I keep forgetting!

I keep forgetting to take my camera!!!
That is my mission for tonight. Remember camera.

Last night's show was just as good. Seriously, everybody is raving about this show. The big wig of a rival company came to see it and gave us a standing ovation (standing ovations are REALLY rare here) and told the producer to "bottle the cast" because we were so awesome and he grabbed me by the shoulders, looked straight into my eyes and told me I was amazing!!!

Booyah!!!

Booyah!!! I got rousing applause on my exit in Act 2!!! Half the people I spoke to after the show said I was their favourite character!!! My wig was fixed and it looked perfect, which gave me more confidence. Apparently I have very nice elbows and my "waddle" is hilarious.

Opening Night tonight!!!!

Opening Night tonight!!!!

Janie feedback

My Janie audition feedback is in. I am 100% in agreement with the comments I was pretty sure it was still too theatrical.

The Reviewing Team wrote:

Helen, a good try here, but like we've said to a few others too, you need to work on your voice and tone. It varies at times, which detracts from the sincerity of the piece and also some of facial expressions are a bit too exaggerated. Now having seen a few things you've done, it looks to us, that we can see the intentions of your performance, but they are not quite reconciled with how you execute them. This is another way of saying, the right thought processes are going on in the inside, but they are not manifesting fully on the outside, i.e. the performance. You need to practice more and more, record everything you do and watch it again and again. You show good promise.

How I hurt my leg

I think it was doing the Charleston without having properly warmed up. The theatre we were in had really pokey dressing rooms and we didn't have enough space to do a proper warm up.

Great news: My leg is healing very well, so thanks for all the good vibes!! The physio says I can dance on it tonight and if it gives me trouble I can get an appointment for more physio whenever I need it - even if they are booked out. I test it out with a couple of maxifords and it handled that quite well, so tonight before the show I'll test out my table climbing, kicks and the Charleston to see what I can do and what I need to cheat.

Didn't get the cold

I didn't get the cold - yet. Elijah is still sick, so I still could catch it. I'm doing my best to avoid it.

I hurt my right quad performing at the awards show. *headdesk* Luckily it's not torn and with intensive physio and my following all the instructions the physio gave me, it should be right to dance by preview night.

Better news: The BTMS team have announced the castings for GSOH (the speed dating show for which I did five auditions). While I wasn't cast, they put me on their list of people they'd "like to see more of in the future". Hooray!

Woohoo

I've started getting briefs for paid jobs! Woohoo! No casting calls yet though. I've really got to get moving on my showreel now. That will make a big difference.

Tonight, I'm performing at an awards show with my Millie cast. Let's hope my voice holds up because I'm coming down with a cold. Millie opens on Thursday!!

Family concerns

Thanks for all the support and positivity in this thread. It's so wonderful to know that I've got this support here as well as at home and amongst my "real world" buddies.

My immediate family (other than Hubby) are a bit unsure about the whole thing. In fact, I get the feeling that my brother thinks I am being downright irresponsible and foolish. I keep reminding myself that he was the most talented out of the three of us and he's the one not doing anything with his talent, so maybe it's some kind of deep-rooted jealousy or regret that is fueling his disdain for my decisions.

I think my mother and sister and my in-laws think this is a passing phase and that I'll "get over it and go back to normal" once I've had a few knockbacks. My dad doesn't care. He loves me no matter what I do. Dad and I get along much better now than we ever did growing up. I really feel like he's an ally.

I've gotten some great peer feedback on my latest audition. The official feedback won't arrive for at least a few more days. I've been told I solved one of the problems really well (which was to do with framing the shot - a lot of this script involves the feet) and that I've outdone myself! I think it's probably still too theatrical and maybe a little too much like a spoof. It's a very thin line. Hoping to get the official feedback soon.

Pauline feedback

I got my Pauline feedback. They liked this one the best. They also read my question to them about being able to decipher the brief and not understanding what they meant by a "device" character and answered it! This feedback is REALLY helpful. Hooray!

BTMS Reviewing Team wrote:

Helen, this was some of your strongest work so far, well done. Lovely facial nuances at times, and some excellent extra business at the top and tail of the clip with the camera which added humour. Re-reading your personal facts/journey gave us an insight into the minor drawback here though - you've been attacking the auditions like theatre auditions so far. You clearly have great potential, so please keep practising with the auditions and work on toning down the excesses you'd normally use as a strength for the stage. A "device" character is one where there are fewer layers and more extreme caricatured behaviour is required. You can generally decipher this from coupling the brief with the lines. Sometimes we clearly want depth, other times we want less of that and more style. We call them devices because they clearly have a role in the plot for other characters to bounce off ‚ it may be a device we have added to help another character's journey for instance, or maybe as part of the comedy arc. We don't labour this at briefing point as it is a note more relevant to the final show scripts, but it's something we may expect a few of you to spot and have fun with.

Question

Are all the briefs going to be for unpaid jobs? Seems a bit silly, considering my agent is on commission...

In other news, I did another audition on BTMS today. Have to get Hubby to upload it later.

Interesting development

I got my first brief through my agent today! The job is unpaid though, but it could lead to more exposure and therefore more paid work. The brief is confusing though. The character that I've been sent is described as female and 26+, but the rest of the description implies it's a male. I think I need to check up on this. I don't want to waste my time here.

Hoping

I really hope that I make the second round for at least one of the characters. I want to have another chance at playing them, now that I better understand what they are looking for. I have been struggling a bit with deciphering their briefs. They are dropping clues in them that I'm not experienced enough to pick up. This is obvious by the difference between the official comments on my auditions and those of some of the "old-timers" of the site. It's hard for me to tell how far they want some of the characters taken. Obviously some of them are supposed to be stretched almost to the point of caricature and others played more straight. Reading more into their briefs and figuring out exactly what they want is my next challenge.

Melissa feedback

Here it is:

Helen, another solid effort here, although slightly patchy in places. You started well, but Melissa's energy needs to come across all of her dialogue as well, and we thought you could have pushed this further and in doing so, the character and comedy would have come more naturally and strongly.

Still waiting

Still waiting on my Melissa feedback. Hmmmm. They've done the general feedback, but not the specific stuff.

I went to Sydney today for my photo shoot. So much fun! I had a great time playing up to the photographer and it looks like the shots are great, from what I've seen so far! Woohoo!

Lucy feedback

BTMS Reviewing Team wrote:

Helen, you have a very likeable persona on-screen, so it's fun to watch your clips. Your Lucy sadly dipped into the realms of caricature here though, rather than becoming a believable character. You were acting drunk rather than making us believe you were drunk and therefore we didn't get our connection with you from the opening moments. This approach can work well for a sketch (providing it hits the right style), but not so well over a sustained period. You can easily get this though, so keep practicing‚ it just needs toning down.

Kim feedback

BTMS reviewing team wrote:

Helen, we’re very much enjoying your commitment to experimentation, so well done indeed for that. This was a quirky audition, it seems you made a sacrifice for realism for the style you wanted to play with. On balance, regrettably, it probably wasn’t quite right for Kim. The heavy eye make up was a decent nod to the aggression we were looking for (well done on that – many forgot that note!), but you allowed a menace to creep in to the characterisation which didn’t allow the sensitive side of Kim to get going at all. Well done though, you were brave and this was really interesting – keep it coming!

Hehehehe. I'm making a lasting impression!