Peter Pan

It all started in a little a small - ish room upstairs in the Radlett centre, where myself and four other members of the cast of Oliver! came to audition for the next RARE Production which happened to be this show. Peter Pan The Musical.

I'm going to structure this review as I have done with all the other posts I have done, as not only just a genuine review of the whole experience but also an interview of myself interviewing myself about the whole thing from start to finish. And I feel I must notify people who are reading this, this review will be one hundred per cent honest. I'm not one who is known for sugar coating anything.

With any RARE show, it starts with the audition. Now at the audition, you turn up, you fill out a form with your name and address, postcode and any other personal details they want to know. Then once that is done they give you a number and you are called in groups of eight - ten people. In the audition, it feels quite strange auditioning in front of people you know from a show you've just done not so long ago we had the same director and choreographer that did Oliver! Oliver finished in early July and the audition for Peter Pan was in mid-August so not much time had passed since I last saw them, so it did feel strange to turn up at auditions and go "Oh Hi!"

You do the singing first, we sang as a group then individually just to test that we could sing, then we did a dance routine to see if we could dance, then we did a bit of acting, and just read for the character we felt we could get the most character out of. I read for Captain Hook as that was the part I really wanted. As it turned out I had a little competition for that part because somebody else in the audition also read for Captain Hook.

Two weeks had passed, I got a letter in the post and I was get quite nervous when receiving or preparing to receive news on whether you were successful or not. I considered myself lucky to have been chosen for Oliver! and this would be my second show with Rare. So I was preparing myself before I opened the letter as I did with Oliver, for the worst possible outcome. I had in my head that "Okay, It's going to be a no, but that's okay. If it is, it's no and nothing has changed" just so not to get my hopes up and prepare for disappointment. I opened it up and I took out this welcome pack and the letter said "Congratulations Daniel, you've been offered Mr Darling". My first thoughts to this were "Okay, great that I got a part" because there were less dancers and supporting cast for that show, so to get a part is a fantastic achievement in itself, but I also couldn't help but feel a great sense of being let down and disappointed that I didn't get the part I really wanted which was Hook. The feeling of failure to get the better role and be offered the lesser role instead.

I accepted it because I didn't want to not do it. I do enjoy acting, but it's not something I want to get into as a profession and credit where credit is due, I'm a free agent and I find my own work, I can afford to be fussy over what I feel is right for me. Most actors attitude is, the acting world is such a fickle business, you could be in one job on a film for eight months and then be out of work for the next two years and just accept any role that comes, however big or small it maybe. My attitude to acting is to afford to be picky and go with what your instincts tell you to do and advise you. At the moment my instincts advised me to accept and I'm not one to question my instincts. That's why I accepted the part.

As it turned out all my fellow cast members from Oliver got in as well, so I was around people I already knew which made rehearsals that bit more comfortable. Like any rare show, you pay a show fee of £140. That got sorted, and once that went through rehearsals started. Rehearsals started in September. Thursday 1st September in a school in Borehamwood. It was very odd and exciting being in a big room with all these people you didn't know. I'm never one to put myself out there when it comes to meeting new people. I'm quite sheltered when it comes to that, Once I'm used to them then I warm to them and become more friendly as the weeks go on. In the case of Peter Pan that took a long time to get used to. There were people there I already knew and they were interested in socialising and getting to know the new people, where as there am I, too scared and nervous to say "Hello" to anyone new. I just sat in the corner. Not literally but it was like that, not that I am not a very sociable person, I'm very sociable around people I feel comfortable with, it's a thing where I put barriers up around people new, because I don't know you, I don't know what to expect from you and I feel very uncomfortable around you. But once I'm used to you and things start to take hold, I become more familiar with that said person and I don't feel the need to put defences up.

There were a few rehearsals that I couldn't come to, or just couldn't make because I had no transportation to take me there and pick me up. If it's local in St Albans or in the area where I live, I can easily get myself there and back on my bike.  It's very easy. No problems with it at all. But if you're talking somewhere like Borehamwood, unfortunately without a car, I would find it very difficult to get to and from this place on my own. I'm normally very good at travelling to places on my own, but in this instance, it just couldn't be done.

