Waiting, waiting and more waiting!

Today's post is about how much I'm learning to be patient.

I've had three auditions in 11 days, and waiting to hear from them has been an experience. Every time the phone rings, I jump up to answer it, only to hear... "Have you been mis-sold PPI? If so, we can help you!" BLAH BLAH BLAH. Hang up.

Oh, maybe they've emailed I think... so I am now one of those people who check my email every time I'm connected to the internet. My record is three times in a minute. I also now regularly check my junk mail, something which I have never done. Honestly, some of the things that come up in that folder are just shocking, I sure hope no job offers ever end up there because it's a scary place.

I've decided that I need to go on a cleanse. A checking my email kinda cleanse. Maybe just once in the morning and once in the evening. Yeah, we'll see how that works out for me. Since writing this blog post, I've checked it five times.

Someone help me. I have no self-control.

At times like this, I find myself looking on Pinterest at the 'Inspirational Quotes' board and I came across this beauty of a quote.

"Patience is not about waiting, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting."

And then I realised, I've been going about this all the wrong way. Instead of just waiting, then complaining about waiting... I need to be productive with my time and not put all my eggs in one basket. If I just sit back and wait to hear off these three jobs, and nothing comes of it... I could have just completely wasted time and missed so many opportunities during that time. Even though it's only been just over a week since my first audition, there are a lot of things that could have passed me by. Obviously I've still been seeking out work, and applying for other things, but many times I've thought 'Oh I better not apply for that, just in case I get that first job.' But hey, the worst that could happen is that I'm going to have to choose between jobs and that's not all bad, you know, being in demand.

Not that that's likely in this industry... but I can always dream.

So, I think the point of this post was to give myself a kick up the butt to not dwell on things. I need to be productive, even if I am waiting for a response from a job. I can't just sit back and let good things pass me by. These blog posts are how I can sort of make sense of things in my head, so I'm sorry if this isn't interesting to read, but this blog is about me trying to find my place in this world. Although, If I can interest people in what I write, that's a plus I guess.

Anyway, if you're still reading after these ramblings... Hi. Thank you for bearing with me. Join me for my next blog post where I'll hopefully have a job offer or at least a post about dealing with rejection. (Already looking on Pinterest boards for 'Inspirational Quotes' to help me with that one, because it will happen at some point. Ah, the life of an actor.)

Maybe I'll just check my email one more time...

My First Professional Audition Experience!

"The only failure is not to try."

A quote that I will without a doubt live by, for the rest of my life. Thanks, Mr. Clooney. 

7:20am Mega Bus from Cardiff to London. Arrive approx. 11am. Find audition location to suss it out. Go to Primark (I mean, it was only a short walk...). Have lunch. Enter audition location. Poop my pants. Immediately start looking around at my 'competition', turns out they were all lovely people. Enter the audition leader, who gives us a form to fill out with our details and a double sided A4 piece of paper which had 4 speeches on each side. "Pick a speech from each side, you have half an hour before we take you all to the space." Picked two contrasting pieces. Tried to learn them. Failed. But hey, I was so familiar with them by the end of that half an hour, that I had figured out everything I wanted to do on each line. It was Panto style so I had to make sure that I made a fool out of myself, the bigger the better, 'ey?! 

The pieces I chose were; Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, and Mrs Trott from Jack and the Beanstalk. 

Yep, I was required to do a Southern American accent and I didn't totally screw it up. Even if it did feel more General American (whatever that means). Go me. *Adds to CV. For Mrs Trott, it said 'colloquial accent an advantage'. I had absolutely no idea what that meant. So after muttering in a Yorkshire accent for a bit (and failing miserably), my friend turned to me and said 'Just do your Welsh accent!'. So I did. Turns out, in a room full of people who aren't Welsh, they really love the Welsh accent, especially because they didn't think it was my real accent! I hadn't really spoken to many people before I got up to do the speeches, and I did the Dorothy one first, so I think it was an interesting surprise. Banter.

