Kaitlin Howard’s Blog

Many exciting things are occuring! I have a new website under construction – which is gonna be all singing all dancing and totally fabulous - I have been in touch with a production company with a view to being involved in a new TV series called Chronicles of Syntax - which is so exciting – and also I’ve been cast in the Panto Peter Pan this year at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. I’m not only going to be playing a Pirate called Skylights and an Indian Brave called Little Bear, but I’m also going to be the Fight Captain. It’s such an incredible cast too. Henry Winkler is playing Captain Hook, Les Dennis is the Dame and Natasha Hamilton from Atomic Kitten is Peter Pan. So I have to help teach them the fights… and hopefully I’ll be able to sweet talk the flying rig chaps into letting me have a go!

Born of Hope is released on the internet on 1st Dec 2009 too! All those awaiting it are in for a treat. The Wrap Party and Screening was simply amazing.

The broken finger is also healing… slowly… The pins came out on schedule, but the bone still wasn’t fully healed. The physio was going easy on me ’til this week when they said “right… time to throw all we’ve got at it”. It’s not bending fully at all yet, nor fully straightening. It’s naturally a worry, but they did warn that it would take an age to get back. Good job I’m excellent at one finger typing… Also need to attend Occupational Therapy for it and they have given me some cool gadgets to help work the tendons.

It’ll be fine, but the most important thing is that in 2 weeks I’ll be moving over to Liverpool for 6 weeks and spending everyday with the Fonz! Woohoo!

What a div!

Currently I am home from tour. The tour is still going on. I’m not there. This pains me as one thing I’m adamant about is never missing shows. If I have to have a bucket in the the wings, I will still go out full jazz hands until the lights are out then run gasping and spluttering to the side and do the whole “I’m not well” thing in private. I’m a do-er and a battler.

On Saturday I managed to dislocate two fingers and break a third on my left hand. I did this in a freak surfing accident… I was the freak surfing! I’m gutted and sat at home, single finger typing my blog, when five other actors who I’ve been working with for the last 2 months and one other colleague/friend from the company are doing the show at my home gig in the pouring rain. Hehehe, I’m even envious of the rain! Kee has taken my place. God love him. Yes. Him.

When it happened I had no real clue what’d happened. The board was ripped from me by a wave, I looked down at my throbbing hand and thought “That is NOT what it is supposed to look like”. In a very gung-ho fashion and with almost Krypton Factor like prescision I reset the dislocations myself (adreneline!!!) and dragged my board up the beach, back to Ed who was with the bags. By the time I got there and realised that I needed my hand for a lot of my career skills and this pretty well meant I was f**ked for a while, I’d gone into shock and was bawling my eyes out. Ed was fab and raced off to get the lifeguards, while Hatty had been with me in the sea and leapt into action alerting the others who were still surfing. It didn’t seem that bad, but the two brilliant life guards (Tom and Dan) sent me off to hospital after cutting me out of my wetsuit and badaging me up.

Two hospitals and a long long long wait later(Barrow and Hattrick are both legends for being with me and keeping me going) I’d had the x-ray and was convinced I’d just dislocated it badly… but the break was so harsh I had to have an operation. This happened Sunday morning after the two Andys brought me down to my home hospital from Middlesborough. My left ring finger was the culprit, but because it was broken through the first knuckle, it had to be fixed in place with wire/pins/plates to ensure that I’d be able to grip and play my musical instruments again with no disformations or twists when I bent it. Gross huh??

Anyway. I remember going into the prep room, being given oxygen and a strong General Anestetic, then I woke up in the recovery ward, hand all bound up, hurting like hell and absolutely convinced that Neal and McG were there with me. Weird. I had a whole conversation with a student nurse thinking it was Neal, then came round enough to realise it wasn’t, had a teary moment as a result then got pumped full of morphene… after which point nothing much mattered for the rest of the day.

I’ve watch SO many movies the last few days and my good friends and great family have been amazing in visiting and txting me and calling me to keep me positive. Some I thought would be in touch haven’t, but happily a couple of unexpected people have made up for that ten fold. It’s always the way and loads don’t even know yet. But life happens and I’m alive so to those who have: you know who you are and I love you all so much. 