In the first week of rehearsals, I can remember it being quite a long one. It started at five pm and ended at nine pm. I can remember getting our books which were these proper big white books with a script and lyrics and musical tunes in them of the words and songs of the show, and going through the first number which was "Something in the air tonight". Then I also remember blocking the first scene in the nursery.  I read the lines off the script and I thought, this is not a bad scene, I feel like I could eject a lot of fun and comedy into my character which would create a complete contrast to Bill Sykes in Oliver. The trouble with Mr darling is, he's barely in it, which limited my scene time. And for me, it those two scenes didn't really show off a good example of my talent as an actor. I had two scenes in the whole play. I was offered to be in the pirate scenes, however, to me, that proved far too difficult to keep up with and learn so I ended up having to turn that down.

As far as rehearsals went, there's not really a lot to be said other than, I showed up I did my bits, and in breaks where I wasn't being used, I'd go off somewhere quiet and read my script. To me, anyone else was insignificant. Which sounds horrible and quite ignorant of me to just dismiss people like they are of no subsequent value, but to me they weren't. My fellow cast members acted like children in rehearsals when they weren't being used, at one instance I remember a group of all the other mains and supporting cast, people of around the age of fourteen to seventeen going into another room, to scream their heads off and throw a water bottle around. It's pathetic and stupid and immature and I wanted no part in their activity as I saw it as a distraction.

We also had this group chat like we did with Oliver. It was a facebook group chat where someone from the group adds everyone else in the group to basically chat about nonsense and random stuff that came into conversation. This to me became very tedious, very quickly and I felt "What is the point in this?" "I just can't be bothered with it all" so I left the chat, and then I realised that by leaving the chat, I had established a barrier between me and them. And that bothered me.

We rehearsed for ten weeks starting from the 1st September, I think I managed to make six rehearsals in total, which isn't bad. Only I do recall not being there a lot and that, of course, meant I couldn't establish more of a relationship with these people if I wasn't there to do so. But you can't it when you're busy and have other things which get in the way like university work or another play or no transport to get you there and back.

When people see each other week after week for ten weeks, you do really feel attached to these people and feel like you know them. It gave me a great opportunity to meet some very interesting people, and the closer we got the show, that was the time I felt like I could put my barriers down and feel comfortable around my fellow cast members. Like take Nico for example who played Captain  Hook, I didn't speak a word to him until we did the show, and he was a very nice person as were all the other cast members, none of them were intentionally nasty or vicious people, they were just a bit rude sometimes, immature and ignorant.

But I liked Nico, I liked Daisy who played Peter Pan she turned out to be a very nice person who seemed more mature than the others because she was the second eldest in the group being sixteen. I can remember her socialising with me a little and making an effort.

In preparation leading up to the show, I was lucky enough to get a slot of the Radio Verulam Out and About Show on Fridays 12pm - 2pm to promote the show and talk about it. That's always fun to do, just to come in and have a bit of a chinwag for half an hour promoting your show and trying to convince people to come along and watch it.

Me on Radio Verulam, Friday 11th November 2016 (12:30pm - 1pm)

When it came to the show, the Radlett centre is tiny. There is minimal space to do anything on that stage. And the set suffered from that. It all looked very lack lustre. I know that this is amateur theatre and that you're not to expect too much, but the design of the set wasn't all that great. The nursery scene was simply just one bed and a window, a table and a chair. That was it. We also had this massive thing which on one side was a sort of woodland area, when you turned it around it was the pirate ship. I was involved as being one of the people who was responsible for turning the set along with five other people, including a member of the Rare crew. We had to turn the set three times during act two of the show, as well as that, there was a song in Act one where Peter takes Wendy, Michael and John to never land, and Peter and Wendy are up on this platform where you harness them up and press a button on a switch and they would slowly rise up to make it look as if they were flying. This became simple yet a problematic job, where I had to harness Wendy up, quickly. Press the button for her to go up, and then on a black out as soon as the song finished I was to press the button which would let her down and I had to unhook her harness in the dark, which is not so easy to, especially when you're under pressure to do it, as safely and quickly as possible. It became quite a struggle for me. But I got through it.

The Pan Clan all together, before the Friday evening show. 

