The past few days have been particularly busy. Firstly, the Other Half is off work for 9 days - an unexpected break combining all the days in lieu which he is owed. Of course his manager didn't warn him in advance that this was going to happen, so he couldn't tell me, so I couldn't plan to have some time off on my own. Which means that I have been trying both to spend time with him and to keep up my regular activities - on the one hand cataloguing and uploading books for my online business, a laborious but necessary task, and on the other hand trying to pursue the various strands of my acting career. Which means that I'm feeling pressured and always conscious when I'm doing one thing that I should be doing something else.
But this is an acting blog and you're not interested in my extracurricular activities. The fact is, however, that even if I could devote every waking hour to my thespianism, I wouldn't be able to handle everything that's coming through. After a couple of months when it seemed as if Casting Call Pro had forgotten I exist, I have been receiving several calls for audition a day. At least half of these are student films, which I am usually not interested in because they don't pay. The other half, however, consists of offers from more established sources, including commercials and paid theatre and cinema, several of which I would dearly like to audition for, and two or three of which I believe I would be very well suited for.
Except I can't apply for them. I now have The Lower Depths in my schedule, which severely restricts my availability from the middle of next week to the second half of June. Then I have a brief break from London before I'm back to do my one-man show, Angel. The Ahctor in me reminds me that The Lower Depths and Angel are far more important from the point of view of learning my craft; the Pauper in me reminds me of the weak state of my finances.
Of course I always try to satisfy both Ahctor and Pauper. Yesterday I was called for an audition for third lead in a small film. Paid minimum wage, but at least paid, and with the possibility of widespread exposure. The writer-director appeared to enjoy my prepared monologues and had me read the part in the film in different ways. When it came to the punchline (no, it's not a comedy), his eyes lit up and he said triumphantly, "Yes! That's the way I want it." In other words, I appeared to have a better than average chance of getting the part...
...if I were free, that is. The scheduling of his film conflicts with the timing of my play, and before I had left the room it was clear that I would not be hired. Ah well, such are the disappointments of life. I bet it will be a rotten film anyway, and no-one will come to see it, while both Steven Spielberg and Cameron Mackintosh are going to be in Camden one evening and see me perform on stage, and before the third scene begins, there'll be a bidding war between them to use me as the lead in their next production. Or something like that...
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