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Separation of Blogs

I was right about the alphabetical thing. Actor/Astrologer – I’m more likely now to remember what I do on the side. Although which side is on the side is moot.

coloring-pages-alphabet-letters-letter-a2 (1)But this post is not to mingle these two occupations. Rather to separate them.

Response from the theatre-savvy people who read this page has been mixed. Some of us leap like young gazelles into the mystic. Some are quietly interested (in this category is one friend who has taken to calling me Madame Arcati). And some are reluctant to believe it, up to and including my personal favorite, a message from one friend after one of my promo emails, asking me if I’d been hacked.

So after this post I’ll keep the Acting here and the Astrology over there. McPhillamyTarot.com is now up and running, and there’s a brand new astro-tarot blog starting. If the stars call to you, by all means check it out.

And let me remind you that for the first 90 days in business, I’m offering a pay-what-you’re-happy-to-pay (with a zero minimum) aka a FREE sample.

Ok enough about that. Except to say that in my researches I’ve been taking in the mind-altering discoveries made possible by the Hubble telescope — you know the one I mean? The one that orbits the earth, the one that when they pointed it at a single fragment of sky they discovered billions of galaxies. Er, let me say that again, billions of galaxies. And just looking at one tiny piece of the infinite sky. The universe is a big place.

Compared to the infinite endlessness and abundance, anything that astrology could say is kind of … local. Or is it …? 52940_letter_a_lg

I won’t say any more here, but these and other questions will be explored over there, at mcphillamytarot.com

Except I will say that the day the Creator of the Infinitude of the Multiplicity — aka in some circles, GOD, and by many other names — was bored, and looking for a way to stir things a bit, well on that day S/HE invented … The Audition.

Yes, but it took the guy downstairs to come up with the call-back, or what we used to call in England, the recall.

Eee but it’s a tough gig being alive …

Or as Shakespeare puts it:

“… Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.”

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Magical Realism

When it comes to day jobs I have found it sensible to go alphabetically.

It’s the first time in quite a while that I have absolutely no idea of what work comes next. Oh sure, there’ve been gaps but I’ve nearly always had light at the end of the tunnel in the form of an (admittedly sometimes distant) job, and if occasionally that turned out to be an oncoming train, well even then, as Clark Gable says in The Misfits, “It’s better than working.”

But today the phones are quiet with the silence of mystery.

So …

Acrobat, Aerialist, Ardvaark-wrangler … and now … Astrologer.

Don’t laugh.

I mean it.

tarot-magicianI’ve always known what I wanted to do in life. When I was three I wanted to be a train driver, then a milkman. Aged 5 I played the evil baron in the elementary school production of Swan Lake. It involved a lot of jumping around.

At 6 I began to be interested in the planets and the stars and learned some basic astronomy, the orbital periods of the planets in our solar system, the names of the moons of Mars, some of the speeds of planetary axial spin.

This fascination held for a few years until I got tangled up with the quest for the other kind of stardom. It became my intense wish to become an actor. I took a few serious detours in youth and nearly didn’t make it, but somehow got to the Central School aged 20.

To be an actor, as perhaps you’ve heard me mention before, is in no way sensible.

But then life isn’t. Is it? Sensible.

I’ve always had a push-me-pull-you relationship with the craft. Always keeping an eye out for something else. Knowing that it would never be lawyer or doctor or engineer, always kind of held in the theatre, never quite ever achieving the velocity to escape its gravitational pull … mostly fulfilled in its orbit.

But lately something has changed … so I’m starting a practice in which I offer readings in both Tarot and Astrology.

For the initial 90 days beginning mid February thru mid May 2016 I’m offering pay-what-you-like readings to readers of this blog.

Contact me if interested.

More info here

Skeptics welcome!

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We’ll let you know …

A curious thing this, whenever they tell you in an audition how good you were, it’s more or less a solid guarantee that you didn’t get it.

