ASPIRATIONS OF AN ACTRESS – PART 2

With most of this year’s university exams somewhat precariously behind me, I’ve been able to spend less time in old London town and appreciate the sophistication of sunny Southend. This started with a punch (quite literally) as I was lucky enough to be invited to a stage combat lesson with the Southend Shakespeare Company in preparation for their upcoming production of Henry V. I can now officially kick, punch and even strangle my way across the stage (though I’m not sure it will get me featured on an episode of Drunken and Disorderly quite yet). I can’t wait to see how the carefully choreographed chaos transcends to the company’s outdoor touring production. It’s running from the 30 June until 18 July around various locations in our beautiful Essex so fingers crossed the weather holds out, it should be fantastic. I’m hoping to help out and should be attending rehearsals along the final stretch so I’ll be sure to communicate back.

Perhaps a little fatigued by the few hours spent establishing myself as a hardcore (albeit fake) fighter, I decided to hedge my bets in the other direction and become a lover for a few hours. The Southend Shakespeare Company are putting on a production of Romeo and Juliet in October and so I applied my anti-wrinkle cream and auditioned for the title role of 13 year old Juliet. The audition was fantastic and the two other newbie’s and I (all three of us feeling perhaps a bit older than we should) had an intense afternoon of playing around with the script and looking at different interpretations of the character. The role eventually went to a younger member of the company (which makes a lot more sense than three twenty-somethings trying for a youth production). However, I know we’re all still looking forward to helping out with the show and it was definitely one of the most enjoyable auditions I’ve had in a while.

Thanks to a careful eye I managed (once again) to blag a free ticket to Enron; the show a throat infection willed me not to go when I was writing my last entry.  Ever the networker, I got chatting to the person sitting next to me who happened to be in charge of a rather interesting venue in London. I’m hoping to utilise this when I have my university cohort back and there should some exciting opportunities ahead from it. My freebie ticket was courtesy of the National Youth Theatre and heard of through my new free ticket portal, Twitter. I’ve also managed to blag free tickets to The Fantasticks on Monday evening and a reading of a new play by Bob Ellis and Denny Lawrence on Tuesday all thanks to rotting in front of my Macbook screen (who said social networking was leaving a generation uncultured, eh).

In fact, Facebook and Twitter have given me a lot of opportunities. It was a Facebook message from Southend Theatres that informed me of the Palace Writers Project. An ever-declining group of us meet weekly to discuss our writing and prepare pieces for performance in July along with the help of writer Roy Apps. It’s starting to get very exciting as we’re all producing drafts of our work and drawing ever closer to the final product. However, I’ve left myself rather disappointed; at the beginning of the project I’d willed myself to write a juicy self-indulgent piece for an actress of around my height, weight, age, name, address and so on (which I wouldn’t dream of performing. Oh, if you insist…). But, as the piece has progressed, it’s become impossible for me to play the egotist so I’m currently ready to pounce on a man with the ever useful party trick of being able to do a generic American accent (if this fits the bill of anyone, I’d love to hear from you). I’m starting to get excited about the piece and I’m in dire need a second voice to remind me it’s quite rubbish and certainly no Chekhov.

In playing the selfless Samaritan and writing a piece for a male actor, I’ve robbed myself of a chance to act in an already barren landscape so I’m scouring for parts here and there. Once again I’d love anyone to give me news on any productions or theatre groups going locally or in London (no matter how small or short notice). But for now, I think my best bet appears to be getting a job as a waitress; every Oscar winner appears to have been working as one when they got their first big break and I can hear the restaurants of Southend calling me.