Good News and Bad News

I'll start with the bad news. So you know the visa that I applied to through Central? They did not accept my application. I found out last week. I should get some feedback on my business plan in a week or so, but my guess is that it comes down to profit. I wanted to set up a theatre company to do small productions of new American musicals, but for practicalities sake it would have ended up being a profit share company. However the Graduate Entrepreneur visa stipulates that as my main goal would be setting up the company I could only work 20 hours a week to support myself outside of that. Not really enough to live off of.

So that's a major bummer. I am also a little bit miffed at the way the school has handled the process. Not only did they give us no guidelines or instructions on the application process they took an extra week beyond the proposed date to get back to us. AND when I finally did hear it was a completely impersonal email. I understand that with time constraints etc a form email was necessary, however with all of the effort that I put in I would have appreciated it if they had taken the time to put my name into the email. As someone who has had to send many 'we're sorry but no thanks' emails I know that it doesn't take that much extra time to switch out the name at the front of the email. And really its amazing how much that one slight change makes. This is pretty on par with the way the international students have been treated all year, so really I shouldn't have been surprised.

Now on to the good news. If you remember over the summer I recorded a voice over demo reel. It has taken the better part of a couple of months but I finally started making phone calls to agents. And last week I had a bite! I met with them this afternoon. And... drumroll please.. they want me to join their books. With my visa situation as tenuous as it is at the moment they have offered me a six month contract. But they seemed really excited about having me on their books. Explained that they had been specifically looking for a young American woman because that's what people seem to be asking for right now.

So that is very exciting. I also met with some colleagues of my agent this week to chat about social media. I am hoping that this may turn into a possible job. So I still have some options when it comes to the visa. Crossing my fingers. This may work out yet!!!

Reality Check

Well, its been back to reality ever since I turned in my dissertation. Since then its turned into a daily struggle to pay rent and plan for the next year. Everything is still up in the air, and frankly the waiting is getting to me just a little bit.

It hasn't been all struggle though. I had a performing gig a few weeks ago which was great. Central hosted an event in celebration of the work of Cicily Berry. A friend of mine wrote a vocal quartet for the event and asked me to sing in it. The piece was a lot of fun, a madrigal style quartet setting from Henry VIII. The event itself was great, a veritable who's who of the world of vocal work. Not only was Cicily Berry in attendance, but Patsy Rodenburg and Trevor Nunn also spoke along with several other Notables. And I did spot Derek Jacobi in the audience as well. It was really amazing to be part of that whole evening!

Apart from that its been a constant search for work in some form or another. I now have a 'pay the rent job' to keep the wolf from the door for a little while, waiting tables. As someone said to me when I mentioned this - Now I'm a real actor. Ah well, its a fun crew, and it puts money in my bank account. I have also started cold calling voice over agents, which is a daunting task. I sent my reel off to a few places last week, no responses yet but I am working on follow up.

I did have an exciting meeting yesterday though. The last time I spoke to my agent I had mentioned that my dissertation focused on the use of social media in Musical Theatre. He seemed very interested in the possibilities this could open up for me and got to work spreading my name around to the many people he knows. On Friday two of his colleagues contacted me about coming to meet with me about this. Nothing definite has been offered yet, but the meeting yesterday went really well. They seemed very interested in at least using me as a consultant for the social media campaigns for two shows that they general manage. So who knows where this may take me, but its definitely something that I would like to pursue. Social media is something that I can work on from any location and on a flexible schedule so it can easily be done along side other projects. Which may prove ideal. I am trying not to get my hopes too high, but at the very least I have made some good contacts.

Still waiting to hear back from Central about my business proposal. Originally they hoped to have a short list of candidates by last Friday, however now they expect it some time this week. So realistically I probably wont hear anything until next week, judging from past experience. I am getting a little antsy about this. I would really like to know just where I stand in this whole visa process, whether this will turn out or I need to find another option. Being at a point where I cant really do anything about it is much harder than working towards a deadline in my opinion. I did mention my business proposal at my meeting last night and they seemed interested in it as well, so I may have found some mentors in the process.

Hopefully I'll have some more concrete news soon.

Audition time!

My first theatre audition since finishing classes! Super excited, but also incredibly nervous. The audition is tomorrow for Steel Pier, for the Kristen Chenoweth role. So I am spending the rest of today trying not to over think things, while also singing as high as I possibly can. Its a fun combination let me tell you.

The audition breakdown for the role: On the surface seems innocent. Wide-eyed. Fresh. She is, however, driven, steely. Determined to get her shot so that she never has to return home. Soprano with a lovely high C and an E above that, if possible.

Crossing my fingers.

New Projects

As I start back into the professional world after taking a year away I am faced with several hurdles to get over. Most of them are the usual ones- trying to break in to the cliquey world of theatre, trying to compete with the millions of other actors out there just like me, trying to keep at the top of my game while I am not working etc. But there is one hurdle that is unique to my situation this year. That hurdle is the visa. I would very much like to stay in the UK, but at the moment I am here on my student visa which runs out in December.

I have found a possible solution though! It is going to take a lot of work, but I think it may all turn out OK. A new type of post study visa has been introduced this year (after they took away the wonderful post study options that used to be in place, grumblegrumble) and that is the graduate entrepreneur visa. Each school is allotted sponsorship slots, Central has 10, to give to students trying to set up businesses in the UK. The visas are good for a year, with the possibility of extending them further depending on the years progress.

Now there are several reasons why I am excited by this possibility. First of all there are a limited number of people vying for these 10 slots. The only people who can apply are non-EU, Central students, graduating this year. There aren't too many of those to begin with, and not all of them are planning on staying in the UK or trying to set up a business. Secondly I have now come up with a great idea that I think I can make work. It is still in the works at the moment though, I have a lot of work to do before the proposals are due in October.

I will tell you guys more once I have nailed things down a bit, but in the meantime I need your help. I need to brainstorm a list of musicals. Here are the criteria, the show must be: New (within the last 10 years), small scale (nothing with a huge chorus or with a big name like Disney behind it), and American. I am looking for fun quirky things, like [title of show] and Spelling Bee. Things like that.


Alright? ........Go

Back to Work Again

Well, it is done. I am officially no longer a student, again. The thesis has been completed, bound and handed in. On time. I am pretty proud of it to be honest. I have never written a paper of that magnitude. And I think it turned out, to use my dad's phrase, 'absolutely not bad'. I am certainly glad to be done with it. Its a little bit weird to be done with the course. I mean, it has completely consumed my life for over a year now, and now its done. My student card has expired, I cant even get in to the building any more. I am very sad to have lost my student discount, let me tell you. London is expensive! And of course now I have to head back out into the real world.

The end of courses is only the first of the big changes that have happened in the last couple of weeks. Right after turning in the dissertation I moved out of my beautiful apartment, and into a house with my friends. Ultimately the move is a good thing, the house is gorgeous and I love the people that I am living with, but it happened at a not so convenient time. After spending the summer slaving over my dissertation the last thing that I really wanted to do was move. I would have much rather collapsed into a puddle and slept for the next month. However I did not have that luxury. In the end though we got everything done. Cleaned the old apartment from top to bottom, hauled my stuff all the way across town, and got myself situated in the new house. The new place has been great, there are five of us living in this beautiful and huge house in South London. It is quite a trek to get into central London, but not insurmountable. And that wont really be an issue until I land my big west end roles and have to be at rehearsal every day, and in that case I think I can manage.

Things on the job front are going slowly. Meeting with my agent on Friday to see what is going on. In the mean time I have found a part time job waiting tables (which I think means that I am officially an actor now). I am also starting to look into voice over agents. Hopefully that will lead to some work in the mean time.

