"Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made."
George Burns
Still on a high after the preview, Princess and I are still buzzing from the reviews. We're also getting really excited about next Spring's production - Little Shop of Horrors. I'm producing it so I'll start interviewing directors and choreographers in the next couple of weeks and find a designer to come up with the set and lighting. Theatre is so artistic!
On the bum note, Two of my friends are getting divorced. I'm upset and angry at one of them for not trying to save his marrage and upset and sorry for the other for not being able to save her marrage. I wish i could sit on the fence but i got kinda dragged in and now i want to stay in theatreland where if someone is sad, they just sing a song.
On a plus note, Spring has sprung in Glasgow. I spent a couple of hours today sitting in the beer garden of Vodka Wodka with Princess and Fergal enjoying the sun on my back and a cold Guinness in my hand.
i hope it's nice where you are.
fro.
x
"The pity about a theatre job is that it interferes with party-going."
Barry Humphries
The preview of the play went great!
We got laughs in all the right places and even the jokes that we felt were a little weak got a giggle. The immediate response from the audience we spoke to afterwards was that the play is going to be a great success!
I can't wait to take it to Edinburgh now. We've got another 35 minutes of it to write but I'm very confident that we can keep up the energy and the humour. Lots of congrats to the rest of the cast who were all great and to Princess, the director and writer.
Got a bit drunk afterwards - a large crowd of us (cast, crew and friends) all went to the pub and put away lots of celebratory drinks.
Thanks to all who wished me luck!
Yay!
Fro.
x
"Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing."
Ralph Richardson
You know, acting is a pretty hard job. I've been rehearsing my ass off for a performance of a 20min section of the play that we're taking to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and I'm really tired and stressed. We're on stage tomorrow night but i have to be in the theatre at 10am for a tech rehearsal until 11 then a dress rehearsal from 2pm 'til 5pm. I'm tired and I just got home from rehearsals.
I really love the play we're doing. It's a devised piece and a comedy too, but I hit that point tonight where i just want it to be over. I'm sure that once we've performed it in front of an audience and we get to see how it goes down I'll feel more enthusiastic. Plus I'll have the excitement of being in front of an audience (which is why i act).
I'm also really feeling for Princess, the director, who's getting more and more tense about the whole thing (plus she's house-hunting too).
I'll write in my next entry how the play went. Maybe not tomorrow because I'm headed for the pub after-show.
Tell me to "break a leg!".
Fro.
x
The proper office of a friend is to side with you when you are in the wrong. Nearly anybody will side with you when you are in the right.
- Mark Twain, 1898
Ive been thinking about friendship. Friends are funny things; you can be closer to them than family and then lose touch and never see each other again.
In the last year I've made (and lost) some good friends.
I got romantically involved with Red - a friend-of-a-friend.
There's Princess who i've known for years but only got really close in the last 6 months - she's now my closest friend.
Kitten - an ex who i stayed friends with but now don't see enough of (plus she's moving to Tiawan in a coupla months!)
Calima (of course) who i knew i liked when i first met her (I LOVE the way she says my name when i've scandalised her "Fer-odo!" And now we're going to be flatmates.
The other American in my life - Cat, who's married to one of my oldest friends.
Maurice - the best Technical Manager I've ever had work for me, and a great (German) person too!
The mad gay Fergal who lives with Princess and is a great, great guy but completely and utterly hatstand.
And there are others that i can't think of pseudonyms for so i'll mention them another time.
My point is: I care for these people and love them all (to varying degrees) and I know that they all care about me. Some of them, I can't imagine my life without or, indeed, what it was like before they were here. They like me regardless of my faults, my ego and my mood-swings and, for the first time in a long time, I never feel lonely because they're always there.
I love my friends and i promise I'll do everything i can not to lose them.
"...if I had to choose between betraying my country and my friend,
I hope I should have the courage to betray my country."
E.M. Forster
Fro.
x
P.S. Sorry if it's a little soppy - I'm feeling cared-for!
Went to see a flat today.
It was sooooo nice; spacious, bright, modern, in a lovely sandstone tenement and has a garden front and back! I can even afford the rent!
And I'd get to move in with Calima, who's flathunting with me (we live across the landing from each other at the moment - we practically live together as it is!).
But i don't get out of my lease for a couple of months. poo.
Oh, well... Calima and i will come up with a plan!
Fro.
x
P.S. I'm really excited about the Hitch-Hikers movie!
Thanks to all the folks who've made me feel so welcome at H-C.
I've been workin' really hard today. My theatre company (Rhymes with Purple Productions) are taking a play to the Edinburgh Festival fringe this August but we have a sort-of preview in one week at a local theatre and we're rehearsing a lot!
It's a devised piece (the whole cast "wrote" the show under the directors guidelines) and i've been the co-writer of the final script with Princess (my business partiner and best friend).
I just want a little more sleep and a little less stress and then i'll be a happy fro.
(I hope somebody gives me a back-rub soon)
fro.
x
I have no money...
Now, I know that some of you will say, "But Frodo, you're an actor- you're not supposed to have any money. Get a proper job, you slacker!" Which is a little aggressive of you, calm down... ok? Better?
You see, I do have another job - when I’m not acting in anything, I compere karaoke in a Chinese restaurant at the weekend. Well, i say "karaoke" but it's more like cabaret - nobody wants to sing when they're having dinner so I sing all night (let me know if you have any requests). But I've not been getting enough shifts, my savings are all gone and now I have to find another job (a real one *shudder*) or look for a cheaper flat to live in.
Only one thing for it.
Gonna have to move home....
Fro.
x
Wow! I have an online presence…
Thanks to Calima for setting up this blog for me, I’m not sure if anyone else will thank her after reading a few weeks of my inane rants.
Well… Hi to anyone who takes time to read this and future entries. I’ll try to keep it interesting. I guess most of it will be my mundane life as a (mostly unemployed) actor living in Glasgow. I am setting up a theatre company at the mo, so that should make for some interesting stuff… I hope!
Again: hi and welcome to my ramblings. I’d love for you to stay and have a beer.
Fro.
