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.