The other big project on the horizon (as if trying to support myself as an actor starting out in London wasn't enough) is figuring out my visa situation. At the moment I am here on a student visa, which will run out at the end of December. I have a few options that I am looking in to, different types of visas that I can apply for. My agent has some sponsorship slots so hopefully he can keep me here. But the other option is a new option that has been introduced this year. In previous years students could extend their stay through a post study visa for up to two extra years after their degree. Unfortunately they have just gotten rid of that (just my luck). They have replaced it with the post study entrepreneur visa. Basically I have to submit a business plan to the school. They will then pick 10 students from all of the plans submitted to endorse for the visa. So at the moment I am trying to figure out how to write a business plan to present myself as a freelance artist. The upside of this is that I am only competing with other non-EU students graduating from Central this year, which is most likely a smaller pool of applicants than the other visas. So hopefully my odds are good. We shall see.

Now it is back to the grindstone. Off to write this business plan. What I could really use though is a few days of vacation.... Maybe at Christmas!

Theatre week

After a bit of a theatrical dry spell I decided to take matters in hand and buy some tickets for this week. I had also forgotten that this was the week that the MA acting students (both classical and contemporary) had their final shows. So I have ended up seeing quite a bit of theatre this week, something every night except for Tuesday, with one more performance this evening.

Monday- Posh by Laura Wade. "In an oak-panelled room in Oxford, ten young bloods with cut-glass vowels and deep pockets are meeting, intent on restoring their right to rule. Members of an elite student dining society, the boys are bunkering down for a wild night of debauchery, decadence and bloody good wine. But this isn’t just a jolly: they’re planning a revolution." I absolutely loved this play, it was pretty fantastic. The show had a lot to say, and I think the playwright was rather skillful in the way that she put things forward. And the turn in the second act was just chilling! The direction was great, and the scene shifts were absolutely fantastic (the boys all broke in to song!). Not to mention that it was a night of 10 good looking guys in tux's who all sounded fabulous. A fantastic start to my week!





Wednesday - London Road, Book and lyrics by Alecky Blythe, Music and lyrics by Adam Cork.
"London Road documents the events of 2006, when the quiet rural town of Ipswich was shattered by the discovery of the bodies of five women. The residents of London Road had struggled for years with frequent soliciting and kerb-crawling on their street. When Steve Wright, the occupant of No. 79, was arrested, charged and then convicted of the murders, the community grappled with what it meant to be at the epicentre of this tragedy." The entire show is taken verbatim from interviews with the residents of London road. And the music really builds on this. A lot of the vocal line mimics the speech patterns of these residents, and although the show is mostly sung it feels spoken. It is hard to describe without making it sound like they just autotuned the interviews, which is incredibly far from the truth. The craftsmanship that went into this show was absolutely mindblowing. The music was fascinating and really compelling, and the performances and direction were wonderful. A cast of about 10 I think played something like 50 different characters, each with a clear voice. It was really amazing to watch,

Thursday and Saturday were spent at the MA acting final shows. The contemporary strand did a piece called Purgatorio, a devised piece about three souls who escape from Dante's Purgatory and are trying to figure out life in the modern world. The contemporary strand combined Checkov's Three Sisters and Swan Song into one evening.  Both shows were interesting to watch, especially to see the progress that the students had made throughout the year. There were some really lovely performances in both shows. While they did a really good job of making sure that the performances showcased every student, the shows were really long. They each ran at just about 3 hours. Granted I did go see the shows by myself, so I might have felt better about the length if I had had a companion. It was interesting to look at what the other courses had spent their time and energy on during the year, and compare them to our course. For example the classical students had worked with a vocal coach all year, and while we had singing lessons we only had help with our spoken work during the first term. It was just interesting to notice these things.

Friday night I helped my roommate out with one of his shows. His course is all about creating theatre, and the group that he is in creates all of these experiential theatre pieces. You get guided through a story, moving from room to room meeting different people along the way. I went and saw their big show several weeks ago and absolutely loved it. It was quite unlike any theatre that I had experienced before. So friday they had been invited to build a piece to be performed at a party. They needed a few more people to act as guides throughout the evening so I volunteered to help out. However this turned out to be quite an interesting experience. The party was in this ramshackle old house on the outskirts of London (right past the Olympic stadium which made transport to the show nice and crowded). I believe that the hosts of the party were squatters in this building. The place was absolutely trashed and just filthy. They had given us a few rooms to set the show up in, however since people were living in the place they kept walking through our space, with no regard to the fact that there was a show going on. They would sit in the next room, separated from us by only a curtain, and shout at each other. I am pretty sure at some point they were doing coke and who knows what else. There were certainly a lot of comments about it. No one seemed hugely interested in experiencing the show, and those who did were so high that they didnt get very far into it before either getting distracted or freaking out. At some point the cops shows up so they had us stop the show until they left. The whole night was pretty much a disaster, I dont think anyone involved was happy with how things went. I got out of there as soon as I could after they shut the show down. But hey, now it makes for an incredible story.

Tonight I am headed to see a friend of mine perform some of the music she has composed, which will be a lot of fun. I think a lot of my classmates will be there as well, so it will be a nice reunion. Things have been pretty stressful of late so it will be nice to have an evening with everyone. More updates soon, now back to the all consuming paper!

Adventures in Voice Recording

I recorded a voice over demo this week. This is something that I have been meaning to do since I moved to London. I put it off while I was in school, but now that I am trying to make my way in the professional world it seemed like the right time. This is something I have been encouraged to do by man different people. Apparently I have a good sound for voice overs!

I was both excited and a little nervous about the recording session on Tuesday. I mean, I have never actually done any voice recording in the past. I was sent a few scripts ahead of time to look over, and when I got there the guys running the session walked me through the process. It was pretty straightforward. They put me in this special sound room and sat me down in front of a fancy microphone. And then basically from there I just read the scripts. We went through each script a few times to get different takes. Between each take they would give me some feedback: suggest different inflections for certain lines, or tell me to speed up and slow down at specific points. Generally though I seem to have a knack for this. There were at least two occasions where they had me read through the scripts first before giving me any input, and then said 'Well, that was just about perfect!' and didn't have me change anything.

The guy who ran the session works for a voice over agency, and I was hoping that they might be willing to take me on after hearing my work on Tuesday. Unfortunately they apparently already have someone very similar to me on their books. However the guy said that he would both keep me in his personal file in case something comes up in the future, and give me other people to contact who might be looking for my type. He was very complementary of my work, saying that not only did I have a good sound, I was great to work with and took direction well. He seemed confident that I would be able to find representation and work pretty quickly.

This was very nice to hear! I am excited to follow up with all of this. I want to start working. I am getting a bit antsy waiting for things to come to me. My agent is rather elusive at the moment and has only sent me out on one audition. Although I am learning that this seems to be the norm for theatre agents. So it will be nice to have a project that I can fuel on my own. I much prefer chasing up all of my own leads, just so I know exactly what is going on.

In the meanwhile though I need to keep focused. I have let things slide a bit this past week, and need to get back to work. The thesis deadline gets ever closer and I still have a lot of work to do. Add to the pile the fact that my lease on my apartment is almost up. My roommates and I need to start house hunting soon. That will be a fun task. We haven't quite figured out which area of town we want to live in next, and there is some difference of opinion on that front. Also one of my roommates has just applied for a job in Brighton. So if he gets it I am not sure what will happen to our house. I don't especially want to find a new roommate. And I am not completely sure Lucile and I could find a two bedroom place we could afford. Ah well, I have a few other options that might turn out, so I will try not to worry about it. At the moment it is all outside of my control so I just have to hope that it all turns out for the best.

Its official

I've gone over to the dark side.

I now have a twitter account. I have held out for so long! However as I keep researching for my dissertation more and more things keep pointing to twitter. So I figured I should bite the bullet and join, to see what all of the fuss is about.

If you care to follow you can find me @KatieBeudert.


Sigh

Orange Juice

Well, I survived my first commercial casting. It was certainly an experience. As I am sure you must have guessed by now I dont think I got the job. Well, I am pretty sure. The commercial shoots in Tel Aviv this coming week, so I assume I would have heard if I got it. 24 hours is not a lot of prep time to fly to foreign lands. Lets just say I'm not holding my breath.

