Acting

Here’s me in the opening animation sequence for TV pilot Rules of Life. Check it out!

The saturday before the start of our show A Halfway House at the Etcetera theatre I donned a pig costume borrowed from Megan Affonso’s brother (yeah, I know) and went up to Camden with Luke Kaile to give out flyers. Surprisingly some people actually came to the show. They left in the interval. Possibly. Anyway, here’s a little trailer Luke edited together from some iphone footage of that flyering day. After the run of the play finished so essentially useless but worth a look for the great track alone!

After several weeks of rehearsals and then what seemed like a very short run, we easily passed the Halfway House halfway mark, and then before we knew it, it was all over.

It was a fascinating production to be a part of, not only due to the sheer number of props and transitions we had to learn, on top of a fair few lines over the 2 hour production, getting to play very different characters, but also due to every night being able to see the sheer panic in my esteemed colleague Mr Luke Kaile’s eyes as another night’s performance sailed dangerously close to over running and putting us in breach of our contract, which stipulated we had to be finished and cleared out by 9 to ensure the next act could set up uninhibited. 

After having to make a last minute decision to bring the performance time forward to 7, and limit the interval to 5 minutes (which was far from ideal for the audience on the first couple of nights where the air conditioning wasn’t working and everyone sweated out several pounds of weight over the evening), we had to learn further last minute cuts as the run continued, which kept us on our toes but would then be cancelled out as more improvised lines seemed to creep in…

Anyway, the theatre were ultimately happy with us, and we had some great shows with great audience reactions. We even got a 4 star review. I thoroughly enjoyed the show, working with my AITM co-star Mr Kaile, Megan Affonso, and James Butler. Also, Hanaa la Bella and Eisha Campbell did a great job at learning a fairly complicated tech script in only a few short hours. Thanks so much to everyone who came down, especially those who braved the ridiculous heat early on.

On a final note, and the final C-word (not that one) in this post’s title, audience members for the Friday show will have observed me desperately trying not to corpse when I returned to the stage for the final scene to discover James not wearing any trousers. He then got me again on the Saturday night by coming out with his shorts on his arms and shirt on his legs. Imagine my frustration when, having been informed by James that Luke had told him off that night, to discover when I came back out on the Sunday night that this was a downright lie, and that he was wearing ladies’ knickers over his own exposed pants, and a fluffy pink pig costume. I was less successful in holding it together that night.

Still, at least I got to spit water in his face every night. Bastard.

 Stay tuned for more All in the Method! We’re working on the next couple of episodes!

I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I last posted! Still, there’s been a lot going on. The Addicted – the horror feature I have a small role in had its first press and distributor screening last Tuesday which seemed to go well – looks like they’ve already been offered a couple of distribution deals so well done to Jenny Gayner and Sean J.Vincent! The film looks great too.

Moving swiftly on, Episode 1 of our new comedy web series All in the Method was released on Sunday. It’s been getting some great feedback which is lovely, and everyone’s been really helpful in spreading the word, for which we are all incredibly grateful! I’ve set up a website for it but if you want things nice and simple you can check out the Episode right here:

That brings me on to the other project that’s been keeping me busy: A Halfway House. It’s a comedy play with sketches written and directed by my AITM co-star Luke Kaile. We open on Tuesday 26th June at the Etcetera, so that’s gonna be exciting. We run till Sunday 1st July so if you wanna come I think you’ll need to book quick!

OK, I’m off to meet Luke to try and promote the play with the use of a pig costume. All will be revealed…

When I started acting a couple of years ago I kind of thought that I would end up seeing the same actors occasionally, or even working with some of them. I met Rob Wainwright on a short back in March 2010 and I think we’ve worked together some six or seven times since, but many of those projects have been one of us deliberately getting the other involved.

So, last Monday night. I went to the screening of a short film I mentioned in a previous post: Collide. Now you may not think this of me but I’m not actually overly keen on watching myself, especially on a big screen with a load of other people when I’ve no idea how good or bad my performance is, but I had a twitter conversation with two of the actors I’d got to know pretty well on the shoot, and we decided to go. I like to call them the Two Chrises. Chris’s? Chrisi? Anyway, they’re both called Chris. Now, Chris Rithin knows my friend Luke Kaile who wrote A Criminal Audition and Halfway House, and with whom I’m writing my webcom. Chris Edgerley knows Megan Affonso who will appear with Luke and I in Halfway House in June. I also knew that Sharon Lawrence would be there who was in a scene with me on Rules of Life. She shares an agent with Georgina Sherrington (star of The Worst Witch), whom I know from the Actors Centre.

I’m getting to the point.

When I turned up, I was greeted by a girl I’d never met, but who said she’d recognised me from imdb. Her name is Georgie Lee-Robinson, and we’d both provided voices for an upcoming animation called Tunstall. Also, it turns out her landlady is Miranda Rae who I shared a scene with in a film called scAIRcrows. Inside I spoke to another actress I’d never met called Natalie Barker who said her friend Peter Halpin had asked her if she knew me. I worked with Pete previously on Rules of Life.

