How time flies.....

So I just finished my Wales entry which took FOREVER, and I am so creatively drained right now, but I don't want to get behind in my days :) So here it goes.... if this is dry, I apologize :)

After recovering last night from our weekend, I woke up this morning feeling tired and a bit hesitant to start a new week. But time is funny like that. It doesn't care what you want, it just keeps moving forward and you must move with it. So i did, and it moved me at a rapid pace.

Yet another Monday morning in the office at Kelly Management – a day I have come to find is quite busy and hectic, but in a way that is not just challenging but also gratifying. Today I was busy making the usual casting calls between clients and directors, filling out the invoices and emailing them out, answering the phone, and doing some filing of billing slips as well as photos and contracts.

There have been a couple of challenges I have come across that I thought would get easier, but simply haven’t. Answering the phone is always a little unnerving because it is sometimes hard for me to decipher the accent on the other end. Some people speak so fast and they are all in a hurry so you don’t want them to ask you to repeat something a million times because that is just unprofessional. Not to mention, I have Robert sitting right across from me so every embarrassing fumble or slip up – for instance I was writing down a fax number from this man with a thick Scottish accent and he was saying the number 3 but it sounded like the letter V and I thought, that is strange, a letter in a fax number, and of course I was corrected upon reading it back to him, which was just embarrassing. Robert is really easy-going so it doesn’t bother him, but I don’t want to look stupid, or make the company look stupid. What I need to do, as well, is memorize the client list so that I can be very familiar with names and spellings. It is a cultural adjustment getting used to speaking with people who do not enunciate, learning how to work the fax machine and answering all of Gordon’s emails while he is away, but I am managing. I am not overwhelmed, just very busy, but busy is good because it means I am learning and working hard.

            Robert and I were talking today about my internship paper topic and I have decided to write on the relationship between casting directors and agents and what a crucial and yet delicate dynamic it is, but how without it, this business would not sustain.  I am looking forward to meeting with more casting directors next week for lunches once Gordon returns. Also, I booked tickets for two Mountview Theatre performances to attend with Gordon and Robert – one is Merrily We Roll Along and the other is Children of Eden.  I am really looking forward to not only seeing these performances, but also seeing how Gordon and Robert’s opinion of the show varies from mine seeing as they are coming from an agents perspective.

In addition, this morning we auditioned a young actress who is 21 and has done very minimal work but is looking to switch agents – she is currently with an agency that represents more youth talent, and she is slipping out of that category with age. However, she came to the audition very unprepared, her answers were not confident and strong and her vocal performance – in Robert’s opinion – was very weak. It made me realize upon hearing her sing and seeing how talented I thought she was, just how difficult and cutthroat this business is. Robert has been in the business for so long and so his eye is so much more critical than a green eye like mine. It just goes to show that you really have to have the IT factor to get good representation, because I, being quite naive to the business, thought she had potential and was vocally brilliant, but Robert didn’t think she was good enough. So I am learning to have a more critical eye, which is imperative to have in the business if you want to run a successful agency.

            The big project of the day was making the final changes to the client CV format and I was able to make those changes and got Robert’s approval of the design. Now the on-going challenge is going to be changing all the clients CV’s to fit the new format, which is quite daunting and will be an on-going process in the upcoming weeks. One more workday for me until Gordon comes back, and I look forward to having him back in the office.

After work (I locked up at about 6:15pm), I took the tube to Notting Hill Gate to see the modern adaptation of the show Hedda Gabler for my theatre class. It was so fantastic. I really loved it! Then I came home and blogged... for the rest of the night. It is now 12:45 a.m my time and I am sooo wiped, but thankfully caught up. Tomorrow, it is back to school, but I should have some free time after class to rest, go for a run and write some more :)

love and hugs,

Jenny