The Hills are Alive with the sound of Re-makes

I recently was asked to write some content marketing entitled ‘Why a re-make of The Sound of Music is a terrible, terrible idea.’  Did you all know that NBC have just aired a new live version of The Sound of Music with, country & western star, Carrie Underwood as Maria? They only gave me 500 words for my opinion, which for a subject so dear to my heart, was simply not enough.  So I thought it was rather blog worthy!

Is Roger & Hammerstein’s ‘The Sound of Music’ out of date and in need of a Goq Wan make over?

Well, this NBC re-make has prompted a dramatic response in the Twitter-sphere and with Julie Andrews fans alike.  One blogger just wrote “Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo” for about 2,000 characters!

I have to say that I agree. We like our classic movie musicals to remain just that – classic.  I am only just digesting the news that they are making a new Annie movie after seeing a picture of Cameron Diaz as Miss Hannigan and Jamie Foxx as Daddy Warbucks. I respect both Diaz and Foxx, but in my eyes they can’t hold a candle to the wonderful Carol Burnett and Albert Finney. And now, Julie Andrews is being re-modelled, who’s next.......? Howard Keel?  Bless his beautiful hide - Hell, no!

I don’t think it is just us musical theatre geeks, nourished from a young age on these movies, who are the only protesters to these re-makes. ‘The Sound of Music’ is a firm, family favourite, it may provoke an eye-roll when it appears in the TV listings EVERY Christmas Day but there’s a reason for its inclusion.  It is a brilliant film.  Yahoo.com created a list of classic films that shouldn’t be touched in this era of money making re-makes, calling them ‘The Untouchables.’  They included ‘When Harry Met Sally,’ ‘Annie Hall’ and ‘Casablanca’ and surely anything with Julie Andrews in should be on it too, (well, maybe not The Princess Diaries.)

Whose childhood soundtrack, especially in my line of work, doesn’t include the glorious voice of Julie Andrews? Carrie Underwood may have a great voice but I doubt she’ll promote the same feelings of nostalgia. We love this movie for hitch-kicks holding a guitar case, lederhosen and Liesel’s pink gazebo dress!

16 going on 17.....

Time matures and moves on. Fans of movies grow up and their tastes change. I understand this. NBC said they wanted to make their ‘Sound of Music’ appeal to a modern audience by “bringing the story up to date.”  Writer Ashley Fetter from TheAtlantic.com suggested that the disciplinarian father storyline was old-fashioned and could be updated by perhaps exploring the modern idea that Von Trapp 

“is just too heartbroken to interact with them (his children)”

 has she not seen the original film???? Christopher Plummer invented ‘intense pain behind the eyes yearning’ way before Colin Firth even donned Mr Darcy’s breeches.  Von Trapp’s repressed feelings are a modern therapists dream.

I’m not sure how well NBC achieved this premise; the promotional photos showed an air-brushed Von-Brady Bunch scene. Like many others, NBC seems to have mistaken this classic tale to be a twee and saccharine view of the past.

The non musical story of the Von Trapp is much darker and the recent production at Regents Park proved the story to be highly political. It included all the nostalgic movie touches but really highlighted the historical context.  History shouldn’t be brought up to date, it is history. New audiences should be able to understand World War II, the Nazi Party and the Holocaust in their true context and it shouldn’t be sugar-coated or made easier to digest. It was a horrific moment in history that mustn’t be dumbed down for modern audiences.

I have confidence, not just in sunshine bit also, in people. Modern audiences are not stupid and should be challenged just as people have been by culture for ‘a thousand years.’ By re-working classics are film producers suggesting that society can only able to appreciate things that are similar to our lives today? Are we too short-sighted? Or have they just run out of ideas?

The recent re-writing of Jane Austen’s novels has provoked a similar mixed reaction. Does giving the Dashwood girls social media accounts make their story more accessible?  Is it too much to hope that we can appreciate the stories of family, love and life from Austen’s own pen and without a soundtrack by 1 Direction? Writer, Elizabeth Day from The Observer brilliantly said

 “I don’t need to read about Mr Knightley listening to Arctic Monkeys in his iPod to be convinced that Jane Austen is ‘relevant.’ I already know that she is.”

I believe that the Von Trapp story is equally relevant and therefore doesn’t need modernising.  But what about the argument that a musical is ‘re-worked’ every time a new production is done on stage?

We are used to seeing different productions; we expect to see musicals on stage. Their interpretations are applauded and remembered but never as definitive as on celluloid. Films get re-watched and re-watched which can define images into our minds. Productions of The Sound of Music are nearly always loyal to tradition, you never see Maria Von Trapp leaving a detention centre and the family climbing the Pennines to escape Thatcher.

I hope this new live American version was enjoyed by a new audience but I pray that it will inspire them to watch the original.