Ah, soppy crap… I’m beginning to see that you can’t please everyone, and not everyone will care about you in life. The ones that do are the ones that matter and if they don’t then there is no point getting upset about it. As someone who cares deeply about what others think, I find this near impossible, but if people can’t be bothered or even just aren’t built that way, then why should I waste time trying when they’ve clearly made up their minds despite my best efforts and there are those who do care and who I can invest my time in? Deep. I’ve been sat thinking a lot for three days… hmmm.

I have a check up on Friday morning to tell me how the fix went (I was so out of it on morphene, that when the surgeon came to see me on Sunday I couldn’t understand him… apparently… I don’t even remember seeing him!) and to tell me if I’m allowed back to work. I blooming well hope so. Gutted. 100% gutted.

At least I’m in the dry. And not getting drunk for the fifth night in a row. And not losing at an after show game of Poker. Silver linings!!! 

Keep you posted.

Last night was opening night for Oddsocks’ current tour of Richard III and it was possibly one of the funniest things I’ve been through. It rained for the exact right scene (Margaret’s curse). When she walked on the heavens opened, then as soon as she went off it stopped! Ha! Lost my wig up Hatty’s skirts at one point (long story) to much on stage hillarity and the battle sequence went ok… we went for a 3 on 3 fight with two on horse back doing a sword fight. There’s an optical illusion to it. Richmond and Richard are on “projumper” stilts which means they can run full pelt on them and the shape looks very horse leggish! Mr Barrow and McGillan do it so well!

It was the first time we had done a backstage run too as there was not much room at Laughter House to set it all up properly, and all things considered it went brilliantly. We have also changed how the cart works in terms of set up and pack down and I think it’ll prove a lot easier and quicker once we get running. All just folds up neat nice like onto the cart top and wheels into to van! Yay!

The crew are all amazing and I love them all to death. I used to teach Neal at MMU and it’s so amazing to have someone who I know well enough to be myself with immediately. That’s the thing with being an actor, you only tend to get to spend intense periods with people and being a performer is hard to turn off at times. Shows can quite often end up being a group of people showing off to each other all the time… and I’m as bad as the next person at that. On this though, it’s cool to have someone there who doesn’t need the bravado and stuff, cos after three years it’s cool to just “be”.

The others are all brilliant, McG (the self professed alpha male of the pack) is adored by me, and possibly knows it! He knows my Fight Master Kev and was described by him as “fearless”. That is a huge compliment! Hatty is brand new out of drama school this summer and is my roomie. SO sweet and lovely and very talented. Ed is very tall and very witty. He has us in stitches a lot. He’s also vowed to teach us all Capoeria! Brilliant! Then we are joined by Andy Barrow who runs Oddsocks. He’s reprising his role as Richard after many years and I have to say that it’s a joy to be on stage with him really. It feels safe to ad lib and have fun!

I’m sure as it goes on and we all get used to it, the show will fly. It was a good first Oddsocks night last night. The shows constantly evolve and adapt when new things occur to the performers. We’ve found some funny moments already… lets see what the next few months bring! I’m sure there will be lots of alcohol flowing through us… It was mentioned in the van today by Mr Barrow that McG and I seem to be be on a constant drinking contest… I said “It’s not a competition at all… but I am winning”. I’ll probably get a Bi-atch Slap for that later!

My other thing right now is that I was introduced to the music of Seth Lakeman this week. Kee got him up on Youtube playing live “Lady of The Sea” and I was astounded. Brilliant. I just downloaded some stuff and I think I’m hooked. I would love to be able to play violin and sing at the same time… I only just recently started to look at playing bluegrass and folk stuff after years of classical stuff. It’s so free and improvised in comparison, you don’t have to worry about not hitting notes and just go with what happens. I’m not very good at it to be fair, but planning on practicing and hopefully I’ll be able to pass off some Seth Lakeman at some point! 

Well that’s all for now TTFN!

The last two weeks have been so manic. Since King Lear back in Februaray it’s been so quiet and I’ve really been worried that all work had stopped forever. More fool me for the lack of patience and belief!

Did a little more work on Born of Hope in March which consisted of two brilliant weekends of prostheics, camping and fighting mayhem. It was so cold in the tent and the fact that the clocks went back on one of the nights did not help the fact that us orcs had to be up at 3am to be in make up in time to be out for first light. However, the lovely make up team were always so cheerful and kept us fighters with little sleep smiling, warm, fed and sometimes asleep while putting on our masks!

