It's Official: Are You Following Me?

Remember the mutilated corpse? Me, I mean, last Saturday. Head back on a chair, with my eyes cut out and my throat slit. The only part of me that moved being my hand falling off my knee when my "son" discovers his father's dead body.

I got paid for that part. The money landed in my bank account yesterday. All £12 of it, for two hour's acting work (well, let's be fair; 45 minutes acting, 45 minutes preparation and 30 minutes waiting for the film crew to turn up). That means I have now been officially paid to act - or my arm has. The first goal of my year - to be paid for appearing on stage or film - has been met. Now for my second goal: to find an agent.

The film, by the way, is Witness The Beginning. Here's more information.

Yesterday was a busy day. I turned up for the 12.30 call at the doomed Greenwich Playhouse, without time for lunch. There'll be a break about 2.00, I thought, enough time for me to skip out for a sandwich. I thought wrong. For five hours, under the beady eye of the glowering Bruce and schoolmistress stare of the steely Alice, we were blocked and reblocked. In the first act I'm one of the Cardinal's men - appearing and reappearing to add menace to his presence. Hunger apart, it was a worthwhile afternoon. Unlike As You Like It, which was rehearsed bit by bit in a classroom in Holborn, I could see from the start the coherence and strength waiting to be brought out.

Which doesn't mean that the show I'm currently in lacks these qualities. It's sold out, and last night was the best performance so far. I even raised the first laugh of the evening, in my short speech where Charles the Wrestler is explaining to wicked brother Oliver that Rosalind has not been exiled with her father, but remains at the court with Celia.

It's a confusing piece, where neither character is named and they are only identified by ambiguous "she"s and "cousin"s. The direction calls for me to play it to the audience, using my hands to demonstrate the difference between the two young women. Doing so, however, confuses the wrestler and annoys his patron, and last night, as he turned away in irritation, I ad-libbed "are you following me?", which brought out the laughter.

The good mood continued throughout the evening. In a strong cast, it's invidious to pick out individuals, but the comic element was particularly helped by the skills of Jeffrey Ho, playing the hapless Silvius in love with the contemptuous Phebe and by Daniel Yabut's capering. And of course there are the shenanigans with the other lovers and exiles in Arden, whom I'll cover in later posts. They all came together again last night, and the strongest cheers yet at the end of the show had us all running back in for a second ovation.