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.