The Friday calls
December 12, 2011
Friday 14 October
I found myself feeling depressed during a dinner break before my penultimate show with DV8 Physical Theatre. Ending a job, without knowing what's next, is crap. People say this uncertainty is great because it allows you to re-evaluate your priorities, re-fresh your batteries, and re-(insert verb) your (insert noun). They're lying. Truth: nobody likes being out of work.
I only stopped wallowing when I heard my phone ring. Confession: my heart always skips a beat when I see my agent's number on the screen.
I'd landed an audition for the Royal Shakespeare Company. With this call, my agent had turned my despair of finishing a job into 'Thank God I'm done and available for this opportunity at the RSC.'
'Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil
Would not infect his reason?'
(The Tempest, I. ii. 239-240)
The audition comprised 90 minutes of movement led by Choreographer Finn Walker and overseen by Assistant Casting Director Janine Snape. Twenty people in a studio improvising physically to verbal cues including 'tension,' 'stop' and 'f**k you.' If it sounds mystical, most actors would tell you: 'It is.' However, I come from a physical theatre background, and was relieved to be in my comfort zone.
Friday 21 October
I received a call from my agent to prepare speeches from The Tempest and The Comedy of Errors for a second audition.
This time, I met Director David Farr and Head of Casting Hannah Miller at the RSC offices in London. I arrived prepared; I was off book, had rehearsed the scenes in one-on-one sessions with five actor friends, and had an intention for every line. I read the scenes with Hannah and David directed. They also explained the job: joining a cast of 18 actors who would perform The Tempest, Twelfth Night, and The Comedy of Errors over the next year. I know: amazing.
How was the audition? Petrifying. Twenty minutes of reading and discussing Shakespeare to decide the next year of my life. And let's not joke, it's the RSC; landing the gig could change the course of my career.
Then began The Wait. Excruciating days of sitting by the phone, with friends saying one of two things: 'You might not get it, but it's great to be seen at the RSC,' or 'This job is yours!' Both comments seemed equally ridiculous.
Friday 28 October
At eleven o'clock, the call finally came. It was an offer.
'O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour.'
(Twelfth Night. I. i. 6-8)
First step: say, 'Yes, please.' Second step: call the family. Third step: post it on Facebook. Fourth step: buy stationery, because when you face a year in the unknown, there's comfort in knowing you'll be able to highlight your script, and take notes in different coloured notebooks with different coloured pens.
There is no time to let the news sink in; the job starts Wednesday.
(The What Country Friends is This? plays are; The Tempest, Twelfth Night and The Comedy of Errors, and are part of the RSC's World Shakespeare Festival)
by Ankur Bahl
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