Lou and I walked out into the Brighton rain at ten to eight. Between us we had all my bags from America and some Thai curry in a brown bag too. It was horrible weather. The half marathon was on, poor fuckers. That goes right down the seafront so it means all the roads are closed and all the Ubers are absurd. And she started power walking. It’s a beaten track for her. She likes to get to the station fast and then relax. I’m not good in the mornings and I’m trying to husband my energy. It’s a long way from Kemptown seafront to the station.
“Hurry up!” I got, multiple times. “Or you’ll miss the train and have to pay more.”
“I’m not hurrying up. If I miss the train I’ll deal with it and I’m happy to pay more not to haul this case any faster than I’m hauling it.”
We didn’t miss the train, but … before nine in the morning I was drenched in adrenalised sweat. Normally on a show day I’m trying to be a lizard until about two hours before go time. These shows require radiation.
I need to know I have something in the tank to radiate with. Conversely I am not gonna pay thirty quid just for someone to drive me to the station. Dad taught me to be frugal, whoever dad really was these days. The lesson did go in, although my sporadic bouts of profligacy are part of the “Al” construct – that’s my defiance.
Lou wasn’t being paid at all and she was ahead of me the whole way, bless her heart. I don’t know how I lucked into meeting her. She’s incredible. When she was doing it I was just moaning about being made to hurry up – she had no profit motive whatsoever in hurrying me though.
We made the train. Then at the other end we walked into a room full of recently laundered costume and she asked the cast: “Does anyone need any ironing done?”
She got to know all the company, she ironed everyone’s costume and she was brilliant with everyone from beginning to end. I’m smiling just writing about it.
And so the five “Actors From The London Stage” met at The Cockpit which is technically a London stage, even if it is one with variable and unpredictable quality. While we were sticking down borders, she ironed everyone’s stuff. Incredibly generous of her. We didn’t deserve it. I didn’t deserve it.
This London show can feel like a pressure show, as some people have agents who know how lovely this work is, so they bring people. I’ve long ago given up on getting industry in, as I know how I feel when someone unverified asks me to watch Shakespeare. Bad Shakespeare is like tooth extraction. John Cannon showed up once bless him… This company wouldn’t still exist if it wasn’t joyful. This is good Shakespeare, but people are traumatised.
Grace’s agent managed to get a good casting director in, and she apparently enjoyed it. Bless her, and bless Grace’s agent, there’s some trust right there.
This AFTLS work needs to be seen by the gatekeepers. It’s always glorious. I’m happy one of the five of us had an agent who brought someone who might have a few keys kicking around. This acting vocation is generally so hard, so arbitrary.
Sam and I share the same wonderful agent. We knew a long time ago that she had family commitments. Her new associant was on the list to come, to see this lovely show and learn two clients better for when he’s doing submissions. When he signed up with the agency we all were told that he thinks “the best part in acting is Mercutio”. He didn’t fucking show tonight. Maybe the only Shakespeare he likes is R&J? Or maybe it’s the only Shakespeare he knows?
He had the good grace to cancel his ticket a few hours before the show started. So Sam and I were just warming up and building all our positive energy and focusing towards a bright show when we were told our running partner in the industry wouldn’t be showing up. Warm up warm up warm up : “hey guys, it’s raining and your agent isn’t coming anymore”
Maybe he has family in the middle east, but … Nah I’m ok to say publicly that I’m royally pissed off with him. I would say it to his face if I knew what he looked like but I don’t.
Maybe Sam has had an email saying why he suddenly decided he wasn’t going to go to see a rainy Sunday Shakespeare show with 40% of the cast paying him a percentage on work they got themselves. I haven’t had an email, I’ll double check before posting just in case. This will be my third time out with AFTLS and it’ll be the first time I’ve paid commission. The other two times it was waived.
It makes business sense to give money to our agent for work we generate, so long as they run alongside us. I know too well how some agents can develop onto parasites. But I’m not worried about this yet in this case.
Him not showing though , it annoys me and it reeks of projecting. He’s young, sure. Is he not trusting that this entertaining joyful AFTLS work is entertaining and joyful? If so does he not trust the word of his clients who had told him it is and asked him to come? The agency he works with has 40% cast representation in this play.
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Some of the places in America we go to if we were to do a show that wasn’t sparky we would literally be shot.
I would like to meet him now, this new associate. I’m trusting my castings to his taste and to his knowledge of me, and I’m gladly paying commission for the jobs I find. This would have given him a chance of seeing great range from Sam and I. I really need and want to work more, this is a golden time for me, my recent credits are off the scale.
I love Esta my agent she’s fab and she gets me. It’s a big birthday for her partner, there was never gonna be a chance she made this show. My loyalty to her is without question. I’ve never felt so held by an agency as I have with ECA, they’ve been consistently brilliant for me.
Sure, the good associates keep getting poached. That’s often jarring.
I want to believe in this new associate but … I’m not impressed by this my first chance to meet him. Maybe he’s brilliant at negotiating contracts or something?
I checked my email again. Nothing. So no idea why he didn’t show.
Tomorrow I’m gonna try for a balanced email enquiry. I hope his family in the middle east is fine. And if no family in the middle east, I’ll toss a coin about whether I just send him this blog. Even if this blog is written hot, I stand by everything. This is our career, Sam and I – and the others, they’re young, they need to be seen. This is a career that demands sacrifice. Those of us still going have figuratively cut limbs off, every one of us. And I’m done being overlooked for meetings. I’m good at this shit. Get me in the door for fucks sake! That’s the thing that has barely ever happened.
I’ve paid a large amount of commission on a job that I would have done if I’d been represented by Spotlight. I’m fine with that if my agent pulls their weight. But… no tapes for the whole job, and then the boy doesn’t show up? Once again I’m running off the cliff and my legs are still moving and is there a connecting cliff before I look down?
Grrr
AlBarclay 