Tag Archives: cv’s

A Director In Search Of An Actress by Paul Vates

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Pity the poor director who raises his head above the parapet and publicly proclaims ‘Is there anyone interested in playing Nora?’

If you’ve read my previous articles about the process of staging A Doll’s House, you’ll know it’s audition time. The chosen poster used to represent the internal struggle within the protagonist’s mind …

A Director In Search Of An Actress by Paul Vates1

… but now represents the director’s (Kevin Russell’s) horror as the emails began to arrive. The number soon reached 200. How do you find the Special One amongst all those? Stories abound of some producers and directors abhorring hotmail email addresses, detesting specific drama schools or, even, flinching at the names of rivals on CVs. One famous director is known for whittling the list down by deleting every third email and removing every third application from his pile.

Ask any HR Manager attempting to fill a vacancy in a company – it’s a nightmare .So can it all be that random, relying so heavily on luck?

Ohhhh, yes.

Kevin told me that ‘it’s so silly what goes through my mind when looking at headshot after headshot. Whether they can act or not seems irrelevant. The first time acting gets involved is at the audition itself, but that seems so far away.’

He does, though, admit other skills are required. For him – and this is just Kevin, no one else (before someone complains that’s not how it’s done) – Kevin wants a clear CV, a photo that shows a certain attitude and a covering letter that indicates a little thought has gone into the application. The rest is gut instinct on his part.

Gradually, the audition list was reduced until sixteen actresses were invited to the venue, Barons Court Theatre. Then I joined him in the process, as a guide, a shoulder to cry on and the-fella-that-reads-along-with-the-auditionees.

The pressure is on them: 1 – to turn up on time; 2 – to resemble the person in the photograph (you’d be amazed how many don’t); 3 – to enjoy themselves. We assist with the last part, aiming to create a jovial and inspirational atmosphere.

So – the big news … Drum roll … An actress has been chosen and she did say ‘Yes.’ Her name is Alexa Matthews. When asked she said, ‘I have always wanted to play the role of Nora and as soon as I saw there was an opportunity to do so I applied immediately. She’s a complex character and makes such an interesting journey though the play and one that as an actor you can really challenge yourself with, this really excites me.

A Director In Search Of An Actress by Paul Vates3 Alexa Matthews – Photo by Michael Shelford

‘The audition was lots of fun and Kevin and Paul have a way of naturally making you feeling at ease. What I loved was that Kevin directed me in some of the chosen scenes with Paul and we got it up on its feet. Auditions can be a really surreal environment but instead of sitting behind a desk Kevin and Paul were much more involved.’

Where was she when she heard she had been offered the part? ‘I had just boarded the plane to France for a friend’s wedding with my boyfriend and received the email just before taking off. I was so excited to hear the news and couldn’t wait to get back to discuss the play further.’

The whole production rests on Alexa’s shoulders – so no pressure there. It’s such a famous role, it is natural to feel nervous about the months ahead. Alexa said, ‘I really hope that I do the play justice and that the audience come away feeling like they have seen a great version of the play. I hope that they are tickled with its lightness but also come away with an understanding of the fresh and relevant messages it has to convey.  Importantly I hope they have a great evening out and that as a company we also have lots of fun.’

What Alexa may not realise at the moment, though, is just how many macaroons she will have to consume during the run. I think I may keep count… but more on that later.

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen will be performed from November 3rd to 22nd at Barons Court Theatre, west London. Tickets are selling fast, so if you fancy stopping by call the box office direct on 020 8932 4747 or email londontheatre@gmail.com to reserve seats.

www.newdreamstheatre.co.uk

Facebook: New Dreams Theatre

Twitter @KevinNewdreams

 

 

Lyn Burgess interview. How to be your best self.

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I came across Lyn Burgess and her coaching a few years ago through Creative Edge Audio. I was very happy when she said yes to being interviewed for Frost. I find Lyn incredibly inspirational. I hope you do as well.

1) How did you get into personal and business coaching?

I worked for many years in operational roles in the financial services sector and was made redundant from an H R Director’s job. I had outplacement consulting and looked at my skills and my values and out of that came ‘coaching’. I think I always had a coaching philosophy though when I was managing teams of people, I always found I could get them to do what was needed without yielding a big stick – and they’d be quite happy to do it as well. Setting up my own coaching business in 2002 seemed like such an obvious progression, I’m not sure why I hadn’t done it before!

2) Best tip for confidence?

“Fake it till you make it!” It’s good to model someone else who is a confident person – give yourself a ‘confident outfit’ or a lucky pair of knickers. Start off by just ‘pretending’ to be confident for 30 mins each day and experience how it feels. Make sure you have some interaction with other people and see how differently they react to you. Also, create a visualisation of you being/feeling confident. Practice this every day. Also think back to a time when you felt confident so you remember that you can do it and notice what happens in your body. Start little and often and your mind will become the confident person you want to be

3) What do you love about your job?

