Another Wonderful Weekend

      Another 6 hours of rehearsal in today for the upcoming spectacle that is He Who Gets Slapped. It's looking better every time we meet, however there is only a week and a half left till launch and the second act hasn't been blocked. I would compare this to an apple pie with no apple - extremely worrying. Pictured is the legend himself, Mr. Jack Heaton, with whom, along with myself, the clown double-act is complete. He's studies theatre with me, and fortune seems to shine on us, as we've been placed in the same devising group as well. I think he's beginning to become tired of my frequent delivery of poor quality jokes and erratically energetic behaviour; he certainly has to put up with a lot. Saying that, he seems to be handling the curse of Ollie quite expertly. In all seriousness it's quite a fortune set of circumstances; we have a similar sense of humour and are both out looking for the "hunnies" as he likes to comically phrase it. To summarise, the rehearsal was long and gruelling, but fun. There were juggling balls present, and activities involving those pretty much manifested mine and Jack's background performing.

      I auditioned for a part in a short film a few weeks back; a module one can take in later years in theatre is TV drama (or something along those lines), and they required actors, as most films do. Yesterday we took an early bus into town at 9.15am in order to shoot one of the big scenes. I play Nick, a confident young detective constable who, along with his loathed soon-to-be-partner, attempts to bust Marco, a quite major drug baron. It's been hilariously good fun to do, in fact it's inspired me to take it next year. However there are rumours circling that the module's being cut next year, which naturally we're all terribly disappointed about. The weirdest thing about yesterday's filming sesh was the weather; the morning was rainy and very cloudy, yet  around 10.30/11am the sun decided to spectacularly burst through for the rest of the day. The footage must look quite odd - one moment there's rain and a fairly dark, misty feeling, the next bright sunshine. Hopefully during post-shoot editing that'll be easily sorted out. This picture was a section I wasn't required for, so I whacked out my camera to capture some nostalgic shots:

      I'm off to sleep now, since tomorrow should be a reasonably tortuous day: 2 hours of devising rehearsal, 2 hours of film shooting, 2 lectures followed by another 4 glorious hours of LUTG (Lancaster University Theatre Group) rehearsal - Splendid! Before I leave I should mention that I've been graciously allowed into the LICA Ambassador scheme, which I'll explain more about next time. Essentially, it means I'm working for the Nuffield theatre (which is on campus) and through ushering and helping with publicity I get to see certain musical/dance/theatre events for free! Fantastic stuff.

       Night!

       Ollie