So I say ‘So Long, Farewell’ to re-makes. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. In fact, I may wear a dress made from curtains and drink pink lemonade whilst watching my favourite classic on Christmas Day in defiance! Join me!

Manically Meditating

We all have hectic lives and different ways of unwinding – me, I like to read a book in bed whilst listening to classical music (I celebrate my inner granny!) But I have found that I keep getting stressed really easily, feeling overloaded by work and ridiculous road rage at dawdling local drivers. I needed to find a way to chill out that didn’t involve a vat of wine, especially as I sadly can’t read in bed all day.

I decided to try a meditation course; or as my other half has said “I have turned into a hippy.” Loads of people swear by 10 minutes of quiet time each day and I do like the lying down part at the end of a yoga class, so I decided to give it a go. There is a 21 day course via Oprah Winfrey and her guru Depak and they email you a link each day with the aim of finding some inner peace before the month is through! You find a quiet place, listen to their thought or message of the day and then meditate for 10 minutes to some lovely music. However, I am really struggling with it and here’s why:-

Anyone got a spare 20 minutes?

You’d think in my self-employed day where I work to my own schedule that I would be able to find 20 minutes to meditate, but it has been really hard. In fact I should be doing it now but I am blogging instead!  I thought about making use of my commutes but sadly I no longer use the train and I’m not sure driving through the country lanes of Surrey is the best place to switch off.  I realise this is ridiculous, everyone has 20 minutes even if it is to watch The Big Bang Theory or whilst your dinner is cooking but I’ve really been struggling and am already 5 days behind!

Where is the best place?

I have discovered that the best place to try to meditate in my cottage is in our spare room; as Goldilocks would say it is ‘just right’, nice and quiet and with a comfy sofa.  However, it did take me a few attempts to work this out.  In my quest to fit it in to my busy day, I decided it would be a genius plan to meditate whilst having my bath. Genius indeed, warm water to relax in plus getting washed and ready for work all in 20 mins!  But it is hard to focus on inner calm when you’re getting a bit too hot or washing your arm pits.  I ended up getting out and trying to maintain inner peace whilst wearing a towel, perched on the edge of the bath.  However this is far from the real problem with trying to meditate in the bathroom; the problem is that someone else may need to use it....

Picture the scene; I am perched in said towel, chanting my mantras, eyes closed, listening to calming music when my other half bangs on the door (in a loud Northern accent) “Dan, are you done? I’m dying for a poo!”  All my ‘ohms’ flew out of the window.  I may have been trying to control my destiny but he sadly couldn’t control his, so that meditation session was shot to...... well, .....you know!

Wandering thoughts

One of my biggest struggles with meditating is the main part of it – switching off.  I cannot seem to quiet my brain.  The more I tell myself to think of nothing, the more I think of what I have to do later and then the more stressed I get as I tell myself off for thinking it.  They say you are meant to acknowledge your thoughts and then let them pass. But the problem is if I acknowledge the random thought that I’ve forgotten to pay my council tax, it doesn’t pass, instead it ferments as panic rises and I plan fitting a trip to the bank in to an already busy day that I am wasting 20 minutes sitting here aaaaargh!! And breathe....

But it’s working a bit

Despite missing days here and there I do feel some benefits from my daily quiet time.  I feel calmer and more smiley.  I still get mad at the stupidly slow drivers on my way to work but I also look up at the orangey trees and enjoy their beauty and smile.  I look forward to my daily sessions and although my brain still wanders and I am far from a hippy, I do think it is calming me down. 

Well as much as it can to a control-freak, busy stress-head like me!

Nameste!

Open Letters - shoulda, woulda, couldas

This week the open letter from Sinead O’Connor to Miley Cyrus has been highly publicised.  The Irish pop star in her late 40’s tried to offer advice to the wrecking ball-swinging young popstress; suggesting that half naked ‘twerking’ isn’t conducive to a long career and suggesting she look after herself as no record company has her best interests at heart.  We all know that when you’re young, the advice from those older, wiser folk falls upon hard ears, or at least bounces off of the Apple earphones.  Miley Cyrus responded to Sinead’s motherly words with a metaphorical middle finger.  Nice.

One of life’s ironies seems to be that only the young know everything (or really think they do,) only to become less sure and more open to learning with each passing year.  But should young people be warned about the pitfalls of life?

Isn’t the point that we’re meant to make mistakes to become the wise and battered version of ourselves filled with hindsight?  Isn’t that what makes life interesting?

I was chatting with some aspiring performing arts students last week answering their questions about the profession that drama school lessons don’t have time to address.  Things like, is it possible to sustain a relationship through college?  Do actors really cheat when away on tour?  Will they ever make any money from this job and be able to have a family and house? Suddenly at 32, I was advising very much through the power of hindsight but with an awareness that I shouldn’t crush their dreams with too much reality.  It’s not my place to take away the mystery of the journey by dousing their fires of passion with bitter old recriminations.  That’s not advice, just self-indulgent bile!