All in all, I felt that the whole show as just a big let down, to be honest. It wasn't as good as I could have ever hoped it could be. I think that was due to this feeling of constant disappointment in myself in not getting the part I wanted and feeling guilty for thinking that our Captain Hook wasn't very good. No offence to Nico, because he's a very nice guy but I found that he lacked characterisation in his part, he was wooden, he didn't have as great a stage presence as myself. He's wig was in his face a lot, he had his back to the audience a lot and the whole thing just felt a bit boring, to be honest. Pan and Wendy were strong, some of the supporting cast were good. But I felt quite under valued and cheated in a part which I felt didn't do justice to me as an actor. I had fun with it and took much inspiration from characters such as Basil Fawlty and Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie they were a big inspiration to how I approached my role. I don't think any other cast member, took that much thought or preparation towards their role in this show as I did.  I also showed passionate and dedicated commitment to this, which I felt was ignored by everyone.

Having said that, I do think that this all added to the experience of working in theatre which overall is my overall goal. I have now performed in two musicals with Rare Productions and the experience that you get from that is very rewarding indeed.  It was a show which I felt everyone worked hard on and we should all be very proud of ourselves. It wasn't all bad, there are parts of that show that I look back on and think "That was very good" on the part of the mains and supporting cast because when you're putting on a show which has big numbers of people in it, especially with younger children, it is never easy because it is the responsibility of the people running the show to accommodate them as well as the mains and supporting roles. So I think the achievement of doing it and getting through it was good. Oliver was better, but this was something different, it allowed me to do a show which escaped into fantasy and was a lot more challenging as a result. I found working on this one quite difficult and like other shows I've worked on like "Twelfth Night" it wasn't one of the best shows I have worked on.

By the time we got to the Saturday, where we had to do two shows a matinee and an evening performance, that was hard work. To do it twice in the same day was hard work, and I just couldn't wait for it end. It was sad because Nico came up to me at one point and said to me "I don't want this to end" and I could tell how much he has loved this whole experience and I could see where he was coming from when he said that. I also felt like I should just enjoy this for what it is, as for me my time is running short with these rare shows, I can only do them until I'm twenty-one, when I reach the age of twenty-two, I would become too old to do them as the age limit is from six - twenty-one-year-olds. So I thought maybe I should just enjoy this for what it is, if this is to be the last rare show that I do, don't waste away the experience by wishing for it to be over and done with and I did get very emotional on the final show when Daisy started to sing that final song "There's always tomorrow" which she sings beautifully. The reality sunk in that it was over and that this was something that we could look back on feeling proud for what have achieved. So it's a part and parcal thing, where you want it to end so that you can move on but at the same time, you want to stay in the moment for a bit longer and cherish it just incase it never happens again.

Ending on a positive note, this was just an example of how you can come into something and making the most of the opportunities given to you, as you are the only person that is responsible for how well you use the opportunities given to you, and I always set out to do my best and I think I did that very well. 

UPDATE : Monday 14th November - Doctor Who and Batman

Hello All.

Just a quick update for you on what's happening with Doctor Who and Batman.

Basically because of the timings and knowing how busy I am going to be over the next few weeks, socially and work wise I have now decided to delay or lay off all things Doctor Who Action Figure Adventures until 2017. Which is a pain, I'm very annoyed with myself that I have allowed laziness and tiredness to get in the way of me making stories.  

The concentration now will just be on trying to get Batman series 2 uploaded before the end of the year.

And my Doctor Who Audio Adventure Christmas special will still be happening.

I'm just getting stuff ready to finish off 2016 and get ready for 2017. 

Thanks very much.

Hope you keep enjoying my videos. 

COMING UP on THE CHASE!

• Episode: 
  18 out of 18
• Transmission: 
  2nd December 2016
• Time: 
  Anytime after 11am
• Week : 
  26th November - 4th December 2016
• Channel: 
  DANBURY Productions
• Published: 
  12th November 2016
  

  
  

  LAST IN THE SERIES Bradley Walsh hosts as a team of four celebrities try to outrun one of the best quizzers in the country. The Chaser. But have actor Ashley Taylor Dawson, actress Natalie J Robb, dancer Kevin Clifton and reality star Gemma Collins got what it takes? 

The US Election

Judgement is at hand as today is the day the people of America vote for their next president. I wouldn't want to be in their position at the moment. Rather ironically this reminds of a time when we British people, were faced with a big decision and the result of that decision resulted in some good and some bad, and I would expect some good and some bad to come out of the result of this election.

