Cast Away

Well, we have been cast for our Shakespeare. The results are in and they are, well, suprising. Now, for those of you who have been following the show (or, perhaps, more for those who haven't) I said I wanted the part of Sebastian. He is not a main character, but he was interesting and I haven't really been 'the twin brother of the main character who is washed overboard and thought dead by all but the audience who watch him slowly make his way to the inevitable reunion with his sister' type of character before. And like I say, he is not a main part, but he is the king of his own sub-plot.

When I said I wanted Sebastian in the audition however, I immediately wished I hadn't. Because while even though if somebody had said to me to pick my own part I would have picked Sebastian for the reasons listed above, I wanted to know what I would be cast as had I not said anything in the audition. I wanted to know what they thought me capable of. Well, I found out... Ladies and gentlemen, the character I will be playing in The Ballarat Arts Academy's rendition of Shakespeare's '12th Night: Or what you will' is the enigatic, the noble, the man to whom the Nation looks:

Orsino, Duke of Illyria

Now, most of you probably already saw who I was cast as given it is in bold and seperated from the rest of the text, so the whole build up was pointless. But anyway, thats who I will be playing. I know that your sending me your condolences right now. I know you thinking 'poor Sean, he ha his heart set on Sebastian and now he didn't get it - it'll crush his wee heart', well, for starters, stop thinking in Scottish tongue, and for seconders, I'm happily surprised at the casting. Orsino is a slightly larger part than Sebastian (and my ego gets a kick out of that), plus I get to be all noble and kingly, while at the same time go weak at the knees for the fair Olivia, on whom my heart is set (I'm thinking of channeling Jareth, from Labyrinth?). All in all I think (or at least hope) that Orsino will be more fun than Sebastian, and I'm looking forward to putting my theory to the test.

In other news, I will be going away for the long weekend! Away with friends from the old show! If anyone has information for me on the ligistics I'd be happy to hear from you. See you all soon,

Onward and upward!

Remember, remember the 5th of November...

"Remember, remember the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason why gunpowder, treason

Should ever be forgot... "

I just saw 'V for Vendetta' for the second time at the cinemas. This time with my girlfriend, Emily, my roommate Ellie and her cousin. Again, I liked it. It remains, as I have said before, the 'light' version of the graphic novel. Not quite possessing the depth and power of the original and reducing some of the concepts to flatter shadows of their original form. What the film retains, however, is the suggestion of thought. It pleases me that people will see this film and then discuss it, as well as it's obvious links to the actual world. Currently, the people, of this country in particular, seem devoid of passion. I can of course only speak of my own experiences and from my own perspectives, but I see around me people who tow the line hoping the evils we see to blow over of their own volition. In a way they're right - this world will change without our intervention. On another level, they're very wrong. Our world is changed by the pressure of people, weather purposeful or not. So the question becomes not if the world will change, but how.

On another note, we finish for the term this Friday. Those of us who had no break during the Commonwealth Games will enjoy a two week hiatus from university. I will spend that time, hopefully, among neglected friends from my original network. I will also be laying floorboards at my parents house as a sub-plot to my holidays.

Until then, I have things to do here. Two more days of Uni means two more days of Film and Television. That means I have two scripts to learn tonight, journals to start (and finish) an essay to write, two scenes to shoot tomorrow and numerous workshops to be had before total, unnerving freedom. Also, we'll be seeing our casting on Friday afternoon for 12th Night. Should be interesting. Today we went on an excursion (yes, they still have those apparently) to WIN studios. It was pretty interesting. We watched the news lady record the days News Updates, we were shown through the production office and news rooms, and then at the end we got to be patronised by a television exec who had more money than dress sense. But then again, at least he has money. However I'd say he was the best dressed man alive for a job, so, as you can see I'm a man who sticks to his principles.

Well, onward and upward!