Pretty much all of it. You won’t ever meet a coach that doesn’t enjoy what they do – they always want to do more, help more people. I love marketing my business, I love networking, I love finding new places to advertise, I love working out how to reach more people, how else I can coach them. I love other people’s success and knowing that because I helped them set some goals and asked them a bunch of questions it really made a difference to their lives and their career. I also love doing presentation and workshops to groups of people. You get some great energy back and participants always learn from other people.

4) Advice for actors?

Be tenacious, get clearly focused on exactly what you want ie. a part in a period drama at the Globe starting in October 2010 paying me £X, rather than “I want a job”. The latter kind of statement is useless, if that’s your idea of a goal then go work in Tesco – there, you have a job. Never give up and be proactive. Just because you have an agent, doesn’t mean you can sit at home and wait for the phone to ring. You can switch on the TV and see that being an actor is not necessarily about being talented. You need to be in the right place at the right time, knowing the right people and not having any hang-ups, or moaning about the industry and telling yourself how tough it is. Network your butt off. It’s much easier to make connections face to face, rather than sitting in a pile of CV’s. Make it easy for casting directors and agents – put yourself in a box to start off with. Once you get well known, then you can diversify, but if you look like a thug and sound like a thug, play thugs.

5) Who is your inspiration?

3 people. One: An old boss of time who saw potential in me and would always say “Lyn, I want you to go and do such and such a job now” and I’d think, ‘I’m not sure I can do that’ – then I went and found that I could do it. Every two years he gave me a different job role to do and it just made me realise that you can do things that you are unsure about. He believed in me and that enabled me to believe in myself. Two: Fiona Harrold – A UK life coach. When I first started my accreditation to become a coach I read her book “Be your own life coach” and I felt so inspired and knew I was on the right path. Three: Tony Robbins – a US life coach. He does the fire walk which I have done – which is actually really easy to do. Check him out on YouTube or read his books, he’s awesome.

6) What’s next?

I feel like this question should be at the end. One of the things that I’ve always wanted to do is to work more with people on a project and within a team of people ie. on a TV programme or on a film. So work with the writers, the producers, the directors and the actors and be part of the production team for whoever needs me. Help with issues of time management, working to budgets, stress management, team dynamics etc. I want people to say in years to come “God, we never make a film/tv programme without a life coach!” It always helps to have someone disassociated from the project to look at it in an impartial way to give those in it another perspective. I also have an idea for a book called “Life, Camera, Action” which uses well known Film quotes to illustrate coaching themes – but I need a writer to write it – then I can develop it into a workshop to take around cinemas in the UK.

7) Tell me about your workshops?

The workshops I run on a monthly basis and they cover 3 main themes. They were born out of doing some advertising when I first started out on Shooting People where I wanted to get into the minds of people in the industry and offered some free coaching in return for completion of a short questionnaire. I had about 90 responses and realised that was a lot of free coaching! So I set up the workshops so that I could coach a whole bunch of people at the same time, rather than one to one. The workshop topics are : Focus, we work around goal setting, looking at what holds you back and create an action plan. Self Belief – on this one we look at limiting beliefs from your past, blast them out of the way and look at confidence building. Networking: where to go, what to say, how to follow up etc etc.

8 ) What is your background?

Financial Services – and by that I mean processing mortgages and secured loans. I also worked in 2 Building Societies. I started as a secretary and then held Managerial roles for years. I have done acting and theatre directing, so I know what it’s like to stand on a stage – which I loved. I always found that I could relate to most people (even if I didn’t like them) so it was always a career that involved interacting with others. Financial services was great because it was fast moving and you had to constantly change and be flexible and I think life is like that too. Every few years you have to reinvent yourself because the landscape keeps changing. I love that, I love taking risks. Too many people try to be a perfectionist and there’s no such thing as perfection, you are striving for something you will never attain. Do something, get a result, tweak it and then do it again!

9) What does your average day consist of?

Variety! Coaching clients which can be via email or telephone. I don’t do much face to face work apart from the workshops. Marketing, twittering, advertising and promoting. Pulling together some ideas for joint workshops. Following up on contacts that I’ve met networking, or recently at Cannes. I never seem to have time to blog frequently enough. But I do promote an 8 Week Makeover Programme that is a very cost effective way of coaching. I also run the events committee for Women in Film and TV, so that usually forms part of my day, checking in with the event producers or organising an event of my own. I email the WFTV office several times a day.

10) What is the hardest part of the job?

Wanting to do everything right now and being impatient. Want to help more people, answer emails, twitter, write newsletters, do my accounts. The hardest part when you first start out is getting to know the difference between empathy and sympathy with a client. I’m good at it now and have developed quite a good sense of emotional detachment. Coaching is always forward focused so it’s my job to keep people ‘in action’ – the hardest part for me is understanding that people move at their own pace – not mine. I sometimes come away from a call thinking “was I any use there? That person is not doing enough” and then two hours later I’ll get a text or an email from the client saying “thanks so much for the sessions, they are always really useful!” So it’s all about perception, and as one of my Magic Quips said: “it might look like I’m doing nothing, but at a cellular level I’m really quite busy”

For more on Lyn go here: