Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Meeting Janey

Yesterday (Tuesday) saw Mrs The Millbrooker and me allowing the train to take the strain (as the old advertising slogan had it). We were making a seemingly massive round trip lasting slightly under seven hours of travelling to London (not including underground to Fulham) in order to keep an appointment with Janey Clarke (director, writer, producer, all-round-theatrical-good-egg).
First port-of-call after reaching the depths of Fulham was to answer that eternal call of my tummy needing food; we didn't know the area, we didn't have much time. I'm only slightly ashamed to admit to diving into a Subway and eating something not a million miles removed from this. Diet be damned.

From there it was but the work of a moment to follow the directions carefully gleaned from the wonderful pages of Google maps and find ourselves in the reception of The Dance Attic Studios and its bijou café.

Our rendezvous was easy - Janey was already there and we settled in for a chinwag. "What was the point of all this?" I hear the cry from the cheap seats at the back.

I'm still trying to improve my abilities in the thespian arts and I can't think of anyone who improved much at anything without getting some coaching; Janey Clarke does professional standard coaching for great lummoxes like me who think they might have the ability to act. I wanted to meet her to see if I reckoned she had knowledge, know-how, enthusiasm etc that I'm prepared to pay to have imbued into me.

I guess that she wanted to meet me to see if there was anything she could actually work with.

Happily, I rapidly came to the conclusion that Janey is as mad as a box of frogs, deadly serious about the art of acting and seriously knowledgeable about that art. I liked her. She didn't laugh in my face and suggest I take up some other form of study, so we're going to have a bash at coaxing something worth displaying to audition panels from my slightly over-large frame. Next step - the first coaching session in a tad under four weeks; I'll keep you posted (have I ever done otherwise?)

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