But both these events got me thinking about what advice I’d give to myself – don’t worry I am not going to join the bandwagon of writing an open letter to myself!  Merely a few yellow post-it notes of “shoulda-woulda-couldas!”

Stretch – 8 year old Daniella managed to do the splits once in a French caravan park.  Yes, ONCE.  If I had listened to my dance teachers and actually done a few regular stretches in the ad-breaks of Home and Away then I wouldn’t have found myself in the disaster, that was my audition for “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, 23 years later.  The audition dance required the auditionee to jump into the splits for the final position, not tentatively slide but JUMP.  I suspected that some of the 50 girls in the dance call would be equally nervous as I, by this insurmountable feat.  But no, everybody leapt without a care in the world and fell into a comfy, leg ripping final pose.  Everyone but me, who was left standing, only to pathetically creak into a jazz split in an attempt to join in.  Mortified!  Young Daniella - do stretch; or you will end like that one-legged Barbie doll at the bottom of the toy box who no-one wants to play with.

 

Don’t eat that – I spent much of my early years thinking I hated pizza and so my mum improvised with my favourite condiment to make me eat them.  I ate peanut butter pizza topped with chicken and sweetcorn for years.  If only I could run back in time and rip it out of my hands, telling my younger self that those carb-laden, heart-attack inducing dinners will stay on my hips forever and no amount of low-GI eating in the future will shift it!

Remove the blinkers – Now this is a new addition but it comes from a place of hindsight and not regret.  I would advise my younger self to go to university and follow any academic potential I had.  I know it’s a bit “Sliding Doors” to wish I had taken a different path and perhaps I would still end up in the same destination but from this viewpoint, I would advise myself to shun a musical theatre course.  You need to have blinkered determination to pursue our wonderful profession and mine were securely in place from a young age - so perhaps like Miley and Sinead, the 32 year old me wouldn’t have a hope in hell of getting through to myself!  

I don’t think it’s healthy to keep looking back, trying to re-think the past.  Writing this has helped me see that open letters have no place in my little world.  I appreciate any advice people can, and will, offer me and love to learn from others, but to advise my 20 year old self?  I try to learn from my mistakes (peanut butter pizza bases, anyone?) but I think it’s a good idea to look forwards and forge ahead; happy to make new mistakes but safe in the knowledge that I will never swing nude on a wrecking ball!

Job Juggling - finding a complimentary career

How far do you go when adding your special skills onto your Spotlight CV?  Horse-riding – tick (Sat on a horse at Margate once and didn’t fall off,) Aerobics – highly skilled (does doing it at the gym count?)  Juggling – tick.  Juggling?  Well, I did an hour session of circus skills when I was 11 and still juggle quite regularly today, but instead of brightly coloured balls - I juggle jobs.

The last 12 years have found me job juggling and trying to keep my balance; working towards my acting dreams yet working to live.  Drama schools aim to teach you everything in preparation for an acting career but one module they exclude is “what to do if it doesn’t work out.”  Obviously this is omitted on purpose, who wants to spend £25,000 on training to be told it might not happen?  I hate to be the slap-in-the–face reality fairy, and I’m not saying all this as some bitter failed actress, but not everyone can work 100% of the time.  Even Sheridan Smith and the Strallen sisters occasionally have periods out of work.  But you are still an actor even if you have to do something else to pay the bills in-between.

During these lean periods, graduates and young actors often work front-of-house or in bars because these flexible evening jobs leave you free for auditions.  But there comes a time when these jobs and doing ‘promo’ work aren’t the best option anymore.  Promotional work can mean anything from donning a posh frock and greeting VIPs at Ascot to dressing up as a kiwi fruit and giving out smoothies at Waterloo Station.  The money is good because the mortification levels are high; you are bound to see your agent or recent, heart-shattering Ex when dressed as a slice of Dairylea.  And as you get older all that standing around in cold weather isn’t good for an ageing dancer’s bones.  Likewise, bar work till 2am begins to suck when you need to be in bed after the 10 o clock news in order to get your collagen-producing 8 hours in before your early morning yoga class.  I am painting a terrifyingly dull picture of life as an early 30-something, trust me it isn’t that bad.  My point is that as a creative person, you no longer want to your brain to lie dormant during those months of unemployment.  We come alive when working on a script or rehearsing a production number but isn’t better to feel that dynamic and responsive for 12 months of the year?  How do you keep your creative juices flowing and more importantly, feel useful, in-between jobs?

You find a new passion and start working on an alternative career.  Don’t panic!  You don’t throw away your dreams and live the rest of your life in a grey suit doing crosswords on the train.  An alternative career can be something that interests you, uses your skills and compliments the career you already have.  Finding another avenue that inspires you, and will also help pay the bills, can be a really positive thing to do. 