This is what all the campaigning has been leading up to, two parties fighting each other, debate after debate trying to convince the people of their country to be on their side, why they should vote for them and not their opposition.

There are lots of reasons why either person should win, just as there are lots of reasons why either person shouldn't win because, at the end of it all, it comes to the future of a country that the voters are deciding on. I don't think it's my place to tell you what I think, who I think should or shouldn't win, because I haven't been following this campaign very much, I've only seen snippets of debates between the two candidates arguing with each other on television. It's not in my power to decide who to vote for either. It's out of my control as it is with any British person who feels they should do something. You can't.

Take the EU vote for example that we did back in June of this year, the Americans moaned at us for deciding as a majority to leave the European union. But at end of it all, there was nothing they could do to stop us from making that decision, the reason being was because that that particular incident was not their decision to make. And now the tide has turned and we are faced with a decision which is out of our control. I think either way this thing goes, there's going to be outrage, there is going to be a negative impact in some respect on whoever wins this vote. But there can only be one winner.

People think that we in the UK are screwed after deciding to follow Brexit, I'm not convinced. As always with these things, time will tell. I remember watching the 2008 election, Missouri and the amount of disgusting racial slurs I heard from some of the locals about a N****** becoming president astounded me. Now, even to some of the most outrageous rednecks, Obama has arguably been one of the most successful presidents of all time. I just hope that ideologies and racial/ sexual differences are not only tolerated but continued to be embraced which is the path the US has been going down. I do worry about the outcome of this election, some people even fear it, the outcome of this election could alter that significantly, so I am hoping for the best.

Why I love Roald Dahl

In the run up to my exciting new Roald Dahl book project, I thought I might go into a bit of detail about how I came to be the Dahl fan I am today, why I love his stories so much and what has inspired me to do this book project.

Starting off with how I first came into contact with Dahl's stories. Well, I can't remember a time where I first read one of books or listened to one of them on audio cassette tape, yes, I grew up with audio cassette tapes, such things are just unheard of nowadays. But in all seriousness, I don't recall when I first saw something with his name on it and started reading it and falling in love with it.

I just grew up reading his books and being entertained by celebrities reading his stories on audio cassette tape. Fantastic Mr Fox read by Martin Jarvis was a personal favourite of mine.

Dahl wrote loads for children, I think he wrote for adults as well, and he did some stories with a twist which were as thoroughly enjoyable as his other work. But his ten most successful stories that stick out in peoples minds include the following :

James and the Giant Peach
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Fantastic Mr Fox
Danny the Champion of the World
The Twits
George's Marvelous Medicine
The BFG
The Witches
Matilda
Esio Trot

Those are Dahl's top ten. I think the reason as to why I like him so much is that I admire his clever wit and inventive ideas, he has a way of expressing dark themes in his stories without making it so obvious to children, making it entertaining for them and not frightening.

I also like how he makes adults turn out to be the stupid ones and that children are the clever ones, for a child reading something like "Matilda" for example it opened my eyes so much with characters like Mr Wormwood who is this self-loving,  poxy, con artist-businessman who thinks he's clever by ripping people off when of course he gets punished for his impertinence when Matilda decides to super glue his hat to his head and it's very funny.

It's also Dahl's humour and choice of words that make his books stand out amongst all the rest. He is in a way like his characters, Willy Wonka is a genius with chocolate, Dahl's a genius with words. Such words as Snozwanglers and Whizpoppers are just joyful to pronounce. He made reading for me, very fun and it was his books that taught me how to read.

I came up with the idea to do this book project as a way of bringing Dahl's worlds to life again, and interpret them through the voices of actors/ people who I know reading them like on the audio books. It's a lot of fun, and I thought why not. It's Dahl.

Class, Doctor Who Series Ten and Bill.

Hello Everyone

This is just a quick little blog or me talking about "Class", the new Doctor Who spin-off on BBC Three and Doctor Who series ten set to start in April of next year.

I'll start off by talking about Class, this all came about when the BBC said a few months ago that they were was going to be an important announcement at midnight. I had to get up early in the morning for work the next day, so I didn't bother to stick around to know what this big announcement was. To be perfectly honest, I had a feeling it wouldn't be something that would be of personal interest to me. The chances of it being something I wanted was very slim indeed. Nothing really excites me so much anymore. I don't tend to excited about most things to do with Doctor Who because I've come to terms with what to expect from the show now, as I don't think it will ever catch on what I think of Doctor Who again. Just from the way, television's moved on and from the way, audiences have moved on.

