ASPIRATIONS OF AN ACTRESS – PART 1
Southend based student Melissa Rynn is 20 – and would dearly love a career treading the boards. But she’s currently doing a degree in English and History at a London university. How does she balance her time between her two loves, and what lies in store for our aspiring actress? Melissa will write regularly for the site…here’s part one of her journey:
“Perhaps I owe it to my youthful naivety, or maybe it’s easier to just blame Disney for giving too high expectations, but surely being an actress is supposed to be more glamorous than sharing the last train home to Southend Victoria with a cohort of liquor-happy city workers. Apparently the gatherings and glistening gowns are reserved for those lucky few whose resume measures up to their ridiculously long legs. At least standing at 5’3″ with very short legs, my CV doesn’t have that much to live up to.
I’m a twenty-year-old student, studying in London who, despite having aspirations of treading the boards, decided to take the bus down academia for a few stops and indulge in a Literature and History BA Hons. This means that every spare moment I’m not challenging my brain in the library I’m rehearsing, scouring for jobs and filling my time with meeting anyone I can. I’ve got typically childish ambitions of one day sharing a (very much planned and practised in the bathroom) ‘Best Actress’ award speech to a packed room of adoring fans (the post award interviews are also pretty much polished). Though the fear at the moment is whether I’ll even be allowed through the door for the audition of my starring role in Hedda Gabler, let alone share my emotional masterpiece of an award speech.
Because I commute from sunny Southend my day disappears in the ‘leaving two hours before you have to be anywhere’ rule and more than often I find myself leaving at seven in the morning and walking back through the front door rather dreary eyed at one the next morning.
Being at the bottom of the pile at the moment means I have to live a sort of Superman double existence; astute student during the day and confident actress in the evening (perhaps a double life not quite worthy of a Marvel comic yet). Whilst the piles of work are frustrating, studying in London has given me a great deal of opportunity to develop and meet a few (not so) friendly faces. I’ve had the chance to attend awards, launch parties and press nights and pretend I’m important Cinderella style whilst I’m really letting my green eyed monster scour everyone else in the room. Last week, for example, I attended the star-studded press night of the Theatre Royal Haymarket transfer ofSweet Charity. The musical, staring former Eastenders star Tamzin Outhwaite, attracted a lot of press interest and I found myself posing for paparazzi who, in a mad frenzy to get pictures of everyone they could, were completely clueless of who the scruffy little girl in the way of Gavin and Stacey actress Joanna Page was. I’ve tried convincing myself that was my good deed of the week as I’m pretty sure those shots will be worth thousands in a few years but then I’m sharply brought back to reality and reminded that’s only likely to happen if a million pound bank robbery’s happened to be captured in the background.
I’m also slapped back to reality by the copious amount of waiting I’m having to do at the moment. I’ve found myself applying for project after project and I’m in that frustrating time of waiting to hear back whether the successful ones will actually find their way off paper into reality. Some friends and I have just started up a new theatre company in London and we’re currently working on our first production together. The piece is something my Portuguese friend has written and had performed in some rather large and successful productions back in Portugal.
We’re redeveloping it to fit us as actors and he’s currently in the process of translating it as our rehearsals produce different directions the piece could go. I’m luckily enough to be playing the lead female and we’re in the process of securing a London venue for the production which will hopefully be taking place at the end of this year. Whilst this is fantastic and something I’m really looking forward to being involved in, we’ve put it temporarily on hold whilst we all have too much on and my friend has (rather enviously) obtained a role for an outside production in July. Whilst this is on hold, I’m cramming in revision for my university exams (which I’ve probably failed quite spectacularly) and I’m waiting for news on a couple of films I starred in earlier this year.
One has been sent off to festivals and we’re waiting to hear the results whilst another is nearly finished in post-production and we’re awaiting a glamorous premiere in London (I shall abstain from mentioning it’s at an arty venue somewhere in East London, rather than a large cinema in Leicester Square). I’m really excited for this despite the fact I normally outright refuse to watch myself on camera and put my hands over my ears to avoid hearing the high-pitched squeal affectionately known as my voice (perhaps I may have chosen the wrong vocation).
Away from London, I’m trying to get involved with the Southend acting community which is something I’ve never found myself that large a member of. I’ve written to a few local drama groups hoping to get some responses and am currently part of a new project at the Palace Theatre called The Palace Writers Project.
The project is a writing group with members from every walk of life and we’re working towards a a showcase of the writing we’ve developed on the 17th July. It should be a good show and I’m looking forward to getting involved on the acting side as well as showcasing some of my writing. I think it’s very easy to ignore the opportunities stood on your doorstep and this is definitely one of those great chances to develop without treading too far away. However, a very nasty throat and chest infection has meant quarantine away from civilisation including the group, so it should be intriguing to hear all I’ve missed whilst sipping my Lemsip sulkily.
2010 , despite speeding away at a ridiculous speed, is looking exciting and I’m looking forward to an exhausting but interesting few months once I’ve removed the smell of Eau de Vix Vapour Rub and rid myself of this chest infection (which I begrudgingly mention due to the fact I have to give up a free ticket I had today to the amazing show Enron I’ve been meaning to see for ages). So far I’ve already had a lot of fun experiences; rehearsed readings, initial readings for plays and splitting my head open at a rehearsal for a film (but that’s another story). I look forward to sharing my experiences with you all and hearing any of yours (even if the majority of mine will be written whilst eating a boots meal deal on a speeding train away from London Liverpool Street)!”
