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.