Another Audition, & More Soup
As I walked through the door, I noticed the somewhat rare sight of a flashing light on my phone message machine. I put my bike helmet on the chair, pressed play and continued dispersing my things around the unit whilst listening to the message. (Yes, I can ‘multi-task’ with the best of them). A male voice began, “Hi Geoff, you don’t know me…” A short while, indeed a very short while later, the message was unexpectedly cut short. I got the name of the guy, where he was from – The Garrick Theatre – and his wanting to know if I’d work with him. I didn’t get his number – a very important factor if you want to return a call, especially for WORK! Read more
Auditions & Pea & Ham Soup
This is not a recipe. (Come to think of it, maybe it is.) I made some soup because in Perth today it is perfect soup weather. The aroma from the soup wafting through my apartment is wonderful, and I’m happy with my use of fresh ingredients, but the flavour… well, it just lacked a little something. Did I use enough onions? I think not. But with onions, I always err on the side of caution. Discretion in cooking, is sometimes, but not always, the better part of culinary valour. Not to worry.
Tonight, I’m learning lines for an audition next week. This is work for live performance, and I’m very excited. When I received an e-mail on Friday last from my agent regarding this audition, I immediately phoned her to thank her. I won’t give too much away because I believe it prudent to not mouth off ’til the work is done. But it’s possible acting work. This is very important to me, because it is my vocation.
Oddfellows
I’ve just come home from a card night. A bunch of guys I’ve known for at least 20 years had a bit of a get-together and I have to say that I enjoyed their company very much.
The games played had some unusual names, and I cannot repeat them because of their… coarse nature, but this was all just purile nonsense, harmless in the extreme.
I don’t drink alcohol and I don’t play cards. No, I’m not religious or anything, I just don’t enjoy it. Perhaps the numbers confuse me or something. What I do enjoy is the lighthearted comraderie of these gents. I was an onlooker but I was never left out. In conversation, or singing, or jokes, or reminiscences… I was part of something, part of the story and it was fantastic. Read more
Charles “Bud” Tingwell
When we hear of the greats of stage and screen, we too often think of Stars. For some reason, the flashy, big, noticeable “personalities” assume the mantle of Great, and the Actor, as opposed to the star is, more often than not, passed over. Well, perhaps that’s just as it should be. It’s the quiet achiever that finally does the real work of bringing poetic reality of the human condition to the audience, and this, after all, is the soul of the work. It is said that anonymity is the Actors best friend, and to this philosophy I wholeheartedly subscribe.
Two days ago the Acting world lost one of the greats. Charles “Bud” Tingwell died, and with him went something of the better angels of every Actors nature. Here was someone who personified the noble profession of Actor. I never met him, and I never saw him on stage, but I’d seen his work on the screen, and this work for me is what our profession is when it’s the best it can be. Read more
Freedom for Aung San Suu Kyi
I’ve been thinking about the terrible plight of Aung San Suu Kyi. I received an sms from Amnesty International and what is happening in Burma is so nauseating and disgusting that I have to speak about it.
Some nutter, an American Mormon, stalks Suu Kyi two weeks before she’s due for release after being jailed for 16 of the last 19 years (it may be 13 of 19, I can’t remember) for the horrible crime of being democratically elected!!! Now she’s been arrested for breaking the conditions of her “detention”.
If we really want to get depressed, we need do nothing more than consider through history what human beings have done to each other. What someone called “Man’s inhumanity to Man”. We may think that if we are selfless, honest, virtuous, generous and any other virtue we can think of, that we are living a good life, and that our goodwill will prevail. There are those who operate on a totally different paradigm, and they have no trouble sleeping at night. Read more
Egalitarianism
Equal rights for all. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Those who promote these ideals sometimes fail to consider or understand the obstacles preventing them.
