I moved to Hornchurch at the end of November 2005 to become a technician at the Queen's Theatre. Before then, I was involved in the following:
Two new postcards on the writings page. The first is a kind of general metaphor, and the second employs that metaphor to do some actual work. or at least point towards work to be done in the future.
I'm employed! For a summer tour, till mid-August. By these people: www.londonbubble.org.uk. It's an outdoor show in London's Parks after dark, should be very exciting and everyone should come.
I've been working on this for a company consisting of graduates from Rose Buford. They're talented (and friendly) people and have some interesting ideas, so if you're looking for something a bit experimental (but also funny) then come along to our last two performances, first Saturday and Sunday of June at a venue called The Space in the Docklands
News roundup for people I haven't seen recently: I rejected the course at Central, was rejected in turn by Rada, have been working at the Beck and the CAS some more and am looking for a serious plan for next year. Current possibilities: various jobs I'm applying for, a course at Mountview, a course at the City of Westminster College
Had a bit of a summer clean to celeberate the site being one year old
For a while now I've had this vague intention to add little 'postcards' of thoughts and speculations I've had at various points. Somehow, though, I never seem to get round to it- the only times I feel like writing anything are when I'm doing something else. When I do sit down to write about what I was thinking about when I was on the tube or whatever, the moment has gone, it's all been thunk and the resulting text just seems lifeless and anaemic. I was, for example, going to treat you to something about how I changed my mind slightly about the Chinese Room argument back in the autumn, but producing text about it kept seeming a bit like eating a meal on my own and then treating you all to a display of the dirty dishes. Hopefully, these 'postcards' will be a bit more immediate and get written before the colour drains out of them and they become limp and superfluous. So, to get things started we have a little piece called 'Philosophy of Love'. Actually, I basically lied about it being 'little' as it's turned out twice as long as I imagined the average postcard being and could probably be both condensed and split into more than one postcard. But heck, the spirit of the exercise was to write in haste and forget to do the repenting afterwards.
I've been offered a place at central, but I'm not sure if I want to take it as the interview seemed a bit strange and I got the feeling that the more technical strands were really just there to make up the numbers- for example, my portfolio was barely glanced at. Am definitely going to wait until after my interview at RADA (early march) before making any decisions.
Anyway, I've had another week's work at the CAS, which is always good for the bank account. I've also been back to UEA for the drama society musical, which was fun in a nostalgic kind of way. I'm also getting quite excited about going back for 'The Play About The Baby', and have some interesting plans in the works for it.
On February 9th. I need to put together a small portfolio, and work up some ideas based on Aesop's fables. The 'interview' is more of a group workshop by all accounts, with a mixture of people applying for different strands all mixed together (which is pretty much the spirit of the course in general). So it should be fun if nothing else.
Spent the last five weeks or so working at the Beck in Hayes on 'Beauty and the Beast'. Mainly followspot operation during the run, plus some general scenic and electrical work (mainly during the fit-up and get-out). It's been good having regular employment, and I've met some nice people too. Hopefully the experience will make it easier to keep myself busy in the next few months. The last few days have been kind of strange now that I'm suddenly at a loose end though, although I have forms to fill out, letters to write, cv's to update and so on so I should be busy enough. I'm toying with the idea of writing something as well, although I'm not sure what yet.
I've moved some of the old news to a new 'Olds' page (linked on the right hand column) to stop the front from becoming too cluttered. At some point, I might make a proper archive by month or quarter or something depending on how often I post stuff, but for now a single page should do. In the process, I noticed that sometimes text seems to dissappear as I scroll up and down the page, especially if it belongs to a paragraph that partially fell off the bottom of the window at some point. Does anybody else have this problem, or know what causes it?
A couple of days ago there was a point where I actually had everything unpacked, put away and neat. The last box was empty, the last scrap of paper filed, the last bit of stuff had found a home for itself and my entire life had squished itself into a single room. Then my parents decided I'd been right all along about needing extra shelves. So, it was off to IKEA for a bookcase, home to assemble it, take the old shelves off the wall, put the bookcase in, drill a hole to screw the bookcase to the wall at the top, put everything back in a new place, shuffle the bed along, turn the chest of drawers round, find an extra extension lead, put the ressurected computer in a not entirely suitable new home (life would be simpler if it had a nifty tft screen instead of a chunky monitor), bang new nails in for the pictures that had to move and now everything's shipshape again. Apart from the old shelves lying in the middle of the floor. And the big bits of cardboard that the flatpacks were flatpacked in. And some other bits and pieces. But basically my room is now possible to live in.
I've moved down to London, but hopefully won't be away from Norwich forever. Will definitely be visiting frequently next year. My new address is 63 Quickswood, London, NW3 3SA.
Anyway, I've nearly got things sorted out and packed away now and can start to worry more about finding work.
I would tell you to come see our lovely play, but it was on during graduation week so you've missed out. Anyway, it was definitely definitely my last play at UEA (as were Guys and Dolls, and then Multistorey...) but it was cool to see everyone one last time and the production was great. We got very wet on the last night, but it was worth it. Especially as we got to build a swing! Which me and Zo swung on at the ball (see below).
...was actually several weeks ago, but I'm being very bad at updating this. Anyway, my family came up and Zoë came to visit and we all had fun. If you're very unlucky I might put up photos soonish.
Anyway, we all had fun, although my hands got tired of clapping all the history students. It was a bit sad that most of LLT was standing in the corridor whilst we got our degrees, as it meant we couldn't clap each other, but apart from that it was good.
And at the end of the week, it was the grad ball. Which was fun. Again, there might eventually be photos of me in a suit and Zoë looking very pretty (and possibly some action shots of her on the climbing wall in her ball dress).
(oh, and I got my dissertation back a few days after the message below).
Results have gone up on campus: I have a first! Still waiting for complete breakdown of marks etc., but the overall degree is confirmed. Would be nice if I had my dissertation back so I could read the comments though.
I might use this front page as a sporadic semi-blog for news etc. At the moment, however, there isn't a whole lot of news. But feel free to explore the links on the left...