However, I can hope that things will change once Moffatt goes and Chibnell takes over, the show will start to take a fresh new turn for the best. I'm not looking forward to series ten and I'm not bothered about following any of the updates since I heard Matt Lucas was coming back as Nardole as a permanent companion then that did it for me, I wasn't bothered.

Going back to Class now, which is the subject I'm talking about. When I heard that Class was announced my first thoughts were... "Yeah, Ok?" and "What's all this about?" and then I heard that it was going to be a spin-off series set in Coal Hill School and I was like, yeah ok. And that was it. That was all I had to say on the matter, it neither interested or bothered me.

Time went by and I didn't even think about this, then a trailer was released. I watched the trailer with Peter Capaldi doing his routine of "I'm the doctor, I can't always be around when you need me" type thing and being all serious and doctor-ish. I started to think "Oh well, this could be interesting" I could tell that the vibes I was getting off it, just from watching that trailer was that it was trying to be like a mish-mash of Doctor Who, Charmed, and Buffy. With dark themes and added sci-fi elements to  it, which is fine, there are a few shows that have gone down that root and have actually turned out to be quite successful. But I, however, was a bit skeptical in terms of what to actually expect from Class and it was actually one of the reasons that puts me off watching it. I also don't like the name "Class" I don't think it's too simple. I would have preferred something like "Coal Hill Acadamy".  I don't like the cast either, I'm sure they're lovely people but I just don't like them and their look. It's a shame that Katharine Kelly's in it. She's a good actress and she's better than this. The whole thing just doesn't really do anything special for me.

Now that people I know have watched it or starting to watch and say things such as "Oh this is great" and "You've got to watch this" some people I know went to premier and said it was good. I just don't buy it. I'm not at all bothered by it at all. It's a shame because they say you can't criticise something you haven't read or seen. But In my case I'm not forming an opinion because there's nothing much for me to go on. I don't like the premise of it, I don't like the name, I don't like the cast, I don't like the advertising. There's too much of it which I don't like, so I'm not prepared to even give it a go. It's pointless is what it is.

As for Series Ten, again that all seems like it's not going to be very good from what I've seen about it. There's been nothing to grab my interests. As for the new companion Bill. Well, when I watched the trailer with her in it, with the Daleks. No offense to Pearl Mackie, because I'm sure that she is a lovely person, I've seen her in interviews and she seems like a nice person, but as soon as she started talking I was like "I don't like you". Which doesn't seem fair, but I just found her really annoying and I thought "Oh here we go". I liked the way she looked with the denim jacket, the funky shirt, the afro and the jeans with cuts in them. I think she gave off the look of something like Ace - funky 80's look. I also don't like how they made such a big deal about it.

The new companion will be announced during half time of the football, to make such a big announcement as to who it was going to be, I thought it had to be a very famous name, I was hoping for someone like Michelle Keegan who it was rumored to be. Then those titles come up "Introducing Pearl Mackie as Bill" I went "Who?" I had never heard of her before and again no offense to Pearl but I just thought "Why make such a big deal out of someone who is a nobody to me". I don't know who she is or seen her in anything before. She was not known to me. Following all the production photos of Series Ten, I'm not getting my hopes up for anything spectacular. I'll be glad to see Moffat go. But somehow I don't think Chibnall will be any better to quite honest, I don't evny him though. I wouldn't want to be in his position, because he has to come in after Steven and he has to fix everything that he's done.

These last few weeks...

Hey everyone.

I've been racking my brains all day thinking, what on earth am I going to write about my day that is project related. And to be honest with you, I can't think of anything to write about. So I'd thought I would write about something a little different. I thought I might talk about me for a change.

I am never one to talk about myself, but I thought, why not? And so I've been thinking back to these last few weeks and thinking well what have I done in all this time gone by.

So far this year, I have, turned twenty, worked on seven plays - acted in three and worked backstage on five, voted in an important vote that will ultimately change the future of our country, completed my second year at university, started my third and final year at university, started getting back into gaming again, decided to make a productive start in taking my quizzing career more seriously and start to learn things that all the best quizzers know, and have been to every recording of the chase celebrity special.