Subtext is involved. In a screenplay it would look like this:

THE AUDITION

by

A. N. ACTOR

(c) 2016

INT. DAY. A LARGE REHEARSAL ROOM.

FADE IN:

At the far end there is a long table behind which sit, the DIRECTOR. He/she is accompanied by an ATTRACTIVE ASSISTANT, there are as many as three or four other IMPORTANT & PERCEPTIVE PEOPLE.

Off to one side sits the READER, this is an actor (just happy to be working) of either gender who reads with YOU, the one auditioning.

We enter the scene a moment after YOU have uttered the final words of the material you’ve prepared. There is an indeterminate silence as the ROOM waits for the DIRECTOR’S verdict.

DIRECTOR
Fantastic! Thanks for coming in.

YOU
You’re welcome. (What am I gonna do? Stay home?)

DIRECTOR
Terrific work! (But you’re not the man).

YOU
(Self-effacingly) Really? (Should I linger and schmooze this guy?)

DIRECTOR
(With huge conviction) Outstanding! (Why doesn’t he leave?)

YOU stumble to the door, everyone in the room wears an encouraging (but distant) smile.

DIRECTOR
Really excellent work! (I thought he’d never go).

YOU
(Confused. The atmosphere in the ROOM indicates that YOUR presence is surplus) Er … Oh …

DIRECTOR
Have a great day. (Have a great life. We’ll never meet again).

YOU, walking backwards as if leaving a royal presence, collide with the door as YOU turn to exit and ANOTHER ASSISTANT enters with coffee for the DIRECTOR.

YOU
(With hand to BLOODY NOSE, as you cross the threshold out into the world) No, no, it’s nothing.

DIRECTOR
(To ATTRACTIVE ASSISTANT) Remind me to never compliment an actor. So needy!

General laughter from the ROOM.

CUT TO:

YOU walking down hallway hearing laughter.

YOU (V/O)
I should have gone to law school.

FADE TO:

The STORYBOARD image in YOUR head.

art

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Acting

Tales From The Backstage

Flyer Design by Samantha Mighdoll
Flyer Design by Samantha Mighdoll

“Get yer Albatross!!!”

When I was twelve I was taken to see Charley’s Aunt in the West End of London. After the show we went backstage.

The stage doorkeeper announced us as visitors. We had to cross the stage to get to the dressing room on the other side, and I had my first view of an auditorium from an actor’s point of view. All those seats upholstered in red velvet. They were empty now, but only ten minutes ago had been full of people laughing. How could I get from out there to up here?

It’s a question that has never left me.

The set was latticed windows and ivy on stone walls. But the walls were facades, braced on wooden struts, held by stage weights. We crossed into the dark of the wings, and I caught a whiff of that unique backstage aroma, the mix of size (that they used to use to seal the canvass), tea (this was England), and sweaty humanity. Then into the warm glow of a dressing room. The naked light bulbs around the mirror and good luck cards and flowers. There was a small towel on the counter and sticks of greasepaint laid out neatly upon it and all kinds of cosmetic equipment. The place went into soft focus, like some moment-of-destiny scene from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

I was introduced to the middle-aged actor that we had just seen running around at full tilt in the show, chasing Donna Lucia D’Alvadorez, the lady from Brazil (where the nuts come from). He seemed calmer now, jolly and friendly. He shook my hand and uttered some powerful words, “So you want to be an actor?”

That washed over me like an electric tsunami. I flushed beetroot red. I couldn’t speak. I just nodded. But I knew that I had to find a way to involved.

I’m at Dramaworks at the moment playing Hector in The History Boys until January 3rd. It’s an excellent production with a fantastic company. In Tales From The Backstage it’s as if Hector breaks out!

If you’re around in West Palm Beach on Tuesday 29th December at 3pm and at a loose end, come on over to Dramaworks …

Tickets here

 

Categories
Acting

New York, I Love You. But We Needed A Break.

Great extra perspective from one of our Boys!