A simple case in point. A couple sitting at a sidewalk cafe. At a table behind them, someone sits down and starts smoking. A patron asks politely that the smoker desist. The smoker asks why, and the man says he finds the smoke irritating. The smoker says that he’s allowed to smoke at this table as it has ashtrays for the purpose, but in any case the smoker says he’ll quit after this one smoke.
I leave that one with you. How about this? An Actor is to perform a scenario – a party scene. Read more
Duplicity
At times I get it all horribly wrong. Just when I think everything’s hunky-dory things go awry and I find myself staggeringly mistaken. I seem to be woefully inadequate in my dealings with the human race. I wont list my errors here, but my relationships are sometimes so tenuous as to be non-existent. I feel very solitary when this happens. Very lonely and very, very isolated. And this happens very frequently.
Here’s the thing. I have thought there were people in my life who I would easily call friends, and when I discover that they were no such thing – not even close to what constitutes friends and friendship, I have such a feeling of confusion that I don’t know what is real anymore. I’m serious. There have been times when I’ve been enjoying a nice meal with ‘friends’ and the next thing I know, it’s 48 hours later and I wake up in intensive care after suffering a violent attack from this ‘friend’. This felon (for even though he was acquitted of any charge, as I know the truth I will always regard him as such), was a relative. And from my father? “You must have deserved it.”
Or how about when I’ve been trying to reach out to a friend to say hello and get no replies? After 6 weeks of trying to reach her, I get a scathing e-mail saying what I bastard I’ve been, over 6 weeks earlier! I mean, even if I was conscious of some misdemeanor at the time, by the time I get the e-mail, I’m lost and inconsiderately, though no doubt not unintentionally, no right of reply is possible. Read more
Cinema
My mother loved cinema. She was born in 1928 and by the time she was in her teens, the cinema was all-American and awesome. A golden time. The music was the “Swing-time” and stars were not just big, they were glorious.
I met some ladies tonight who showed me that cinema was still, if not King, definitely regal. I am currently in a movie on the big screen called Two Fists, One Heart and their enthusiasm is wonderful. This is quite heart-warming to me, as I share this love of the silver screen.
It must have been an incredible time. If I rattled off all the names I can think of from the last century that were famous from the entertainment industry, this article would run forever. Of course, World War II was inflicting it’s damage, and the people were desperate for life, and the cinema did that. I can think of nothing of our modern times that can come close to the force of energy these spectaculars must have injected.
I like to think the heritage of the screen continues. Perhaps we are de-sensitised to the awe that cinema was, but there is still magic there. Long may it ride.
Bourgeoisie
I suppose it’s quite easy to denounce our bourgeois society. The very term is derogatory. My struggle is that of the misfit in this ocean of mediocrity and it seems that I’m surrounded by them. I find myself shouted down, almost at every turn, by those narrow-minded, fearful and controlling others who seem to have no problem with your opinion, as long as it’s theirs as well.
But wait one minute. Could it be that the very thing I complain of is something of which, I myself, may bear some guilt? I know that my taste in music, for example, is probably quite “mainstream”. I’m not saying I’m a secret member of the Bucks Fizz fan club, but what I don’t know about jazz, rap, hip-hop etc., could fill a library twice over.
My reading list, although certainly leaning towards progressive, liberal thinking, is hardly modern. Nor is my taste in art. Even my favourite movies are quite old, though I hasten to add, not, in my humble opinion, dated. Read more
Authentic
It’s such a beautiful thing to see behavior that is hiding a truth. Right now, I’m writing this to you as a friend. When an Acting possibility / challenge presents itself, I feel that sharing an observation with a friend promotes growth.
I recently observed someone who was presented with something that she didn’t want. Because the presentation was observed in public, and for reasons only known to her, she chose to act happily surprised. It was fantastic! For a brief moment, this girl had to respond to a myriad of conflicts within her.
I was once told that the simple act of bouncing a ball to a friend, then catching it back again, takes so much of the brains power of balance and mathematical assessments and evaluation, and in such quick time, that no computer then devised could do it.