Later on, having met the Two Chrises’s and Sharon, I got talking to Tricia Stewart who’d I’d never properly met but we’d both worked on Lee Nelson although in different scenes, and actually auditioned for the same sketch show pilot (Creative People) a few weeks ago.

I also had a chat with an actor named Stephen Mcleod  – we’d been paired up in a commercial audition last year some time, and had met somewhere else since but neither of us could remember.

Ridiculous isn’t it? I mean, really, really ridiculous. What’s even more crazy is that while driving back from Milton Keynes one afternoon (don’t ask) I realised I had actually met Natalie Barker before, at an audition last year where I was helping out by reading with the actors. The same auditions where a girl said she went to Drama School x and I said “oh, do you know so and so who I was in a play with?” and she said “yes I went out with him for 3 years”.

So basically, at that screening, seven of the cast I’d either worked with on a previous project, or they knew someone I’d worked with, or both.

It really is a small world isn’t it. Really, really, fucking small.

Now first I’d like to point something out. In my last post I talked about Jenny Gayner and I said that if you read my blog you’ll already know she played my sister in sitcom pilot Rules of Life. Of course, I haven’t actually ever posted about Rules of Life. And I’m not going to now. Nor am I going to write much about The Addicted, the film in which I appear and Jenny stars, and which I posted about last month. Where I talked about Jenny. Remember? Anyway, coverage of that film appears to be increasing, and if you check out Sean’s latest production diary, you’ll even catch a little glimpse of me.

Aaaaaaaaaanywaaaaaaaaaaaaay…. Since my last post we’ve shot and nearly finished editing my first self written short film. It’s called “A Slightly Exaggerated Reenactment of a Voicemail I Never Actually Left for Tom Lenk”. I’m not going to explain anything about it yet, apart from the fact I star in it. Vanity Project.

We’ve had to put a bit of a hold on that now as DOP/editor Paul Jones has a life (what a selfish bastard) but no fear, I soon had the idea of writing a sitcom, which I star in. Vanity Project. Well actually co-star, with my friend Luke Kaile who wrote last year’s A Criminal Audition, and this year’s Halfway House. The project has gone from a vague idea I had for a pilot to a full comedy web series which we are already in pre-production for. We hope to get the pilot episode up in May. And then put the rest up regardless of how well the pilot does. Vanity Project.

As I mentioned Halfway House, I might as well talk about that. We’ve started rehearsing and all is going well, except for something I’ve never encountered before. A role was assigned to an actor who performed very well in the audition. Apparantly. We had a readthrough in which the actor didn’t seem quite so suited. Actor was replaced. I’ve missed out some steps there along with the actor’s name, but I will confirm that it isn’t me. I know what you were thinking.

Oh yeah, and I’ve got a couple of other short film ideas. Starring me. Vanity Projects. Let’s not go into those here.

Back in September I filmed a couple of scenes for a horror feature called The Addicted. I was cast by the excellent Jenny Gayner, who if you read the crap I post on here you may recall played my sister in comedy pilot Rules of Life, and is currently appearing in Chicago at the Garrick in which she sometimes plays the lead. As well as being a producer and casting director on The Addicted, she is the star alongside Sean J.Vincent who also wrote and directed.  

Now I’m only a relatively small character – I play a TV Executive to whom Jenny’s character comes with her reporting footage on video, after which I send her away to get something more meaty which kick starts what happens for the majority of the film – but from what I’ve seen of little snippets and stills from the film, it’s looking pretty good. Having read the whole script I know it’s gonna be pretty dark too.

Anyway, there is currently a competition up on the Empire forum to design the poster and associated artwork for the DVD. There is some great stuff up on there I have to say. Also Sean is regularly updating his blog which details about the post production etc along with video diaries.  I won’t post too much else here as I’m sure Sean would prefer you to visit his blog. However, here’s the first video link: http://vimeo.com/35853882

Don’t have nightmares.

This is going back a bit now as we filmed this in July, but I’ve recently seen a rough cut of this comedy sketch we did for the Muzzle the Pig website so thought I’d post this. Basicaly me and Luke Kaile are cheating in a charity race and Rob Wainwright is getting increasingly annoyed at the fact and confronts me at the end. I thought it would be cool to be smoking a cigarette (I’m a bit of a loser like that), so someone very kindly brought a couple of their Mum’s leftovers for the shoot… but no lighter. We’re in the middle of Greenwich Park and there are no smokers around. Disaster. Until… I spot a guy with a lit cigarette. He gives me a light. Smoking on camera can often be a pain, making sure the length of it doesn’t keep changing in different shots, but I now had the added nuisance that I couldn’t let this thing go out for fear of never getting it lit again. I was also on a tight schedule. And of course, outside filming being the way it is, I was down to about the last inch of the last barely lit cigarette before we could do my close ups, so it probably looks ridiculous after all that. Life is so hard.

