4. AND THE WINNER IS...........
Not me. But I couldn't be happier.
I love awards ceremonies. Watching them that is. I'm a big oscar buff and many was the night in March staying up all night to watch the ceremony live. I'm an avid follower of the Olivier's too and was extremely excited this year as a show I was in last year (High Society) was nominated for best musical. I was so excited, in fact, that I gatecrashed the afters of the ceremony with a few of the lads out of the cast. Deadly night! I love the excitement of them the tension the politics, the drama. I get nervous just watching them on the telly, cheering out loud as I did when Robin Williams won his oscar for Good Will Hunting. Screaming at the tv as Forrest Gump sweeps up at the oscars (Beating Pulp Fiction for christ's sake).
So you can just imagine what I was like attending my first awards ceremony last Friday (26th)....and to make it worse I was a nominee......oh crap.
Last year I spent a wonderful summer at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's park performing Shakespeare for the first time. It was the business. I had two small roles in Two Gentlemen of Verona and a Midsummer Night's Dream. Shakespeare boy. what the hell am I doing performing shakespeare? I used sit at the back of English class in De La Salle College and sleep while we studied a dead ENGLISH playwright. I mean what the feck does this stuff mean? Its archaic. That was before I performed it for the first time. My mind was changed very very quickly. Without wanting to sound wanky the beauty of shakespeare is in the performing or the watching not in double english last thing on a Friday. The poetry the drama the comedy is all there and your challenge as the performer is to make it clear understandable and interesting to an audience. Ok, three pound acting lesson over. But its deadly, believe me. And I had a ball doing it. Now please remember these were small roles. Small. Not Big. SMALL. I wasn't playing bloody hamlet or anything, I was just happy to have to say a few lines of this weird old shite, and I thought that it was all over and forgotten about until a few weeks ago I get a call from the office at the Open Air to say that I have been nominated for the Ian Charleson award.
Come again?
Yes I did hear right. Oh Jesus! The Ian Charleson award is for the best performance by an actor/actress under 30 in a play written before 1904 (the year of Chekov's death dontchaknow) or in Layman's terms best young classical actor. There's 14 nominees from productions all over England and I'm one of them.
What me?
Yes you. Aw man. So off I have to trot, adorned in a suit and accompanied by the director of Two Gentlemen of Verona, to an awards lunch at the Royal National Theatre which will have Michael Gambon as guest of honour. lovely.
The day arrives and I'm bricking it. big time. I've got the sweats and the suit is NOT helping. Why have I got the sweats? Well let's see....Isn't that Charles Dance over there....oh and there's richard griffiths,,,,,,ah yes there's Sir Peter Hall......jesus who's next? Its a bit of a who's who of older english actors and the other nominees seem to know lots of them. I, on the other hand, know no one. I mean who the hell am I? all the nominees are under 30 alright but some of them are seasoned classical actors. I'm an aul messer from Waterford boy. All I'm worried about at this stage is not looking like a pleb. Be cool, calm and professional. Then someone accidently bumps into me. The voice that says sorry is very familiar......I mean like every day on sky one kind of familiar.....I mean professor x kind of familiar. Sorry about that says Patrick Stewart. How bad.
The meal goes well. I'm put at a table with a few actors I know of and a couple of directors (which will do me no harm at all). Its grand. I don't spill my food down me (borrowed) tie. Then the prize giving gets going. And suddenly I realise what's happening. I'M AT AN AWARDS CEREMONY!!!!!!!!!
So me heart is jumping now. Big time. Not because I think I'm going to win. I'm not. I played two SMALL roles at the Open Air for feck's sake. i can't even have a drink because I have a show that night. nuts.
The large Irish oak of a man that is sir Michael Gambon goes up to the mike. He's funny. That should calm me down. It doesn't. the judges get up to give citations about all the nominees and then you have to go up and collect a framed certificate of commendation. Grand. I was warned about that. at the end then they give out 3rd 2nd and 1st prizes. Alphabetically I'm first on the list of nominees so I'll be called called first and it'll all be over with. Grand cause I can't take much more of this anxiety.
First citation is given.
Its not me.
