Day 30/31) Abbey Road Baby!!!

OK. So. Yes. That thing that was on my to do list..#8: Record at Abbey Road. DONE!!
And it was quite possibly the most epic thing ever. Well. I mean I nearly died from a geekdom overload! I played John Lennon's piano man!! And we were in Studio 2. STUDIO 2!!! That's where like, EVERYONE has recorded! I felt so important! It's not like it was my cd or anything and it's not gotten me any money or whatever because it was a favor but MAN it was so good! And now I'm absolutely DETERMINED that one day I'll go back there to record something that is all about me. Not sure what yet. But something. There were red lights outside the studio to stop people coming in or making noise. How cool is that. And pictures of like, uber famous people everywhere taken IN THAT STUDIO and film posters signed by all the composers because they were recorded there. Epic. I was very much geeking out. Josh Groban's recorded there. One step closer in my plan for marriage maybe...hmm...not so sure, but still. One day I'll be back there. And people will be offering my choir tea. And they'll be asking me if I think that something was right. And I'll get to choose who to sing the little solo bits from the group in my songs. One day...

Day 29) Last Singing Lesson!

Having had a wonderful 9 months with Sean, (that's like, a whole baby!) it's come to the point where I am not going to have any more lessons!! At least for the next 3 months. That's scary! I have very much enjoyed my lessons- it's been so good for me to get back into it after having effectively 2 years of not learning anything and one of those without any lessons at all. I just hope that I can keep getting better and better when I'm away (although I guess I will what with so much singing!) and that when I get back I can really start hitting the circuit hard! I also want to make some new recordings. Everyone apart from me likes the old ones but I think if I do one when I'm back from tour and do some mega impressive songs it might help me to...I don't know...maybe even pitch myself to some record companies?? Yes, I've caught the bug...And I know what songs I want to do already which helps, so now it's the small matter of learning them! I can do that...I'm good at learning songs...I think...I hope...I'll ask Sean...DANGIT!

Day... Oops...

Ok, so it's like, a looooong time since I wrote anything on here. However, in my defense, my life has been horrifically boring for the last few weeks. I've spent most of my time doing my wonderful temp work and trying to earn a little bit of money. It gets more and more boring the more you do it, but actually takes less time therefore means that more money tends to occur. Or rather what actually happens is it takes less time so I get up later and take a Gilmore Girls break occasionally. However, this week I am on mission overload of work, because it's my last week!!! Wooo!!! Well, unless you count what I'm proabably going to be doing at 2am for the next two weeks to bump my measley little rehearsals wage. However, only 4 more days!! That's including Saturday and Sunday which are more than likely going to be at least 12 hour days. Although I suppose not Saturday...maybe Friday and Sunday. And tomorrow. Ahhh! So much to do!
Anyway, I will write about the AMAZINGLY fun events of the last few days in another post. Because this one is grovely and depressing so I will have one completely dedicated to that!! Woo fun times.
I have sent my contract off, and rehearsals start on monday. Slightly worried as I got a paniced phone call earlier asking me if I had any out of work singer boy friends because someone has just dropped out last minute and they need a replacement. I have none...unfortunately. And now I'm paranoid that it's going to be the guy that was with me that dropped out which means they'll have to either get someone rubbish as a bod, or they'll cancel my run. Which would not be good. But I'm sure they won't...

