No rest for the wicked!

As I predicted my week was just as hectic as last week if not more! So on Saturday we had our first performance at Ham House and it went brilliantly. The whole day had a real Christmas feel to it and both the public and performers I believe thoroughly enjoyed it. With every new performance there is that nervousness and excitement and I didn't feel it straight away in the morning but when I was waiting in the buttery and I heard the door go suddenly the excitement kicked in it was like a switch and suddenly I was Mrs Claus. Originally the idea was for it to be Q&A with Mrs Claus , poppy the elf and her son Nicky , however all this changed ! While the character of Mrs Claus being a feminist, modern business woman was genius, it didn't transcend well to children so instead we decided that Mrs Claus would be more about Christmas but still of course a feminist ! Hannah played poppy the elf and did a wonderful job all the children really responded well to her character. So the first day really to me was all about testing the waters , seeing what worked and what didn't.

Taking what I had learnt from the day before I came to Ham House with a better idea of how to approach my character. My initial costume of a suit was replaced with a bright red dress, Santa hat , boots and a big over sized coat. This simple change in costume was exactly what I needed to do in order to create a connection between me and Santa Claus for the children. I genuinely felt a lot more relaxed in my role with this change of costume and my character developed a softer and warmer side. The children didn't know much about Mrs Claus but were able to interact with me better due to my attire, it became apparent that in order for them to see me as Mrs Claus they needed the visual connection which was the bright red dress and hat. I didn't have to change my characters appearance but I felt it necessary other wise I think I would of been unhappy with my end performance.

However I didn't change my character completely she was still quick witted and confident but her focus had shifted from her own personal achievements to Christmas which the children understood better. But the day itself wasn't all about the children it was a family fun day so we had to be able to cater to adults as well. On my first day it was mainly about the children and how myself and Hannah interacted with them. On the Sunday a group of adults came up to the Buttery with out children and just presumed that our piece wasn't aimed at them but I asked them just as I did the children , what they wanted for Christmas. As soon as I had engaged them with the opening questions they felt relaxed and began to ask me and Hannah questions which was brilliant. With adults being the ones to fire the questions I could give answers back that children necessarily wouldn't understood. Someone asked me what I did on my day off to which I replied " A nice hot bath with a Catherine cookson novel " This sort of humour is something the adults could relate to and I particularly enjoyed this part of the day as I could try out jokes that were of more adult humour and understanding.

I did have an issue with my time at Ham House and that was my face painting skills ! Some members of the group were utterly fantastic at it, I myself however wasn't. But I still had a go anyway but wont be putting face painting on my c.v any time soon! All in all I thoroughly enjoyed Ham House the whole process was incredibly exciting but hard work at the same time. And I look forward to our summer project there when we can use the beautiful gardens and maybe just maybe not eat as many biscuits !

key to the door !

I am exhausted ! It has been such a busy week since i last blogged . So last Wednesday in our lesson we developed the Q&A with the clauses further and were hot seated by the rest of the class. I really enjoyed this although some of the questions the class asked us would not be suitable for young ears , not mentioning any names ..... Rachel Cheesewright ! That lesson I felt was extremely productive and also a lot of fun! But the fun and frolics of Wednesday did not end there , oh no ! I donned on a wig a god awful suit and a very thick scouse accent and became cilia Black ! Briony needed actors for her T.v and production project especially someone that could do a scouse accent and because I have perfected the accent so well (haha) she chose me ! I tell you what t.v is a lot different than film for a start you don't need to project your voice because there is microphones and then you have to get ridiculously close to people ! But it was excellent experience even if I was strutting about presenting blind date !

Thursday was an exceptionally busy day too ! I had Irish theatre then a vocal workshop with patsy , I tell you her voice is incredible and she really knows what she is talking about too ! The workshop was brilliant and hopefully I will be able to join the choir she is setting up too . After singing my heart out for two hours I then went to the theatre for a talk on P.R with the charming Endyia . Endyia gave us a presentation on how to P.R ourselves in the industry for free through social networking which includes twitter and blogs such as this ! It was so simple yet effective and everyone took something a way from it , some more than others ( i.e myself with a bottle of gin )! Yes that's right yours truly won a bottle of Gin , how I hear you cry , well its quite simple I had to sell myself in 30 seconds ! I won't disclose too many details but lets just say it involved a rather spectacular impression of heather small! Until our talk I had never really put much thought into P.R but that's all changed now and I see how valuable and important it is . And like so many of my tales we of course ended up at the pub afterwards.

Friday, we were in Ham house for a run through of all the stories and performances which was great to get the feel of the house in costume . Our costumes involve plenty of layers , gloves , Xmas jumpers and the ever fashionable wellies ! While I can speak positively of this my own performance on Friday I can not ! I left the lecture on Friday deeply dissatisfied with myself as our Q&A sectioned did not go as well as it had on the Wednesday before . On Friday we somehow managed to loose all structure which meant the piece lasted too long at parts and we lost sight of our characters and were merely answering questions as ourselves but we have a plan and this will be changed!

So after Fridays rather unsettling performance of my behalf I rushed to the station to catch the train to Liverpool for one night only ! It was my birthday the next day and being the dutiful granddaughter that I am , I went home to have a meal with my family on the Saturday . Birthdays are so stressful ! so much to do and organise ! I spent the majority of my birthday dyeing my hair , why I don't know but I did! In between emergency trips to boots to rectify my hair which had gone blonde ! I managed to fit in a family meal at Briars Hall which is a beautiful hotel in the country not far from my house , my grandad is a rather persuasive man and had managed to talk the hotel into opening their restaurant in the day , which they don't usually do especially when its only for six people ! The meal was wonderful and extremely humorous as ever with my grandad announcing that he would like to get married to my nan at the hotel as he wasn't sure until then if she was the right woman for him , they have been together for nearly 60 years ! ( and are already married )!

A meal and a different hair colour later I was on the train back to London with my two friends from home , Lisa and Emma. We had a mini party on the train complete with birthday cake and bucks fizz ! At Euston I picked up three more stragglers from home and headed to wild wild whitton for my sailor themed birthday party which I was celebrating with fellow D.I.C member Rachel . As always I was late but that didn't dampen the party and I had a fantastic time and everyone bought me wonderful and useful presents; vodka , strongbow , fake tan and a new fake tan mit! Now you would think that after partying till 6 am that I would have the next day free to sleep all day well I didn't , yes that's right boys and girls I got up after two hours sleep and went to comedy school ! ( as you do)

My sense of direction isn't great at the best of times but when I am suffering from the night before I am useless , which of course is a great use when your in Camden and trying to find a road which you have no idea of the name of it ! But luckily Mark the beacon Griffin was roaming around Camden and showed us the way ! My day at comedy school was amazing , I participated in workshops, talks on getting started in the industry and even met with a bbc casting director ! But of course not forgetting the Q&A session with Hugh Dennis who was very entertaining and slightly drunk ! The whole day really made me realise how much I love comedy and I am definitely going to do one of the 8 week courses in the new year. After comedy school we headed to the pub for a drink and discussion on the days activity's , but all that talking made us hungry and we went to a delightful Lebanese restaurant to ease those hunger pains !

So as you can see I had a rather hectic week and I have a feeling this week will be pretty much the same , with the first ham house perform ace on Saturday and plenty of work to be getting on with but I am not complaining as I love every minute of it and in less than two weeks I will be in Spain! ( Jealous much) !