Should I stay or should I go?

Hunting around for a topic to write about is sometimes easy and sometimes not. A bit like Life really. Especially when that life belongs to an actor.

So, being a generous soul, and not being able to think of something to write myself, I donned the cloak of generousity and asked the Twittersphere what topic(s) they would like me to write about on here.

After strenuously examining the vast number of reply I had (thanks Rhonda! Glad to know someone reads this!) I thought I would deal with the most popular topic that cropped up. Once.

The single reply to my offer read as follows:

How about a piece dealing with Office Politics during a project? Possibly emphasizing (she's American so she's allowed to spell like that) how to handle your work when the project is a kind of disaster and everybody is grumbling and complaining.

When do you leave?

How do you make that decision?

Why should you stay?

OK, how do you deal with office politics in a production, which doesn't have an "office" but a rehearsal room which can be fraught and tense, and exhausting. And then shifts to a stage which can be a whole myriad of things all at once?

When all about you moan and whinge what do you do? What do I do?

I'm always honest here and I've no reason to change that. Also I only ever write about my own experiences as that it what I have to draw on in my life and it's that life that, at times, has meant I've had to deal with awkward decisions. But as to how you deal with office politics in a production there is one rule. And for me it's an absolute. And that rule is don't get drawn in to petty political squabbles in a production.

It's fine to offer an opinion when it's requested by the director, or even when another actor asks for help but avoid at all costs getting into the You're Right/Wrong type of arguments where you have to take sides. Be diplomatic.

Says I. Who in one of the first productions I was found myself in a nonsense of a production. A director without a clear vision. Without the ability to explain to the cast and crew the essence of his vision without saying "It's all in my head. I'll know when it's right".

This same director regularly would turn up late, sometimes by as much as 3 hours or more, to a 6 hour rehearsal. And then he would explode at the cast and crew for not being "on it" immediately when he arrived. He would undercut the choreographer at every opportunity, mainly by listening to what they said, watching what they'd got us doing and then saying "that's not right. It needs to be like this...." and proceeding to rechoreograph entire routines. He would, and did, arrive in the wings two minutes before curtain up and hand a cast member a prop whilst saying helpfully "this will help your character be real" before they walked on to a stage to do a song and dance routine. Now carrying a brand new, unrehearsed, unrequired, unwarranted prop.

But that was the actual production.

Back in rehearsal cast were regularly kept waiting, as I said for hours on end, by the director who would then break every 20 mins for a smoke and a coffee and wouldn't allow us more than 15 minutes for lunch.

One cast member, a good friend of mine, left and the following day (8 days before opening night) the director arrived, about 2 hours late, and I should add the director had the only key to the rehearsal space, and gathered everyone together to publically attack the now absent cast member. Who, it must be pointed out, had left because he couldn't cope with the utter disregard the director had for the company.

I had spoken to a teacher of mine about the situation and she gave me sage advice which I still go back to today. I said to her that I was tempted to walk. She said if you've signed a contract, or even if you haven't you never walk. Be utterly businesslike and professional but never walk. Her advice dealing with the tardy director was as follows....

1. Explain why you are not happy. Clearly.
2. Set out some rules of conduct for the director.
3. And for the cast.
4. State the outcome if the director breaks the rules.
5. Be prepared to carry them out.

In this circumstance, the discontent was because the cast were regularly hanging around outside the rehearsal room for a minimum of 20 mins and a max of perhaps 150 minutes. We had no warm up time. No structured lunch breaks. No structured end times.

To deal with this it was suggested that the rehearsal rooms were open 30-45 mins before our rehearsal call times, thus allowing people to warm up ready to go for the start of the rehearsal.

Also that the director had to be there by the call time for the rehearsal. If he wasn't, I said I would wait twenty minutes and then go home as I could work better there by myself than waste time waiting for him to arrive.

Oh and we had a known schedule for breaks and for lunch. Of course we weren't going to walk out when the clock hit lunchtime if we were in the middle of something but everyone knew that about 1pm we would break for one hour for lunch. And at 11am and 3pm we would break for refreshments/smoke etc.

That way everyone knew what the rules were. From that day on the rehearsal room was open everyday 30 mins prior to the call time. The director was never late. We all had rest and felt able to go on. If someone hadn't made a stand we would have all been utterly exhausted and probably been injured during the run itself.