Had a fab time on the shoot and I’m sad that it all seems to be done and in to the editing process now. There was talk of odd bits for the fight team if the money could be found for the “hill troll” - but I think this has been shelved as the film is only an hour long and due for release in October. It’ll be on the internet, like Hunt For Gollum which is out now and getting good remarks. It was on the news in London and premiered at the Dorchester I believe… I wasn’t involved in that one sadly.

So after waiting and waiting and sending out what seemed countless CVs… I was asked to do a short film a couple of weeks ago by a student film maker, Sam Baz. It was for a project about Domestic Violence. I pootled over to Stoke-On-Trent and simply had to sit infront of a camera and stare neutrally ahead. I was filmed for a 15 second interval and then make up was added before repeating the 15 seconds of shooting. This was repeated about 8 or 9 times, each time adding more make up until I had full bruises and a split lip and a bloodied nose.  When edited together and run in reverse, the “abused wife” will gradually become just a normal face – one that you would easily simply walk past in the street without knowing what she is going through behind doors. The soundtrack over the top is to emphasise this even more by it being just normal everyday sounds that go with the beaten face, into smashing and screaming over the normal face. It was a fascinating process and I can’t wait to see the results. Sam is also planning to do another one the same with a male face to show that men are also victims of this kind of abuse. It’s a project that I was personally very interested in being involved in subject wise. No-one should live in fear in their own home.

A few days later I was down in Maidenhead working for a corporate company called MaST Theatre and Film, doing a training video for the legal firm Bond Pearce. I worked for MaST a month and a bit ago doing a live role play, and I was really pleased to go and work for them again. I had to play five very different characters and the film should be great for showreel material.

Finally all last week I was working with Fight Director Kev McCurdy on a Horror feature film. I had to sign disclosures and stuff as it’s a full cinema release, so I can’t say much. The director, Gary, was really pleased with Kev and his team (me and Seb Morgan) who organised the violence. I did stunt doubling for one of the characters and it was brilliant… though long long long days. We used a yank harness in some scenes and when we were on breaks we made mini movies of the make up girl or set dressers being pulled about by “Jedi Forces” or “the power of pepsi max”. Hillarious.

One thing I found fascinating was how lights and smoke can alter a set on film. When we all arrived on set we looked about at the wallpaper patterned with bricks, shredded clear bin bags hanging from the ceiling and polystyrine walls with tea stains on them, we all wondered what kind of thing we were invloved in. No offence meant, but it looked very odd. But when you looked on the monitor it became bare brick and cold passages, cobweb draped and mouldy and watermarked walls in dark rooms. Amazing!

So this year has got off to a brilliant start in terms of filming experiences. I say “start”… we’re nearly half way through 2009!!! I’ve networked with some really great people and film makers and who knows.

Anyhoo. I found out today that Oddsocks would like me to tour with them again this summer. It’s a relief to have work until the end of August in these money tight times. After that we shall just have to see I suppose. I’ve been very lucky… but am always convinced it’ll all run out just around the corner.

Next job for 2009… get in shape. I’m shattered and a bit bigger than I should be. I fully blame my love of the easter egg. SO before the gruelling outdoor summer tour I’m planning on getting some exercise in. Two weeks… eek!

It seems the last post I put on here was back in November… I’ve been so slack… but in my defence I have been here, there and everywhere! So three main things have happened since then. Oddsocks, King Lear and Born of Hope. Lets start at the very beginning:

Oddsocks
I think we were still rehearsing Les Mis when I was last here…. so much happened really… how long do you have? Rehearsal period ended up being incredibly tight in terms of getting everything done. There was so much filming to do as the show was mostly based around a large projector screen at the back of the stage with which we (the live actors) ineracted. Things were so tight that on opening night Andy and Elli had to stand up infront of the audience and appologise for them being witness to our dress run… oh dear. The DVD had not quite been finished and at 7.30 (curtain up) we were still waiting for it to even be in the building. However, we managed to get through it and the audience were kind enough to just be willing us on!

It was a tricky couple of weeks until we got the show bedded in and there were ups and downs, but overall it went down rather well really. We all had nicknames for each other too and it just became a little family out on the road. There was Adrian (Company Manager) “Champ” or as I called him “Lord Adrian”, William “Little Beard” or “Yum Yum”, Bryn “Baby”, Katie “Jazz Puss” and me “Man Jam” (cos she’s strong like a man but sweet like jam) or, as I more often got called, “Lady Kay”.