http://vimeo.com/31335200

On the weekend of 28th to 30th October I took part in the Smoke & Mirrors 48 hour film festival, the very same festival that last year produced what we lovingly refer to as ‘the wanking film’. Have I told you about that one? Oh I must do one of these days. Anyway, the ever excellent Paul Jones and Niamh Mulcahy enlisted my services, along with Ewan Henesy and Matthew Leigh, to make a film in 48 hours, the theme of which was revealed as ‘Lost’.  After a Saturday spent in Morden Hall Park, running around being crazy, getting stung by nettles and getting generally hot and bothered, followed by a presumably intense editing experience the rest of the weekend, we ended up with something we’re actually pretty pleased with. It didn’t get shortlisted, but nevermind, it’s a pretty interesting piece as far as I’m concerned, and different from what I normally seem to end up doing!

So I did this short film the other week, well a few weeks ago, is that OK? I can’t actually say much about it as I signed a confidentiality agreement. Hell I’m not even sure I’m supposed to be writing this post, but I just wanted to mention it as it’s pretty action packed, the director (Zoltan Csirko) is a lovely guy, but most importantly of all, check out the still above and see how I can act with a bag. That’s right, I am holding… a bag. It was my bloody idea too, to have the bag in the scene. Makes the scene more real. This is exactly the kind of thing I can bring to the table.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFZatmOFpns

As I haven’t posted anything on here for a while (doesn’t time fly!) I thought I’d post this clip from the 2001 film of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. I’ve actually been learning this speech, not that I really see myself reeling this is off in an audition (unless it’s for the part of Lucky of course), but more just to see if I could actually memorise it. The speech itself is printed entirely without any punctuation, and all the versions I find online have slight descrepancies with the printed text, but Stephen Brennan gets it bang on here.

Strangely, I have a vivid memory of being shown this clip on a video at school… even though I’d comfortably left school by 2001.

I meant to post this up before now, but rehearsals and fitting in shooting a TV pilot (which I’ll post about later) have kept me busy, among other things. Anyway, last night was our opening night for A Criminal Audition, a play written by and starring Luke Kaile. I’m playing a character called Meridius who is basically crazy and spends the entire play in a dressing gown threatening people, creeping people out, and shouting a lot. It’s an interesting play for many reasons, but what stands out for me is the fact that I went to see this play last year in its original form, and now I’m in it as the only new character amongst the original cast.

It doesn’t take a vast audience to make the Etcetera look rammed, but it was packed out with a great crowd who seemed to enjoy it, and I think the play is very well suited to an intimate setting. I look forward to the rest of the run and will post up some photos shortly.

OK, so this is even more lame than the amount of lameness I’m normally associated with. It’s been several months since my last update, which, for the handful of people who maybe read this, may have been an indication that I was in some way deceased. Well, let me tell you, I am not deceased. I am alive (in case that wasn’t clear). Since Burgess finished (previous post) I’ve got right back into messing around in front of the camera again. The sad fact that I had to drop out of a filmI was cast in due to Burgess rehearsal schedules has been almost forgotten from my being cast in the lead role in a great TV comedy pilot (“Rules of Life”), and a dramatic short film called “A Life, Unfulfilled”, the trailer for which has been getting good feedback, and will hopefully do well in festivals. I’ll keep this post brief, but please check out the trailer at http://www.vimeo.com/24075432 if you can be bothered. The film also stars a great actor called Moj Taylor, and I tell you: I’ve never done so much running in my life.

On Sunday 30th January we did our thing for the 18th and last time. I meant to actually update this blog at least a couple of times during the run to try and give a feel for how the play was developing over the weeks. I never got round to it though did I. Doing 6 nights a week while working 5 days a week as well doesn’t really leave a lot of free time to be honest. However, I will say thank you very much to everyone who came down to see the play – it really was greatly appreciated. I had a great time acting with, and getting to know the cast and crew, and hope to see everyone again soon. We even had some good reviews, got mentioned on the BBC Review Show, got some great photos out of it (check out my photo page), and nothing really went wrong. I have learned that I can’t swing a golf club properly, that  Russian is quite a difficult language, but most importantly of all that no matter how many times I pretend to kiss and be fellated by another man while wearing a swastika armband… it never gets any less awkward.

John Morrison, the writer, very kindly gave us all postcards after the final night, and I’ll leave you with mine as I just think it’s really nice of him.

It would appear that for some reason (desperation presumably) I’ve been cast in “A Morning with Guy Burgess”, written by John Morrison and directed by Dimitry Devdariani which runs from 11th to 30th January, every night except Mondays at the Courtyard Theatre.  I’m playing Donald Maclean, associate of Guy Burgess, as well as a few fairly different minor characters which so far is a lot of fun. Apparantly the BBC are coming down to film part of it too… *gulp*

There’s an interview with the writer here.