FEATURE: ASPIRATIONS OF AN ACTRESS – PART 3
Melissa Rynn, 21, is a student from Southend, who is desperate to become an actress. She’s updating us every month with her progress in her bid to tread the boards professionally. Here’s Part 3 of her continuing diaries for longpier.com
“When I was fifteen and still adorning my fetching St Bernard’s uniform with whatever rule-breaking item I could find, I decided that by the grand old age of twenty-one I’d have achieved three things. I would be attending premieres of films (of which I was the star) in Leicester Square, I’d have a play I’d written in the midst of a sold-out run and I’d be most probably be the most famous person that ever graced this earth. I turned twenty-one on the 14th July and, whilst I haven’t quite achieved the latter yet, I’ve finally taken an initial step towards the first two (at least in the loosest sense of the word).
It’s currently late evening of Saturday 17th July and tomorrow I’ve got an early start and all day gig at the Palace Theatre Dixon Studio. It’s the Palace Writers’ Group’s first production; a showcase of our work called ‘Rings’. Having received some funding from Southend Legacy 2012, our pieces are all based around the Olympics or at least Olympic themes. Running one night only, we’re somehow officially ‘sold out’ (though I’m so very secretly wishing the seats have all been booked by members of the group rather than members of the public). My piece is based around the 1980 Moscow Olympics which America boycotted due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. I focus on a particular athlete and his emotions because of the boycott and it’s most probably just as boring as it sounds. One thing I’ve learnt from this production is that my combined literature/history degree has severely affected my concept of good entertainment as I strive to make everything that little bit more ‘intellectual’ – the word makes me shudder even typing it. I’ve managed to squeeze myself a minor role in the piece (true egotist style) and I’m also acting in a few of the other pieces playing roles from a labour MP to the chorus for the “marathon man”, Phidippides.
Alongside this rather eclectic ‘sold out run’, have been two premieres of films I’ve been in. The first was a short film called ‘which I filmed the lead female role for back in February/March. The premiere took place at the Prince Charles Cinema which resides in glistening Leicester Square as part of a graduate showcase (I tend to omit the last fact in general conversation as part of my ‘make self seem better than I am’ scheme). Despite finding a dress to wear that was far beyond my bank balance’s capability, I ended up missing it due to illness. It also ran in Shoreditch Town Hall for the few days following (not quite a long spiel at nationwide Odeon cinemas) but the continuous cold meant I was unable to make those showings too. I’m hoping to get a DVD of the film soon to watch locked in the basement of an abandoned house, far away from anyone else seeing it.
Unfortunately, acute influenza did not strike again and I had no excuse to avoid my terrible acting skills for an initial showing of another film I took part in. Admittedly this was far away from the glitz of Leicester Square and I was safe in a Harrow dubbing theatre for a cast only showing of a short film called ‘Surviving’. On this occasion I only had to cover my ears as mine was a vocal only performance as the female narrator. I happened upon the part during rehearsals for a play when a friend was in dire need of some voices for a film he had made ‘whilst bored’ at home in Portugal. After auditioning us all and making some initial recordings on the complex sound technology that is the I-phone, we recorded the vocals in a recording studio deep underground (to save the world from hearing us, no doubt). It was rather bizarre listening to myself in cinema quality; I had thought it bad enough hearing my wails across youtube videos and computer screens. However, with ten times the clarity, the thought ‘I don’t really sound like that, do I?’ comes ten times stronger. The website for the film is http://www.surviving.2illusions.com/ where you can find pictures and information as well as my Oscar-worthy one word in the trailer of ‘yes’.
When I haven’t been busy living the glamorous existence of a film star come playwright (ahem), I’ve been continuing my work on the journalistic side of theatre working for What’s on Stage, a website an old teacher once referred to as the ‘bible’ of UK theatre. I’m starting to feel like an ugly, old piece of furniture in the office having helped out on odd days for over three years but I enjoy it none the less. We had a frantic few days preparing for the huge event that was West End Live; a yearly concert that takes place in Leicester Square featuring performances from all the largest shows from the West End. It meant a lot of plugging, covering cardboard competition boxes and printing out thousands of cards to give out but the weekend went well and it meant a lot of new people learnt about the company. Work productivity for the most part wasn’t at its most efficient due to the combined evils of the World Cup and Wimbledon plus a huge gas leak at the office but I, as always, had a fantastic time. I’ve also managed to land myself the job of long-term ‘twitter lady’ for the company with the task of looking after their twitter account (though I much prefer the term ‘social media expert’).
Despite the enjoyment I get working for a company as nice as What’s on Stage, the task of transcribing interviews and being in contact with performers always ignites the actor in me and makes me ever eager to achieve. A few weeks ago I set about creating a new theatre group in London; a small collective of writers, directors and a few actors with which we could create new pieces and experiment with different kinds of theatre. Having been rushed off my feet with other projects, I’ve been neglecting the group and am now eager as ever to go ahead with it having gained professionals of varying skills in the industry. I’m hoping to therefore step on to the London Fringe scene by the end of this year – something I set about achieving earlier this year but one disappointment after another (combined with a healthy dose of procrastination) has stopped me from achieving.
With a lot to do and a dissertation on the adaptation of novels to plays to start thinking about, I’ve got a distinct feeling that this holiday won’t be one of relaxation. However, with some exciting auditions coming up and the new group to focus on, I think I’d rather leave resting until I’m back at university and in a particularly uninteresting lecture anyway.”