These are just a few highlights amongst all the other social gatherings with family and friends and other things that I've done throughout the course of this year. You might be reading this and thinking that these things are not all that important but they matter to me. I have actually been very lucky in the fact that I have managed to stay busy for most part of the year. I can remember distinctly on some occasions in the past just having gaps of time on my hands and not knowing what to do with it all, and just wasting it by sitting at home going bored out of my mind. That's no way to live your life, you got to make every second count.

So those are just a few things I can remember from this year, If I were to recall every single thing I've done each day of the year and made a list for you, I would be here all night typing this out, thankfully for me, though my memory may be excellent in some areas in that I remember things from 2009 or 2010 I don't remember everything, I do forget things, it's not uncommon.

So now here I am, in my bedroom, staring at the same four walls and pondering where has the time gone? It's early November and it is eight weeks to go until we are in 2017. My goodness hasn't this year gone quick, and rather ironically I remember saying this about last year. The difference though last year being that I was referring to time passing where as with this year it's a question of the time passing fast enough, what I am getting at is the pace of life is just way too fast now. It's the great mystery, you get to this point and think, what on earth has happened? where has the time gone? What would you do if you could go back in time and change things? what parts of life would you change for the better and why, there are many times where I have felt like that this year. It's something that always comes back to me for some reason.

And I'm on my own a lot of time, so I don't get out much, but then that's just me, I like my sense of security and I need a lot of 'me time' time to myself, we all need that, but in my case I fall into a category of people who need it more than others, this doesn't mean to say I am an unsociable person, I enjoy spending time with people, providing they are the right people for me.

I saw something recently which basically kind of summed up everything to me about me, and the way I am with people it said "The Life Changing moment of not giving a fuck" and underneath it was something which said "How to stop spending time you don't have, doing things you don't want to do, with people you don't like" and I think there's a lot of truth in that. Life is too short for you to waste time on people who in reality don't care much for you at all. I've learnt that the hard way.

In these past few weeks, it's been quite organised and disorganised. I feel the two tend to be a sort of part and parcel kind of thing. There are time where I feel things go well and other times where I let laziness get in the way of my productiveness. And I think this is starting to take hold. I think this because I'm tired a lot the time from work, both my jobs are very demanding and I'm getting up early on weekday mornings to go to my first job which provides me with a steady in come, and I'm working late in the night on a play at the other work place doing something I enjoy, being paid with experience and knowledge. I think a lot of this year for me has been wasted and costed my productiveness due to my tiredness and social activity getting in the way. It's why I haven't been able to do so much youtube work as much as I would have liked to have done this year. It was all "I'll do it later, or I'll do it tomorrow" and as a result I change my mind. But then again, I think I am also very indecisive. I am a very indecisive person. I'll think one thought and then something will happen to change it and then I'm thinking of how good the one thing will be and then I'm thinking oh maybe I like the other one better and I can't make my mind up. It happens with youtube projects, picking a suit, whatever it is. It annoys me as it just wastes time. I wish I could have the time back to be honest.

I do tend to question, how much I have achieved this year and was it worth it? I've done all these plays and films but in the end what was it all for? I can't help but think in this way sometimes.

And now in the weeks leading up to Christmas, I am now seven weeks into my final year at uni, I am in a production group for my final major project of the course, we have to write an extended essay on a topic of our choice, I have a topic and I'm happy to be talking about it, we have to write a literature review on the books, web sources and research we have made, I have not a clue on where to start, we have other professional development projects to do over the course of the year, as well a production pack and a youtube channel for our film showing an understanding in multi platforming.  Not to mention it's very busy with the plays I am working on at the moment. In a nutshell my life basically revolves around four very important things. My course, My Projects, My Plays and My Game (which is Mortal Kombat XL) And in some cases I've forgotten how to be sociable because these four thing basically just dominate my whole life because I want them to, and it's sort of imbalanced in how I have let them take charge. In that I pay more attention to less important things than others. But I needn't get into that.

It's been an odd few weeks, as I just feel that I am in a comfortable position in my life, I'm grateful and happy enough to be in a fortunate position where things are neither terrible, bad, average or perfect - just ok.

That what I am.

I am ok.