Missed Chance

I had the chance of a part with another company that I have tried to join on a number of previous occasions. They offered me an actual part because the original actor had gone down sick. I was gutted to find that it clashed with the performance dates of "What the Butler Saw" so I was unable to accept the chance. However perhaps now they have thought of me once I might get another offer.

My agent texted me about the possibility of taking part in a Lurpak commercial but the casting director didn't firm up the offer so I missed out on a day's filming on Tuesday.

I am spending hours daily cramming my head full of the lines for "What the Butler Saw". I don't know how I found time to do it when I was working. Perhaps my technique was different then or my memory cells were better organised or just younger! It is hard work and not helped by Joe Orton writing in such ornate language that wouldn't go amiss in a Restoration Comedy. You feel you have to get every word and syllable in the right place or order otherwise it just doesn't sound right and the rhythm of the lines is lost. I have just about reached that stage where the lines are finally in my head and coming out of my mouth on cue and in the right order. However there is an awful lot of tricky stage business, which then threatens the memory cells and the links between sections. The worst effect of a "dry" is that you end up not remembering which play let alone scene you are doing. The stage business needs to become automatic and reliant upon muscle memory rather than conscious thought. This means rehearsing the stage business endlessly so it becomes an automatic part of you. The trouble with that is you need the actual props you are going to use and they will need replenishing constantly. It may only need a dozen roses for each performance but you have to multiply that by the number of performances and then by the number of rehearsals. One piece of business is so complex it has 33 different actions and at the moment I am miming each action so by the time I get to action 12 or 13 even I can't remember what the mime represents let alone the actress awaiting her cue. Another of the problems is that you can't get to handling the props unless you know the lines and don't have the book in your hand any more. Learning the 33 actions for that one sequence of stage business is harder than learning lines. We have taped the dialogue and it would be a good idea to use the tape for those sort of sequences.

I am amazed to find that time has flown so rapidly and we are already approaching Get in and technical rehearsals while I am still in the process of over learning the lines. This is the process where you hope to learn the lines sufficiently that they don't entirely rely upon conscious thought and free up part of your brain to use in performance and rehearsal over and beyond the mechanics. I was taught that there are four stages of learning a skill: you are unconscious that the skill even exists; you become conscious of the skill and the fact that you don't have it; you consciously use the skill and it takes all your concentration to use it; you unconsciously use the skill. The best analogy is learning to drive a car. Well I think it can also apply to developing a performance in a play.

At the moment Best Beloved is helping me to develop one of the pieces of stage business needed for the play which involves female underwear, shoes, roses and a vase. We think we have solved the problem with the roses but need the vase and under/foot wear in order to work it all out before we start rehearsing the muscle memory! Tell me again how many years I have had this theatrical hobby.......46?....is that possible? or desirable?