Familiar Favourites

Looking at my life over the last few years, there hasn't been a huge amount of routine from year to year. However for the last few years there are two things that have cropped up annually: The Gi60 Theatre Festival and the Manchester Surviving Actors conference. And 2014 was no exception. :)

As usual I enjoyed the Gone in 60 Seconds Festival so much. It's a festival full of 1 minute long plays - you can read more about the concept of it here.

This year Gareth also got involved which was great fun. As well as the usual new writing, this years Gi60 involved a 'best of' Gi60. Which featured some of the top picks of scripts throughout the years Gi60 has been going (over 10 years!). This meant as well as performing in new plays I got to revisit some of the old scripts I had experienced in previous years, including an absolutely moving monologue called Dear Breast Cancer written by the amazing  Suzanne Whang.

TV personality, political activist Suzanne Whang

It was great to revisit some scripts that we had interpreted before but find new shades in them and especially as some of the performers were different for different scenes, it really mixed it up a bit and made them fresh and new.

I love being part of this unique festival because as well as flexing your acting skills with the large range of roles you take on in a short time, it has a great team atmosphere as you all work together to prepare the stage to go from one scene to the next - whether you're in that particular play or not. Also it is so inclusive- it involves writers from across the world, whether completely new or seasoned writers - and lets them see their scripts realised. It involves a range of actors from different acting backgrounds, and it is shown on youtube so even people who cannot be there still get to see the plays. The directors Steve and Jan are excellent at what they do and passionate about what they do which makes for a festival with real heart.

Wigs in position back stage, ready for the show.

Surviving Actors is a brilliant conference that helps actors to network and learn things they need to survive in the industry, you can find lots of info about it on their website. They do conferences in London, Manchester and in 2014 branched out to New York also.

I'm so proud of my friend Lianne Robertson who does a great job as one of the managing directors of Surviving Actors. She was recently featured as one of the 'Job of the Week' subjects on Ideas Tap, which you can check out here.

Surviving Actors was also great to be a part of as usual! I helped out with enrolling people for Seminars. Also something funny happened this time around: Years ago when I was on my way to Thailand to stay with my friend Joanne, I ended up sat next to casting director Lee Mountjoy on the plane and we got chatting. This year Mountjoy came to speak at the conference so it was nice to see him again - and he remembered!

If you would like to read about my previous experiences with Gi60 and Surviving Actors, here are some links:

Surviving Actors 2012
Surviving Actors 2013

Gi60 2012 rehearsals
Gi60 2012 performance
Gi60 2013 rehearsals
Gi60 2013 performance