It's not that this is strictly to do with office politics but there is something important here and that's that although the relationship between Director and Cast can at times be fraught, and at others beautiful to behold, everyone in a company has a job to do. Just because someone has a bigger title than Actor does not mean that they can ignore the feelings and sensibilities of the cast. Nor should the cast be prepared to lay down some simple, professional, rules of conduct.

This was a Fringe production but that is not the point. Assuming that because a budget is small the process would automatically be "difficult" is wrong. I've had the utter delight of working with gifted, visionary directors on Fringe productions with minisucule budgets who never failed to show their cast utmost respect and never once allowed their professionalism to be compromised by budget restraints.

Everybody pays to be in a production. Producers pay money and stress. Cast pays in blood, sweat and tears. But when everyone treats all the others involved with respect it's amazing how much more fun it is. And how much better the final result is.

So, young actors out there, don't be scared of saying if you think something, or someone, anyone, in a position of responsibility in a Company is out of order. On the big issues obviously. Don't waste time over the small stuff. But remember it's not your job to undermine the director. It's about being professional at all times and expecting the same of all others.

Getting my claws in to making plans

I've been thinking what it is about Humankind that makes us put self generated hurdles in the way of our own success.

Something has caused me to think that, although I subscribe to the view that when we're ready for something the Universe will present it to us, sometimes when the Universe thinks we're ready we are all to quick to disagree.

Perhaps it's not the fear that we will fail but the fear that we will be successful that holds us back from trying new things until we're absolutely ready for the trials and tribulations (as well as the joys) that new experiences will bring.

Personally I'm a little guilty of, until recently, ruled out the prospect of even entertaining the idea of going on an extended theatrical tour. I've not actually said as much and I've even gladly thrown myself into the audition process for some high profile tours, but somewhere in the back of my mind has been the creeping, gnawing worry that God knows what I would do if I'd ever been lucky enough to be cast in one of them.

Being the human keeper of two cats I had, I thought, planned for the eventuality of going on tour in so much as I had lined up a variety of friends who had kindly agreed to either take the cats in as house guests or, perhaps with less disruption to themselves and the feline fellows, spend a lot of time at my home and care for the kitties there. In situ. However it's become obvious to me that this was not preparation. This was me creating an obstacle.

My thinking runs thus...

Brilliant tour job comes along:
I ace the audition naturally, and am perfect for the role;
I accept the job;
Then approach the cat keepers of choice and ask if it's all ok that they do indeed look after the furry critters.

That train of action can only have one of two outcomes. They either say Yes. Or No.

Previously I had convinced myself that I would ALWAYS be able to find someone to look after the cats and therefore I would never find myself in a position where their welfare would impact my working as an actor. It really was a wake up call this week when I realised that there are in fact people who are highly skilled in looking after cats when their owners are out of town. They are called catteries.

Now in order for me to square the whole process of putting my beloved boys in to what I at times have called a "Cat Prison" means I have to have a seismic shift in my thinking. About catteries, about what it is to "care" and about my job as an actor.

The only person responsible for my furthering my career is me. I enlist people I trust and value to help me along the way. People who I learn from (either formally like a brilliant singing teacher) or informally such as the person I see when I look in the mirror...

I know that this post is largely about cats, but if you've seen Jasper and Peluche you'd know they're not just "ordinary" cats! Still, the process of making them ready to be put in a cattery if necessary, and of making my brain accept that this is the right decision as it frees me up to do something I love, work, without punishing them as I had first thought, is a long and convoluted one. I have searched using the power of Google and have found a number of local catteries on the outskirts of London. I will go and visit any that take my fancy and I will try to determine their suitability to care for my precious pussycats.

Although I am not planning on putting them in a cattery in the immediate future, and I know that I will shed a tear when I do so for the first time, I have to be ready so that when that offer of a 3 month tour on Broadway materialises (or more realistically a 3 week tour of rural Wales) I am ready and have few obstacles in my path that I have not thought about and resolved.

This business is a business and like all businesses planning is key. The old adage "Fail to plan, plan to fail" comes to mind here. But in this case it's not that I am guilty of failing to plan it is just that my plans were unrealistic and unworkable. Who am I to build my career paths on the need to have others there to give me help when, if, I need it. I am me. I am responsible for me. And mine. And my career. And I won't martyr it on the alter of long held misconceptions or unrealistic expectations of others.