Day 11-12) Even more Blah blah blah

So it turns out that I'm REALLY not very good at doing boring work. I mean, REALLY not good at it. I've spent 9 hours a day for the past 2 days doing something exceedingly dull. And I feel like the world has imploded. All joy has left me. I feel like a mere shell of my former self. And the worst thing? The worst thing, is that I know as soon as I wake up on Sunday morning, I have to do it again. Only 3 weeks...only 3 weeks...keep telling yourself that...
HOWEVER. The redeeming feature of the end of the week is this...
WEDDING TOMORROW!! Not mine, that would be weird but my lovely wonderful friend is getting married and I'm going to sing LAAA. Yes. That is me singing. So I spent the latter part of the last few evenings picking out songs. I think I've managed to get a decent spread of slushy, pretty and inappropriate in there, so all is good. And I'll be able to play them on a piano that actually has a working sustain pedal! I really need to get mine fixed...
I spent some time last night looking for companies that do schools tours in London over christmas. I found a few, one I emailed and they told me to mail them back when I have 'small scale touring experience' - I will have by Christmas, but still! I was hoping for a step up at the end of / start of the year. Shall keep looking! It's not like there's nothing out there. Just not much...
Hopefully once my life becomes less monotone there will be more interesting things to blog about. Although the book 'Male Private Parts' kept me amused for about 20 minutes!

Day 10) Blah blah blah

This is how I feel today. Blah. Blah blah blah. I spent a VERY long time doing book blurb things today and I think my brain has actually turned to mush! It's honestly one of the most numbing things I've ever tried to do. Yet, it must be done. Money money money and all that. Not much else to report. Tried to learn a song. Tried to get some more stuff sorted out for this job thing. Feeling less enthusiastic about it now than I was yesterday for some reason. I'm sure it will be fine...
Anyway. Sleep time.
OH and I managed to finish season 5 of House M.D. this evening. Achievement!

Day 9) Too many options

Ok. Well. Today has been...interesting.
I went to an audition for a tv pilot, being made by some recent media graduates. I didn't really want to go, but I went anyway, and actually am very glad that I did. The audition went really well, they liked me, I liked them, the producer was cute, and I had a really good feeling about it. Especially when they brought out the copy of the last DVD they had done and showed it to me. I got very excited at the prospect of being on the front of a DVD box. Downside, it's unpaid. Anyway. The chemistry was good, and I definately got a good vibe from them! So that would be two weeks at the start of September.
Throw spanner in works...
On my way back, I got a call from the guy who I auditioned for last week (day 2- callback song fiasco). He said, that they want to offer me the job. I was a bit stunned. I figured it had been a week and I hadn't heard anything so there was no way...but apparently I was wrong! They want me to do a 9 week tour (September and October) around the Midlands (probably) working 3 shows a day Monday-Friday and having weekends off. It's paid, enough to cover my expenditure whilst I'm away, and it's 2 months solid singing work. It's not my dream job- it's me and one other singing to small crowds, but it's a start! And I guess if I'm singing in community venues and hospitals and stuff then I'm singing to people who really appreciate it, maybe cheering them up a bit, and I am doing some good in the world. So yes. That, plus the offer of the Macmillan presenting job that came yesterday, equals two paid performing jobs, equals equity membership! Sorted! At least I think I can count them...anyway.
So yes, I spoke to my dad about the car, which he is happy to loan me for the duration of the tour (thanks Daddy you're wonderful!) so that I can actually do the job!
I need to speak to flatmate about how it's all going to work, but to be honest, I'm starting to believe that it might just all figure itself out! I have until tomorrow to decide. Run figures. Talk it through. But I think I might have just landed my first contract!!
Shame about the other job- that would have been fun. If they offer it to me I might send them a message telling them how wonderful I think they are and please give me another job in the future. I kinda wanted to be on a DVD! I guess there'll be other chances though.
Watch this space!

Day 8) Office job + me do not mix!

So on day 8, I had a training day at my new job. Basically, I am to be writing about books I've never read in order to persuade people that they should buy them as audio books. It's quite tedious work, and it's taken me a while to get used to the format that they require us to use, but I think it will work out alright. At least for the next 6 weeks or so whilst they need us. I get paid per review, so although it's not huge money, it's better than nothing. I'm going to time myself on Wednesday and force myself to work from 9.30-5.30 and see how many I can do. I can do it from home normally but we needed to go in to be taught how to do it. It wasn't too bad, and I met some new people which is always good, and got paid for it! Woo! However I also remembered why me and offices do not work well together. I move around too much. I make too much noise. I can't cope with the constant tap tap tap of the keyboards without having some sort of musical addition, or maybe a dance. There are so many things that are wrong about me working in an office. Good job I don't have to do it every day!!
I had a singing lesson in the evening which is always nice and positive. I have decided on some new songs to learn, one of which is Mrs Claus singing (drunkenly) about how much she is annoyed with good old Nick. Good times.
So all in all, a good day, with money earning prospects!