I was once more the “official photographer” and got some really good pics again, but mostly I started an album of pics all to do with the venues. I took a pic of the outside and a pic of the seating in each place. Yes it’s slightly sad, but I really plan on doing this the rest of my career to keep a record! Over the New Year I made my resolution to be that I only buy from charity shops this year… it’s working out well thus far and I’m still managing it. Apart from specialist things for my musical instruments and pants, I’m getting everything cheaper and I’m also helping others… Adrian dubbed my purchases as “Booty” as I would always be turning up at the theatre with a bag full of really good stuff for a couple of quid!

King Lear
This show was so amazing to work on. We rehearsed for six months and I am so glad it was with this amazing group of people. In tech week we all really pulled together and became a little family. I have a feeling that we’re all gonna keep in touch. I’m seeing Little Jo-Jo tomorrow (Cordelia) as it’s her birthday and I think Young James (Servant) is coming too. Gonna be fun!

The show went down really well and got some amazing reviews. I think that my favourite thing about the reviews was that the fights got a really good press. Talking to my good friend Renny (who’s an Equity Fight Director) it’s very rare for fights to get a mention and espceially specific moments like the blinding of Gloucester. I ‘m so proud of how hard everyone worked on the fights and it really paid off. A special mention to Simon (Kent): In the tech run fight call, one of the other guys got a little too into it and caught him a little hard in the ribs (words were had believe me) and the short story is that he ended up with 2 broken bones!!! Dear Lord! Simon was amazing though and insisted we troupe on. I did alter stuff to accommodate the ribs, but mostly he still went for it – strapped and drugged! What a guy!

Onstage games were played too, four of us had a little hand signal we had to get in whenever one of the others were on stage… It started off all sedate and “less is more”, but on last night it all went hell for leather. Chris (Fool) who hadn’t really participated all that much, nearly made me burst out laughing when, on the last night, I had to be all angry with him and snatch a hat from him. There, under the hat as I took it away, he was doing the hand signal… you bugger! xxx

The Official Photographs are all on the 2btheatrekinglear.wordpress page so have a look. They are fab. The main difference for me is that I changed the colour of my hair to fit in with the firey nature of the charater… that and the fact the other two ladies were of the auburn disposition… I now look like superhero Firestar! It’s great and my agent says I’m good to keep it The only downsdie is that I need to get new headshots done and they cost a lot of pennies. I think I may be able to put it off though, as I may be working without the need to audition this summer… I’ll not Jinx it though…

Also got to catch up with some friends from Much Ado in the summer, as they came up to see the show. Phil (who played Benedick) is working with Tall Stories Theatre Company and had a show at Nottingham Playhouse while Lear was on so he came along with Yvette (who is also in his show, but I went to drama school with her too – oddness). David (who was Claudio) also came and it was fab to see them… even if they did only see the first half… You see when we all worked together there was a little dispute between the company and us over certain money we were due. Some went after it more than others and the night Phil and David came along, so did the boss of this company. There were comments made and heated debate ensued, and rather than letting him get way with it, the guys decided it was about time to have it out. Lear’s director (James Pacey) had his parent’s running the bar and they thoroughly enjoyed listening in – better than Eastenders apparently! Anyhoo, the boss went home and then we all went to the pub we had spent a lot of time in when Much Ado came to Nottingham last year. It was great to see them. Next day I went to see Phil’s show. It was a kids show but that didn’t matter. Loved it!

Phil and I seem to have a game going now though… we seem to have to get Rosé wine references into our shows if we know the other one is in. He’s one up on me now as he’s got it into 2 shows and I only managed to toast in his direction with some in Lear. He’s actually SAID his ad-libbed references. In the kids show he said “I’d love to have some steak tar-tar, and maybe a cheeky glass of Rosé…!” Let the games begin!

Born Of Hope
RC-Annie pulled out of the fight direction of this film early in the year due to other work commitments, which means that the choreography has fallen to those of us in the film who have the most experience. I’ve done some of the stuff that’ll be shot in a couple of weeks, but this last weekend Lewis Penfold had us all rolling around on the floor of Epping Forest once more. It was so fab! The make up was possibly my favourite thing this time round and the ladies really went to town on us. I had my hair pulled through the latex bald cap this time and matted and muddied. Looked excellent!

