Friday, September 19, 2008
The Patter Merchants ermm triumph!
Well I'm just in from the second (and last) of our little acting groups performances up at Gramofon Bistro, or as we are better known as, The Patter Merchants and I'm pleased to say its been great fun to do. I have to say though the first night personally was more fun than the second, but both nights were very enjoyable to be a part of. I have to give credit to the entire group as they all performed brilliantly and also a big shout should go out to Bill, our director and tutor who gave us much invaluable help along the way.
Onto my scene which was The Virtuous Burglar by Dario Fo (Italian playwright) which was an Italian farce (which was translated into English for our audience of course!) and I played out the scene as a the burglar (complete with stripey top, ski cap and velvet gloves to create the illusion) with Judith as my nagging wife phoning me up sick with worry (she stole the scene of course!). But it was great fun to do, and thankfully we all got some nice feedback from some of the people who came along. Other scenes that stood out included Blood Brothers (written by Willy Russell) who were played by Tim and Barry (both great!) Educating Rita (also Willy Russell) played out by Nathan and Pamela (again great and guess who played who??) and Alan and Wilma who did a comedy scene called Skullduggery (you'll never look at policemen the same way again).
Scott our group organiser also deserves major credit for making this happen, and also as an actor as he acted the hell out of his two scenes (The Magic Tree and Fields of Glass) both of which were very dramatic and powerful scenes to play. All the other scenes were also great by the group (but mine and Judith's was the best ha ha! Kidding!). Everyone deserves equal praise for pulling off our 2 night stint, hopefully our next one will be just as entertaining. We should be doing another Gramofon performance in November hope hope, so keep a lookout, in the meantime we'll need to get our acting skates on again and find some scenes to do for it. But its been a real pleasure to finally get to perform live on stage (or in a space at least!). Bring on the next un!
Onto my scene which was The Virtuous Burglar by Dario Fo (Italian playwright) which was an Italian farce (which was translated into English for our audience of course!) and I played out the scene as a the burglar (complete with stripey top, ski cap and velvet gloves to create the illusion) with Judith as my nagging wife phoning me up sick with worry (she stole the scene of course!). But it was great fun to do, and thankfully we all got some nice feedback from some of the people who came along. Other scenes that stood out included Blood Brothers (written by Willy Russell) who were played by Tim and Barry (both great!) Educating Rita (also Willy Russell) played out by Nathan and Pamela (again great and guess who played who??) and Alan and Wilma who did a comedy scene called Skullduggery (you'll never look at policemen the same way again).
Scott our group organiser also deserves major credit for making this happen, and also as an actor as he acted the hell out of his two scenes (The Magic Tree and Fields of Glass) both of which were very dramatic and powerful scenes to play. All the other scenes were also great by the group (but mine and Judith's was the best ha ha! Kidding!). Everyone deserves equal praise for pulling off our 2 night stint, hopefully our next one will be just as entertaining. We should be doing another Gramofon performance in November hope hope, so keep a lookout, in the meantime we'll need to get our acting skates on again and find some scenes to do for it. But its been a real pleasure to finally get to perform live on stage (or in a space at least!). Bring on the next un!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Gramofon looms...
Well my performances at the Gramofon Bistro are definitely looming now as tomorrow night I shall take the small stage (or space) and perform my scene, gulp! To be honest though despite the nerves I am really looking forward to this, it should hopefully be a good laugh for everyone involved (and hopefully not too painful for our audience!). Tonight our group will have its final rehearsal (also a dress rehearsal!) up at Lansdowne Church, which is fine but its a pity we couldn't use the Gramofon venue but sadly it shuts early tonight so it wouldn't be practical to use. So I'll see how we get on tonight, so far the scene is coming along fine, but I will keep schtoom in regards to what its about. Whatever happens it should be a laugh (with emphasis on the word "should"). Ah well cue the black velvet curtain...
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Hellboy II oh and a little showcase(!)
Again of late I haven't really posted much up on my blog, this has been a mixture of extreme laziness and well other things (but probably mainly the first one). But I thought I would write up about a couple of things. First off I thought I'd like to mention me and my acting chums are going to be doing a little "showcase" performance at a little venue in town called Gramofone which has a small rehearsal space which we shall use for our performances (with the emphasis on little!). I won't divulge too much about what scene I am going to be doing at present but I'm hoping it will turn out quite well and pray that it goes down well too and that we (or I) don't get booed off the stage (or space). So I look forward to it very much with a slight sense of dread (which will grow into full blown terror!) but I guess that is natural. Also on the acting front one or two other things might be coming up but I'm not fully sure what they will be yet so I'll post more when I know.
On Thursday I went and saw Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I'm not sure its actually better than the first film and I know some critics didn't like the first one as much but I really did like the first Hellboy. Ron Pearlman is again great as Hellboy, no one else could pull off playing that part as well, and despite his red skin and sanded down horns (or in other words his outwardly demonic appearance), he IS the good guy. But Hellboy II is definitely funnier, it contains some really funny moments such as Hellboy's stand off against a big monster with a BIG hand kind of like his, also a scene where Hellboy gets schooled by the new goodie and FBI supernatural expert Dr Krauss (voiced by none other than Seth McFarlane!). It was also good to see a little cameo from John Hurt reprising his role as Dr Broom, and Selma Blair looks kind of hot with her new haircuit (although I don't really rate her much as an actress). The surprise inclusion of Luke Goss of 80's pop duo Bros (he finally IS famous) also worked well as he plays the main baddie with enough moves to shame Jet Li (OK perhaps its a stunt double!). I felt perhaps the overall tone of Hellboy II though was at times just a little bit too comical but I enjoyed it so much it didn't really matter, it is a great Saturday night movie (or Thursday depending when you see it) and a fine sequel.
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrright that's all for now.
On Thursday I went and saw Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I'm not sure its actually better than the first film and I know some critics didn't like the first one as much but I really did like the first Hellboy. Ron Pearlman is again great as Hellboy, no one else could pull off playing that part as well, and despite his red skin and sanded down horns (or in other words his outwardly demonic appearance), he IS the good guy. But Hellboy II is definitely funnier, it contains some really funny moments such as Hellboy's stand off against a big monster with a BIG hand kind of like his, also a scene where Hellboy gets schooled by the new goodie and FBI supernatural expert Dr Krauss (voiced by none other than Seth McFarlane!). It was also good to see a little cameo from John Hurt reprising his role as Dr Broom, and Selma Blair looks kind of hot with her new haircuit (although I don't really rate her much as an actress). The surprise inclusion of Luke Goss of 80's pop duo Bros (he finally IS famous) also worked well as he plays the main baddie with enough moves to shame Jet Li (OK perhaps its a stunt double!). I felt perhaps the overall tone of Hellboy II though was at times just a little bit too comical but I enjoyed it so much it didn't really matter, it is a great Saturday night movie (or Thursday depending when you see it) and a fine sequel.
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrright that's all for now.
