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.