We did a lot of being chased down and hacked to death over and over and over and over on saturday then on sunday I had the pleasure of having a sword thrown into my back and spitting green blood out straight to camera. It’s definately the money shot for my showreel!

Met some really sound guys too that I’d not met so far on the project and I’m really looking forward to doing my fight rehearsal next week and the shoot after that in a couple of weeks.

That’s it for now really. Hopefully I’ll keep up now. Work has stopped for a little bit now (need a rest really as I’ve been so lucky to have been in constant work for two and a half years!!!) but there are things in the pipe line! Promise to keep you posted!

Today we at Oddsocks have done good work. This morning I set the full fight sequence for the barricade scene. I’d pretty much worked it out before hand, but as we were working on it we were changing bits and coming up with “oh this would be cool” special bits. I start fighting William with single sword, disarm and defeat, then Kate in a similar vien… then we get the Case of Rapiers against bayonetted muskets. I’m not gonna give away what happens, but I will say that we came out of the session feeling really good about it. The only thing we can’t do is set it to the space properly, and as this is going to keep changing it seems pointless until the fight calls at each venue. What we need to do is to let it settle into our bodies and run it everyday until it becomes ingrained. I’m very excited about it.

We also practiced all the music and did more tech work as director Andy was away on a corporate gig. I think we are nearly there!

I feel like the pressure is slowly easing off on Les Mis even though there is still a million and one things to do. We open a week tomorrow…

The frame has arrived for the projector screen, but the screen itself still needs attaching. We still need the rest of the fixed set building and painting. Most of the props and furnature are finished now, we just need to get comfortable with the scene changes in terms of getting on and off with desks and beds etc. The music is almost done, but there are lots of things still to record and fix to the filmed images, some of which we still need to film. The costumes will be with us on Monday all being well, I will be setting the fights tomorrow, we need to run scenes more and actually set the “business” properly, do some more runs, figure out the lighting, run it some more, paint more scenery, run it again… This may well sound like “seat of the pants theatre company presents” but I’m not at all worried as this seems normal for Oddsocks. I hear you thinking that these kind of last minute things are run of the mill in the industry and the tech all comes out alright as the tech crew don’t rest til it’s all set… BUT Oddsocks’ actors are the tech crew as well as the actors… oo-er…

Things are ok other than that. I’m getting a little frustrated at times as most of my 13 different characters are the nuns, maids and granny types who are mostly background padding and comic crowd people. This means that pretty much as long as I stand in the right place and say my lines at the right time it’ll be ok. The plus is of course that I need not get too stressed as to my motivations (wig in place, accent on the go – all is fine). However, the frustration is, to me, that I feel at times that all I’m getting is told where to stand and how to say things and not to get in other people’s light. Not just by the director. It’s getting me down because I’m not really feeling like I need to be there most of the time as others seem to be trying to make my character choices for me, and mostly just so I’m not stood in the spot they’d like to be stood in. There are five actors in the show, not four and the gurning extra… I know that it’s not intended at all, and no one is doing it on purpose, but I had to take myself off today and give myself a talking to inorder to not explode… typical 3… I think I managed to pull myself back though and felt happier – though still braced for impact – by the end of the day.

Yesterday was excellent though. Kate and I got most of the music recorded for the scene changes (Dear Oddsocks fans, do not fret… there IS still live music in the show – it’s just that Les Misérables le Panto is in equal epic proportion to the novel and sometimes five people just are not enough!). It was fun to sit with Kee recording all the parts of a string quartet I’d written separately as I’m the only one who can play all the instruments and understand my own musical score… Kate has written somereally good stuff and I’ve pulled choirs and string groups and drum parts out of my brain and into reality. I’m looking forward to hearing it all in place.

King Lear is getting exciting too. We have blocked the whole show now and I think it will be excellent. Had a pleasant couple of rehearsals this week, though I think everyone was on the funny water as the mood was extremely jovial. Yesterday was rather good as a couple of weeks ago Guy (Edmund) and I had been discussing how “into each other” Regan and Edmund are when she is trying to make him her husband after Cornwall’s death. We’d had a few ideas, but not really decided anything. We were going over that particular scene last night in front of pretty much everyone in the show, being very touchy when he just grabbed me and gave me a snog! It worked really well and is now in.