The audition itself was rather surreal. Fortunately since the auditions were spread over the whole day, and everyone had appointments, I didnt get the overcrowding of some auditions. There were about an average of 10 other people there the whole time I was, with numbers shifting as people came and went. We were called up in groups of four and sent to sit outside of the room until they were ready for us, where we could clearly hear the group before us. They had given us a three page script, most of which was written in Arabic, the rest of which was badly translated English, and highlighted one line for us to read. The line went something like this:

'Girls, girls. Come on, Girls. Is this your idea for fun? Its what's inside that counts. You need to nourish your interior. Read a book.."

Right. So then they called us in. After having us each pull our hair up they called us one by one in front of the camera. The rest of us fed the previous lines to whoever was up. All things along the lines of 'I'm getting a spray tan' 'I feel pretty!'. The girl in front of the camera had to roll her eyes, and tell us we were being shallow. It was a very surreal experience.

My note when I got up was 'Don't shout'. Guess I am stuck in the theatre mentality of making sure everyone in the back row can hear you. I'll have to work on that for film. But now I have done it once. I have things I can think about before the next time. And mostly I survived. My agent was lovely ahead of time. I called him because I really had no idea what to expect. Basically he told me that commercial castings are the least fun thing ever, but if you can get through them you can get through anything. 

Now that that is done its time to crack down on the dissertation. Serious work will happen this week. My rough outline is done. I think I have got a grasp on what my point will be. I just need to find a way into the writing and I am good to go. Wish me luck!

Headshots

Commercials and Headshots and Pirates, Oh My!

Back from a weekend away and trying to get back in gear. Starting with a serious routine this week. Mostly involving getting down to business on this whole thesis thing! Bring it on! .... Or something. This past weekend however was a rollicking good time. I went out on the high seas (ok it was Oxford Canal) with my cousin and her gang of pirates for three days of sun, sea and salty air. It was tons of fun. We rented out a few narrow boats and spent the time traveling very slowly down the canal while singing sea shanties. Good times were had by all.

I also managed to make it back to see my roommates big show. He and his group created an experiential theatre piece that they put up this weekend. Their theme was 'down the rabbit hole'. During the piece they pulled people aside one by one to go on an adventure. We were blindfolded and led through winding corridors, we were asked questions and had to make a choice about our journey. It was really really cool! It sounds like they have been approached by other venues to continue this project which is very exciting. I hope they keep things going. It was one of the most interesting and innovative theatre pieces I have seen recently.

 Now I am back in London and getting down to business. Starting with new headshots. This is now the third set of headshots I have gotten in the past 18 month I think. I am getting rather tired of staring at my face. However I think these ones turned out quite well. Of course I liked the last two sets too... My agent really wanted me to get new pictures, and had all sorts of plausible reasons why I should. So he sent me to a photographer he likes and the rest is history. I have it narrowed down to about 15 and need to cut 10 of them. Now I am just waiting for feedback from him before I make my final decisions.

And on to Commercials! I have an audition tomorrow. Woohoo. It is for an Orange Juice commercial for an Israeli company. The commercial will be shot in Tel Aviv in a week or so and then it will air on Israeli television for a year. So that is interesting. I have yet to do a casting for a commercial so I have really no idea what to expect. I dont have any sides to learn. And the only information in the breakdown is Female 25-30, comedic, neurotic nerdy Liz Lemon type. Right. Sounds great to me. I just dont know what they will ask to see tomorrow. A bit nervous I must admit. I also am sure there will be about a zillion other girls who look just like me, so I am pretty sure the odds are stacked against me. However I aim to have a good time and get some good experience out of it. Who knows, someone has to get the job, it could be me. Mostly it will good to feel like I have gotten started. I hate the waiting around part. I just want to get going.

Right, thats all for now. On to research!

Summer Time

Well, many things have happened since my last post. George opened and closed. Classes have come to an official end (although they are still going unofficially). Summer weather came and went. Met up with my family in France for a weekend. And finally, last but certainly not least, I have signed with an Agent! George went pretty well. As happens with many shows, things came together right at the very end. I was pretty pleased with everything. We had gorgeous sets, costumes and lighting. The audience was rather light at first, but we had a great crowd for closing. I do wish that we had had a longer run. I think things were just starting to hit their groove by closing. Ah well it was a fun time. I need to purchase some of the pictures but if you want to look at the proofs you can find them here. Be warned there are many many photos. Classes at the moment are in a summer lull. We have workshops once a week on a variety of subjects. This week is audition technique. Last week was screen acting. I do wish that we had more of the screen classes. It is something that I would like to have more experience in. It is interesting here in London there seems to be a whole lot more genre crossover in acting. Because both tv/film and theatre are based in one city actors tend to work across the board rather than specializing in stage or screen. So I think I am going to have to get used to screen acting pretty quickly. Other than these workshops the main academic thing on my plate is my dissertation. I have quite a lot of work cut out for me this summer! My family all met up in France a few weeks ago for a lovely vacation. We spent several glorious days sitting around the French country side, drinking the most incredible wine and eating the most amazing food ever. We then spent a whirlwind day dashing around Paris before heading back to London together. We then spent a several days enjoying the theatre scene in London. We also had the amazingly unique experience of being stuck on the tube. And I mean stuck. You can find details here but we were on the Jubilee line for 3 hours on the hottest day of the year so far. After those three hours of failed attempts to get the two trains (the original stalled train, and our which had been sent to tow the train back and stalled in the process) they decided to evacuate us along the tracks. It was certainly a unique experience. The rest of the trip was not nearly as traumatic. We saw several great shows and spent a lovely day down in Brighton. It was really nice to have them here and to get to show everyone around. Now that vacations are done I am trying to settle in to a daily routine. I need to keep my voice, body and mind all in shape for the auditions that will hopefully be starting any day now. This should be facilitated by my new agent! Woohoo. That is one big hurdle for the year cleared. I signed with him on Friday. I am really excited. I quite like this guy. He is really straight forward, no bullshit, no flattery, which is rather refreshing in a business that often focuses on name dropping and talking big. He also seems pretty clear about all the visa stuff and seemed confident that he could keep me here working in the UK, which is a big plus. He has mentioned several projects that he is trying to get me auditions for, all of which sound very exciting. In the meantime he has helped me pare down my music book, and suggested some new material for me to work on. I am now working on getting everything up to scratch, trying to get back into shape, work up some new monologues and basically keep myself busy. I miss the routine of classes but hopefully I will be able to get myself into a schedule pretty soon. I have to balance between keeping myself audition ready and writing my dissertation. Somewhere in there I should also try and find some flexible work. I am sure that I can make all of that happen.