Teaching is an obvious transition; please please ignore that stupid adage, “those who can’t do, teach,” because it seems to me that only those who are bloomin’ brilliant can pass on the passion and skills necessary for our industry.  Working for companies can be challenging as they expect commitment and find it hard to understand when you get a job at short notice.  I once had to leave a job because they weren’t going to allow me to miss my one hour toddlers’ music class for an audition for the Les Miserables movie.  Can you imagine – “I am sorry Mr Tom Hooper, Oscar award winning film director, can we postpone because I must sing ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ to Tarquin, Harry and Tabitha or their musical growth will be stunted.”  So the teaching job went and so did I - off to the audition.  I may not have won a role as ‘battered whore #6’ on the movie set but I did have the incredible honour of singing on the soundtrack so if you’re reading this, Tarquin, from your Montessori Nursery, I apologise, but that’s showbiz!

Many folk I know have bought into a franchise or set up their own schools, leaving them free to perform and also make a good income because there will always be children (or parent’s) who want to be taught by someone “in the profession.”

The in-thing to do at the moment is photography.  Again, because you can fit in appointments between jobs and auditions and you already have a great client base – your colleagues.  However, it is advisable to have a flair for photography because you cannot just ‘wing’ a good headshot and, no, you can’t use your iPhone 5 even if it does have an incredible zoom.  So like all alternative careers you would need to put time, money and effort into having the right equipment so that it can really work for you.  It can be expensive to set up if you don’t generate business and it may take a long time to gain a reputation and be able to charge the big bucks, but if it’s a passion of yours, go for it.

Unless you fall under the ‘character actor’ section of the Spotlight book you may find modelling is a great way to subsidise your income.  My inheritance from my dear Dad of a strong jaw line and stumpy legs ensure this is not an avenue for me but many dancers and actors are mannequins worth photographing.  Not cat walk stuff but photo shoots, adverts and even hand modelling (unless your contract in Les Miserables has left eternal dirt beneath your fingernails!)

As performers we have so many skills to draw upon.  We can prepare people to speak in public, develop our dance skills into the fitness qualifications or literally sing for our supper. Performance singing no longer has that ‘northern working man’s club’ reputation; you’d be surprised how many corporations, weddings and events are desperate for professional singers to entertain them with an ABBA medley.  Backing tracks are now pretty swish; gone are the days of the 1980’s Casio keyboard “bmm, tssk, tssk, bmm” you can create a truly professional act with modern tracks and make a really good living from it.  Some West End stars have formed a company sending singers to do tribute gigs and others do corporate entertainment.

Sick of having no control over his career, an enterprising fellow Thesp has set up his own theatre company.  He produces modern and new work and is the only fringe company ever to pay me, so it seems he’s winning in all directions.  Having your own theatre company means you can decide what to do, who to work with and create theatre that you believe in – truly exciting and inspirational.  And a stage manager I worked with uses her financial qualifications to help actors with their self-assessment tax forms, not quite donning the grey suit but a great way to make extra income.

So what do I do?  Well alongside some teaching I imagine you have guessed from this column that I have branched out into writing.  There is an on-going joke on Twitter that everyone is a blank/blank/blank and writer!  Everybody can write it’s whether people chose to read it or not.  There are thousands of theatrical blogs out there, ranging from reviews to aspirations and recollections.  Just look at the production team behind this magazine, all working actors putting their passion and skills into words. 

I worked with a wonderful man and actor called Michael Simpkins who has an extensive career; dancing in Lycra with me in Mamma Mia! and most recently seen as a parole officer in Eastenders.  But what I find inspirational about him is that he is a successful writer too; his published books and newspaper opinion columns fit nicely alongside his continuous acting career.  He has the most accessible and witty style and if you haven’t read his book on acting called “What’s my Motivation?” you can’t call yourself an aspiring actor!  Get on Amazon now!  It is my dream to have a career like Michael’s, being able to pop in and out of acting work whilst keeping my brain happy by writing.  See, even thirty-something’s have a dream, it’s just an amended one!

Having an “in case of” and complimentary career doesn’t mean you’re giving up on your acting dreams but actually being sensible and paving a future for yourself.  From a young age we are all so blinkered about acting; we focus on achieving our goals and, like most young people, don’t give a second thought to pensions or god forbid, being 55 years old!  Taking your blinkers off won’t cause you to fall behind but in-fact put you a few steps ahead when you find yourself loathed to wipe another restaurant table and desperate to be creative when those pesky casting directors won’t let you.  Developing the skills you already have can lead onto new dreams, exciting realities and perhaps even allow you to asterisk a new highly-skilled activity on your Spotlight page!