I have to say that on other projects I’d got a little bit used to ”the kiss” (actually written in the text) becoming an issue for the guy involved for whatever reason (embarrasment, not wanting to betray whatever it was they really felt, or simply that they were actually married in reality). I’m not bothered by stage kisses at all as it’s the character doing it and as my first one was when I was 17 I’ve had a fair bit of practice… It was just very refreshing to meet a like minded bloke who just went for it cos it seemed the right choice for his character at the time. Well done Guy! We did get to do it about four times too, which could be argued as a bonus!

The thing about it is that Edmund is not Regan’s beloved husband Cornwall and we are trying to establish just how lost she becomes with out him once he dies – that and the fact that Regan and Cornwall’s relationship is mostly based on sex… hohum, I suppose I’ll have to snog Gary too… it’s hard being an actress sometimes!!!

Anyway, tomorrow I’m setting the fights for Les Mis and on sunday I have a full day combat workshop with the Lear cast in preparation for me setting those fights in January. It’s all go – but it’s going to be blooming marvellous!

This last week has been absolutely bonkers. I’ve been filming for two projects and rehearsing for two shows… and going to showbiz parties of all sorts… well - OK the last one is a fib…

Born Of Hope

On 24th-26th October I went back down to London to film the opening fight sequence for the Lord of the Rings fan film Born Of Hope. The first day consisted of sifting through piles of furs, scraps of chain-mail, leathers and rags to put together our individual Orc costumes. In addition we each had to collect extra bits and bobs to add or take off when we changed “character” (to make it appear like there were more Orcs than the ten of us there, we had to change once we’d been “killed”). Once in costume we trudged through the woods to the set with weapons, helmets and other such delights, ready to film some action. Most of the day however was spent lying on the floor as dead bodies as they filmed the aftermath first! I was made much fuss over by one of the stills photographers at one point as I had arranged myself dead among some scattered arrows. Apparently it looked very artistic and everyone wanted a picture of me… stardom clearly calls! 

Day two was much more like it. I had my waterproof shoes on (having learnt about wet feet the previous day) and we were into the prosthetics department at 7am. I was labled”the cute Orc” as after everyone was done I was definately the least gruesome on show. This fine day we were taken to the set in cars and lunch was brought up to us to save time. The previous day’s lunch time consisted of us all trudging back to the cafeteria, the 1st arriving by car as we got there and saying “we need you all back on set”, us grabbing a roll and trudging back up…

Armour was given out too! We had much fun and excitement as we came out of make-up into a room full of the Orc armour. It seemed to gleam in the early morning light while we all dithered over the fact that we may have to carry this heavy equiptment up the hill through the woods…much hilarity ensued as it was revealed that it was plastic and rubber, and very light indeed! The action sequences were filmed bit by bit with one of the actor’s stunt stand in, and a fun time was had by all. Including myself and one of the others who fell fighting into a hidden hollow where a tree root had once been… it was a soft landing as it was full of leaves, so we just carried on by wrestling in it. Lunch was soup and it was a bright day with a lot of excellent fighting and fresh air. Huzzah!  

The final day began at 5.30am with us in make-up then costume then cars up to set. However, it was raining heavily. They had errecteda gazebo among the trees and runners carried umbrellas over the actors and cameras as we carried on in that usual British way. I managed to snaffle a bow and arrow and spent the first few hours running down a path with all the others pretending to shoot it. I was far enough in the back for it to not be clear. I then got shot by return Ranger fire and had to fall as if hit by it – despite the fact that it was already attached and sticking out of my neck!

I then made a suggestion to the director that it might be nice to get a shot of me actually firing an arrow, which was welcomed and as they set up another big sequence, the Director took a camera man and I off to do the take. It looked excellent and I’m excited that I may be able to do one of those pointing and shouting “that’s me!!” things once it’s out. At the end of the day three of the Orcs were chosen to do a little bit of action with the Chris, who plays Arathorn (Aragorn’s Father). Once that was done the camera man asked if we would like to do a comedy orc out-take type thing for the extras section on the DVD. We all said “hell yeah!” I can’t disclose what this is really, but it’s some Orcs behaving not quite as expected.