Back Up on the Horse

Sorry for the long hiatus. Things have gotten away from me a bit recently. Part of that is because of all of the crazy stuff that has been going. So to catch up, audition week.We had the exam for our audition unit, and I went out to my first professional audition since I moved here. I'll start with the exam. They brought in a panel of outsiders to watch us. Professionals who hadnt worked with us at all, and so had no preconceptions of our work. They actually managed to get some pretty prestigious people to sit in. Stephen Clark who wrote lyrics for Martin Guerre and Zorro, Kate Golledge who has directed many West End shows, most recently the Wizard of Oz, and Conrad Nelson a local actor/director. The whole day ran like a general audition. A lot of people had trouble understanding this concept. I think that general auditions don't happen nearly as often here as they did in Seattle. Most of the theaters here do not run in rep, so they do not have set seasons, where as all of the big theaters in Seattle are repertory theaters. Therefor theaters here don't hold yearly auditions, most things are done on a show by show basis. Several of my classmates had a hard time choosing material because they could not target it towards a specific show. I think that being able to do a general audition is a useful skill, so I think it was smart that they planned things this way. However it is also very important to be able to tailor your material depending on the show. Basically I wish the audition unit covered more. Once again with our audition unit we had the problem of too many cooks. I think I worked with at least 3 different coaches on my monologue, so by the time I had to perform it, I had lost any grasp of the material that I had. Lets just say that I wasn't very happy with how things went that day. I made the day even better by following up one mediocre audition with another. In the afternoon I went to an open audition for a production of Hairspray, on a cruise line. If I ever do this again, please tell me it is a bad idea. It was such a stereotype of a horrible cattle-call. I waited for over 3 hours in a room full of catty women with make-up caked on an inch thick, talking at the top of their voices about how awesome they are until I was given a number. I then walked into to an audition room, which perhaps had the worst acoustics I have ever encountered to sing 8 bars of my song to a video recorder. Then the pianist loudly complained about my choice of song as I walked out the door. YAY! Not a fun afternoon, let me tell you. It took me a little while after that brilliant double header to find my confidence again. It is one thing to know that this is a difficult business, and quite another to experience it at its worst. But hey I've done that now, and I know that I can survive. And hopefully I can avoid situations like that one in the future. After that week it was on to the show. Rehearsals for George have actually been pretty great. I really like our director, and I love the work that he is having us do. They have come up with a beautiful design, and some neat ideas about how we will work the set. While I did not get the part that I had hoped, the role I am playing has some great stuff in it. I get to be both funny and heartbreaking. Now I just have to deliver on those two things and I can steal the show! (My ultimate goal for this term) We spent most of the day last Friday working on my big scene at the end of Act 1, which was really wonderful. That day gave me back a lot of my confidence. I know I still have a lot of work to do before we open, but I am feeling good about the way things are going. We have had some pretty big speed-bumps along the way in our rehearsal process, but I wont get into those tonight. Right now I am going to get back on task and keep inviting agents to come see the show. My motivation for wanting to steal the show is really to get an agent. If I can get an agent out of this term it will make staying in London a whole lot easier. Crossing my fingers.

Going Live!

I know it has been several (very busy) weeks since my last post. And this will be followed up by a full update soon. However, first I have an announcement. My website is live! Check it out: www.katiebeudert.com Now to get down to the dirty business of self promotion. The goal- to get an agent out of this show. The plan for this evening? E-mail every agent in London. Ok, so that won't be possible. But I can make a stab at it. Here goes.

I Feel it in My Fingers...

Passed Bill Nighy in the street today. I love living in London!

And the Results Are In

Well after much anticipation the cast list was finally posted this morning. And as expected there was quite the uproar. Where to start. Hmmmm. Several students, including myself, had expressed the hope that we would be sent the cast list in the evening. Mostly so that we could take the time to read the list ourselves and assimilate the information before talking to our classmates. This would give us the opportunity to either celebrate or be disappointed on our own time. However, this is not the way things happened. We were sent an e-mail at some point in the morning, during our dance class. And since no one in this technological age can seem to put their phone down (even in a DANCE class) someone saw the news and immediately spread the word. This meant that half of the class rushed to their own phones, and then started talking about it. Consequently, I didn't even get to read the cast list for myself before someone informed me that I hadn't gotten the part I had hoped for. To be fair, that was an unintentional side effect of her excitement for the person standing right next to me. But it was still a bit disappointing. However I am still quite pleased with the outcome of the auditions. I did not get the role of Dot, but I was cast as Yvonne. One of the largest female roles in the show, aside from Dot. And, unlike Dot, my role was not double cast, so I get to do all of the shows. I think it will be quite fun. She has some great bits, and a really lovely scene towards the end of Act I. Also I get to play opposite my friend John, which will be a lot of fun! So all in all, not a bad day! However we now get to the plot twist. And, while this does not affect me directly it is not a happy one. About two hours later (we were still in this dance class) we were sent a second e-mail, with a second cast list. There weren't a huge number of differences, however the changes that had been made were noticeable. This is perhaps the worst mistake our instructors have made yet. Its one thing to accidentally send out your blunt notes, its another thing entirely to cast someone and then give the role to someone else. It was not good. And of course on top of that we had all of the usual disappointments and frustrations the come when not everyone can be cast in the roles that they would prefer. We are still hearing all of the comments about how another show should have been chosen, how the people casting the show have their own biases etc etc etc. People have been gearing for this announcement for the last three months, so it is no wonder that emotions were running high today. Right. So that is that. We start straight in on music rehearsals over the next week or so. In the meanwhile we still have to prepare for our audition exam next week. On top of that my friend Jill let me know that Royal Caribbean is holding auditions for Hairspray next week, and I believe she and I are going to go. This will be my first professional audition in a year, which is exciting. And the show is a lot of fun. I have thought about auditioning for cruise ships at several points over the last few years. If nothing else it would be a good way to start chipping away at my student loans! I would prefer to find a way to stay in London, but a job is a job (and what with the new visa laws that may prove incredibly difficult). Lets just see what happens at the audition.

No News is No News

Auditions are done, and now the waiting game is in full swing. I made it through the weekend unscathed. Not only did I manage to not drive myself crazy thinking about the auditions I was quite productive and had a really nice weekend. I awoke yesterday morning refreshed, relaxed and raring to go! My long audition day started right off the bat at 11 with my biggest role of the day. I then had audition slots throughout the rest of the day. As the day the roles got progressively smaller, as did the time slots and the breaks in between. At the beginning I had a 10 minute slot and then a two hour break. By the end of the day I had 2 minute slots with 15 minutes in between. To be honest, it was rather gruelling. All in all I felt pleased with my work. I walked into the room completely prepared. I knew the music inside and out (no easy feat with Sondheim) and had memorized my sides. I had done my research and made my character choices. I didn’t make any major mistakes in the room, and I think I came across well. Everyone was in high spirits throughout the day, which really helped. No one got catty at the last moment. Everyone encouraged everyone else. And by the end of the day, as people became tired and punchy, it had basically turned into a big party. They only called in a handful of people for recalls, although they assured us that this was by no means a short list for any of the roles. I did not get a recall. I am a bit bummed about that. Especially as they started reading Georges and Dots together. So while they say that things are still open to change I am guessing that I am no longer in consideration for that role. We are still waiting for the cast list however. Originally we were told it would go out later that night (which I thought was ambitious of them), then that it would take a day or two. We all figured that we would get the cast list today, as music rehearsals start tomorrow. However we have just received word that we will not get the list until tomorrow at lunch. I was really hoping that they would let us know in the evening. So that we were not all gathered together to receive the news. I would like to have a few minutes to digest the information, to either celebrate or be disappointed, before I have to talk to everyone else about it. Well we will just have to wait and see what happens.

Updated clip

I was informed that the youtube clip I posted only had about half of my song. So here is the updated link. This one has both the scene and song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-uzGnQbg6U