And as for me, I pretend I’m a theatrical Carrie Bradshaw as a type away dreaming that my blog will be made into a book.  I get just as big of a thrill when I see my name on a bi-line as I do when it’s in a theatre programme.  My blog on the recent West End agreement reminded me that when you’re passionate about something, your words do travel, although I declined to get on my soapbox when asked by Sky News!  With this column, blogs on the Huffington Post and some online freelancing, I feel like I am making progress but I have yet to make it to the ‘West End’ of the written word.  But as with all dreams – there is always time.

 

THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN FOR THE FOURTHWALL MAGAZINE @fourthwallmag AS PART OF MY REGULAR COLUMN "THE WORKING ACTRESS"

The Hills are Alive with The Sound of Nostalgia

Thoughtful gifts are the best presents and sometimes being in the presence of your favourite people is the best gift of all.

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

This week the Family Gibb surprised me with an early birthday present – a trip to watch The Sound of Music at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.  Watching open air theatre in the summer is a must-do in my book and I was thrilled to have a chance to go to that beautiful venue again. 

There are two reasons why this gift was so thoughtful; the fact that it was just us 4 who went and that it is such a significant show.  As adults, it’s very rare that you get to hang out with your mum, dad and sibling like you did 25 years ago.  You take it for granted when you’re stuck in a car together or eating roast dinner but as we get older and mainly meet up for big family events, the 4 becomes 8, then 10 etc so it was lovely to be the Family Gibb for an evening.  It was also thoughtful because The Sound of Music was the first show I ever performed in at 8 years old and because of it, I became hell-bent on becoming an actress.

When I was 8, my Mum dressed me in a sailor dress, plaited my hair and sent me in for a group audition for a local production of The Sound of Music.  I know what you’re thinking - “crazy stage mum, pushing the girl squeezed into a sailor’s dress like a mini Judy Garland” but no, she really wasn’t.  My Mum is just someone who does everything in life 100% and has a heart of gold.  After 4 months of rehearsals and 6 precious shows as Gretl, the youngest of the Von Trapp children, I had had the time of my life and felt bereft that it was over.  In fact, the grief was so acute that I was to be found in my parents’ downstairs toilet for a week afterwards, wailing at the loss of my ‘show family.’  (The over-dramatic personality was cultivated from a young age!) I even went so far as to telephone the poor boy who had played Frederich to tell him that I missed him.  He was 13 years old and probably mortified to have a snivelling 8 year old phone his house, poor bloke!

I am the little one of course - mortified to share this with you!

As with all grieving processes, I went through phases.  The first was the crying in the downstairs loo, next came the “replacement” phase.  I made my younger sister and our two best friends play ‘The Von Trapps’ with me – lining them up in my friend’s lounge and forcing them to march up and down whilst telling them that I knew how to do it best because I had been in the show.  (The self-absorbed know-all was also cultivated early on, vile!)  I’m surprised they didn’t whack me over my head with a ‘Yodel ay ee ooo’ and head off to play Sonic the Hedgehog.  Becca, Andrew and Caroline – I am so sorry!

The next phase was “Moving On” or ‘onwards and upwards’ as my agent always says!  I had felt the lights on my face and was hungry for more.  And as the saying goes –

life was never the same again.

So this show was special to the young, bossy girl with West End aspirations and I had forgotten it until the wonderful performance at the park this week.  The children were amazing (yes, much better than 8 year old me) and it was lovely to see some performing friends excel themselves on the stage.  My sister wept from first entrance, justifiably I feel, because the nun’s singing was exquisite (although maybe she was just re-living the lounge marching debacle) and by the interval the whole Family Gibb were in floods.  I can’t blame my emotional side on being an actress, it is clearly genetics!

I love new musical theatre, new writing and funky Jason Robert Brown tunes but there is something about traditional musical theatre that makes my heart sing.  Maybe it because those were the songs I heard in my childhood that inspired me to start a career or maybe because they were written so damn well.  The lyrics of Rodgers & Hammerstein are simple and yet packed with a universal meaning that cuts through to us all.  The melodies stay in your head much longer than the average ‘show hit’ today and The Sound of Music is just a beautiful show.

I urge you to go and see it and if not, dust off your old ‘Best of the Musicals’ CD and have a sing along with Marti Webb and Dave Willets.  Sometimes it’s good to re-visit your roots as a reminder for how you ended up here or to re-focus where you want to be. 

The secret to a happy evening might just be to remember your favourite things – it turns out mine are family and singing nuns!

All together now......

Doe a deer, a female deer, Ray a drop of golden sun.....

Happy Ever Afters - Show-mances come good

I wrote a blog last year about the perils of show-mances, my definition of relationships between actors on tour.  It was inspired by headlines suggesting Gareth Gates had been ‘playing away from home’ with a co-star and they reminded me of all the horrid mis-trust, lying and devastated lives that become the casualties of actors finding solace at work.  Uplifting stuff!

