Cat out of the bag...

I think that I may have worried some of my cast members on Tuesday night when I said that I had started up this blog. Perhaps they think it will be an exposé of wild and torrid goings on, along the lines of Popbitch? Unlikely - I very much doubt that tales of animated readings fuelled by tea and biscuit breaks in the local village hall are going to hit the tabloids. The only press coverage I want from our local paper is to either (a) miss the event altogether or (b) say that "Mark was not as rubbish as we thought he'd be..."

The enormity of this commitment is becoming all the more apparant, as our director warned us that it would be 'books down' in four weeks. When I signed up for this gig (I'm still going to tell that story in full another time), I did not appreciate how much there would be to learn. Over 300 lines I think, and unlike Monica (see here) I don't have any really meaty speeches. Much of my dialogue is conversational, which means that I have to respond to others around me. Our director divided up the play into bite sized chunks, and I thing the longest 'break' I get in the action is for about five pages...

We're starting our blocking in earnest in a week or two, but we are already beginning to find our way around the 'set' by using plastic chairs and a lot of imagination ("Here is the balcony, and the bar is over there..."). Having seen the initial plans, our set is going to be quite something - way more impressive than some of the sets I've sen from from other amateur drama groups.

Talking of admissions, I also came clean with my work colleagues that I was rehearsing for AEWGL (as it shall henceforth be known). Up until now, I thought that if I kept it under my hat and it all went a bit pear shaped that I could limit my public humiliation to 'just' my local community. But I decided that, since I generally do my best work when I'm under pressure that I'd pile it on some more. Quite surprised by the response, which was less incredulous than I had feared. But perhaps that's worse - they probably already have me pigeonholed as a bit of a luvvie, so they weren't in the least surprised...

Death and Tax Discs

Just a quick one today. I am doing these entries at lunchtime, but I went out today to get a new car tax disc. My silly fault - had I been as prepared as my wife, I could have done it all online. All she had to do was give them her reference number and they looked up the MOT and insurance details for her. Instead, I had to queue for half an hour in the post office. Still gets me out I suppose...

I'm starting to panic about learning my lines. The play is 80 pages long and I have a line or two on most every page. Last night Jane and I read the lines out loud and recorded them onto a CD for the car. Nine pages out of eighty, and I think I can remember the first four or so.

Anyway, here is a link to a website with loads of tips on how to remember your lines. Looks good, although there is no silver bullet - it's all down to hard work. I might try the 'whispering into a tape recorder' technique...

An Evening with Gary Lineker

No harm in reusing things, is there? I have no doubt that I shall use my blog as a source of inspiration / words for emails to people who don't know about its existence - which is the whole of the planet at this moment in time! (Note to self: do not overuse exclamation marks!)

I'm in a play, you see. Not quite sure how I got there, but it followed a particularly impressive panto production in January put on by a local amateur dramatics group. I confess to being a bit sniffy about such things, having been to the 'proper' theatre a lot before getting married. But I was genuinely surprised that people were willing and able to work hard and put as good a production (given the budget) as the so-called professionals...

More on the audition process later, but in the meantime I have 'reused' the words that we 'actors' had to put together for our director reflect our understanding / interpretation of the play. I will discuss my involvement with the world of 'Am Dram' in later postings, but you can probably now guess where the blog title came from. Here is what 'An Evening with Gary Lineker' means to me:

Football provides both a backdrop and a structure for this play. All of the characters are dysfunctional in one way or another, apart from perhaps Birgitta the young German, who seems fairly level headed and rather amused at the ‘real life’ farce that these strange English people around her are enacting. Perhaps she provides a POV for the audience?

Monica is disillusioned with her marriage and envious of Bill’s passion that is still alive for football, but not for her. She tries to ‘share’ this passion by fantasising about one of the players. Bill is either oblivious to this, or what is more likely is that he chooses to ignore it, either dismissing it as a running joke or by using the excuse of the World Cup as a reason not to discuss their relationship. Monica often speaks out to the audience, in a similar way to Michael Caine in ‘Alfie’ and the titular Shirley Valentine.

Dan is perhaps the person that Bill would like to be, as he seems to be having his cake and eating it too. They both share a passion for football - and Monica as it turns out - but Dan seems to have few other commitments. Despite having an affair with his wife, Bill seems to be rather fond of Dan and almost dismisses it out of hand. This camaraderie seems to be mutual, as he offers to leave Bill’s company to avoid any further embarrassment.

Alas, Ian is a rather tedious and self-centred individual, who is using this trip as an opportunity to be annoying, get laid, and / or get a new job by stealing Dan from Bill. However he does provide a useful comedy device for the play, both on his own and as a foil for others.

Although it has a somewhat surreal ending to it, the play seems to otherwise have all the traditional elements:

• Caricatures, apart from perhaps Birgitta who is almost a politically correct anti-caricature;
• Use of a metaphor device, in this case football, to examine the human condition;
• Passion, of people and of ‘The Beautiful Game’;
• Betrayal, of emotions and professional circumstances.
• Humour, both verbal and physical;
• A moral, in that real life often has to play second fiddle to obsessions, and that fantasies cannot provide any real answers.

And tonight Matthew, I shall be 'Bill' ;)