Weekend Woes

Well here we go. Into what may possibly be one of the most painful weekends to date this year. The George auditions are on Monday, and I have to get through the next few days without driving myself insane. So far things are going well. Here is the breakdown. I am auditioning for 6 roles (5 in the first act, 1 in the second), which means that I need to have prepped for auditions on Monday 4 songs and 8 scenes. I have to learn both parts for a couple of the scenes. For example for Dot I need to know pages 48-55, however I need to learn pages 50-52 as Yvonne as well. At the moment I am feeling prepared on all of the songs and 2 of the scenes. This weekend will be dedicated to learning the rest of the scenes. We have been given the schedule for Monday, the breakdown of times for each part. And frankly I am a little perplexed by their method here. Everyone is called for multiple roles. Originally we were led to believe that we would each get a time slot and they would see as much as they could, starting with our biggest role, in that time. Then if they needed to see more or different material (for example the characters we didn’t have time for the first go round) there would be callbacks, or recalls as they are here, in the afternoon. They have made things much more complicated for themselves. They are going role by role, calling one person in at a time, through every single part. The beginning of the day starts with 10 minutes each for the leads, and ends with 2 minute slots for the smaller parts. They are going to lose so much time with people going in and out that I think we are going to have to give up on the schedule half way through the day. It also means that all of my auditions are at least an hour apart throughout the day. It is going to be a loooooooong day. At 4:30 they are going to announce recalls, and then they only have an hour of those. Then music rehearsals start two days later. They have also hinted that we will find out casting that evening. I will be incredibly impressed if things actually work out that way. I thought we had some tight turn-arounds at ACT! (I am particularly missing being on that side of the table right about now) I plan on taking a dance class immediately after auditions end, to prevent myself from checking my e-mail every 5 minutes for the rest of the evening. On the other hand, they have been building up this process for the last three months, so I am really ready to be done with it. They announced the show in December, and told us to familiarize ourselves with it. So like the dedicated student I am, I started working on the music then. That’s a long time to be working on one audition. I just have to remember how prepared I am, and not try and figure out what the people on the other side of the table are thinking. I won’t be able to guess the casting ahead of time, so I need to stop trying. Right so aside from the time I have allocated to work on scenes, I need to figure out what to do with myself this weekend. Are there any good movies out? Unfortunately the Hunger Games doesn’t come out until the end of the month. I am currently reading the books to prepare. I need to think of places that I have not explored yet. A few of my friends have decided to go out of town this weekend, which I am beginning to think might have been a good idea for myself. Ah well it might be too late for that. I'll find something. In other news, I did not get picked to compete in the Sondheim prize. I am pretty disappointed about that. In the end they chose two guys, instead of a guy and a girl, which is an interesting choice. I did ask for some feedback, and didn’t hear anything new. So I just have to keep working. On a brighter note, we keep getting nice weather here. So hopefully some of this weekend will be spent outside!

I'm Ready for My Close Up

Hi all, for anyone who was interested in seeing my showcase performance you can find the video here. The video clip contains my scene from Arthur Millers A View From the Bridge, and my song On the Steps of the Palace from Into the Woods. Things are very slowly creeping back to equilibrium after showcase and our research projects. Very slowly. I dont think we will reach stasis until after the auditions for Sunday in the Park with George next Monday. Right now we are in the middle of many auditions. Starting yesterday we have a big audition every week for the next three weeks. Yesterday was the audition for the Sondehim Prize, next monday is George, and the following week is the auditioning exam. Everyone is sort of freaking out about any and all of these. I'm off to the practice rooms right now to prep for all of these auditions. I just have to make it through the next few weeks....

The Big '?'

Right so let’s dive in. The last two weeks have been majorly stressful. I think it will continue along in this vein for another 3 weeks at least. Let’s hope it calms down after that. So, showcase. Duh duh duh (scary movie sound effects). Well this was the big event. They have been leading up to this for months, saying that showcase is possibly the most important performance of the year. All sorts of fun encouraging things like that and 'you really want to have an agent by the end of the year, and showcase is the way to do that'. So the pressure was on. Music and scene finally chosen and rehearsed. The outfit chosen, and let me tell you that took a long time. Everything is blocked, teched and ready to go. Everyone is stressed and cranky. And we finally hit showcase week. We had three performances. Two on Wednesday and one on Thursday. I think they went pretty well. I felt pretty good about my performances but not phenomenal. I second guessed myself a bit, both because of the complications when choosing my song, and from the number of people who were directing. It was a case of too many cooks, especially towards the end. I think we worked on our scenes with 5 different coaches, and our songs with just about as many. So, needless to say not all of them are going to agree on what works. And well, it got a bit confusing! Especially when, as we got closer to the performance, we had more and more feedback and less and less time to actually work on the pieces. This is only natural, as the performance itself gets closer the director has to focus on the technical side of everything and rely on the work that has already been done. It was just tough with so many new voices chiming at the last second to assimilate and apply everything. Well it is over. I was content with my performance, and certainly pleased about the fantastic review I got in the stage two days later. I am less pleased about the fact that only 12 agents came to the showcase (after we collectively invited a couple hundred). I am a little bit disappointed that no one took any of my headshots or resumes. I can’t let this get my down though. Our showcase was held a good two months before most of those by other programs. I think this contributed to the low turnout. Also it is possible that those who did come are planning on waiting to see the other showcases before making any decisions. Well whatever the cause I haven’t heard from anyone yet, so its on to bigger and better ways of getting attention! Last week was filled with frantic researching. Our group research projects were due yesterday, and what with the showcase and all, no one really did any work on the projects until last Monday. So that was a fun thing. Scrambling to finish our project, which only vaguely resembled the one that we started out with while also trying to find ways to make it entertaining was a less than ideal task. I am not going to lie, this was my least favorite thing all year. I don’t want to think about it anymore, so I am going to move on to more interesting things. Next up on our class agenda are three sets of auditions. In order they are the Sondheim Prize, Sunday in the Park with George and our audition exam. Sondheim is next Monday, George the following, and I think the exam is the week after. Something like that. So, lots of stuff to work on. They finally announced who was getting called for which part for George. This has been a source of much debate since we have come back from Christmas. So it is nice to finally know. I really am ready to just be done with the wondering and get the auditions over with. They have drawn out the suspense more than long enough. Right so I was called in for several things, which is nice. I am going to get to audition for Dot which I was really hoping would be the case. I am also called for the Celeste one and two, Yvonne, Louise, Frieda and Harriet. So, lots of different things. Overall I am pleased with their decisions. What I am not so happy about is the fact that our course leaders cannot seem to proofread before they send documents to the entire class. So here's what happened. A few weeks ago, while we were still deciding what everyone was performing in the showcase, all of the students were sent what was supposed to be a schedule for the next day. What they sent was, yes the schedule, but it had all of their candid notes about the pieces that all of us were working on. This was a document that was obviously not meant to be seen by any of the students (We were immediately sent another e-mailing saying 'Important: don’t read that document!' so naturally everyone then went and read it). There were things on there like 'really amateur, he should try acting' and 'shrill' and 'boring'. Now it’s one thing that they made the notes, that doesn’t really bother me. It’s the fact that they sent it to everyone! That is sort of a big boo-boo. Now this time around it was not nearly so bad. When they sent us the breakdown of which sides everyone should look at, in the list of people called for Dot there was a question mark after my name. Bummer. You know, I have worked on the other side of the table, I know that with several people casting a show that not everyone is going to agree on each person. I am fine with the fact that someone had reservations about calling me for the role (disappointed, but fine). What I don’t appreciate is that then they made it public. I was the only person with a question mark, although I am sure there must have been other notes throughout the document that then got deleted before it was sent to us. They were just careless. It’s not really a big deal. I mean, I get to audition for the role, which is what I wanted. And it does give me an excuse to find out what exactly I can work on before the auditions, which in a way is kind of nice. It’s just that things are a bit rough with the course all the way around at the moment. There is a lot of unrest among the students, and most of it stems from stuff like this. Carelessness and disorganization. Well enough about that. Right now I am just trying to focus on getting all of this audition material up to scratch. So I have my work cut out for me this week, but it is the kind of work that I love. I am really ready to dive in and get going. My goal for this week, staying positive. Here I go.

