This Week

Location: My room (Lewisham, London)

This week has been an excellent week, even by my enthusiastic standards. I've been offered a short-term stage management job which is...brace yourselves...




PAID

I don't mean I will get money in exchange for work, I mean an actual, respectable rate of pay. I mean pay that will cover my rent and then some. Payment like other normal people experience! Payment! A real rate for a stage manager!

Over the moon doesn't even begin to cut it. I'll be working with Britannicus director Irina Brown again at the end of February, with our performance on the South Bank (South Bank!) 7th and 8th March.

On top of this I'll be working with Ugly Sister Productions again soon. Julia and Esther hired me for The Story Project 3 last Summer, which was a great event to stage manage. I'm thrilled to be working with them again (can't say too much more but they'll be announcing details soon). I just keep seeing their Twitter feed hinting at a new show and getting excited!

There's also some more Assistant Director/Stage Manager work in the pipeline for late March with a friend I've worked with before, excited to be reunited with him too.

On Absent Theatre news, our first week of rehearsals are done. I met our actors for monologue sessions which was very promising. I've also drafted the choreography for the show which is very exciting. Can't wait to try it out next week.

This afternoon I met a friend to talk about (another) project. This is an idea I want to take up to Edinburgh after we conduct previews in London and the Brighton Fringe. It was a very promising meeting and we're both enthusiastic about the idea and have a clear vision of what we want to achieve.

We're hoping to work together on another bigger project in the future (this time her creative idea rather than mine) so my (smaller) project is a good one to begin with as a learning exercise. We can also establish our working relationship and identify our dynamic as a creative team. It also means we need a collective identity.

Thinking up the name Absent Theatre was strenuous enough!

So yes. This week has been an excellent week for me. I'm very happy with how 2012 is progressing so far. Tonight was spent with post-its, timelines, to-do lists, script pages, staging ideas, my (work) diary, several sheets of paper, two pens and my giant cork board. Just trying to put all this stuff on an external surface so its not rattling around my brain.

It looks good.

Full.

A bit scary.

But its ok. When I get too overwhelmed by the board I simply flip it over and look at the other side and it calms me down. Its got flyers from Jerusalem (amazing show!) Britannicus, These Things Happen, panto at Greenwich, a card from Wiltons (love that place) and of course my treasured The Boy with Tape on his Face poster and my lx tape rose, given to me by The Boy during his show in Edinburgh 2011. Lots of lovely theatre memories. And soon I can add flyers from the work I'm planning on the reverse.

Yes, looking at that side calms me down.

Its been a fantastic week.

Amy