Confessions of a Struggling Actor

Whoops!!  I've had blog trouble.  For some reason, last Monday's one didn't come up, so I've had to re-do it, though I found all the text, so that saved me a headache.  Unfortunately, I was midway through doing this one and then lost it.  The blog that is, not my mind...

I've got a lot to catch up on, what with it being over a week since my last news and it being a pretty full one at that.  A 0-0 draw at 5s, which nearly ended in fisticuffs, was followed by a long trip home.  During this voyage, I was looking at my phone, which I dropped after the game, with it flying into pieces.  It said that there was no SIM card in it and, as it was dark by the time I noticed this, I realised that I'd have to go back and try and find it the next morning.  I went home, cleaned the kitchen and watched TV, before getting an early night in order to search for the tiny chip the next morning.

After struggling out of bed 2 hours earlier than normal, I went down to the pitches by Waterloo and scrambled around on my hands and knees with various smart comments echoing from the building site next door.  After 45 minutes of fruitless searching, I gave up.  Feeling gutted and annoyed at the thought of the hassle of getting it sorted, plus missing some calls that were due to come through that day, I headed for work.  On the tube, I decided to look in the back for the space that the SIM had vacated and...it turned out to still be there!  I switched it on again and hey presto, all was well.  I cursed Motorola and spent the rest of the day at work trying desperately not to fall asleep.  While in work, I sent an email to Simon as his play opened that night.  He seemed nervous, but I was sure it would be well received.

That night I had a rehearsal for a short film voice over, where I play a father having an argument with his wife.  The director seemed as though he had never worked with actors before, saying things like "Your accent's excellent, but can you maintain it if you talk louder?"  This and other questions, as well as his general shambling, rambling style, did not help my efforts to stave off sleep, but I was still listening and speaking when I had something to say.  He thought I was very intense and I didn't want to tell him the real reason why I was simply sitting there without the verbal diahorrea that he was coming out with, but simply said that it would all be fine once I met the woman playing my wife and we could impro to try and find out the dynamic of the relationship and that me just reading the lines was of little use just now.  He then launched into a 20 minute, one sided discussion about the whys and wherefores of different acting and directing techniques and then I brought the proceedings to a halt with a "You do whatever works and I'm sure it will work when we all get together".  I went home and immediately fell asleep.

Wednesday's work was just that - work.  Afterwards, Luke and Gareth came round for the Arsenal game and a bit of ISS action.  Really good to see them again, as it had been a while since they'd been round.  They've been doing more gigs and Luke and I made plans for the ManU-Arsenal game on Sunday while my sister was down.  As I was about to bed, I got a message that I had 8 missed calls.  It was Laura that used to work with me, but now worked for our PR firm.  She's very nice, but has a boyfriend, though I'm not sure if that's the case anymore.  There was also a text asking me to call her urgently.  I texted her to see if she was OK, but didn't hear anything within around 10 mins as I got ready for bed, so assumed she was fine...or dead.

At around half three my phone went off.  It was Laura asking me for some information as she had bollocksed up something to do with a Work certificate and needed the phone number of a colleague.  I sent it and went back to bed.  10 mins later, another text, so another reply.  Another 10 mins...well you get the gist.  The last text was sent at 4.05am and I went back to bed but couldn't get any sleep til 7am and then woke up feeling groggy and sick.

Decided to take Thursday off sick as I was feeling useless and had to clean the entire flat as I had the inaugural theatre company meeting that night.  After watching  'A Taste of Honey' in the afternoon, followed by hours spent scouring the bathroom and kitchen and getting everything ready, Gareth McChlery, Moira and Fenella came round and I cooked my first lasagne, to great success.  We then spent around 2 hours talking about the company, why we were doing it, suggestions of plays, etc.  Gareth took minutes for us and I think it was really good.  It's very early doors yet, but if the four of us are all still up for it after the next couple of meetings, I reckon it could be a great success.  Meeting again next weekend, so we'll see how that progresses.  That night, with several glasses of red wine and pasta in my belly, I dropped off to sleep with no trouble, until 5am when I was awoken by a rattle at my bedroom door.  A naked Geir then stumbled in, stopped, looked around and then left to go to the toilet, which I can only assume (and hope) was his original destination.  Didn't get back to sleep and started to weep ask the sun rose.  Another day off sick beckoned...

Friday was spent watching more films and cleaning up from the night before.  I had a nice quiet day and an early night after the craziness of the previous couple of sleepless evenings.  And I knew what was to come... 

In the next installment, Dougie comes down for the weekend, I have my first Sunday roast of 2006 and