Theatre News

I realized that I mentioned seeing a couple of shows a little while ago, and never gave a full report on them. I have since seen even more theatre, so I think it is time for a full run down. So here goes. Lets see I have seen (in order) Traveling Light, Matilda, The Lion in Winter, Noises Off, Mogadishu, One Man Two Guvnors. I feel like there may have been one more. I'll check my programs and get back to you on that. Right lets start from the top. Traveling Light. A new play, being performed at The National, about a young man discovering moving pictures in a village in a country somewhere vaguely Eastern European. Eventually he leaves and goes on to make his way as one of the first film directors in Hollywood. I went to see this with a friend of mine on a whim. With the Entry Pass program tickets are only 5 pounds for those 25 and under. A great deal, that I just realized that I am going to lose next week. (Oh man, now I need go see everything that is playing at the National this week). The idea was interesting, and once again the set was gorgeous, but I don't think the play itself worked that well. It was sort of a trite story line, and I am not sure they had decided exactly what they were trying to say. Also the story relied heavily on their leading man, who made the mistake of starting his performance in his highest gear. He had no way to grow or develop through the show. Also the cast as a whole couldn't quite decide where they were from- we heard a whole range of accents, including a truly atrocious American accent in the second half. Why is it that all Americans have to be from Brooklyn/Mars? I am sure this is what the Brit's must think of our English accents but still.... Right moving on. Next up was Matilda. Now this was truly wonderful! Based on the Roald Dahl novel, it was just lovely. Fun for the kids, but smart enough for the grownups, sweet without being saccharine. The kids were incredibly impressive. I have seen few adult ensembles with that level of focus. And they were totally adorable without being obnoxious (which is a feat for some child actors). The choreography was fun. The music was entertaining and enjoyable. The sets were gorgeous, based around fun bookshelves and scrabble tiles. It was just a delightful evening at the theatre. Sarah wants to see it at someone so hopefully we can snag cheap tickets so that I can see it again. After that Sarah and I got some nosebleed seats for the closing weekend of The Lion in Winter. And these were truly nosebleed seats, we were basically sitting on bleachers way way at the top of the theatre. I did fear for my life squeezing in and out of the rows! The show itself was fine. A perfectly respectable, while not earth shattering, production of the play. I do love that script so it was fun to see it live. However it is really hard to beat Katherine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole in those roles. All in all an enjoyable, if not inspiring night at the theatre. Right that is the backlog, now for this weekend. David came up to see my showcase (which I will get to eventually, I promise) so over the weekend we saw a few shows. He is such a physical performer so when it came out that he had never seen Noises Off that was the obvious choice. It was absolutely delightful. The show itself is an interesting phenomenon. The comedy is so specific, especially because it is so physically based, that productions necessarily have to be pretty similar. This didnt detract from the experience at all, but it was interesting to realize. There isn't a whole lot new that you can add to the show. That being said this production was absolutely wonderful. All of the physical bits were perfectly timed, and wonderfully executed. The second act of the show is perhaps one of my favorite pieces of theatre ever! So funny. I could have done without the little girl sitting next to us who kept leaning out between the ledge and the restraining rail of the balcony and obstructing the entire view, while making us fear for her safety. But other than that it was pretty much perfect. Then on Saturday, during our day trip out to Oxford, David and I stumbled across Mogadishu. We decided to buy tickets without knowing a whole lot about the show. It is brand new, and is just about to set out touring and will end up in London eventually. The show is about an altercation that took place at a sort of inner city school, a teacher breaking up a fight between students and getting thrown to the ground in the process. However one of the students involved accuses her of hurling racial insults at him in the process, and gets his friends to back up the story. The body of the play involves what happens after that, with the students, their parents and the school board, as people struggle to figure out who to believe while treading the fine line of political correctness. I thought the play, while not perfect, was really interesting. I think it raised some important and difficult questions. It certainly prompted some post theatre discussion! It was nice to see a play like that, I have missed that since leaving ACT. Most of the theatre I have seen here has been musical theatre, which often has a different aim. I miss those plays that push everyone's buttons! And last, but certainly not least, I went and saw One Man, Two Guvnors last night. Oh my goodness, it was so much fun. Starting with the band before the show (and throughout the play as well) the fun did not stop. The play was completely silly, tongue in cheek and self referential. Nothing was taken seriously. Everyone in the show was awesome. It was just a big party the whole way through. Some of the best moments throughout the evening were the unscripted bits (some of which it turns out are actually scripted, but I wont spoil those). At several points throughout the show the title character addressed the audience, in the first act it is all about how hungry he is. At one of these moments he asks if anyone has a sandwich and is about to launch into a tirade about food when someone in the audience actually offers him one. You could see the astonishment on his face. He played it off well but he was so amused at the situation. So funny! The whole evening was just wonderful. That's enough of that for the moment. I will post later about the last week, but at the moment I am swamped at work and I need to take advantage of my night in and get stuff done. Until next time!

And the reviews are in

From the Stage review "A second Sondheim number gives Katie the opportunity to shine as a comedy performer. On the Steps Of the Palace allows her to demonstrate, as is vital to any musical theatre performer, the ability to negotiate a strong narrative drive through the medium of song. Her scene with Antonios Dimitrokalis from A View from the Bridge, too, proved an excellent contrasting choice infusing the scene with a very real sense of longing." More on the showcase later.

Showcase Showdown

And here we are rounding the turn before the final stretch of this grueling process. There is no clear leader, no clue as to what the outcome of this race will be. All the entrants are flagging a bit, you can tell they are tired. The showcase is less than a week away. Final decisions have been made. Scenes are being cut shorter and shorter. The showcase order is being continually tweaked. And everyone is a little bit on edge. Either that or just plain exhausted. I think I fall into both categories. I am certainly ready for this whole process to be over. At this point in the game I am completely second guessing my song choice. My instructors went back and forth between two of my songs. They started leaning towards one and then the other, ending with a preference for the opener from Thoroughally Modern Millie. I asked them to give me another shot at my other piece, as I thought it might make me stand out a bit more from the crowd. I figure everyone belts, all the time. So if I bring in a Sondheim piece it is a bit more unusual. Also I love the song. However it is quite a bit harder than the Millie. They let me have another try at the song and in the end said that I convinced them that I could do it. So now I am singing On the Steps of the Palace from Into the Woods. One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite shows. However, now I am starting to get worried. What if they were right? Is the other piece a better showcase for me? What if I cant pull it off? Nothing terribly unusual about this. I just have to push through it. Also I cannot let my guard down on this song. I wanted to sing it, so I am going to do everything in my power to knock it out of the park. I just have to remind myself that I can do this! My scene I am feeling much better about. They finally settled on the scene from A View from the Bridge. I love the play, I love the scene, I enjoy working with my scene partner. However the scene does get cut shorter and shorter every time we have to bring it in. I think the scene still works, but it was a very difficult process cutting it down. It is hard not to feel like we have cut important stuff. I know that for this performance, which is directed towards Agents, the entire scene is not necessary. But it still a little distubring that we have gone from having a scene that was two pages long to one that is half a page long. But while everyone else is still trying to find things to cut, we have our final length. Which means that we can focus on fine tuning what we have rather than on what we still have to lose. So all in all, feeling pretty good about the scene. Now we get into the fun drama of the show running order. Now they have picked a tactic for this that I dont really agree with. There are 11 scenes, and 21 songs. They have generally arranged it that one person from each scene will sing directly after their scene. Part of that I understand. If an agent is interested in seeing one person in particular then all of their stuff is bunched together. However this does mean that if you are in the second half of the running order, like I am, you do not step on stage until the second half of the show. Now in a busy industry in a big city like London, there is a large possibility that many of the agents will not stay for the entire show. Even though it is only an hour. So for those of us towards the end.... well we will probably have a smaller audience. Which is a bit discouraging. Personally to make it a little more even I would think that you would want to space it out a bit. Those who have scenes in the first half should sing in the second and vice versa. Now our course leaders keep trying to assure us that no one will leave, but this is a little hard to believe as they have spent the weeks preceeding telling us that agents wont stay the whole time. I can just only hope that people will stick around. They also go back and forth between telling us this is the most important project of the year, that we really want to get an agent out of this, to then telling us that it is not so important. That getting an agent is not something we should stress about. I am sure it will all turn out fine. But they have done a pretty good job of freaking us out and messing with our minds a bit. All I can do now is just focus on taking care of myself for the next week. Trying not to stress, focusing my work as much as possible. Oh wait. Breaking news. We have just been sent our third or fourth revised running order. Now my scene is second. So strike all that stuff about being worried about not being seen! YAY! I have the rest of today off, and I have spent the morning at school working. So I am going to go find something fun to do with my time. Tomorrow we are back for rehearsals all day. Then Sunday is our day to recoup before teching on Monday. Then Tuesday David arrives for the week (which I am super excited). After that is the final stretch! Two previews on Wednesday, and then our big show on Thursday. After that David and I are going to have an awesome weekend full of theatre, exploring and a trip to Oxford. Such a nice reward to look forward to.