What's going on here? After 8 citations I am now feeling like crap because I start thinking that they have forgotten me. I knew I wasn't meant to be there. But then a little thought slips into my mind. I tell it to piss off but it won't..........maybe I've been placed.........that's it so. I've officially got the shits and my heart is now half way down my shirt, there's only 5 names left on the list, jesus I might have been plac....
"It is always nice to be able to recognise a performance in a small role."
And with those sweet words my misery was ended. Nice words were said about me including that I played Thisbe in a Midsummer night's Dream like a "Defrocked nun". It wasn't in my mind at the time but I'll agree with you kind sir that nominated me. I got up to warm applause (Who the hell's this guy I'm sure they all said) shook hands with sir Michael he handed me my framed cert we posed for a picture;
"Don't forget your champagne" Quoth Sir Michael.
"That's why I'm here boy" Quoth I. You can't bring me anywhere.
So I didn't win (the excellent lisa Dillon did and well deserved too) but I don't care. I got to go to an awards ceremony and not as a bystander but as a nominee. How bad, not too shabby for an auld blaa. People have already started to take me more seriously as an actor because of it and I had a deadly day met really cool people and I walked past the theatre where I spent nine months as a front of house assistant at a time no one would give me a job. I used to walk past it and my heart would sink to think I have to do that crap job again. this time I had an award commendation a bottle of champagne and my head held high as I made my way to another theatre where I was in a west end play.
So although I didn't win I'm still a winner. A cliché but true. So i don't mind that I didn't win.
Then I found out that the winner gets a cheque for £5,000.
Shite!
Bitter? Me?
Maybe...........
Friday, March 26, 2004
3. THE NEXT ORLANDO BLOOM
Meetings with casting directors can be awful things. With auditions (bad and all as they are) at least you have an idea of what you are going for and so can prepare for it accordingly. Meetings, however, are just a general hello, this is me, I hope you like me and I certainly hope you might consider seeing me for an audition in the future. You have no opportunity to wow them with with any kind of acting talent you hope to possess, its just you and your history laid out bare in front of them....no lines to read......no scenes to perform. Just you. And that's scary. I had a few in my first year trying to be an actor and let me tell you they did not go well.
I had a doozy this week.
If you are an avid fan of rolling credits at the end of movies you will have heard of John Hubbard. Pretty much any big movie or television drama with some kind of English or Irish connection will have the hubbards involved in some way. This is a very powerful man.
And I had a meeting with him.
And it went well.....
Because of the show I'm doing at the moment and the award nomination I received suddenly people are taking me a lot more seriously than they used to and that's very welcome indeed. I'm sitting in an office in central London with one of the biggest screen casting directors and he's chatting to me about how he hates the bridge in waterford and how he prefers the Passage East car ferry to it. Its going well. We chat about my work and he's not losing interest and sending me on my way. Very good sign. He gets a phone call and instead of ending the meeting he asks me to wait. Good.....good. While he talks about how some (probably well famous) actor is not right for a role because he's not severe enough I'm nosying and catch sight of a folder which says "Return of the King Casting Notes"................ah for jesus' sake! What's going to happen here? Is he going to end that call and tell me that although the actor he was just talking about is not severe enough for the part it doesn't matter a damn because I am and could i start filming monday on Bryan Singer's new movie?
I'll have to think about it john.
Yeah right. I would never have said that and what's more I didn't get the chance to be in the situation to do so. Pipe dreams belong up a pipe remember.....but stranger things have happened. Just not this time. A further 5 minutes of pleasantries and the meeting is over. But its gone well, I can feel it. And I don't say that very often. nice.
So the agent phones the next day. Please excuse me as I paraphrase......
"I spoke to Hubbards this morning and John reeeaaalllly Liked you."
Sound.
"He said you came across very well and he liked your background"
All going well so far.
"you see there is a new film they are casting called Tiny Dancer and there is a part there for a man 25 - 30. Nerd"
Well I can do nerd. Believe me, I can do nerd!
"And I was hoping by meeting you he would consider you for it"
Keep going. Don't stop now!
"But......"
ah
"He just got a call from the american producers that morning and he was instructed to find, for that part, the next Orlando Bloom."
