Thursday is the new Friday. I’m in the Swan. Just finished and thought I’d write before tube. Tomorrow feels like a holiday, I’m not in until 11am. Tink blew a gasket because they hadn’t got round to telling her that we have two events tomorrow, and one is Alice and the other is Shakespeare. She’s got a Titania stilt costume she made. Nobody told her it was gonna be needed.
I’m used to the events team running around dropping everything. I work in a very different hat on events quite frequently at a surprisingly high level, where my job is to pretend to be the bottom of the pile but work out how to access all areas and then find all the things that everyone passive aggressively thinks is someone else’s job and make sure they all get done. With that in mind I can help pick up the drops. Which is why I dropped the info to Tink.
They had an idea that Ffion and I would perform for the client on the globe mainstage. I immediately knew that would never fly. I would be open to a conversation with Michelle, frankly. We could likely build some content for corporate clients that has integrity, considering the team of humans I know. Factory alone with Ffion and I and we are golden. My best mate is a fucking associate artist here. Just because I do the corporate and sometimes the education absolutely shouldn’t obviate me from the main. But this is a heavily boundaried space. And there are some literal actual idiot actors working the exhibition space. I’ve seen some woeful stuff done by then. I got involved in some once. Atrocious clueless dross. Thankfully I was largely anonymous and it was entirely forgettable.
Event work is a skill. But this industry assumes everyone is a specialist. It’s annoying. Many people can wear many hats – you get to my age still doing it and you can do the things. Loads of people I know can use a drill but can also use an angle grinder. People can do screen acting and theatre acting without exploding. People can do event acting and theatre acting and screen acting and still be the same human. We are not works of art. Yes, sure, sometimes someone gets famous on the telly and they literally just can’t. But I’m talking about people like me who have consumed themselves into learning a craft ignoring the fact that the gates are frequently kept by the blind.
The theatre industry, the mainstream theatre industry, has always felt spectacularly closed to me thus far. My first job was a film. And somehow that means I’m allowed to only meet for film. So I’ve done that and it’s been good. But I’m weirdly not able to meet for mainstream theatre. It’s heartbreaking.
I used to say I’ve literally never auditioned for a theatre you’ve heard of. For over 20 years I said that and then I met and recalled recently for Hull Truck. Didn’t get it dammit. 1 strike.
Yes, I did work at the RSC but I didn’t have to audition. The director, bless his heart, asked for me. He lives and works in Canada though so that’s not something to rely on. And I got that life changing offer through hard graft on The Odyssey.
Meh. I love this stupid industry full of weirdly high status presenting tits who left drama school two years before me.
I’m going home to eat pasta and sleep deeply and dream of finding my Katie Mitchell.
AlBarclay 