distraction after a casting).

It does, however, present some unique challenges and recently there have been a few occasions when I have been pulled from pillar to post trying to deal with PR issues on one side while trying to progress my career on the other.  For now this juggling act seems to have abated slightly, however, as the Acting career builds (he says hopefully) there will no doubt be more occasions where the two collide.

Personally, I think this is an excellent and exciting quandary to be in!

 

So, over the last couple of days I have completed three different castings.  While this is obviously great, part of me wishes they wouldn’t – like the proverbial omnibus – all turn up at the same time!

On Monday, I was up for a teacher in an educational video so headed into town for the casting before rushing home to put together a self-tape for a feature film playing a mechanic (this I achieved using various parts taken out of our car and a tool I found in the cellar which had a really nice ‘ratchety’ sound).  No sooner had I submitted it, I got the call that the following day I was up for a dentist in a toothpaste commercial.

As I said I am not complaining and it is fantastic that I am being seen for things.  In fact, not having too much time to think may have helped – I subsequently found out that I landed the role of the mechanic (clearly ‘blue-collar workers’ are my forte – who knew!)

So, as of the autumn I may have a credit I can put on IMDB!

So, yesterday I completed my first real Acting jobs since my return (i.e. a job I had to go through a casting process to get the role).  It was an advert for a well-known high street bank and I was playing the role of Younger Removal Man (‘type-casting’ I hear some of you cry!).

The car turned up at 7.30 and whisked me off, very slowly through rush-hour traffic, to a Central London location where we arrived to find a hive of activity.  After a quick change into costume and a dab of make-up it was off to….. yep, you’ve guessed it….

…the catering waggon for breakfast.

Bacon sandwich consumed, the crew were ready and we were off to set.  We took our places and shooting began.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed doing the same simple thing time after time – even when, having been in a prominent position right in the middle of shot, I was moved (relegated) to ‘back-of-head-man’ position walking away from camera.  Hey-ho that’s the way it goes sometimes!

It was a wonderful day, with a fantastic bunch of people – I’m now just looking forward to the next one(s)!

When I set out on my new career, I set myself the challenge of writing at least one blog post per month.  This was primarily to maintain my own personal focus on what I was actively doing to progress my career – after all if I had nothing to say then perhaps I wasn’t working hard enough.

This month, however, it has been rather harder to come up with something to write about.

And, contrary to what I said previously, it is not that I have been idle. In fact – as the heading to this blog suggests I feel very much like a duck – frantically working below the surface (workshops, castings, continue to work on my voice, singing and improving my repertoire of monologue) while above the surface it looks like nothing is happening.

I guess this is the ‘real’ part of being an Actor!

Incredible as it seems a year has passed since I started this adventure back in to the world of Acting.  It has been an incredibly exciting, invigorating, energising and, at times, petrifying experience.

In the past twelve months I have secured representation from Evie Woods Management; completed my first Acting job; shot a student film; attended numerous workshops on a whole range of subjects from Shakespeare to Audition technique, Being Funny to Maintaining Creativity; and met a whole host of directors, practitioners, agents, casting directors and, of course, other actors.

Progress, I think it is fair to say, has been steady.  And, while everything took a while to get going, real strides have been made in the last few months and I am ready and looking forward to the next stages.

Securing representation will (hopefully) open the door to castings – I have attended the first (but the less said about that the better)!  I also now have the basics in place (songs learnt etc) so I am ready when castings do come up, which I will hopefully be able to convert into bookings!!

So, what are my goals for the next twelve months.

Well…

I would obviously like to attend more castings and start building a body of work on my CV.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the workshops I have attended and will continue this going forward (we’re never too old to learn after all). I will also look to build up relationships with more people within the industry.

The main thing for me, however, is that I continue to enjoy it.  After all, it is what I love doing and – while I am fully aware that it will have its ups and downs (more of the latter no doubt) – I want to ensure it remains so!

I have got an agent!

Yes, following a successful meeting on Tuesday I am now represented by Jo and Hannah at Evie Woods Management (http://www.eviewoodsmanagement.co.uk).  EWM is a relatively young agency (3 years) but has big aspirations, which I am delighted to be part of.  Clearly, those hours spent preparing the spreadsheet and sending emails paid off!

This is such an important step and I am incredibly grateful to my friend Luke who spurred me into sending out the email in the first place.

So, having failed to secure representation when I left Bruford, I think it is fair to say that the second incarnation of my acting career has now got further than the first…