Ah there's the rub. I've just had a great meeting with a very important person, he likes me a lot. he wants to see me for things in the future. That's the great news. The thing is, I guess there comes a time in every actors life when they realise they are not.........the next Orlando Bloom! It makes you stop and think alright. Do I really want a 2005 calender based on my visage?
Nah.
The next Orlando Bloom?
Not me buddy. Wont sell enough calenders.
I like meetings a lot more now though.
Meetings with casting directors can be awful things. With auditions (bad and all as they are) at least you have an idea of what you are going for and so can prepare for it accordingly. Meetings, however, are just a general hello, this is me, I hope you like me and I certainly hope you might consider seeing me for an audition in the future. You have no opportunity to wow them with with any kind of acting talent you hope to possess, its just you and your history laid out bare in front of them....no lines to read......no scenes to perform. Just you. And that's scary. I had a few in my first year trying to be an actor and let me tell you they did not go well.
I had a doozy this week.
If you are an avid fan of rolling credits at the end of movies you will have heard of John Hubbard. Pretty much any big movie or television drama with some kind of English or Irish connection will have the hubbards involved in some way. This is a very powerful man.
And I had a meeting with him.
And it went well.....
Because of the show I'm doing at the moment and the award nomination I received suddenly people are taking me a lot more seriously than they used to and that's very welcome indeed. I'm sitting in an office in central London with one of the biggest screen casting directors and he's chatting to me about how he hates the bridge in waterford and how he prefers the Passage East car ferry to it. Its going well. We chat about my work and he's not losing interest and sending me on my way. Very good sign. He gets a phone call and instead of ending the meeting he asks me to wait. Good.....good. While he talks about how some (probably well famous) actor is not right for a role because he's not severe enough I'm nosying and catch sight of a folder which says "Return of the King Casting Notes"................ah for jesus' sake! What's going to happen here? Is he going to end that call and tell me that although the actor he was just talking about is not severe enough for the part it doesn't matter a damn because I am and could i start filming monday on Bryan Singer's new movie?
I'll have to think about it john.
Yeah right. I would never have said that and what's more I didn't get the chance to be in the situation to do so. Pipe dreams belong up a pipe remember.....but stranger things have happened. Just not this time. A further 5 minutes of pleasantries and the meeting is over. But its gone well, I can feel it. And I don't say that very often. nice.
So the agent phones the next day. Please excuse me as I paraphrase......
"I spoke to Hubbards this morning and John reeeaaalllly Liked you."
Sound.
"He said you came across very well and he liked your background"
All going well so far.
"you see there is a new film they are casting called Tiny Dancer and there is a part there for a man 25 - 30. Nerd"
Well I can do nerd. Believe me, I can do nerd!
"And I was hoping by meeting you he would consider you for it"
Keep going. Don't stop now!
"But......"
ah
"He just got a call from the american producers that morning and he was instructed to find, for that part, the next Orlando Bloom."
Ah there's the rub. I've just had a great meeting with a very important person, he likes me a lot. he wants to see me for things in the future. That's the great news. The thing is, I guess there comes a time in every actors life when they realise they are not.........the next Orlando Bloom! It makes you stop and think alright. Do I really want a 2005 calender based on my visage?
Nah.
The next Orlando Bloom?
Not me buddy. Wont sell enough calenders.
I like meetings a lot more now though.
Monday, March 22, 2004
2. ONE WEEK ON
And a week is a long time in the business called show let me tell ya!!
It all started quite well to be honest. I had just been offered a new job without having to audition (Which as any actor will tell you is the best thing ever because auditions are the worst part of the job. But of course they are the only way to get a job....normally). My agent had phoned to say she had received a call from the artistic director of the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park (Where I have worked a couple of times previously) who was very interested in casting me as Toad in their forthcoming production of the Wind in the Willows.
How Bad!?
Toad is a great role, pretty much the lead in the play and this would begin 4 weeks after the end of my current show, Calico, and would bring me right through to the end of august. My only concern was this was the daytime show but that's not such a bad thing either, to have my nights free for a while. And all this had fallen into my lap without even having to audition. A slight bit of me is saying this is too good to be true another part of me is saying enjoy the small bit of recognition for a change. All I need to do is meet the director on thursday (Who I know quite well) to have a chat about it and make up my mind as they're not seeing any one else for the role.
A good start to the week.
