The run up to The Casting Call was a nerve wrecking one alright!! The idea of meeting not one but TWO of Irelands top casting directors was constantly playing on my already busy head. You see I’ve been travelling for a couple of years and as a result of this I had stepped away from the acting industry. I was rarely in the same place (or frame of mind) for long enough to join a group or contact the people I should have been trying to make an unforgettable impression on. When I returned to Ireland I tried to re-connect with the few contacts I had from my past. It seems most of them followed in my emigrating footsteps but haven’t pulled the prodigal son act like me yet!!
So it has been a while since I have been in a room full of talented and professionally trained actors trying to impress the very people that we all hope to be working with in the future. We were asked to prepare for this day-long workshop by reading Sean Ó Casey’s ‘The Plough and The Stars’ and to have a 2-3 minute duologue of our choice learned and ready to perform. I spent two weeks straight re-watching films I remembered having good duologues in them. I was looking for a piece full of emotion that still told a story with a beginning, middle and an end. This was a much harder task than anticipated. I eventually remembered a great scene from ‘What Richard Did’ that was directed by Lenny Abrahamson. The scene between Richard and his girlfriend, Lara, the day after ‘the incident’!! You have to see this film if you haven’t already.
So the sunny (but still freezing cold…Ireland!!) Sunday morning of the Workshop was definitely a coffee fueled one! Me and 14 other sleepy but excited students made our way awkwardly to the Black Box Theatre in The Gaiety School of Acting, not sure what to expect. The first half of the day was to be led by Gillian Reynolds. Gillian has cast some of the highest quality Irish and British film, TV and commercial productions such as ‘Camelot’ and ‘Primeval’.
She came in with her coffee in tow and put us all at ease straight away with her relaxed and friendly attitude. We all introduced our selves in true actor workshop style, in a circle and shouting our name…..LAUGHING LEANNA (Mwah Ha Ha)!!! Gillian told us how she got to be where she is now……hard work mostly. She gave us some great advice. One thing she said in particular made so much sense but I had not thought about it in great depth before. Such a simple and obvious thing, yet straight away I knew I was making this mistake. “Know your acting age” – in my head I was able to play anyone from 6 years to 60 years old. We continued the morning by conducting improves, exploring our pre conceptions about our playing age and how to listen to directions that are given to you by casting directors. It was a very interesting and enlightening morning.
After a quick lunch and another coffee to warm us all up we returned to the theatre to be met by Maureen Hughes. Maureen welcomed us all back and filled the room with entertaining stories from her career from the Saw Doctors to ‘The Butcher Boy’. We had prepared the duologues for Maureen’s part of the workshop. She has cast the Irish hit drama ‘Love/Hate’ and in doing so has introduced numerous new Irish actors to the general population. Maureen worked one on one with each of us. We performed the scene of our choice with her. She filmed us and gave us direction and advice. We then re shot the scene following this direction.
Working in such a personal quarters with one of Irelands best and being advised, complimented and encouraged is a priceless experience. I left the workshop with the information and tips I needed to get my C.V., headshots and showreel in order. They told us what they look for from a C.V. and more importantly what they never want to see! I learnt a lot in the space of a few hours and have already seen the benefits from the changes I have made. If you have the opportunity to attend a casting or audition workshop with someone as knowledgeable as Gillian or Maureen definitely jump at it. Or any of the other courses and workshops that The Gaiety School of Acting are offering. We can all use a bit of insider advice and guidance.
Here’s hoping that I will have the opportunity to stand in front of them in the future and use their tips to get the extra advantage.
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REMEMBER to brush up on your acting skills with our specialised skilled workshop series over the summer! Try our TV presentation Workshop with Bill Hughes this Saturday 13th July from 10am to 5pm and don’t forget our ever popular Casting and Auditioning workshop with Nick McGinley and Gillian Reynolds will be held on Sunday 26th May. On 16th June, Alan Shortt will be running Master the Media workshop. We also have some places available on our Voice and Accent Workshops. Call 01 6799277 or visit www.gaietyschool.com for more info.
GHOSTHUNTERS – A THOROUGHLY GOOD COMIC FILM FOR CHILDREN OF ALL AGES.
