The Big Six

Starting to get some feedback on how I’m doing. Have done small assessments for Voice and Movement now, and I was emailed my Movement feedback which was quite positive. Had a couple of one-on-one feedback sessions; one for Dance, again mostly positive – except apparently I need to smile more and not look so serious when I’m concentrating – and one general one with Amanda, the Course Leader, about how the course is going – generally good but I’m too shy in group situations; I need to push myself forward and let my voice be heard a bit more. So it’s been encouraging to get some indication that I’m on roughly the right track.

We’ve started the big search for showreel material and we had a class where we just all brought in a bunch of scenes that we thought suited our type and had a read of them with others in the class. It was quite exciting to try lots of different characters and so far I’ve got a scene from Atonement (playing James McAvoy’s character) to work on and potentially a scene from The Men Who Stare At Goats (playing Ewan McGregor’s character). I’m sticking with parts played by Scots, because… well… they’re the best!

For our Mike Leigh project this week we were out in the town as our various characters. Again we were assigned tasks and we had to complete them whilst remaining in character. Mine was to visit the National Gallery and view certain paintings. It was a fascinating assignment but I confess I probably found it a lot more interesting than my character did. Some of those paintings are such masterpieces it’s impossible not to be impressed. And then you go close up to them and discover: that water is delicate brush strokes or the glint on that axe is a tiny blob of white paint or that lighting is actually different shades of colour. Some are so huge it’s a wonder how the artist practically achieved it. I also saw the Greatest Painting in Britain, according to BBC Radio 4; ‘The Fighting Temeraire’ by J M W Turner (1839). So whether or not I did much character development that afternoon it was definitely a worthwhile and very enjoyable experience.

The advantage of living with International students is that I get to learn about and experience different cultures. The advantage of living with two Americans is… Thanksgiving. Since we would all have class on actual Thanksgiving Day (this Thursday) we decided to celebrate it the weekend before. My U.S. flatmates, Amy and Jill, had a busy Saturday baking and cooking all the traditional food. We had a real turkey, which took ten hours to cook, and I helped in the kitchen a little bit making mashed potato and stuffing. A good number of people came along, lots of mine and Markoesa’s classmates and other Americans from Central. Many of them brought more food so we ended up with masses (and lots of leftovers!) and in general everyone ate far too much, which, I’m told, is what Thanksgiving is all about. I had my first taste of sweet potato pie, which is amazing, and I decided I’d quite like to be American. Or failing that I’d like to go to America, preferably in time for Thanksgiving.

The evening eventually dissolved into a big Disney songs sing-a-long, which suited me just fine, and I suddenly realised I’ve really not been doing much singing, and I miss it… However ‘tis fast approaching the season to be jolly, Christmas lights are sparking up all over London, so I’ve no doubt there’ll be plenty of carol singing to enjoy soon enough. Fa la la la la!