Cyberclogs

Well (noticed quite often how most of my entries start with "well") I had the RSAMD workshop with Bill Wright the other day which introduced us to some new group members for the next Patter Merchants. It was a voice workshop so it was quite enjoyable but also quite intense aswell, as Bill really made us push our voices from high notes to low, which I found somewhat uncomfortable to do. Bill had already told us some students are known to cry when doing this exercise because of the power of the voice and the emotions rise out of them (so to speak) although no one in our group did cry, although I did laugh a few times myself. Apart from that we also did some breathing techniqes and got a massage too (not from Bill of course!). Although I have to say it was an interesting workshop I'm not sure if we would use these techniques in any of our performances or scenes but it would intruiging to see some more of this stuff later on maybe.

Its early days of 2009, but already it looks like it could shape up to be a busy year, as I've got a few things coming up on the acting front, I won't say too much about them at the mo, as more info will be posted as I go along. I am starting new classes though this week at the Citizens Theatre on Tuesday night, as I had heard some good things about them from Scott, this will be a bit of a step into the unknown again as I'm pretty sure no one I know will be at these classes as it will be a kind of re-education again of acting with a whole host of different people and a different tutor, so I'll see how it goes, so kind of scary and fun I hope!

On the Patter Merchants front things will be going ahead, with a couple of workshops to start off so I've got one of those starting next Sunday, which I look forward to, so we'll see how it all shapes up as things progress, its all early days as I said so it remains to be seen what we will be doing scenes wise.

On a different note I haven't really commented on the choice of the new Doctor (11 th Doc) in Doctor Who, Matt Smith, to be honest I'm not too sure what to think of that one yet. Matt being only 26 seems an unusual choice to play the Doctor, but then again the Doctor can look any age when he regenerates, it just seems weird that he will get younger when he changes, if he gets any younger it kind of threatens to undercut his authority, so no one will take him as seriously (in the show I mean!). I could imagine Catherine Tate slagging him off when he tells her to do something "Sod off, sonny, you can't tell me what to do!". Perhaps again these are silly thoughts, as if the right actor plays the Doctor you can end up believing their potrayal regardless of the age. Although I haven't really seen Matt Smith in anything on TV or theatre so I can't really comment on his acting ability one way or another, I guess we'll just wait and see what he's like at the moment when David Tennant finally stands postrate and his face, and hands go on fire and change into Matt (as you do).

Anyway on that peculiar note that's enough for now.

What do you know? Its now 2009! Happy New Year everyone and hopefully it will be a good yun.

I have to say 2008 for me was a really good year, on a personal level I felt like I had accomplished something by performing live in front of an audience as an actor, which was both great fun and really nerve wracking at the same time, but its something I've grown into over such a short space of time (doing 6 live performances over the space of two months!). But I don't want to sound like I'm blowing my own trumpet or anything. Overall though 2008 was really good for me, let's hope 2009 can bring some more performance opportunities for me, I'm sure on some level it will. I'll let you know what they are when I know.

But on other fronts its been a good fun year too, there's been plenty of nice social outings, a trip to Ireland (which I often don't do), trekking through to Edinburgh quite a bit, and other stuff too.

And since 2008 is now over here's a quick recap of some of the fun stuff I enjoyed in 2008 (again alot of this is acting related):

January - Starting Acting 4 and seeing the Glass Menagerie at Edinburgh Lyceum (superb).
February - Watching No Country for Old Men and being transfixed and disturbed simultaneously.
March - Finishing Acting 4 and moving onto new advanced classes with director/tutor Iain McAleese.
April - Starting Shakespeare in Practice classes with our future tutor and Patter Merchant director Bill Wright, which was great fun.
May - Finishing Iain's classes and managing a decent final showcase performance for the group. Seeing Public Enemy deliver the gig of the year (after a 2hrs 30 min wait!).
June - Day long workshop with Bill in Govan, which was both alot of fun and utterly painful. My birthday (having a whole pub wish me a happy birthday was both fun and humiliating!).
July - Going to Ireland for a week and seeing how lovely Co Donegal is not to mention eating BIG! Starting summer classes which unbeknowst to me would lead to our first live peformance as a group! Oh and Dark Knight anyone? Want to see a magic trick?
August - Jaunting through to the Edinburgh, seeing fellow thesp Scott do great in a Fringe show, having a great day out!
September - My very first live stint as an actor with our group The Patter Merchants, many nerves but very satisfying.
October - Getting to perform as part of the Radio Theatre Group at the Ramshorn Theatre for the first time, in Sorry, Wrong Number! playing both a killer and a Western Union Man which was great fun!
November - More RTG stuff at the Ramshorn playing a Hitch Hiker, helpful hillbilly Gas Station attendant, cranky shopkeeper. Also performing my second live stint with the Patter Merchants, this time doing two scenes, being a scary clown and a pompous theatre director.
December - Finishing off my year long run of acting classes (with Iain's classes) and performing a scene from The Glass Menagerie, which went down well, which ironically I started the year seeing, and ended by performing! Weird eh?

Anywayyyyyyy that's mostly it. Again mostly acting related. I'll see how this year goes. So all the best for 2009 guys (and girls!).