Five, Still Alive

It’s crazy to think that already I’m more than halfway through the first term. I just know this year is going to go so fast. That’s an eighth of the course completed already!

I’m continuing to build a character for our Mike Leigh Project. Our tutor started giving us tasks to do which might be quite simple, like going for a run or going shopping, but we have to do them as the character. Whilst ‘in’ character if we meet any of our classmates we’re supposed to not recognise them, because our character wouldn’t know them, which is quite bizarre but fun. It’s interesting just how beneficial the process of simply ‘being’ the character is, and doing normal things but doing them as the character. The character experiences things differently to how I experience them and it starts to build an awareness of what it might actually be like to be that person.

I’ve finally chosen a scene to do for our theatre scenes showcase at the end of term. I paired up with a girl called Vicky and we discovered we’re both very much interested in period stuff. After a recommendation from my flatmate, Amy, we eventually settled on a scene from ‘Pygmalion’ by George Bernard Shaw (the play that My Fair Lady was based on). So I get to play Henry Higgins – a loud proud English gentleman – which should be fun.

This week I made the all important decision of which picture to use as my headshot. This will be my primary marketing tool, and the first thing that casting directors or agents or anyone will see of me, so it has to be good. The photo shoot was an interesting experience and my photographer, Simon Annand, was very good. It was about being different characters, and just trusting the thought, not trying to demonstrate anything on the face. If the thought is there then we see it in the eyes. And that’s acting. So I was learning a lot even in my photo shoot. Looking back at the photos afterwards I found I looked kind of angry in a lot of them. I think my face naturally looks quite intense and serious. However, with the help of some second opinions, I managed to find one that works quite well, and here it is:


So having settled on a church I did a bit of an All Souls marathon this week. Having gone to a morning and evening service on the Sunday I then went to an open evening on Tuesday night (where I met a guy from Elgin, lol!), back to the student Bible study on Wednesday, the morning service on Sunday, followed by a lunch with my Bible study group that afternoon, and then the evening service to finish. I don’t think they’re sick of me yet, so that’s a good sign.

I’m beginning to feel a bit out of place, like a spy in the enemy camp. I don’t fit in with all these ‘actors’; I’m not one of them. How could a polite and clean, well brought up young innocent boy (a son of the Manse no less) make it in acting? But I have crossed into their territory; and maybe from amongst them I can make a difference. Then again, maybe I am an actor. Because to get this far, and fool people into thinking I’m an actor, takes some acting…