When I was a kid, my mom, sister, Don and I always used to watch Kids Say the Darndest Things, and I remember cracking up laughing at the crazy things that children would say, but sometimes not always believing that it was raw and real. However, being a part of the kids acting workshop has made me realize just how hilarious kids can be - you would have thought a summer of nannying might have brought this out, but when kids are performing it is completely different, and you just never know in improv situations what is going to come flying from their mouth.
Tonight at the workshop one of our six year olds said in an improv skit that she was going to win the spelling test because she wasn't just a dumb black! It was so outrageous coming from a six year old in her cute little british accent and we all could not stop laughing. At the end of the class, when I had to leave, she reached her arms up to me for a hug and I pulled her up, gave her a squeeze and whispered in her ear "Jola, just so you know, no one thinks you are a dumb black sweetheart," and she giggled and squeezed me back. It was so sweet. the kids seem to really like me, which makes me feel so good. Not to mention I think I have really valuable things to say to contribute to the class. I was bummed I had to leave early to go to the theatre to see a show for my class because I loved being there with the kids. AND I have a show next Wednesday too.... I know there are worse things then having to leave to go to the theater, but I only have so much time with them and getting to know them and then push them to casting directors is my project. Oh well, "academics come first...." yadda yadda....
Anyways, the workshop was simply the end to a really fun day at the office. Robert and I get along really well and end up laughing throughout the day - all day - whether it be at my silly slip ups, funny comments, music selection or finding humor in the grind of the long, busy and sometimes intense day. He is becoming a really great friend.
It seems that Wednesday’s are always less manic than Mondays because by the middle of the week, most castings have already been arranged for the week. Robert said that Friday’s are usually also busy because again, casting directors are beginning castings for the upcoming week, so when I go into the office on Friday (I am going in so that next Wednesday I can take the day off to sight see with my parents) I am sure I will be crazed again.
Today I began by answering emails, answering phones calls and contacting clients about castings that came in. We had cancellations from our client, Gavin who was supposed to come in to take a look at his new headshots (and he is hot, so I got all dolled up for work, and then he didn't show :( oh well) It actually worked out because him coming in conflicted with a meeting we had planned with a possible new client, Sam Blaney. She is a 23 year old from Scotland and Robert saw her in a showcase. She was lively and really ambitious, which are two necessary characteristics to possess in this industry. But of course, it is also essential to be talented, and while I did not see her performance, Robert says that she is quite good. However, the main reason Robert wants to represent her is because he does not already have a Scottish actress and diversity in an agency is crucial. She is having meetings with some other agents in London, but we hope she will sign with us come the end of the week.
Before and after the meeting I worked on converting all of the youth client resumes to the new format that I designed. It is a tedious process and consumed most of my day. The formatting changes depending on the client and how many credits they have, and everything needs to be typed in perfectly to ensure that the casting director has an accurate breakdown to assess when looking for actors with certain characteristics. And there are about 40 to be done. It definitely is a process, that is for sure. It was so funny because so many had their height in meters and I had to pull up trusty google and do conversions - what a pain.
Tonight, as I mentioned we also had the workshop, so we searched out monologues for the kids to perform and organized what the agenda for the class would be. We also ordered a bunch of child monologues books this afternoon for future classes, which will provide exciting new material for the children to work on with me in future classes. The children are really beginning to progress in their skills. We are right now working on developing a more conversational tone in their delivery, and they are starting to pick up the technique really well - when they are not making diva comments or cracking up the class. I must admit, they are really fun. They all came into today and we were discussing whether Camp Rock or High School Musical was better... it was a full on debate, as those of you who know me well know, I totally favor HSM. They also loved that I knew all the songs, which was funny. And they respect me, which is really nice.
After I left the workshop early, I went to see "The Girlfriend Experience," which is a straight play at the Royal Court that is about a brothel here in London. It is a documentary turned into a play - meaning that the director went to a real brothel and followed around four women who worked there for a set time and recorded all their words. Those exact words are constructed into dialogue for the play, meaning that nothing is fiction. The added element of interest was that each actor was wearing head phones in which the audio interviews of the women were being fed into their ears and they were say the line as they heard it, with the exact inflection, pauses and breaths of the actual person. It is a very interesting concept on a very raunchy topic, which eventually made me feel a bit sad and uncomfortable. They were all massively overweight and smoking and drinking and it all just felt very dirty - but the concept to take real life dialogue to portray these women's reality, I thought was really inventive and clever. While it didn't sit well with me, there is something to be said for the courage and innovation of the director, and it had its humorous moments as well :).
To go from a six year old's sweet hug to a play with women's double f boobs flinging around, was a transition, to say the least. But overall, a good day full of laughs. Laughing, I think, is the best thing anyone can do. Seeing humor in the good, the young, the sweet and the saggy (referring to the boobs of course) is really important, because without laughter, everything is just a little less exciting. Laughing brings color to the day. And the truth is, when it comes to kids saying the darndest things, they usually have the courage to say the thing that mostly everyone in the room is thinking anyways, so I say, good for them :)
Love and hugs, Jenny
ps- if you love me, you will find a way to enable me to watch the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy tomorrow..... please find a way.... I am very sad :(
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