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Of course if people have experience of housing their pets in a London or Home Counties cattery then please feel free to recommend or warn in the comments section!

Sometimes we're faced with tough choices and I've had one to deal with this week already.

I write reviews for Remote Goat mainly so that I can get to see a lot of theatre for very little cost, but sometimes I wonder what that cost might actually be.

I'm not talking about my sanity here, but what I'm talking about is that I have to review what I experience and I can't help but wonder if posting a negative review, or even one with negative comments in an overall positive experience might prejudice future producers, directors and actor colleagues against working with me?

I know it shouldn't do so and that they should respect that I'm doing a job and would expect reviewers, even those who are friends, to review any production that I am in, and any performance that I give on stage or immortalise on film, an accurate and fair review. But there's a little tiny nagging voice of doubt at the back of my head that makes me hover long and hard in thought before hitting the "Submit Review" button when I've got copy waiting to go.

Where I have no hesitation at all in writing about poor performance are those times when a restaurant or private members club like Shoreditch House for example, or a retail outlet like Orange fall woefully short on service.

Picture the scene at Shoreditch House at Monday lunchtime. A smattering of people on the sun loungers pool side, the single swimmer in the pool calmly swimming lengths, perhaps ten members in the restaurant/bar indoors and a large number of staff who dutifully ignore members. I was there with a friend who is a long standing member and even they commented that the service on a Monday is "usually" a little slow but that waiting for almost an hour for drinks to arrive was taking the pee somewhat. There was even a staff member seemingly more interested in watering the plants, by hand with what appeared to be a jug of ice, than he was in taking beverage and food orders. I am fully aware that I now sound like a spoilt little thesp but I wouldn't have expected to wait for an hour to order drinks. This is in a venue that prides itself on service and style. Really? Still, I have to say I'd happily return and laze by the pool even if you have to wait hours for service just because the view of the City from that rooftop is magical.

And now to Orange. Let's set the scene... about 9 months ago I bought a Blackberry Curve 8520 on payg because, as an actor and writer it is important for me to have access to email and the web wherever I happen to be and also as an actor it's important to know what my monthly outgoings are. So far so simple...

After a period of weeks the phone started to slow up, lock up at times, do weird things like not recognise any of the music tracks that I'd synch'd to it via Blackberry Desktop. Eventually, after about 8 months of slowly deteriorating service on the phone I took it back to my local Orange shop. Which just so happens to be the one that I bought it from too. I explained that the phone was locking up, dropping wi-fi, generally misbehaving to the point where it would need rebooting a couple of times a day.

I was delighted to receive stunningly seemless customer service in store as the assistant agreed that what was wrong with my Blackberry was not acceptable. She also mentioned that it was one of a number of "known" issues with the Curve 8520. I arranged delivery of replacement handset for the next day and thought "well done Orange! Brilliant service!".

The replacement handset arrives and all is good. For a week. One week. 7 little days.. Until the handset locks. Again. And again. At the end of the week the replacement handset was regularly dropping calls, not playing tunes stored on it, and a number of times an hour I would see something like (and I paraphrase here) Application rim_messaging not working or Application rim_phone not working... and, as had previously happened, if I received a phone call whilst I was texting or emailing someone then the phone would lock up, it wouldn't show me who was calling, just would freeze. After perhaps as long as five minutes it would suddenly spring to life and reveal that it had opened every single app on the phone. Although not being a technically minded person I knew that this was not right. So I returned with the handset to my local Orange shop once again but this time seeking a refund or credit note and the ability to upgrade my handset by paying more money.

I can't tell you how shocked I was when the assistant in the shop said that I can't do that and that I was "stupid" to think that I could. I asked her to call customer services and after much protestation about me being "difficult" she did. Only to then argue with customer services about whether or not they would let me spend money in their shop. After about 40 minutes or so I gave up and tried emailing customer services. No reply. I searched online forums and found the email to the Executive Office and thought they'd reply. Nothing. So then I resorted to Twitter. I found the name to of the guy who does PR for Orange and sent him an open tweet. He responded by asking someone else to get in touch. They have. I have an email address which I've forwarded everything to and now I'm waiting for their reply. They've said they'll sort it all today but I've very little faith now in anything that Orange, or its staff, say.

I'll reserve judgement before heading off to 3 though. And I'll keep you all updated but I will return to more acting type themes once this "issue" has been resolved.