The Scene as it Stands

This week was all about narrowing down the choices for showcase We all started out with at least two scenes to present in class this week. We then spent time workshopping the scenes and brainstorming a few other choices. At the end of the week our acting coach and course leader sat down to narrow it down to one scene per person. This meant some reshuffling as well as cutting down the scenes. At the end of the week I unexpectedly found myself in a brand new scene. I am still working with one of my previous scene partners, but this scene was suggested at the very last second. Thursday morning Antonis brings in the script of Arthur Millers A View from the Bridge. He had kept looking at new scenes all week to try and find the perfect one, and this was one his roommate had just suggested. The acting coach suggested he read through the scene with one of the Americans in the class, and as I was handy I jumped in. Now all of the other scenes we memorized and put up on their feet. As neither of us had a chance to work the scene we just sat and read it. Even so, as we started reading, everyone in the room at that moment perked up and leaned in. It was actually rather exciting. Needless to say this was the scene that I ended up with. I am quite pleased with the scene. We cut it down over the weekend and jump in with both feet tomorrow. Now the thing about A View from the Bridge is that is not a terribly funny play. One might even call it a tragedy. So, I need to find a good song to compliment that, to show that I can do funny. Comedy has sort of become my strong suit this year so I want to make sure that comes through with the showcase. Right now we have it narrowed down to about 4 songs. Two of which need major cutting to get them under 90 seconds. I'm a little worried about that, as those two are my top choices. I've got some rep coaching tomorrow, we'll see how that goes. So that's showcase. Everyone is freaking out a bit. Ok let me amend that, I am freaking out a little bit. I am just assuming everyone else is freaking out as well. Our teachers keep emphasizing how important this is, and that we really want to have an agent by the end of the year, and that showcase is the way to do that. No pressure right? Oh, and this is my favorite part, we got to have a question and answer session with some industry professionals on Friday, two of whom were agents. Now in hindsight, these two agents don't really seem to be the kind that would be terribly interested in us graduates. I believe one of them represents both Colin Firth and Helen Mirren, I fit right into that type. However through the course of their Q&A session it came out that 1) they were more interested in going to BA showcases than MA, because we are old and over the hill 2) they aren't really interested in signing Americans because unless we sort out the visa thing we have an expiration date and 3) they aren't really interested in people who don't speak with an RP (think upper class British) accent so we should all find pieces in that accent to do for our showcase. I think that covers me in all three counts. What a wonderful way to start my Friday. The rest of the day was more of what I am used to hearing, but it was still a little disconcerting to get all of that information at once. Now, does this change any of my plans? No. Of course not. I knew this was going to be a tough career from the beginning, and I am not going to let two casting agents (out of hundreds I might add) discourage me. I just need to take a deep breath and get back in the game. So here I am Sunday night, gearing myself back up for the week. I am not totally sure I am ready for the week, but that hasn't stopped me yet. Hopefully by the end of the week we will all have a clearer idea what the showcase is going to contain. I think that will help, knowing exactly what I have to work on. This week in the wild world of Katie's theatre going: Matilda the Musical and The Lion in Winter (not a musical). Full update to follow.

On the Mend

Well, finally after a long recovery process it looks like both my computer and I are on the mend. I took my computer into the lovely IT people at Central and they fixed it for me. It did take two days, which was a little sad, but as long as I have it back I don't mind. My cold however is taking much longer to kick than this virus. Still not quite back on my game vocally, but almost.

This week was full of ups and downs. This term has so far been very different than the first two. For one thing is has been very self driven. Right now we are prepping for the showcase, which means that we are all looking for scenes and music. We have spent the week breaking off on our own and scouring the library for plays, only meeting as a class every once in a while to present what we have found. I feel like I haven't seen most of my classmates at all this term. This will change next week. We have a new acting coach coming in to work with us on the scenes that we have picked so far. On Thursday we sat down and made sure everyone had two different scenes to work on, which took a quite some time to organize I might add. We are meeting as a full class three times next week to workshop these scenes. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone has found. And it will be really nice to get on my feet and do some work. Everyone has been realizing that although we started with weekly acting classes at the beginning of the year, as we started working on other projects we stopped getting that type of coaching. The devised piece was mostly focused on putting the whole show together, rather than the direction for each individual piece. So I think everyone is looking forward to getting some feedback and workshop time again.

We are all cracking down on music as well. My music binder has gotten a complete overhaul and I am working on a ton of new stuff. Still not really having much luck finding pop-y stuff to sing, but I am ok with that for the moment. At first I was feeling really unsatisfied with the music I had found to work on, but after some rethinking (dumping a few, and finding a few others) I am feeling much better. Right now my book seems to be pretty split between contemporary music and some of the more classic musicals. I did realize, when I unwittingly brought only pieces by Stephen Flaherty to a rep session, that I tend towards certain types of music. So I need to branch out from that. But for the moment, as I am searching for THE PERFECT piece to sing for showcase, I think playing towards my strengths is fine.

Also spent some time working on the music for Sunday in the Park with George. They have yet to announce who gets to audition for what, but I figure 'no work is wasted'. Plus I want to be ahead of the game once we get to auditions. I know that I am not the only one who is doing this either, so I am not worried. I am feeling pretty good about the music. I am enjoying working on it, and I think when the time comes I can do a lot with it. I just need to remind myself that there are several other things that come before this show, most of which are more important than this in the long run.

Turned in my first big paper for grad school. Woohoo! Although their hand in process is a little bit weird. First of all no one really told us what the policy was (this was a problem across the board with every MA I believe). And we all found out that apparently we are not allowed to turn in things early. So the entire school had a 1 hour window during lunch on Friday to turn in their papers. Needless to say it was a little chaotic. We were forwarded an e-mail that was sent to all of the course leaders reprimanding them for our lack of knowledge about the hand in process. I think that is more their bad than ours. Oh well. We know now I guess. The rest of the papers are due on Monday,. They are written and edited, and now all that is left is to turn them in. I will be glad to be done with this for now, although I do feel good about the paper I wrote.

Meetings for our group projects tomorrow. Should be interesting, as I know this went on everyone's back burner as we all finished the essays. We did however spend two days sitting through lectures that were supposed to help with the project. A very LONG two days. Glad that's over. It is weird, because our course is on such a different timeline than the other MA's. I think for everyone else the project is not due until May. Ours is due in Feb. So while the other classes get to mingle and collaborate we are off by our elitist selves. I wish we did get a chance to meet with these other classes. I think that the collaboration would be both interesting and informative. Oh well you cant have everything.

Right now its off to Camden for lunch with my cousin, to enjoy one of London's rarities. A sunny(ish) day in January!

Sometimes I Really Hate Technology

Don't get me wrong, there's some amazing stuff there. But sometimes....
Like for example, the continuing saga of my laptop. My laptop had been freaking out all fall. So when the screen goes on the fritz during my Christmas break I decide to just bite the bullet and buy a new one. I figured that it would be safer that way. Then I don't have to worry about it dieing while I am in the middle of writing my dissertation.

So I get my nice shiny new computer and take it back to school. And its been a week, ONE WEEK since I got back, and guess what happens. I have contracted some sort of horrible evil computer virus. Thankfully I have the lovely Central IT folk to help me out. But they have been working on my computer now for the last hour and its looking no better. They seem confident that they will fix this today, which is very reassuring. But I mean come on! I just want to take my computer home and not have to worry about things crashing, or people stealing my identity. Plus I need to edit the three papers I wrote over the weekend so I can turn them in before Friday.