Audition

Well, I just had my audition! I think it went alright. I didn't stuff up my lines and I felt really comfortable. Best of all I had alot of fun in there, and I think that in itself is a victory. I'm beginning to learn to have fun with performance again. When I first got here, acting became a very serious subject and I really lost my ability to play. Even though the whole time I've been here lecturers and tutors have been saying "Just have fun with it!" I never really released. This year however, thanks to a few factors, I'm learning to let go and not take it all too seriously. I know, for those that know me you may think thats a stupid statement as I don't seem to take anything seriously; well now you know better! In the audition I went through my monologue, and it went fine, then they asked me to do it again and be more arrogant and to use the 'garden' I was in more, which I think I did. Then they asked us to do a contemporary monolgue. Kim (the head of acting, who will be directing our Shakespeare and who was in the audition) didn't say specifically she was going to ask us to do this, but we all had our suspicions. She had been dropping hints at the fact for some weeks now. Anyways, I went through that and probably did the best performance of it I have done. Now, before you jump to conclusions, my other performances of that monologue have been less than grand, so for this to be my best wan't hard.

One thing I worry about with this audition was that I said I was going for Sebastian. This may sound like a silly thing to worry about, but I don't know. I hope that the panel didn't think I was aiming low or anything. Its the character I want because I find him the most interesting, but I'd be more than happy with anything really. Oh well, ce la vie - just like the B*Witched song. You can never know whats going to happen in these circumstances anyway. We'll just have to wait and see. Anyways, I might as well go to that voice class I'm currently wagging. See you all soon!

Into the woods!

I saw the 3rd Year music theatre show last night; the Stephen Sondheim musical 'Into the Woods'. It was fantastic!! I won't go into too much sotry detail as it goes for just under three hours including interval, although it didn't seem nearly that long. It's basically a mixing of different fairy tales, most notably those of Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, the childless baker and Rapunzel. The characters from these stories must all journey into the woods to find what they seek. They all come across each other, making friends and enemies along the way.

It was such a tight show! No lagging parts or missed cues anywhere, and for such a long show thats wuite a thing! The characters were hilarious and heart warming by turns, with everybody in the cast putting in great performances. The main characters really kept the audience interested and engaged throughout the whole play and there were very memorable secondary characters; the Princes, Steward and step-sisters in particular. I'll update agin later, as I have a rehearsal in a few minutes for the Neighbours scripts were doing in Film and Television - there'll be more about that later too. Bottom line, the show was another awesome production by an uber-talented class. I'm very proud of them and I can't wait to see their 'Guys and Dolls' toward the end of the year. I'll keep you posted

Episode 1: Morituri te salutamus

Well, here we are! The pilot for everybody's favourite spin-off, THE SEAN SHOW! It took me about 17 thousand hours to get the template for this page as it is (I'm still not happy with it but life goes on...), so I guess I'll have to put at least that into writing on here. So, at the moment I'm in Melbourne, getting ready to head back up to Ballarat and face the gauntlet of Uni life. I'm starting this blog here because I didn't want to use up all my internet credit at uni fiddling around with it to get it right. And because Kate told me to... So, why continue on with an old blog when I can just go to the trouble, expence and pain of creating a whole new, untested space to pour my heart and soul into? Wait... that doesn't sound right...

Anyways, on the topic of news, well I have my Shakespeare auditions this friday. Thats pretty exciting. We're doing '12th Night', and my audition piece is Benedick from 'Much ado about Nothing'. They're both very funny plays (although, I think 'Much Ado...' is slightly funnier). I feel confident about the auditions - I know the piece well and I really enjoy doing it. The thing is, as far as male characters go in '12th Night', the choices are odd. Sir Toby Belch (I know, funny name!) probably has the most to do out of the male parts, but he's not a very interesting character in my opinion. Theres Orsino, of course, and he's ok. He doesn't have alot to do besides be in love with Olivia and get rejected often. Sebastian would probably be my prime choice. Like Orsino he doesn't have alot to do, but he seems a more interesting character. Whatever happens I'm really looking forward to the rehearsals and performances. Shakespeare; he's alright.

On another note, we've just finished working with one of our lecturers. She was taking us through the various ins and outs of film performance. There were some very beneficial lessons in there, but I'm afraid alot of time was wasted and, for those who know her, our lecturer reminded me of Ms. Smith from highschool... Next week, starting tomorrow, we have another lady coming in. She'll be focussing on set skills I belive. Teaching us how to work in and around a set, as well as how to behave in an audition. That'll be good.

Anyways, I'll be signing off now, hope everyone is well, I'll talk to you all soon!

(PS: The Latin in the title says: "We,who are about to die, salute you." and the painting is Pollice Verso, an 1872 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme. I just think it's awesome.)