Day 5-7) Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirmingham

So I had a little mini holiday. My (not so) little brother lives in Birmingham with his girlfriend and their kitten (who is called Poppy and is GORGEOUS) so I went to stay with them for a few days. It was lovely, just what I needed, and enough to kickstart me into this next week with lots of energy.
We filled our days with watching Disney, eating ice cream and shopping. I was very proud because I bought a few summery items that were a size smaller than before! Go me! So yes, an all in all very relaxing weekend, and even megabus screwing up my return journey couldn't ruin it. I have decided though, then men are perves. And not just perves, rude perves. If I am walking down the street, I don't want someone to shout at me. I don't want someone to talk to me about my legs. Just because I'm wearing shorts (in the SUMMER OH MY WORD SHOCK HORROR) doesn't give you the right to comment. Thank you very much. Rant over.
Good weekend!

Day 4) Bonjour la class!

Todays exciting adventure involved a casting for Macmillan publishers, for a presenter role for one of their English language courses. Yes, I would infact be the person that all classes love to ridicule for their ridiculous phrases that are to be copied and memorised. It's not very much, I think they'd only want me to record for about an hour (on greenscreen with an autocue- rather exciting) but it's all good fun! Today was rather uneventful other than that. For some reason a whole load of jobs arrived online at about midday so I was rummaging around and managed to get an interview sorted for Tuesday next week for an independant TV series thing. I think it's written by students, not completely sure. Anyhow.
The start of next week looks to be quite productive what with a training day for my new 'part time job' on Monday as well. It's fully paid so can't complain. I might make it my mission on days that I have no interviews to work as many hours as is actually physically possible. I can tell this is going to turn into one of my crazy obsession things where I think 'I could go to sleep...or I could do 4 more reviews and earn a Nandos!' Oh well. Money money money. I had a daydream earlier that I was rich and owned a flat. It was a lovely flat. Then I realised that I had a flat, and I was rich and didn't really need all the money because I had nothing to spend it on.
It always seems to me that it's ridiculous to spend so much on rent and get nothing effectively out of it. A year living here is nearly £8000 for me alone. That's crazy. And it just disappears at the end of the year into the bank account of the landlords. If I had a deposit and thought there was any chance in hell of being given a mortgage then I'd be very VERY tempted. Obviously soon it will be ok and I'll be able to buy a flat outright with my advance from my Hollywood blockbuster...or something like that.
Tomorrow I'm disappearing off for a 'holiday' to go and stay with my little brother for a few days. It's the only break I'm going to get really so I figured I'd take it whilst I can and chill out a bit before the obsessive review writing begins! And it's an excuse to watch an awful lot of Disney!

Day 3) Kicking some Zombie ass!

