Star Trekkin...

To those reading that are unfamiliar with the city I grew up in, you're about to get a good idea of how crazily quirky it can be. Wellington is renowned for its eclectic arts scene and I cannot stress enough the eclectic part of that phrase.

For the last couple of years in the city, a group of players and creative-minded theatre folk who operate under the moniker "Enterprise Entertainment" have put on a production called Summer Star Trek. Basically, it's a low budget, high enthusiasm outdoor theatre show in which a carefully selected episode from the original (George Takei, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner...) Star Trek series is acted out live.

As "After the Dance" was fast approaching its closing nights we inevitably began to discuss amongst ourselves what was next for us in theatre. One of our leads mentioned that Summer Star Trek auditions were coming up (he had previously played Kirk in their productions) and someone else mentioned that they were planning on auditioning as well. I hadn't thought much about doing any other theatre related things but I got to thinking that this might be a fun thing to go out for. I got in touch with Enterprise Entertainment and booked myself an audition time.

The episode they had picked for the upcoming show was "Mirror, Mirror" in which the Enterprise crew find themselves accidentally switching places with their "evil" counterparts in an alternate universe. I watched the episode a couple of times, looked through the scenes they had picked out for the audition process and decided that I'd quite like to be Dr McCoy.

The auditions rolled around, I was horribly nervous and managed to get through the obligatory 1-minute monologue I'd chosen which was a short excerpt from "Saving Private Ryan" that I thought would be good for conveying emotion subtly. We ran some scenes from the show, I relaxed a little bit and it ended up being quite fun by the time it ended.

I left feeling as though I'd done well but my audition group was quite a small one and we were the last group so I wasn't overly confident about the likelihood of being cast.

At the time I was exhausted from work and the schedule I'd had to live on for "After the Dance" which was basically: wake up at 3.30am for work, work 8 hours then come home around 12.30 to sleep for a bit, wake up around 5pm to have dinner and get to the theatre for call time, finish the show and come home to sleep a few hours before work.

The proposed Star Trek schedule was basically 3 months of rehearsals before performances and performances split over two weekends and I wasn't sure how much I wanted to commit to that sort of a schedule with working early mornings. I made the decision that if I was offered a part with no lines or very limited lines I'd turn it down in favour of a healthier sleep schedule. Then I got a call from the director.

Being a big ball of nerves, I let the phone ring out and waited for the txt to come through telling me I had a new voicemail. I ran a few scenarios through my mind and planned how I would react to various different outcomes before deciding to put myself out of my misery and just check the message.

I had been offered the part of Farrell: The personal guard of Captain Kirk in the "evil" universe. This was not the smallest part in the show nor the part with the fewest lines. It was however, a very small part with very few lines. I decided not to take it.

I then went to the kitchen, gathered the necessary ingredients from the cupboard, pre-heated the oven, mixed everything together, poured it into an oven-safe dish, baked it for an hour, took the dish out of the oven and left it to cool before cutting myself a big ol' slice of humble pie which I promptly consumed. It was a little bitter at first.

There was nothing else coming up that I wanted to audition for and I decided that being involved with something as crazy as an outdoor Star Trek show in any capacity was better than not being involved and regretting it later.

I took the part, put as much focus and effort as I possibly could into my character outside of my lines and had a hell of a lot of fun.

The rehearsal process was long but the company was fantastic. The shows all went really well and drew large and enthusiastic crowds. A lot of people I'd met through "After the Dance" came along to see the show as did some of my family including Mum who happened to be in Wellington for work during the performance run.

At the after party event, our director Shannon gave out award certificates along with one of the prop badges each that we had used for costuming during the show. That was a really nice touch and it takes someone who really cares about every facet of a production to personalise something like that for every member of cast and crew involved.

I made some good friends through Summer Star Trek and looking back its amazing to think about how many cool experiences I almost missed out on over something as trivial as not getting the specific part that I originally wanted.

Enterprise Entertainment also do a Star Wars themed show called 30 minute trilogy which sounds exciting and I'm sad I can't be a part of it, as happy as I am to be hanging out in Canada for the next little while. I'll definitely be signing myself up for auditions with these guys the next time I'm in town, they're a great group of people to have worked with.

The next post here will be about my big brother's wedding in November of 2015, Live Long and Prosper.

After The Dance

At some point in mid 2015 I had one of those brilliant cosmic experiences of being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. While walking from town along Ghuznee street, trying to work out where the closest bus stop was to get home. I happened to look the direction of the Gryphon theatre just as I was passing the window. In the window there happened to be an audition notice. I took down the contact information from it and emailed off an inquiry as soon as I got home (the auditions were due to commence two days from my becoming aware of the notice).

Fortunately I was able to book myself into an audition slot and sling together a 1 minute monologue to audition with. The audition process was as painless as performing in front of a judgement panel of 3 complete strangers and having to run scenes with another complete stranger can be (utterly terrifying) but I got through it. The next day I got a call from the director offering me a small speaking role with a handful of lines. I was ecstatic.

My part was to be the handsome young toy boy of a middle aged upper class woman who is actively refusing to acknowledge the fact that she is indeed getting older. It required me to develop a Cockney accent which was a fun challenge to have, and to create a believable young man who is exceptionally working class and somewhat out of his depth amongst the glamorous company he keeps despite his romantic partner keeping him immaculately dressed. To be frank, it was a glorious amount of fun.

Shortly after the casting being announced for this show which I'll refer to from now on by its title "After The Dance" (Terrence Rattigan for anyone unfamiliar) I got a job working mostly early mornings (4am starts) which became a challenge in terms of tiredness levels and having time to sleep but more on that in a later post.

The production run for the show was set for mid-September with my scenes rehearsing twice a week until the weeks before opening night where for obvious reasons the schedule got a little more involved.

For my first foray into theatre since high school and my first ever show in the realm of amateur theatre as an adult, this was a phenomenal play to be a part of.

I had a lot of fun putting together my small part and making noticeable improvements throughout the rehearsal period but I also learned a hell of a lot about acting from the amazingly talented people that were a part of it all and made a few friends along the way.

Our director entered our performance into a Wellington - wide theatre award and we ended up winning in several categories (my scene partner won best actress without even being one of the two female lead roles!) and gaining honourable mention accolades in several others which was nice because the awards were announced a couple of months after we closed so it gave us all a lovely nostalgic feeling to read through the judges comments about the show.

A lot of the people that were involved in the show have had numerous previous involvements with the different theatre troupes in Wellington so when it came to production time, I felt like there'd be a few nights where I'd be the only one to not know anyone in the audience. When it came down to the production run though, I had a few friends come out to see the show and several out of town family members travelled to Wellington to see it (thanks Marshy, Darshy, grandma and grandad) so there were only one or two lonely nights for me.

I have a lot of moments in my life where I can't believe what stupidly good luck I've had to end me up in particular situations and having the opportunity to act in Stagecraft's rendition of After The Dance is one of them. If anyone from the cast or crew of After The Dance happens to be reading this, know that I am grateful to each and every one of you for making this such an amazing first real theatre experience for me, and that I miss all of you and hope you're having fun with whatever shows you've all been involved with since.

I know that as soon as I'm back in Wellington again (writing this post from Vancouver, B.C. right now) I'll be looking out for audition notices and jumping straight back into theatre life. As much fun as Canada is I'm gutted to be missing out on being a part of Stagecraft's production of History Boys, it's going to be an epic show!

My next post here will be about my other theatre engagement in 2015/ early 2016, SUMMER STAR TREK!