Director: Tobi Baumann
Producers: Dominic Wright, Oliver Schunler and Jacqueline Kerrin
Production Company: Ripple World Productions and Lucky Bird Productions
Shoot: SEP 17 – NOV 18
Location: Ireland
TOM – 9 – 13 year old Boy to play 11 years old
A normal looking attractive nice kid. Irish, very clearly spoken, no strong accent if possible, confident,intelligent and articulate. He is a loner and therefore resourceful. But like any other boy of that age, or any age for that matter, he is afraid of ghosts. So he has been scared by a ghost a few times and of course his family think he is imagining it. He is dreamy and slightly shy, he is bullied and tormented by his older sister Lola, who is going through puberty and passes on all her teenage angst onto him. However Tom’s life changes completely when he meets Hugo who is an ‘Averagely Spooky Ghost’. After initially trying to defeat the ghost, Hugo, he becomes great pals with him. Through his friendship with Hugo we see Tom become courageous, strong and fearless in dealing with a battle against a much nastier more dangerous ghost. BASED IN IRELAND NORTH OR SOUTH BUT IF LIVING IN THE UK SHOULD HAVE BEEN BORN IN IRELAND. IF HE HAS IRISH PARENTAGE WE MAY BE ABLE TO CONSIDER HIM BUT PREFER HE WAS BORN THERE. THIS IS THE IRISH FILM BOARD’S CRITERIA.
Please send suggestions to: ros@hubbardcasting.com and cc martin@hubbardcasting.com and molly@hubbardcasting.com.
Well, not exactly. I was there, in Paris, on Saturday night with Ass Monkey (that’s the boyf, and yes, that is his name). If you had been there too, say, as a French spy, a French fry or an overpriced bar of nougat, you would not have seen me present the show, but would have heard running commentary along these lines:
‘There are guys in the Moulin Rouge? What for?’
‘Could they have put a taller German man in front of me?’
‘We’re an hour here, and that choreography is still the “Shimmy, Shimmy Shake”. Spare me!’
‘There’s no way they’re singing live in that tank of water’
‘Oh my god, are they real ponies??’
‘If there has to be men in it, they could at least whip their pants off or something…??’
And so it went on. €200+ down, we were. Amused and entertained, we most certainly were not. My feeling was that I had seen, and presented, better shows in Dublin! I have presented shows on the once burgeoning Irish burlesque scene since 2004, with both the very girlie dance troupe The Pink Panties, and Dublin burlesque superstars, The Pony Girls. Of course, when I had my son Jacob, I hung up the corsets and stockings until further notice. I mean, who do I think I am – Twink?!!
Burly Days
Between glimpses of cheap lamé costuming over the shoulder of The Tall German at The Moulin Rouge, I was reminded of how much presenting excites me. Our class at the GSA last week was magic, even though we were missing a few heads, John’s ginger one included. Stationary Shauna returned after a week off and we had our usual gossip about The Kardashians. Shauna knows exactly what Kim’s dute date is, and I am pleased to tell you that my brain rejected that information and I have forgotten it already. The work we had to present was a piece of worldwide journalism that spoke to us, or was on the same topic that we are interested in presenting. They were all truly varied and interesting, but the one that struck a chord the most with everyone was from Niamh, who read part of Donal Walsh’s published letter on the subject of teenage suicide. The gorgeous and brave Donal had just passed away the previous night, so it was both poignant and sad, and definitely resulted in a few tears from me.
My own piece came from the Scary Mommy website, called ’10 Ways To P*ss Off A Pregnant Woman’ – a tongue in cheek list of all the things to not say to a pregnant woman, if you could help yourself (lots of people apparently cannot). It was only after leaving the class that I realized that I hadn’t explained that the list was a facetious one, and now they all probably thinks that I condone rubbing the pregnant bellies of complete strangers and shouting into their belly buttons like microphones… Another Shazzy Clanger!
Still mortified from Week 3 when, after class, I almost followed Bill Hughes home to his front door, I took it especially handy on the arse-licking front. It took all of my strength not to accost him after class for chats about Blathnaid NíChoffaigh’s ‘alleged’ attitude problem, or what his views are on force-feeding Ryan Tubridy a sausage sandwich, but I managed it. And then I regretted that I didn’t all week. Not only am I indirectly sabotaging our chances at being BFFs, but I’ll never know the answers to those questions now. And here I am with the sausages on…
So tonight, I’m going giddy-up. The waft of freshly-baked blueberry muffins is coming from my kitchen and they are being delivered in pretty boxes to the class later. There’s an upgrade on bringing an apple to the teacher for you. Ach, I jest – they’re for everyone. The exercise we have to deliver tonight is on The Person That Means The Most To Us In The World, so I’m bringing a little sugar comfort in case it’s needed. Lord knows, I’ll be the first to cry as usual, although maybe not quite as much as Ass Monkey did when he forked out the cash for The Moulin Rouge.
Happy Outside The Moulin Rouge!Alive Outside Sports Events Company require 1 male actor for 2 separate day’s work at our HELL & BACK event – Event Race Brief!