So todays mission was my first ever film casting. Short film, awful script (as I laughed about over coffee beforehand!) and far too much gratuitous nudity and violence for my liking. But as they say, it's all experience! The casting was held in the downstairs room of a pub in central London. The team of writer/producer/director/casting director were all nice, although slightly creepy. There's something that doesn't sit right with me about grown up men writing Zombie films where the main female characters are either naked or lesbian. Thankfully, the part I was reading for was the lesbian one, not the naked one. But still. The script was full of guts and gore as you would expect. Don't get me wrong, being in a really bad horror film is on my list of ambitions (which will no doubt be published one day when nothing else happens to me!), but something tells me that this one won't be the one to take that slot. Me and that character were not a good fit. But it was a good casting session. There were people reading for the other parts there too, all of whom had experience in film work (but you have to start somewhere right?!) and seemed far more comfortable in the situation than I was. They were all nice enough though. One of the guys was even nice enough to walk in completely the wrong direction to the wrong tube station with me on the way back (although I think that might have had something to do with the fact that I was wearing quite a short skirt and heels!).
We had been told by the director that they had auditioned 30-odd people over the past two days out of over 300 applicants. That made me feel slightly at ease from the start. There was obviously something about my castingcallpro profile that made me stand out from the other 270-ish people. Possibly something to do with the fact that my headshot actually makes me look quite good! That's the world of the sleazy casting director for you...although obviously I'd rather think it's the pure talent and persona that oozes out of my CV...the CV which is currently pretty dire as I have nothing on it except my college performances. But again, everyone has to start somewhere!
Having read through the script together a number of times (it's a very short film!) they recorded our reading and took photos of us. Surprisingly, this didn't throw me as I thought it would. I am sort of glad that we didn't have to action the dialogue fully as I'm pretty sure had I tried to kiss the other girl that was there she would have punched me. So now, I can add 'film casting' to my ever growing book of experiences.

I was reading an article this evening in an old issue of 'Drama Student' magazine about Jeremy Irvine, who has just been cast as the lead in Spielbergs new adaptation of 'War Horse'. It was written a while ago (before his uber success) and was about how he'd decided to go it alone following one year at Drama School. It was quite inspiring, to think that a year ago he was in the same position as me and now he's on his way to the top! Obviously everyones path is different, but why not expect great things! I have a new point on my action plan for next week.

My general plan is to make sure that every day I do something that is a 'career thing', no matter how small and trivial it may be. It's kind of a plan to stop myself sitting back and waiting. At the moment there's quite a bit to do. I'm sure at some point I'll run out of ideas, which will be the point I start learning crazy Shakespeare monologues or mentally hard songs. Both of which are also useful things to do! However the more pressing issues are things like choosing which agents to write to (which is Mondays job) and organising an audition folder (Fridays job) or getting photos and website sorted and recording some stuff for a showreel...by the end of July I plan to be the most organised actress in London. That has to count for something!
The gruelling process of sifting through the casting calls and applying to things happens every day too. Yes, I am one of the sad people who logs on 3 times a day to check if there is anything new and to get in there first. But if it gets me a job, then how is it bad?
So all of this, added to my need to earn money, means that my addiction to trashy US TV may have to be overcome. Either that or I could give up sleep...

Day 2) Audition circuit here I come!

So today was my first 'proper' audition. I went and sat in a very small corridor with a lot of other people, who were called in one by one, and when they'd all gone in the guy said 'Sorry, what's your name?' So I told him and he looked at his paper, looked confused, then beckoned me in. Who knows if I was actually on his list or not! But anyway, he seemed to like me, as he asked me to come back at 4 for a callback. Woo! Although, he said he wanted me to sing something else. Something more 'Character' in style. I had nothing with me, so raced to Chappells and bought a book. I had a few things in mind, neither of which I actually knew properly, so I proceeded to spend the next two hours sat in Costa in the corner trying to learn them. I managed to get the notes right, but wasn't set on the words, but when I went back I explained that to him and he seemed OK with me using the sheet as a prompt as I'd only just learnt it. Callbacks consisted of singing a duet with one of the male auditionees (always good in my mind!) and singing him that one new song. After much prodding from him to get me to do it more nasal and 'bronx sounding', I think I managed to make it sound alright. But who knows. I don't really know what they're looking for, and the fact that they called me back obviously meant they thought I was quite good. But out of all the auditionees (all of whom had far more experience than me!) I'm really not sure who they'll pick as we were all very different. Some more operatic, others more rock/belter. Who knows! He took my mobile number at the end and said he'd call me. Which obviously means he's going to call either way, as if he wasn't and it was a no he wouldn't have bothered asking for it! It's on my CV anyway...
But anyway, as a first 'professional' audition I don't think it was too shabby! I just need to find a load more like that one and one day someone will want me! And I was surprised as to how fun it was. I met some random people, who were very willing to talk which was nice. This myth that all actors are horrible people is complete rubbish. All those people were lovely. Obviously to an extent everyone is wishing someone will crack a note or something, but actually I think there was a real sense of cameradery amongst everyone. They all know what it's like, and they are all hoping for exactly the same things. I like actors. I wish I knew more of them.
So all in all, a positive day. I'm liking the way that this week is working out. Even if I end up with no performing jobs, I'll be ahead of most of the rest of my class in audition experience (most of them haven't even started applying for things yet) and have got myself a nice little part time earner on the side.
Life = Good!