So, following the speeches, I had to compose myself to sing a song as well! I decided to sing Mother Knows Best from Tangled. I managed to hold myself together, and it went rather well. I just decided to go big or go home and truly embrace the character. I felt that with both speeches and the song, they were all very different characters from each other so my choices were well thought out.

This audition was an interesting experience as we were all in the same room watching everyone's auditions. We got to see many different interpretations of the same character, and it was fun seeing what else people brought to the roles. Even though a lot of people chose the same speeches, they all brought something different to it. Most of the time. 

So, once everyone had got up to do their speeches and songs, the audition leader then proceeded to read out a list of names who they wanted to stay behind for a one-to-one interview and a general chat about what their company is about. 

They actually said my name.

It was the weirdest feeling ever. But I liked it. 

My interview was so relaxed and friendly, and the woman who interviewed me is also a graduate of the BA Acting course at UWTSD in Carmarthen, the first graduating year actually! Small world! 

Nothing is guaranteed with this job, but it's a very exciting prospect. They are beginning their casting process and I'm one of the people they're actually considering. That's pretty cool. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what this world has to offer for me. 

I think I'm going to be alright. 

"I'm Natasha, an actor. Check out my website!"

I have a website!

To give this professional acting thing a go, I've decided that it would be a good idea to have a website where I can showcase some of my work and some information about myself for potential employers. This has been an interesting experience creating this website, I found it a challenge but I enjoyed learning how to build my own website. I'm quite proud of the end result, though I do still have quite a bit to edit/add to it. However, I have got most of the basics on there to allow any potential employers to get a flavour of what experience I've had and what I'm interested in.

The main thing that I'm missing on there is my professional show reel. However, I do have a link to my short film and some filming of my stage combat rehearsals. By the end of June, I want to have filmed some monologues, and edit a decent show reel together. Also, my voice reel is just one clip, so I would like to expand this.

natashahickman.webs.com

   

 natashahickman.webs.com

Eventually, I would like to purchase my domain name so it's .com and not .webs.com, but I wanted to see how this website went first. Having .com would definitely look more professional so if this website becomes more used, this is something that I will have to do.

If you've got some time, I'd really appreciate it if you could check out my website and see if there's anything that I can do to improve it. Thank you!

"In the end, we only regret the chances that we didn't take."

I have had two audition invites in the past couple of days. One in London, and the other in Wolverhampton. They are both very exciting opportunities, and I'm so happy that I've been asked to audition.

The first one I received was the London audition, and I was over the moon because it was the first one I put myself forward for and they actually wanted to meet me. I didn't have to think twice about going, I got on Megabus and booked my ticket straight away. I love London, and I'm on familiar territory when I'm there, so I felt completely comfortable just going for it. (Although, I did ask a lot of my actor friends to send off applications too, because hey, a little company wouldn't be a bad thing.) Anyway, I'm very excited about this audition as it's something I've not really thought about doing until I read the description of it. I found myself grinning, thinking to myself, 'HELL YEAH'.

The next one, however, I found a little more daunting. I have never been to Wolverhampton before, everything felt completely alien and after looking at the 5hr 22 minute one-way train journey and £30-£40 return ticket, I started to doubt myself and why I would even bother going that far for an audition that may not even last more than two hours. But then I thought, "Hey. Why don't you try something that puts you out of your comfort zone? Take a risk?", the thing that I've been saying is the biggest thing I've learnt from my time at UWTSD. Why not put it into practice in the real world, and not just with my craft? It's time to grab life by the horns, and take control of my own future. Who knows? This could be the job I get! How will I know, if I don't even try? The train tickets are booked.

So, I am going to go to these auditions and try my absolute hardest and give it all I have. That's all I can do. No matter what happens with these auditions though, the point is, as the title of this post says, "In the end, we only regret the chances that we didn't take." Everything in life, I believe, is a learning experience, and there will be, without a doubt, things I can take away from both of these experiences.

But most importantly, I will remember;

If it's meant to be, it will be.