But what about those relationships that do work?  Because late night kisses after a cast night out can sometimes turn into ‘happy-ever-afters’.  This blog is inspired by birth of a little baby girl to two of my touring friends who have proved that show-mances can work.  On the day of her birth an ABBA track, from the show which we all worked on, came onto the radio as I was driving home so I belted it out (harmony line 2 only, of course!) beaming with happiness for my dear girlfriend and her new family.

A large majority of the human race meet our spouses through work.  It makes sense as work takes up a third of our day and we meet people with similar passions and schedules.  It can be beneficial to share your life with a fellow actor.  On a few occasions I have been known to scream “NEVER AGAIN!” at the stars after an acrimonious split that left me weeping into my jazz shoes.  I have sworn allegiance to “normal men” only to fall back into the arms of an actor.  Dating a bloke with a normal job is tough when your only availability is 10.30pm after work on a Saturday.  It is also hard to explain the eccentricities of our world; not many men would accept that it’s OK to have their girlfriends snogged by random people or called ‘babe’ every 5 minutes.  My other half is an actor and even he finds the familiarities of a musical theatre cast disconcerting in spite of their luvvie innocence.  We are a strange breed.

A fellow actor or creative understands your work patterns, sporadic income and emotional ups and downs.  They recognize the fallen look when on the phone to your agent and the resulting torrent of tears just as they can fully celebrate the jubilation and relief of a “yes!”  Acting can easily become your life so where better to meet a potential spouse than at a read-through of a new job?  You live, eat and breathe a show once you’re in it and so relationships naturally form. When discussing relationships within a company in his book “The Rules of Acting,” Michael Simkins says, “it’s all too easy to meld fiction with reality.”  The trick seems to be remembering your reality (a common theme on this blog) and making space for your new relationship within it.

Yes show-mances can go wrong – there are many perils as you cross the threshold to post-contract world.  You may find that you have nothing to talk about when all you had in common was fellow cast members or show gossip.  The transition to unemployment can also be a struggle if you are used to courting (I love an old-fashioned turn of phrase!) with security and cash in your pocket, life ain’t so rosy when you’re searching for work and struggling to pay the council tax.  And what about if one person gets a new job and the other doesn’t?  Shakespeare’s “green-eyed monster” can often rear his ugly head.  As a naturally insecure bunch, actors fall prey to jealousy when threatened by better jobs or new cast mates.  Despite knowing the etiquette of post-show drinks or group outings to the gym it suddenly feels threatening when your other half is doing it in Grimsby without you. 

To quote the wonderful Michael Simkins again (have I mentioned BUY HIS BOOK!!?) “Everything about the acting game is designed to conspire against domestic compatibility.”  But my friends and their new baby girl, plus the countless other I couples I know, endeavour to prove this wrong.  I say ‘endeavour’ because it is a struggle, but what relationship isn’t?  But with SKYPE, understanding, mutual ego-stroking plus the luck of finding that one right fellow actor, we can have those finale endings that we portray on stage every night.  This pantomime princess may have had the happy accident of finding her Jack (insert your own crude quips about the beanstalk) leaning against a provincial pub jukebox, but I choose to omit the drunken beginnings and focus on the happy ever after!

 
And as I muse and meander on this subject I can only plaster a massive grin on my face and feel my heart brimming with joy for my tour friends and their baby girl.  They don’t sing ABBA tracks and aren’t tour folk anymore, it was merely the source for a show-mance done good.  Congratulations!

Quiet Imaginings - letting your mind roam free

I bought a picture this week - one of those vintage railway posters, all watercolours and beautiful scenery.  This one advertises The Lake District, I bought it because I fell in love with the area after visits up there with our tent but mainly because of the advertising slogan used by London Midland Scottish railway. 

“The Lake District – for rest and quiet imaginings.”

 

The phrase ‘quiet imaginings’ really appealed my inner writer and especially my unquashable romantic.  It evokes images of dreaming, wanderings in the countryside, forming life-changing plans and that freedom of mind you only have as a child where your imagination knows no bounds.

I have been mulling over our attachment to computers and social media for a while now, making notes for a blog, but seeing this poster was my ‘eureka’ moment. 

Our lifestyle today is not conducive to quiet imaginings and that makes me sad.

To be an artist, whether you act, write or paint, your imagination is your best friend.  How else can you express yourself?  How can you be creative if you're mind is filled with the beeps of your inbox.  Comedian and generally all-round brilliant human being, Miranda Hart has said that she “genuinely worries about what is happening to people’s imaginations” and “where the next generation of artists, screen writers and authors are going to come from,” because people are locked in a bubble with their screens.

Are we able to turn our brains off?  To turn down the volume to quiet?  I, like many  people, really struggle against this chatter.  Ideas, to-do lists and information constantly circle my mind like a plane waiting to descend into Heathrow.  I lie in bed choreographing dances, luckily for my other half they are all done in my head without an offending high kick or jazz hand stuffed up his nose. 

