I was in a drama club as a teenager. I took part in a play about the Romans in Britain (I was a Briton & covered in dark makeup and 'woad'. Then I did a one-hander (just me), long monologue where I was the tragic young Queen Lady Jane Grey. I won an award for that from a BBC producer (side note my parents didn't come to watch my performance). Sadly my A levels came along and I dropped out of the club. I wanted to do an English/Drama degree but I couldn't get on the Drama course because I spoke with a regional accent (how times have changed).

As a frustrated actor I went into teaching (where your audience is pretty much trapped and cannot escape) and managed to connive my way into leading assemblies that were 'different' from the norm (lots of audience participation).

Then running a Pre-school we had a Christmas Nativity and end of year performance ( usually The Very Hungry Caterpillar) with myself as narrator (all the other staff were pretty much petrified at the thought) and the kids getting their first taste of being on the stage and wearing costumes etc.

I helped with costumes for Pantomimes at the local rugby club and for my children's schools. Also with make-up- I was particularly pleased with my costuming and make-up for my daughter when she played Rafiki in The Lion King.

Since then I haven't done any acting/stage work but I am seriously considering joining a local Amdram group which a friend belongs to.

I absolutely love the stage, film, radio drama. I really think, if I had my time again, I would have pursued this as a career.

Never did acting proper but in high school for English, we had some lessons in improvisation just for the fun of it. The exercises were very stimulating. Also since I started watching comedy, I find that I like improvisational comedy a lot. As an audience member I like watching the actors/comedians respond to each other in the moment. You can tell how professional they are when they don't have the "Oh Shit" moment we all have when we realise that we've said the wrong thing and we can never take it back The actors/comedians do have it as well but they're better at expressing/channeling that moment/kind of energy. I think this also stems from my interests in writing. For the most part my pieces are improvisational ones and rarely planned out (though I have written planned fics as well).

Do they not have amateur acting groups in Denmark? They are very popular here.

Davina wrote:

As a frustrated actor I went into teaching (where your audience is pretty much trapped and cannot escape) )

LOL! I've just had a mental picture of you teaching in a dramatic Shakespearian way and your students trying to escape but you've locked the door... Ah, too much imagination!

I've been in a play only once, when I spent a year in the drama club of my school, I was 12, ha ha. I can't even remember the name of the play but come to think of it, it was quite a weird choice for a bunch of pre-teens. It was about overconsumption. The scene took place in a supermarket, I was the mother of two kids, they were attached to my trolley which was filled with hundreds of products and pulled it like horses and for example, one of my friends was in a posh dress, dancing in a sensual way on "You can leave your hat on" and holding signs that said "Sales -25%" etc and us, "clients", were crawling on the ground, following her... Well, you get the idea.

I quite enjoyed acting but the play itself is a bad memory. One friend got her dialog wrong (she said a line that was like 3 pages ahead in the script), I didn't know what to do (say the right line, but which would have got nothing to do with what she had just said, or skip 3 whole pages and say the line that came after the one she'd said), I was like paralysed, we had to do the scene a second time, and I had the whole school laughing at me, thinking I was the one who had forgotten my line. Ah, well...

Then I took a drama option at school when I was 17. But we mostly went to see/study plays, and did improvisation sessions. For the baccalauréat (rough equivalent of A levels), I had to play a long monologue in front of a jury, I was assigned a monologue in which a girl sounded innocent and "pure" but actually made a lot of allusions to sex through metaphors and all. Got the best mark of my school so I was quite proud.

Anyway, I've never been at ease with acting. I don't really like having "eyes on me", you know? I prefer "shadow"  I really enjoy writing for example.
 

Those are some fantastic productions you have been in, Rebecca! And that play sounds really cool Punch Me!


I have realized I may never do on-screen work. And hey that's fine too... Before if people were trying to take pictures of me I would just start giggling and ruin it. Once in a pub a guy even decided to test that and spent the whole time chasing me taking pictures and I laughed every time. I've gotten better at pictures though. My friend wants to do a photoshoot with me (she's a pretty good photographer). And I'd love to do it for her...


A week ago while we were given a tour of the Eurovision venue there were some camera men there who were training for their big tasks during the show. One of them were training on his camera movements and closeups etc. I did see he had been spending some time filming some of the other Delegation hosts and I wanted to correct my ponytail. The camera man runs over to me, kneels in front of me with his camera and before I know it he's filming me so close and I just start giggling. In my head I just wanted to keep a straight face and pretend not to be bothered... I couldn't.

It's my low self esteem I suppose.