The final part of day three was in the pub once make up and costumes were packed away. This turned out to be a little confusing as no-one knew who any of us Orcs were as we all looked quite different out of our full head latex masks… at least I hope we did…

King Lear 

We have now been rehearsing for over a month and things are well underway. We have an excellent poster for the show designed by Gary (Cornwall in the show) and the tickets are on sale. There is a guideline age limit of 13 years old on the show due to its violent nature - my fault, sorry – but it’s a necessary warning we need to make. The costume designs look brilliant and now we have seen the set design (which is very stark and industrial looking) we, as a company, are finding it easier to make decisions about blocking and staging. The fights are still being mulled over and the fight workshop is taking place on the 16th November so I can put everyone through their paces and work out who can do what. It’s ticking along nicely.

Les Miserablés le Panto!

Started rehearsals on Monday for Oddsocks’ Christmas show of Les Mis. After meeting up with the cast (most of whom I already knew from previous encounters… how funny…) we read it through and started looking at character and motivation and relationships. For this we used a method of personality typing called the Eneagram. I was familiar with this already as it was introduced to the cast of Oddsocks’ Much Ado which I did in the summer.

In a nutshell the idea of the Eneagramis that each person is driven by a certain motivation and makes decisions using either their head, heart or gut. This breaks personality types into three groups then each group is broken into three types. Each of the types ultimately wants something and acts in a certain way to get it. This determines the “number” someone is. There’s 9 types and none are better or worse than any other. The numbers are linked and depending on what your base number is determines what characteristics of other numbers you take on when confronted with different situations. It also depends on if you are happy/healthy or depressed/unhealthy at the time etc. It’s a bit more complicated than that – but Oddsocksuse it to try and help actors understand why their characters behave in certain ways… to add truth to the performances…

Oddsocks’ premise is that the actors are portraying a group of clowns who put on a show… which goes a little awray at times… therefore there are lots of adlibs, comic props and comical additions to the story. I’mplaying a nun who can’t lie, several comedy maids, factory workers and Oddsocks’ tribute to Les Mis the musical’s leader of the uprising, Enjolras. I get full blown sword fight. Very much looking forward to that one!

This show also has a screen with projected action taking place on it. It should be quite a special effect as we appear on screen then walk through it and out onto the stage as the same character. On Saturday morning at 3.15am (!!!) we were doing some filming for it in the streets of Derby. This was because we needed it to be night time, but had to aviod people in modern dress and cars on the images…

The funniest thing we saw was Adrian (playing Jean Valjean) running round the corner in full victorian costume carrying a lifesize doll of Cossette as a child, grinning as he’d just nailed a take, followed by a silent modern police car that he was oblivious to. The Police were very intrigued by what they had just seen and stopped to chat and watch for a bit!

We have also started the “Tour Scrapbook” which will consist of funny stories/quotes/highlights and most importantly the Les Mis Ale Tasting Chart. In every town we must each taste and grade a local Ale. We have begun already by attending a Beer Festival in Derby where we each had a supp of 9 different Ales on Friday night (er yes that was the Friday night before the 3.15am Saturday morning filming call…) I have to say that I have no idea what to look for in an Ale as I am a hardened Rosé drinker!!! And proud of it too!!! 

This time in the show there is a lot of music and it has fallen to Kate Willis (who plays Cossette) and yours truly to write it all. We’re doing pretty well. She is excellent at vocal arrangements and I’m coming up with most of the tunes and instrumental stuff. I have a string quartet in mind - despite there only being two string players in the cast, a lot of the music will be original but pre-recorded so withthe help of a four-track recorder anything is possible!

Things are going well, though now it’s time to sleep!

Today I have been to Epping Forest to do the fight rehearsals for the scene I’m in for the Lord of the Rings fan film Born of Hope. I’m playing an Orc, which I have to say I find extremely exciting and hilarious at the same time. This has all come from working with Ruth Cooper-Brown at RC-Annie and her sending out an e-mail to all us fighter types to see if anyone would be interested in being in the fight team for the film. I said “yes… with bells on!”. We have discussed the costumes… no bells…

The rehearsal consisted of learning some scrolling background action and then some specific “hero” shots. I think I get killed about four times, each time by a different Ranger Warrior! This means several changes of costume between shots. The weapons that the Orcs use are some pieces of chip board cut into shape then painted to look like nasty rusty blades – but when fighting against metal broadswords they tend to get a bit bashed, so the key is to be light. Also, I’m sure, my legs will be in lethargy tomorrow because all 5′9″ of me needs to fight at a 3′ level, so the legs are more bent than they ever would normally be!