Who else reaches for their smart phone during an ad break on the TV?  Or whilst on a train journey or even on the loo?  It’s the train journey one that really irks me.  What’s wrong with staring out of the window and letting your mind wander?  Or people spotting?  Do you think the Before Sunrise film would have happened if Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy were playing Candy Crush on the journey to Vienna, NO! 

 

Avenue Q warm up - shameful!

We can’t let our minds be still for a moment.  It’s like a technology-induced ADHD.  Do we think our brains will power- down the second they are left to their own devices?  Ah, excuse the unintended pun!  I have started to give myself a smart phone curfew and try not to stare at that little screen past 9pm.  Work emails fly in and kick my brain into action or that momentary Twitter check, to ensure the world hasn’t stopped turning without my 140 characters of wisdom – all these stop me from winding down in the evening.

Even on holiday people cannot resist the allure of technology; do I need to see a picture of the view from your hotel?  Do I want to see your bikini-clad girlfriend squinting through my computer.  Not really, no.  There may be a part of me that’s just downright jealous of your lovely time but really I just want you, my cyber friend who I probably haven’t actually spoken to in 8 years, to relax and enjoy your holiday.  Post the pictures when you get back if necessary but please switch off and enjoy the view for yourself.

Psychologies magazine had an interesting article in the April 2013 issue exploring why we have this attachment to social media.  It discusses the loss of private moments, engagements, childbirth etc and the attention we get for sharing them online.  Author, Lucy Beresford says “there is a danger that we end up relying too much on other people and their comments to soothe us and make us feel better.”  Does someone writing “OMG jealous!” really make you feel vindicated in your holiday destination choice?  And don’t get me started on those folk who put “Some people are scum – you know who you are” or “Amazing news, can’t tell you what though.”

Ooo I had a right rant there, didn’t I?  Sorry!  I know we can’t go back to writing with quills and need to keep up with our fast paced world.  As a self-employed creative, I do need a smart phone, of course I do.  We are expected to answer work emails immediately and be contactable or able to give social comment at all times.  I am also not judging those of you need to use their journey time to catch up on work, life is busy and we all have to juggle our time.  But I do urge you to look out of your train window (after you’ve finished reading this, of course!) and take time to enjoy your surroundings, rather than taking “selfies” to post online because we are missing the important moments around us. 

I think the London, Midland, Scottish Railway Company got their slogan spot-on.  After years of traipsing to un-identifiable white hotels to lie on a sun-lounger all in the name of ‘chilling out’ I actually found more relaxation and battery-charging time sitting outside a blue tent staring at the fells  of The Lakes.  We, sometimes, have to let our brains be quiet amid that hubbub called ‘life.’

And actors, I’ll finish with a quote from Michael Simkins’ new book “The Rules of Acting” (buy it, read it, now. http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Rules-Acting-Michael-Simkins/dp/0091951283 )  Ralph Richardson explained to a young Michael, “all they (actors) need to do is to be able to dream.  If you can dream, you can act.” 

Please don’t lose the ability to dream.

Happy thoughts to the matinee actor

The world is a different place since last week.  We are all happy.  Happy for Andy Murray as he lifted the coveted Wimbledon trophy (I was happily on a 10 year drama school reunion that day, bloggy thoughts coming soon!) happy that baby Will n' Kate is nearly here and beyond happy that the sun is out.  People are smiling and wearing flowery/floaty stuff!

As I type I am sat in my garden surrounded by our gorgeous roses and sweet peas and I couldn't be happier.  But this time last year I would have been sliding into a pair of grey jeans and sweating my way through a matinee performance of Avenue Q.  So in this short blog post I ask you to spare a thought for the working actors (it won't take long because apparently only 8% of us are working) who are missing this gorgeous Saturday afternoon for the love of their art and an equity contract.

Think of the poverty stricken factory worker in Les Mis who is wearing 5 layers of clothes made of wool.  Think of those Oompa Loompas wearing fat suits and jumping into the splits.  Imagine the sweat produced by a Geordie mining jacket and boots designed for the cold of the North-East in Billy Elliot?  You might think hang on, those Mamma Mia! lot should be OK, they just wear bikinis and wet suits- yes they do, but the think layer of fake tan acts as a great insulator, creating rivers of brown sweat that no deodorising stick can prevent!

I'll leave you with a couple of my heat wave induced anecdotes, I am happy to re-live them as I lie in "resting-actor bikini-clad bliss!"

The heat war of 2004 saw me Mamma Mia-ing in laced-up leather  trousers and a long blonde hair piece. For those of you who don't know the show there is a section where the girl ensemble stand frozen (oh the sweaty irony!) in a tableau as Sophie sings 'The Name of the Game'. Prior to that, the girls have performed a 10 minute dance section otherwise known as 'aerobics in heels'.  On one particular hot performance I stood panting in my tableau only for stars to gather behind my eyelids - the heat-induced faint caused the little blonde leather-clad shadow to nose dive to the floor like a tree accompanied by the words "Timbeeeeeerrrrrr!". Classy.

