I haven't talked much about my acting marlarky lately mainly because I haven't been doing much. Although I am about to do a scene for the Ramshorn theatre's Shakespeare at Large event which will be on 23/24 July as part of the Glasgow Fringe Festival.
The scene in question is one I played opposite Michael Emans who played the part of the Duke in the play Measure for Measure, while I played the role of the Friar, except this time our roles will be reversed! So I've been rehearsing the Duke's lines and there are quite a few of them, it is a fairly tough scene to get to grips with as the Duke is a very verbose character, even if he doesn't know what he's wittering on about half the time. It is a really good scene and I am looking forward to performing it, apparently the event will take place in the graveyard outside the theatre. But I am glad its just one scene as opposed to the whole play as I can hardly imagine how hellish it must have been to take on the role of the Duke given his massive and various monologues! However it is also a welcome little challenge from playing the bit parts I had been doing of late.
After the disappointment of working with the Estrado theatre group, I would be keen at some point to be on the lookout for another drama group, as I am sure there are plenty. But right now as much as I enjoy the acting, I'm not as fired up about as I was before, I guess after a while of doing it, you feel you need a break, and I don't have the boundless enthusiasm for it as some of my fellow thesps have. I suppose in terms of an actual career its not exactly one I would choose to go for, as I have found with the downside of acting, it is way too cliquey, especially when you join a new drama group you will fill the sense of the cliques and its not a good thing to feel outside that.
Generally speaking I don't like cliques anyway, and was I at the Edinburgh festival last year with a couple of acting pals who both have sinced graduated from the RSAMD and I felt a bit outside the whole experience of their world etc as they kept talking about plays or actors they knew, which naturally I knew nothing of, so I was on the outside of their conversations. I can imagine when you go onto a career in professional acting, not only is the competition more fierce but also the prima donnery and bitchery would also be worse, which is also something I could never be bothered with. Some actors very much have delusions of grandeur or a very tenuous grip on reality as it is, and the whole artistic side of it can be alot of wank (to put it delciately!). Its also not the most financially viable profession either as alot of actors do struggle not only for voluntary work, but even more so for paid work.
But that's not to say I haven't enjoyed working with people in amateur groups as I very much have so and there plenty of people who are very nice and down to earth. I think its definitely an important thing for actors, budding professionals, amateurs or whatever to keep a level head and not get carried away. In the end the reason I took doing acting was for a bit of fun, meet new people and take on the challenge of performing in a few plays to see how I could do. Having done that I feel quite happy to not rush into doing something else so quick, but if something does come up (depending what it is!) I wouldn't turn it down.
In the meantime I shall get on with the rehearsals for my M & M scene (with K & M!) and I'll blog up more once its done.
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