I had my teeth cast last week too – a truely gross experience – so my dentures (!) will arrive on thursday ready for the shoot on friday/saturday/sunday. Also I get a lovely latex full head mask to wear. Yum. I hear that the make-up call will be between 4am and 5am on friday morning as it takes two hours per actor to get into mask. I’m hoping to be one of the last to go – both so I can sleep that little bit longer, and so I’m not in the thing for longer than I have to be.

All in all though, I’m knackered and we didn’t really do that much today but learn the fights… three days at the end of this week, full costume, full pelt in a wood in Epping… cripes… 

Pictures will follow

Warning!!! Extremely Sentimental!!! Warning!!!

There comes a time in life when the past can come back to either haunt you or embrace you. I wasn’t sure which it was going to be until I actually walked in the pub today and sat down with my first boyfriend from 10 years ago. He’d asked if we could meet up and talk as he’s not going through the best of times right now and he’s having a bit of a road trip to vent/reflect/repair/discover… and many other things that will hopefully help him heal.

I’ve not seen this guy since a very heated argument in the street a very long time ago. Things were said and years of silence ensued. Last year I found him on facebook and decided that it was time to let it go and be friends. This was the first time in about a decade we’d been able to sit down and talk. He admitted to being extremely nervous and I admitted I had wondered what it was going to be like… After the initial “this is what I’ve been doing for the last forever…” from us both, the “I’m sorry for what I did” was offered (I’m not going to go into what he did – suffice to say it wasn’t his greatest life choice in so many ways). This was turning out to be ok and we were having a good time.

I’m pleased I went and spent four hours talking to him as some funny episodes of our youth came back to tickle us. 

Firstly, how we met doing the school play “As You Like It”. He was Melancholy Jacques, delivering one of Shakespeare’s most beautiful speeches… and I was Hymen from heaven painted blue from head to foot with bright ginger hair and barely able to remember my lines cos at that age “I hated Shakespeare” (It’s all SO different now). Then seeing Antony Sher as Cyrano de Bergerac at the RSC, but barely paying any attention at all cos we were too busy trying to figure out if we liked each other enough to hold hands in front of our mates and the teachers. 

The first disco (!) he asked me to was a “traffic light disco” where you had to dress in green if you were single and up for a snog, yellow if you were single but needed talking round and red if you were taken and a no go area. He turned up in green, I turned up in a striped dress of all three colours. He spent the night very confused. Lunch dates at Sweet Vienna - the local cake shop – where tea, custard slices and resigned hand holding took place… I recently went there with a guy I was seeing and after the tea was placed on the table I said “we should go somewhere else ‘cos I feel about 16 again!!”

No one touched his hair…ever. A year into our relationship one of my friends covered my eyes and asked him what colour they were… he couldn’t answer. Our friend (and later my boyfriend) Mark kicking a football into another mate’s car and smashing the wing-mirror. Tequila Octopusses for Birthday drinks (uuurrrrggghhh!!!). My Star Wars knowledge (hmmmm!). His Star Trek knowledge (hoho!). The world cup match when we had a few free periods that meant we could sneak to the pub for the game. I ended up going back for the afternoon classes drunk to my school (the girls high) in his school uniform (the boys grammar). The fact that he was obsessed with Polo mints. He always had at least two packets on him at all times… until someone said that too many had a laxative effect. He stopped with the mint carrying very soon after that.

The last day of school he tipped a pint of water over my head in the Waggon in Sleaford. I did nothing. Didn’t move a muscle. I didn’t see him for the rest of the day as he was convinced I would slap him… after he’d gone I simply joined in with the water fight that ensued inside the pub… the landlord even ran in with the hose pipe. This was before it was the trendy wine bar it is now. 

The time a few female friends and I turned up at his house to find him and some of the lads quickly hiding videos under the sofa. Convinced it was porn we dived under there after the vids to shame them. It was Transformers: The Movie, and Knightrider. Oh, I used to wear platform trainers… yes Spice Girl style platform trainers…

These were all things I’d completely forgotten about and I’m glad to have remembered them. It was all from when I was 17 and so unaware of the real world. Today was indisputably the past coming back to give me a big hug and say “don’t forget just how much fun we really had”.