It got better. Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day. the day to stop and reflect on the fact that you are irish, and to be as irish as humanly possible and get as blind drunk as humanly possible. I of course had two shows. Actors hate auditions, that's a fact. They hate matinees even more. The show during the day that is inevitably attended by an older age group than normal, so not much reaction from them meaning you're busting your ass on the stage to try and wake them up. By the time the curtain comes down you're knackered but grateful for it to be over until you realise you have to do it all again in a couple of hours time. Ah Jesus! Its hard and it's harder when the bars are packed with hard drinking hooligans celebrating the loss of snakes from good old ireland and you would give your left nut to be there. But its alright. I've people I know in watching the show that night so I'm happy to do the other show. the People in question are 1) the erstwhile artistic director of Red Kettle Theatre Co. and the macbeth of Morley Terrace, Ben Hennessy, 2) One of Waterford's best known actors and the man that killed Glenroe, Brian 'Dots' Doherty and 3) One of Waterford's best known redheads Mr. Keith Dunphy. Good men all and no finer gentlemen would I wish to have a beer with on paddy's day.
Show goes well and we all have some champagne in my dressing room (I am in the west end you know and that's how one does things :-) we head over to the Harp, a bar near the theatre. Few beers. Off to that stalwart club on Adam's street. More beers and a chat with the Darkness and Brian May. Come the wee hours I'm twisted and on a bus home. miss my stop. It takes 2 hours to get home. Rough.
Typical Paddy's day then.
Woke up on Thursday with an enormous hangover, I mean HUGE. And oh crap I have a meeting with the director of WIND IN THE WILLOWS. Nuts. Head over to Regent's Park. Meeting is good (if extremely painful, they made me sing one of Toad's songs, just my bloody luck) could be a good job but we'll see says me. Meet up with Ben for a bite to eat and a chat about writing some music for his new play in the summer. Then do the show. Things are good. I'm in work until the end of may in a new west end play and now I have two offers for work after it finishes. How bad?
Nah.
Show goes well, audience a bit small but happy and we're all going for a company meal afterwards in Joe Allens (where all the actors go after their west end performances dontchaknow). So we're leaving the stage after the bows happy with the work and we're asked to stay on stage by the company manager. Oh. Our producer comes on stage with the writer. Oh Crap. And she says the worst phrase known to man (or theatre people at least)
TWO WEEKS NOTICE
Aw shite. As i've said CALICO was to run until the end of may but with those three horrible words we close on the 3rd of April and I'm extremely unemployed. Poor audiences and a few unfair reviews were to blame they said, nothing to do with us. Well that makes it all better doesn't it? So its all over bar the shouting and the company meal is a great success after that. Yeah right.
So what do you do?
Well I've already applied to be an usher in me local cinema.
I should've been a plumber.
Toad's looking pretty good now...........
And a week is a long time in the business called show let me tell ya!!
It all started quite well to be honest. I had just been offered a new job without having to audition (Which as any actor will tell you is the best thing ever because auditions are the worst part of the job. But of course they are the only way to get a job....normally). My agent had phoned to say she had received a call from the artistic director of the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park (Where I have worked a couple of times previously) who was very interested in casting me as Toad in their forthcoming production of the Wind in the Willows.
How Bad!?
Toad is a great role, pretty much the lead in the play and this would begin 4 weeks after the end of my current show, Calico, and would bring me right through to the end of august. My only concern was this was the daytime show but that's not such a bad thing either, to have my nights free for a while. And all this had fallen into my lap without even having to audition. A slight bit of me is saying this is too good to be true another part of me is saying enjoy the small bit of recognition for a change. All I need to do is meet the director on thursday (Who I know quite well) to have a chat about it and make up my mind as they're not seeing any one else for the role.
A good start to the week.