It is vital that the actor is available to attend both HELL & BACK dates for continuity…
Male actor needs to be quirky, strong character and able to motivate, dramatise and get our message across to 2,000+ nervous participants!
HELL&BACK is a unique, extreme running event; Ireland’s Toughest Physical and Mental Challenge in Killruddery House & Gardens, Bray, Co Wicklow.
It involves participants running over mountains, forests, swamps, getting electric shocks, crawling under barbed wire and lots more insane challenges!
Alive Outside Sports Events Company want an actor to add to the “Sense of Theatre” on the day & to address 2,000+ crazies at Killruddery. You will have a script and this must be delivered to a repeat number of separate group waves 250 people in each event wave.
A script will be available for applicants who reply to this job opportunity. You will be required to film yourself for 60sec acting /dramatising this script and email in your video. Smart phones are perfectly acceptable.
Dates: Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th June 2013
Time: 11am – 6pm
Pay: €150 pp/pd, event = €300 per actor for both HELL & BACK events
Alive Outside Sports Events Company will provide the script, music and props to go with the event
Closing date for Applications is Monday 27th May.
Alive Outside Sports Events Company will send out the script on receipt of your application.
All Video clips must be sent in by Friday 31st May.
Check out their website: http://www.hellandback.ie/index.html
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEz2gaee8ow
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82Zv6Cu_YlM
They will require a meeting with you to choose suitable actors, the office is in Dun Laoghaire (see address below) next week
Please contact Molly Hutchinson, by email, with your contact mobile no + CV
Email: customer.care@aliveoutside.ie
Tel: +353-1-2147355
Address: 5 Rogan’s Court, Patrick Street, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.
Dublin Dance Festival would like to do a special offer for Gaiety School of Acting students for Daniel Linehan’s performances at the Samuel Beckett Theatre on Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 at 7pm.
They are offering tickets for €8, bookable through the DDF Box Office – on 01 672 8815, or pop in the Box Office in Filmbase in Temple Bar in person. Gaiety School students should quote: ‘Linehan Offer’ to avail of the discount.
Daniel Linehan – Montage for Three & Not About Everything
Samuel Beckett Theatre
May 15 & 16
7pm
This smart, witty double bill is bursting with ideas. Montage for Three sees two dancers recreate a series of projected photos – breathing new life into the static images and making you think afresh about what’s happening in pictures of people we all know – Marilyn Monroe, Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King to name a few.
Linehan delivers a monologue to the audience all through Not About Everything – but while spinning constantly. It’s a physical tour de force!
http://www.dublindancefestival.ie/festival-performances/montage-for-three-not-about-everything/
Here’s Daniel talking about the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viT4vFx-klo
Hi everyone,
I’m so happy to be back to our classes in the One Year Part Time Course at Dublin’s Gaiety School Of Acting.
We ended last term on a high with our showcase, which saw all of us perform scenes with a partner for the other part time class and now we are in preparation for our first public showase.
Parents and friends will be attending our performance on June 26 so everyone is working really hard to make sure we are bringing something strong to the table for our final performance together.
For the first time we will also be doing some group scenes, so we will finally be able to work as ensemble on stage, like we always do in the classroom.
We are taking everything we have learned from the last two terms and putting it into action this term. It’s clear that everyone has grown so much, and people are getting braver with their choices of scenes.
One of the great things about this course is that you learn how to work with people. You could be a great actor, with brilliant techniques, but it means nothing if you can’t work with your co-stars. And negotiating scenes, making decisions on a script, is all quite difficult, but through this course we have all learned how to express ourselves and work together without screaming at each other.
This term is all about perfecting our craft, whereas the last two terms were about discovering our abilities. Because we now all know our strengths the standard has risen hugely, it’s great to see everyone working so hard.
Last week the class were given a special course in Stage Combat. That’s one of the things I love about this one year program, you get to try out lots of different things.
Last term we had an Comedy Improv class with Donal Courtney, which I really can’t recommend enough. He is doing a full day on Sunday May 19th and if you are looking to get into acting this is the best way to test your skills, check out the Gaiety website or give them a call for more information on 01 679 9277.
There are a lot of workshops taking place over the next few weeks so make sure to have a good look through the website if you are looking to do a course for a day.
This week we will be focusing on our new scenes, and we are already beginning to choreograph our movements in our scenes. It’s a long process and there is a lot of work ahead, but it will be worth it when we take our final bow next month.
I will be updating a blog on my experience at the Gaiety School Of Acting on Miss Red.
ADARE Productions are filming the 5th Series of the hit Irish dance show AN JIG GIG, and would like to offer you the opportunity to avail of complimentary tickets to the show being filmed in RTE.