Right, enough about that. While I am sitting in the computer lab waiting for them to be done I might as well update. This weekend was neither terribly productive, nor terribly restful. I was sick for most of the weekend. Not horribly ill, or even bed ridden, just enough to feel crummy and unmotivated. So I didn't have much chance to work on any of my new music. I did however finish the many essays they gave us to write!

This morning was dedicated towards picking more scene material for the showcase. Tom and I started off the morning bringing in two scenes that we had glanced through. I thought for sure that Paul wouldn't let us do the scene from Arcadia (me being not actually English and all), however he really liked it, actually preferred that one to the other scene we brought in. So we'll continue to work on that. It has been really fun getting to see some of the other scenes people are bringing in. Many are from plays that I don't know at all, or only know a little bit about. Some of them, however, are plays that I know very well, and really enjoy. For example two of the guys in our class brought in a scene from Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman, which is one of my absolute favorite plays of all time. I only got to see a very brief snippet of the material, but I think it will be really great once they have gotten it on its feet.

At lunch they had an alum come and talk to us about his experience, which was really interesting. He is currently playing in Ghost, and will be in the upcoming Les Mis movie. It was both encouraging and intimidating to hear about his experiences after he graduated. But it has gotten me motivated to do more work prepping myself for that. I need to do more research into the business side of things here. They have been encouraging all of us to research agents and casting directors so that we know something about the people that might be approaching us after the showcase. Right now I am still feeling quite overwhelmed by the whole thing, but I think once I start doing my homework I'll feel much better.

Right, well off to check on my computer. Hopefully they will be done soon. I had so many plans for today that got sidetracked by this....

Getting Back in Gear

Well I made it through the first week back. But I seem to have made myself sick in the process. So much for jumping in with both feet. This term is going to be very interesting. Also exciting, stressful and challenging. Hopefully fun will crop up once in a while too.

They started in right away Monday morning with our group projects. My group had pretty much already formed before the break, and had some ideas that we'd been kicking around, so we used the class time to try and pinpoint our exact question. However this proved to be rather challenging. The more we talked the more ideas we had. Basically we want to look into the changes that happen when a show moves. For example, what happens when a show goes from an out of town trial to opening on Broadway? What happens when certain jokes don't work in the new city? What happens when a show tours internationally? With that vague of an umbrella we can go a lot of different directions. When we were forming the group we realized that we cover a vast array of different theatre cultures. We have the US, the UK, Australia, Singapore and now South Korea. There are a lot of differences there. So we need to work on focusing our idea a bit. But I think it will be a fun group, and an interesting project. The biggest problem is that they have given us this rather large assignment right when we are working on our showcase.

That's the other thing we have been working on this week. They have sent us off in search of scenes, or duologues as they like to call them here, for the showcase. Its been great how self motivated everyone has become this term. Its amazing what 3 weeks off can do for everyone's energy and enthusiasm! I have brought in 2 scenes so far. One of which was approved and the other immediately rejected. I have one more that I'm bringing in on Monday, which I think they will reject as well. Its been very interesting working within the criteria of the showcase. They keep mentioning how these scenes have to be perfect. So generally they want things in our own dialect (which is why they'll veto the scene Tom and I are bringing in from Arcadia), they want pieces that will sell us accurately, at our best, and the most optimal casting. And everyone can eventually only be in one scene, however we should have a couple to work on until they start making final cuts. Phew, lots of things to think about. I think this will become very stressful very quickly. Or at least until we all settle with a few scenes to workshop. Then it will be tense again as they pick the final line up for the show. Especially as not everyone is going to get a scene. Well, one thing at a time.

They also have us looking for music for the showcase, and the audition module after that. I went to the library and checked out huge stacks of music books. I am still not super attached to anything I have found, but I have a bunch of new stuff to work on. I need to find something perfectly me for the showcase. And I need to figure out which scenes I am working on because I want to contrast that with the song. If I end up with a comedic song I need a dramatic scene and vice versa. Also how do I convey my full vocal range in just one song?? I'm still not really a true belter, but a lot of the comedy songs should be belt. I am not sure I want to sing a super soprano-y song because I can do the alto stuff too. Too many things to think about. Also, looking ahead to the audition module and auditioning in general they keep saying I need to find Rock and Pop style songs for my book, because I tend towards everything else. So I've been looking for that, but am floundering a bit because I don't really care for that style of show. Also I was told I should have some Folk in my book as well. Interesting. However I have completely overhauled my music book. I took out everything from last term and it is now completely full of new music. So at least I have a starting point.

On top of all of that I still need to edit and turn in my Christmas research paper. Oh, and there are two assignments that they forgot to tell us about before the break. Somehow we were supposed to magically know they were due. So I have to write those too. True they are shorter assignments, but had I known about them I would have started them much earlier. Well that's what today is for.

Still not feeling top notch so I'm going to go make a pot of tea and deposit myself on my couch to write some essays and read some scripts. Wish me luck!

Aaaaaand We're Back!

After a much needed Christmas break (the longest I've had since I finished my undergrad) I am now back in London and gearing back up for the next term.

Last term ended on a really great note. The devised piece pulled itself together at the last minute like these things always do. I think we actually put together a pretty great show. We had small audiences, but everyone who came said they really enjoyed the show. If anyone wants to check it out you can find video footage here:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9AD5D6E114017E7B
There are pictures up on facebook too.

To really cap things off our final performance of A Brief History of Everything was at the Royal Festival Hall. Yes, I have now performed at the Royal Festival Hall! Woohoo. We were part of their lunchtime concert series leading up to Christmas. It was packed. You can fit a lot of people into that lobby. All around it was a great experience. There were plenty of bumps along the way, but still totally worth it.

Got some really nice comments from my teachers as we all left after the show which was really encouraging. I am putting a lot into this program and its nice to know that I am really getting a lot out of it.

I had a wonderful time over the break. David came for a whirlwind visit. I got to spend a lot of time catching up with family and friends. I at a lot of good food and was a general layabout for 3 entire weeks. Bliss!


Lots of big stuff coming up for the rest of the year. First up is this paper I have to finish. This is basically a baby version of my dissertation this summer. I am actually really enjoying the topic (social media and theatre) but I am reminded just how long it has been since I have had to write a school essay. Its in a good place and we still have some time but I need to make sure that I keep working on it. I'd much rather get distracted by our other projects, for example looking for scenes for our showcase, than write an essay.

The showcase is only one of the many things this term. Although its next up. Well that and our group research projects. I think we finalize our groups tomorrow. We also start work on finding and choosing scenes and music for our agent showcase in February. I am really excited to see what people bring in. I am a little worried that we will hit some of the same problems with the showcase as we did during the devised piece. But hopefully since we've done this type of show before everyone will feel a little more confident (and therefor calmer) this time around.

After the showcase we get into our audition module. Basically a few weeks working on building up our rep books. At the end of which we will audition for a panel of people unfamiliar with our work. I think this should be a lot of fun.

And then finally ....drum roll please... our full scale musical. They announced the show right after we all dispersed for Christmas, which I think was really sneaky and clever of them. That way we had a few weeks to take in the announcement before we all started gossiping and worrying about it together. So, our spring show is going to be Sunday in the Park with George. I am always a big fan of Sondheim so I am really excited about this. And I think it is a good choice because of the number of parts. There are generally 14 actors, who each play a different character in the second act. So if they split the tracks into two separate roles then there are more than enough for everyone in our course to be featured. Of course there are the inevitable lead roles, which I am sure will cause a lot of anxiety, but there are a lot of other fun bits as well. I think once we get through casting everyone will have a great time.

And then after that, well, I have to write a really long paper. But I don't want to think about that just yet. One thing at a time. Right now my paper, while it needs a lot of revision, is at 2500 of the required 3000 words, my much neglected blog has been updated, and the little girls kicking the back of my seat last night made sure that I didn't get much sleep on my flight. So I think I am justified in heading to bed before 9pm.

Its good to be back.