It got better. Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day. the day to stop and reflect on the fact that you are irish, and to be as irish as humanly possible and get as blind drunk as humanly possible. I of course had two shows. Actors hate auditions, that's a fact. They hate matinees even more. The show during the day that is inevitably attended by an older age group than normal, so not much reaction from them meaning you're busting your ass on the stage to try and wake them up. By the time the curtain comes down you're knackered but grateful for it to be over until you realise you have to do it all again in a couple of hours time. Ah Jesus! Its hard and it's harder when the bars are packed with hard drinking hooligans celebrating the loss of snakes from good old ireland and you would give your left nut to be there. But its alright. I've people I know in watching the show that night so I'm happy to do the other show. the People in question are 1) the erstwhile artistic director of Red Kettle Theatre Co. and the macbeth of Morley Terrace, Ben Hennessy, 2) One of Waterford's best known actors and the man that killed Glenroe, Brian 'Dots' Doherty and 3) One of Waterford's best known redheads Mr. Keith Dunphy. Good men all and no finer gentlemen would I wish to have a beer with on paddy's day.
Show goes well and we all have some champagne in my dressing room (I am in the west end you know and that's how one does things :-) we head over to the Harp, a bar near the theatre. Few beers. Off to that stalwart club on Adam's street. More beers and a chat with the Darkness and Brian May. Come the wee hours I'm twisted and on a bus home. miss my stop. It takes 2 hours to get home. Rough.
Typical Paddy's day then.
Woke up on Thursday with an enormous hangover, I mean HUGE. And oh crap I have a meeting with the director of WIND IN THE WILLOWS. Nuts. Head over to Regent's Park. Meeting is good (if extremely painful, they made me sing one of Toad's songs, just my bloody luck) could be a good job but we'll see says me. Meet up with Ben for a bite to eat and a chat about writing some music for his new play in the summer. Then do the show. Things are good. I'm in work until the end of may in a new west end play and now I have two offers for work after it finishes. How bad?
Nah.
Show goes well, audience a bit small but happy and we're all going for a company meal afterwards in Joe Allens (where all the actors go after their west end performances dontchaknow). So we're leaving the stage after the bows happy with the work and we're asked to stay on stage by the company manager. Oh. Our producer comes on stage with the writer. Oh Crap. And she says the worst phrase known to man (or theatre people at least)
TWO WEEKS NOTICE
Aw shite. As i've said CALICO was to run until the end of may but with those three horrible words we close on the 3rd of April and I'm extremely unemployed. Poor audiences and a few unfair reviews were to blame they said, nothing to do with us. Well that makes it all better doesn't it? So its all over bar the shouting and the company meal is a great success after that. Yeah right.
So what do you do?
Well I've already applied to be an usher in me local cinema.
I should've been a plumber.
Toad's looking pretty good now...........
Sunday, March 14, 2004
1. AND SO IT BEGINS
Well there we are then.
so.
hmmmmmm........
Right.
You see I've been reading a couple of online weblogs for a while now and they all looked so easy to be honest, but when you actually sit down and start one....well there's the rub. What do you say? Not sure exactly what the answer is but if there is anyone at all reading this i guess I should kinda say what you might expect to read in this particular weblog.
Such as it is.
Well I'm Jamie Beamish. A Waterford man living and working as a professional actor in the big smoke of London England. So this weblog might be slightly show biz to be honest. I'm currently appearing in a new West End play called CALICO and have just been nominated for the 2003 Ian Charleson Award for the best classical performance by an actor under 30. As this blog goes on it'll include my own musings on the entertainment industry as a whole and probably theatre (and london theatre) in particular. Also some stories from the crazy life that an actor sometimes leads.
But today it just begins.
And i'm not sure what to say
But I know I'll get better.
Promise.
Well there we are then.
so.
hmmmmmm........
Right.
You see I've been reading a couple of online weblogs for a while now and they all looked so easy to be honest, but when you actually sit down and start one....well there's the rub. What do you say? Not sure exactly what the answer is but if there is anyone at all reading this i guess I should kinda say what you might expect to read in this particular weblog.
Such as it is.
Well I'm Jamie Beamish. A Waterford man living and working as a professional actor in the big smoke of London England. So this weblog might be slightly show biz to be honest. I'm currently appearing in a new West End play called CALICO and have just been nominated for the 2003 Ian Charleson Award for the best classical performance by an actor under 30. As this blog goes on it'll include my own musings on the entertainment industry as a whole and probably theatre (and london theatre) in particular. Also some stories from the crazy life that an actor sometimes leads.
But today it just begins.
And i'm not sure what to say
But I know I'll get better.
Promise.
Well there we are then.
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