New German blog

There will soon be a new German blog with tales of my exciting new life in Germany. Stay tuned!

Jo x

New Blog

The address for my new blog is:

www.mydebutnovelloveconquersall.blogspot.com

Please come and check it out, and post if you want too.

x

Positive Thinking

Last week I attended a kind of audition for another play I'm interested in. It wasn't a formal audition but I spent the whole time reading for a character called Rachel, who was middle aged and the lady of the house. I actually really liked the part, even though I am no where near middle aged! But of course there is make-up, costume...

Today, I returned from Manchester where I had spent an enjoyable Saturday out celebrating my birthday next week, to show my commitment for this role which I wanted. I had already started learning lines for it. At 4pm today, me and this other lady found out our fate. Of course I never got it, was never going to I guess, due to the age. It's pretty difficult to make yourself look older. I guess this is the one time, I'd like to look older. Anyway, I'm human and was understandably angry and disappointed. I have this stupid other character with only 8 lines. I am the far better actress, better stage presence but this other lady received the part. Tough life hey?!

By next week I have to swallow my pride and watch someone else do this role, which I know I could have done better and play this minor character. But rest assured I may only have 8 lines, but they will be the best 8 lines of the entire play. So much for positive thinking; it has merely made my fall harder and much more difficult to recover from.

New Blog

Having finally settled on a title for my debut novel, I'm intending on writing another blog, based on life from my female protagonist, Grace. I need to finish my German course first, and I'm glad to say that my oral is done and dusted on Wednesday. Finally my life can return to writing. 

Anyway, I hope you will continue to follow my new blog as well, and I'm sure Grace will welcome you with open arms. As for the new title...come and see. Hope you like it.

Socks and Shoes

Yesterday I got very frustrated as I couldn't find any socks to cater for my shoe size. I am in the fortunate postion of being tall, and I wouldn't trade that for anything. But my feet are also big too, and that's a problem when buying shoes and even socks.

Over the years I've learnt not to hold my breath when buying shoes. Apparently women don't have big feet so most shoe shop assistants just stare at you, when you ask for a size 8. I was lucky shopping in Sports Direct last week because they could offer me both of my choices in size 8, that doesn't very often happen.

So a few shops can cater for large shoe sizes and tall people, for example Long Tall Sally. Why can they not supply the socks to go with these shoes? Until such a choice is found, my poor feet will have to continue to suffer in socks which are a tad small...

Withdrawal Symptoms

Two weeks ago was the penultimate night of my debut play, 'The Ghost Train.' The whole week of five performances was categorically the best week of my whole life. Honestly if someone had told me five years ago, I would perform on the stage infront of 100 people I would have just laughed. Now, it seems like the most obvious thing to do. The After Show Party was amazing, we had such a laugh on the Saturday night, but on Sunday I felt like a lost puppy. What on earth was I going to do with my Monday and Thursday nights now? Rehearsals had been my life for the last four months. Now I could quite happily forget my lines, and carry on with my life. Only I am now contemplating the merits of acting professionally. Insane? Possibly.

Since the end of the performance I have given this a lot of thought. I haven’t reached a major decision yet, but a few close friends have certainly given me their blessing and told me, they don’t think I’m insane. The difficulty lies in the fact that I don’t think I will be given as many opportunities with my local Amateur Drama group for acting, as I would like. In the next play, I’m prompting which I love. In my opinion it’s the next best thing after appearing on stage. I certainly want to audition for the next play in November, but to act full time would be the most amazing opportunity. More thought on the subject is definitely needed...

Angst at the Dress Rehearsal, ecstasy on Opening Night

After a smash hit of an opening night, for our play ‘The Ghost train,’ I feel it’s only appropriate to offer some idea as to how the dress rehearsal went the evening before. Disaster, is a word to describe it, or at least a word banded about by the cast members after the performance.

I was pretty nervous on Monday night, and we were only performing to a handful of our society members, but at least we could practise before a live audience. On the Sunday afternoon we had our technical rehearsal and there was no time for a complete run through, so Monday was our last time to iron out any snags.

The first Act was pretty good I thought. At least my major scene went well, which is of course most important. The first problem was the lack of a ‘body’ outside the waiting room door; essential to the plot of ‘The Ghost Train.’ Credit here has to go to the men for some genius ad-libbing. Given the fact that the ‘body’ was the Assistant Director’s husband, this didn’t go down very well. Indeed afterwards we all said that we saw smoke coming out of her ears, and could imagine the telling off he got when they got home.

I unfortunately got prompted, which infuriated me; number 1) because she has a reputation of being a much too enthusiastic a prompt and number 2) because had she given me another 30 seconds I would have remembered my line, thank you very much.

At the beginning of Act 2, my character begins by trying to light a cigarette. The props (a cigarette and some matches in an authentic 1920s matchbox) were going to be passed to me through the ticket office hatch by the stage manager. With the eventual arrival of the ‘body’ at the end of Act 1, she was on her way to me with my cigarette and matches during the blackout between acts, when she fell over the ‘body’ and couldn’t get to me on time. When the lights appeared there I was sat on a table wondering how I could fake smoking with no matches and no cigarette.

All in all, maybe it wasn’t as bad as the cast had thought. Certainly the directors were pretty happy with it, leading me to think, which play had they seen?

As everyone says; a bad dress rehearsal means a great performance, and that was certainly true because last night couldn’t have gone better. I received my cigarette and matches on time, because I decided to keep them in my handbag. If you want something done properly, do it yourself. Applause well deserved for our cast members. Bring on tonight people, and let the applause ring out merrily once again.