Day 1) Occupation: Actress!

I actually got to write that on a form today! I felt a small amount of pride when the bank worker read my form back to me to check the details were correct. I guess that word has different reactions from everyone. Some wouldd think 'Ooh, that's really cool.' Some would think 'Oh an ACTRESS dahrling'. Some would think 'Yeah, an ''actress''. Fail' Who knows. But I take great joy in the fact that that is, infact, what I am. At least the fun part.
And- I have possibly found a way to get some money! Thanks to my lovely flatmate, I was put in touch with someone who is looking for people to write book reviews for a website. Hopefully (if her boss doesn't hate me!) I can start that next week and get paid to write from home! I thought this week was going to be a nightmare what with the sudden void that my life has become. But if this works out then I have one less thing to worry about! Rent is expensive. And most jobs pay nothing. So the money has to come from somewhere. And I really don't mind where. But if I can earn my rent from writing and then any singing/acting/teaching can pay for my life then that's fine with me! At least for now. I think I'm giving myself two years. At least that's what I have decided in my head. Two years to get to the point where the majority of my income is coming from performing. Although ask me again in two years and I'll probably tell you four!
I also have an audition tomorrow! And it's not a bad one either- it's from Spotlight so it feels very proper! Although that also means that there'll be lots of very good performers there. Singing has always been my thing, even before I decided to add the acting, so jobs that come up which involve singing are always first on my list of targets. Here's hoping that the fact that I only really learnt one of the songs this afternoon doesn't throw me and I can actually sing to my normal standard. My voice sounds knackered at the moment- my singing lesson this evening was torture. I had to lay down on the floor at the end of a very emotional rendition of 'Climb every mountain'. 4 weeks solid rehearsal for the show last week has wiped me out a bit. Most of the rest of the class have taken a holiday and gone somewhere sunny, but not me. 1) I have no money to do that and 2) I feel like the next 6 weeks are going to be pivotal in getting my career off the ground. There are many things I need to do in order that I can feel completely secure in calling myself a professional, and I want to be at the point by the end of the summer where I am organised (which is an effort for me who never knows whether she's coming or going!) and prepared for anything this industry might throw at me. I have my action plan, and I have my motivation. So many things to do. So little time. But can I do it? Hell yes I can!

Just the beginning...

Ok. So. It's done. I've finished Drama School. I am now, officially, an actress. Along with the thousands of other actresses in London, all of whom are in exactly the same position as me. I've been told that the first year out of training is the hardest. Endless auditions, no money, countless rejections...sounds like thrilling stuff. So I've decided to blog about it. The TRUTH about being an actor. What's it really like behind the hollywood facade? Technically, today is my second day, but as it is Monday, and we had our graduation 'party' last night, I have decided to Start today. For the next 365 days I will be writing about my experiences, trials, triumphs and failures. Who knows what will happen? Maybe I'll be on TV. Or on a west end stage. Maybe I'll get a part in a Hollywood blockbuster! Maybe I'll win an Oscar!! Or maybe I'll be sat in this chair, typing on this (Very old) laptop one year older, cursing the day I decided to do this. Who knows. But we'll see...