In Les Mis any temperature above freezing feels like a heat wave because you wear so many woollen clothes.  One summer day we had a power cut and the plastic white fans that we relied on for fake air in our dungeon dressing room failed to spin.  The show went ahead as all was fine front of house which left a cast stumbling around in the dark and my dear friend collapsing from heat in the corridor gasping "I can't go on!". Who said actors were dramatic?!

So as you lick your ice lolly just think of these sweaty folk still giving 100% to entertain this nation enjoying a heatwave.  Although they are not saving lives and are lucky to be in that 8% who are working I still send them a sweaty salute.  From my garden!

How we look - a 'weighty' issue

I experienced a ‘normal person’ commute last week and the thrills of joining the rush hour. This self-employed girl had no idea so many people drive around at 7am - the roads are ridiculous and it's a very miserable way to start your day.

On one journey I stopped at some traffic lights and through my bleary eyes saw a figure from my past using the crossing.
 

In front of me was a choreographer I worked with 11 years ago on my first big job. A choreographer who brought me into her office at the 15 minute call before a matinee performance and told me I had out on too much weight and should really be slimmer if I wanted to be a leading lady on the West End.  I then attempted to perform the show through tears as I was mortified that people had paid money to watch someone like me on the stage.

My foot twitched over my accelerator - I'm not gonna lie all those past feelings of humiliation boiled up inside me and urged me to run the red light and zoom towards her.  But ten years of hindsight and a moral code that won’t allow me to break the law just meant that I took a deep breath and drove on.

We all have incidents in our pasts that if confronted with them, even years later, make us feel horrible all over again.  Despite getting on with life, moving on or losing weight they are small moments of hurt that remind us of our weaknesses.

In our industry weight can often be an issue.  I’ve heard horror stories of dance school teachers forbidding the students to eat roast potatoes on their Christmas break and a certain choreographer shouting “get that fat girl off my stage” during an audition.  In one job I did the choreographer/director told the female ensemble although I was 21 years old and still in that puppy fat zone.  They had employed me at a certain size and therefore it was my to “get our fat asses up and do the routine.” It may have been a ‘queeny’remark not intended to be taken seriously but you tell 8 women that and one is bound to be offended. The ironic thing is that this particular comment was made when I was going through my “lolly pop”head phase as my mum called it, we were all tiny.

Can you imagine any comments about weight or appearance being allowed in a normal work environment? If your manager came up to your desk and told you to move your fat ass, he’d be hauled in front of an employment harassment tribunal before you could say “5,6,7,8!” Yet in the performing industry it’s brushed under the carpet.

Should how you look eclipse your talent? The BBC talent show The Voice promotes the idea that the contestants should be judged purely on their talent and not on their looks. But beyond the whirly chairs does this actually happen? Perhaps the winner this year finally proves their point – but look at all the backlash online when Amanda won, certain people felt it was a sympathy vote.

 

We have to face the fact that as actors we are judged on our appearance. I have accepted that I cannot be Nala in The Lion King or a leggy dancer in Spamalot but I also need to accept that if I eat the same size portions as my boyfriend then I will never be waif-like enough to play Eponine. We are a physical product and part of the deal is to keep ourselves in shape so we have the stamina to do our jobs and ultimately retain the right look. Indeed, as I am writing this I have just been to the gym and my boyfriend is out in the garden doing his weights to get in shape for his next job. It’s not just for vanity; whatever your natural size you do need to be fit enough to endure 8 shows a week of physically demanding work.
 

My personal experience of this ‘weighty issue’ with the choreographer at the traffic lights felt harsh at the time. My desperate attempts to starve myself for the following days fell flat when I fell off a treadmill because I didn’t have the fuel in me to run let alone do two shows. I can now see that perhaps it was fair to have pulled up about my weight gain, responsibility to remain that way.  However, the way it happened right before a performance and the words she used were unacceptable.  The 31 year old me would handle it in a much better and healthier way than that 21 year old did– but then isn’t that true of most situations in life?

 

Les Dawson challenged the stereotype with
his Roly Poly dancers

‘How we look’ is an on-going issue not only with choreographers but from magazines, bikini diets and air-brushed celeb photos - there will always be people in the world trying to make you feel crap about yourself.  Keep fit to feel confident and be physically equipped to do your job but remember that just as a car won’t go without fuel, you won’t perform well without a plate of pasta sometimes! 
 

 And if you are 21 and reading this, take it from this 31 year old – how you look isn’t the bee-all and end-all, being happy, healthy and doing a job where you don’t have to sit in traffic at 7am is what really matters.