The programmes will be filmed in RTE studios in Donnybrook over the 14th, 15th &16th and the 21st, 22nd, & 23rd of May.
This is a great opportunity to come along and see behind the scenes in RTE and enjoy a show of dancing, craic, Gaeilge and fun in RTE.
If you would be interested in booking tickets or for further queries please call Kate on 01 2843877 or email kate@adareproductions.ie
The show times are as follows:
14th May Tue; 7.15pm- 10.30pm
15th May Wed; 1.15pm - 4.30pm & 7.15pm- 10.30pm
16th May Thurs; 1.15pm - 4.30pm & 7.15pm- 10.30pm
21st May Tue; 7.15pm- 10.30pm
22nd May Wed; 1.15pm - 4.30pm & 7.15pm- 10.30pm
23rd May Thurs; 1.15pm - 4.30pm & 7.15pm- 10.30pm
AN JIG GIG… gives Irish dancers of all ages the chance to throw out the rulebook, the big wigs, their Feis music CDs and take to the stage in the 5th series of An Jig Gig.
In previous series, we’ve had Prodijig frontman Alan Kenefick dance to Beethoven, set dancers jigging away to Lady Gaga, and a Sean-nos dance striptease which had judge Dearbhla Lennon hot under the collar. This is the show that allows all dancers to step outside of their usual competition rules and make their Irish dancing relevant to them.
All the different dance styles are welcome to apply for the series and this is the one arena where rival organisations can go head to head against each other. From a 3 year old An Coimisiún step dancer, to a 79 year old Sean-nos dancer, this series has seen all that is wonderful about our traditional dancing, and how imagination and today’s modern influences can shape Irish dancing into something spectacular.
Music from the likes of Daft Punk and Metallica to One Direction and Elton John have been used by the dancers in their routines in previous series’ and now we want to see what else the Irish dancers of Ireland can bring to a stage where there are no rules.
Kate Finegan,
Audience Coordinator,
AN JIG GIG.
ADARE Productions.
Tel: 01 2843877.
The love affair with Bill Hughes continues. I fear, however, that I may have given myself away as I stalked him out of the classroom last Monday night, chatting about this and that, how wonderful I thought his class was, how was his leg and did he know if Caroline Moraghan was likely to get all the TV work in Ireland forever and ever? So excited was I that I forgot to shut up and take the turn for my car and found myself pretty much following Bill homewards for tea. Thankfully, Ginger John made an appearance just in the nick of time and so Bill gently shooed me in his direction, and journeyed on without this random woman from his class finding out where he lives. It was a blessing for many reasons, not least of all because Ginger John got me back on track to the direction of my car. I’ve always said it, Gingers rock.
The third TV Presenting Course was better than ever, with each of my classmates and I presenting an intro to our very own programmes that we would like to deliver to the telly watching masses. We had an international dance show from Sibéal, an history of the 10-year-old Electric Picnic from Dónal (Craig Doyle WATCH out) and a documentary on racism in Ireland against the travelling community from Ginger John. I had my own little show about parenting, inspired by a Facebook post I read from a friend who was donating to the Human Milk Bank. That’s right, read it again, The Human Milk Bank. (I still don’t know if I’m appalled or touched. Will get back to you on this later).
True to form, my Nerves Warrior came along to the class for the jaunt and this week, instead of just digging me in the backs of the knees for my piece, he landed multiple attacks all over my body. From the second I opened my mouth in front of the class, I shook from the top of my head to the tips of my toes and could only pray that The Jitters weren’t coming out of my mouth too. In any case, I got through it and a second attempt that Bill directed me through to slow down my pace and find my strong voice. As opposed to the teeny tiny girly one I used in the first place. Who knew?!
We’re off this week due to the bank holiday and our next task is to find a piece of journalism that speaks to us within our chosen genres, and we’ll get to deliver that again next Monday. Bill has suggested broadening our reading and therefore our resources on our chosen topics. One might think that one is well read, given the millions of courses that one has taken but in fact, one has realized that the extent of one’s reading is the free Metro and U Magazine. Poor show, Shazzy! I’ve now subscribed to Vanity Fair and lots of parenting-related blogs, and feel much more informed already. Even though I haven’t actually read anything yet.
I’ve had further signals that TV Presenting is the right course for me, with a trip to opening night of The Lion King with the wonderful Jennifer Stevens from the aforementioned U Magazine. May I refer you to Blog No. 1 where I mentioned that my introduction to telly presenting and wonderful hair, was Aongus McNally from Anything Goes in RTE when I was about six. Well lo and behold, sitting right in front of me at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre (and blocking the view, he’s so tall!), I give you… Mr. McNally. BOOM.
The Back of Aongus’ Head ;o)
