Jumpers for Goalposts

Jumpers for Goalposts is a heartwarming and hilarious new comedy by playwright Tom Wells. Which first premiered at Watford in 2013. The theatre company for which I am member of, did this play recently for which I starred in as one of the five characters.

I knew a little bit of background knowledge of the play before going into it. All I knew about it was there was a five a side, gay/lesbian football team in Hull and that the comedy lies in them being rubbish at football. I had never heard of Tom Wells or anything to do with his plays prior to this. 

The process for this started in March 2016. Usually when a new play is holding auditions for casting, they send out something which is called a 'casting notice' this notice is placed up on their website and other various means of social media as a way to attract attention. The auditions are open auditions which means anyone can audition, from what I remember, there were only two audition dates. 

What happens at these auditions is you come along and meet the director and whoever else is auditioning, the director will give you a brief synopsis of the play, what its about, the characters, what   will happen in the audition etc. and they have a sheet of paper which you write down your name, what character your auditioning for and your contact details. The director then picks a section of the play to be read and you read for the character you've noted down to audition for, and you read it out loud in character with the other people in the scene. Auditions usually last no longer than 45 minutes - 1 hour. 

It all depends on who auditions, and I got quite a few call backs to audition again, until finally I got offered a part. The feeling of being offered the part, I can remember not being able to sit still, I was so happy and excited and all I wanted to do was do dance a little jig around the room and go "Yay! I got it!" because I really wanted it. I was very nervous that I wasn't going to get it, but low and behold I managed to secure myself a part in the cast. 

To comment on the part of my character when I got it. When I read it, I realised that I couldn't go for Viv, and I was too young to go for Joe. The parts I could go for were Geoff, Danny and Luke. When I read it, I saw Geoff and Danny being the more interesting characters out of the three. Not that Luke wasn't interesting, I just felt I could establish more character out of Danny or Geoff. Being offered Luke, I thought slightly optimistic about his character, and clueless. I say clueless because I didn't really know what to do with him. He first came across to me as being quite a boring character, but it was better than nothing and it was such a good script and I liked the on/off love story between him and Danny, and I just thought that I could be good. 

Rehearsals started around mid April. We rehearsed in the club room on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings. The way rehearsals worked in the early stages was we would read through each scene and then act it out and then in the next rehearsal we would recap on what we had done previously before moving on to the next scene. It all worked rather smoothly in terms of blocking the play together, and gradually we did one scene after the other until we had a full play. 

Unfortunately in the early stages of rehearsals, a member of the cast had to drop out. This meant that we had to find someone to replace him and quickly. Thankfully we managed to find someone who seemed very suited to the part, and rehearsals carried on with him in the role instead.

We didn't get into the studio until May. The studio was the space in which we would rehearse and perform the play in. I like the studio, though it is a smaller and more claustrophobic space than the main stage, I like it's intimacy and it really was perfect for a show such as this in terms of what the director wanted to do. She wanted the audience to feel like they were in the changing room with us, whilst watching the play. 

Me with my fellow cast members, Melanie Wall, (Viv)  top left, Gavin Mathers (Beardy Geoff) top right, Me (Luke) bottom left, Michael Llaniog (Joe) centre left and Paul Spruce (Danny) bottom right.

Now, rehearsing Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday for 2 - 4 hours can get very tiring, exhausting and very dull, very quickly and this had an effect on me during rehearsals, probably because I got ahead of everyone in terms of learning my lines and ques and knew what to do, where as other cast members were slower with learning their words and of course, to do all that plus being able to master a yorkshire accent at the same time, it was tricky so they have my sympathies. I may not have personally found that hard, but I know that some of the others did.  

At times, I would get bored or frustrated in rehearsals as they just seemed to go on forever. Going over what is called revolving runs of the play - what that means is we run through the play as much as we can and then pick up from where we left off at the end of the last rehearsal and just keep going. It's good for the brain cells, but exhausted my enjoyment out of it in places. 

As part of the publicity, leading up to it. I got approached by Jenny Ford who is the producer of the Out and About Show on Radio Verulam. She asked me if I would like to come on the show and talk about Jumpers for Goalposts. To which I had no hesitation in replying "Yes! Absolutely! That sounds fantastic, I can't wait to do it!" I went along to the radio station and had the interview and it was a lot of fun indeed. The woman interviewing me was very enthusiastic and liked me a lot. It was good to actually be invited on to a proper radio show as I hadn't done a radio show before, so it was a nice experience to take out of my day. I did the interview on the day of my opening night. 

Me at Radio Verulam, at the Out and About Show. 10th June 2016.


When it came to finally performing it, I was very optimistic. I hadn't performed in front of a live audience for a very long time. There was every chance that anyone of us could cock up or buckle under the pressure and I found it very difficult performing in front of small audiences because they are not as motivated, as larger numbers. I felt that the opening night where were we performed to the public was a brilliant response, I got such a buzz off of it and it was really good indeed, Sunday matinee was good too, but say the first Saturday of the run and a Thursday show, they weren't so good in terms of numbers but that doesn't matter so much because our director says "an audience of 3 people deserves just as good a performance as a cast of 300". So I didn't have a problem with the fact that it was small numbers, I did have a problem with their lack of motivation, it's a comedy and they are not laughing us much. Makes you question, why aren't they laughing? or why aren't they getting into this. Am I doing anything wrong? 

When it came to the night my family were in the audience, I was shaking like a leaf. I was so nervous and scared to the extent that I refused to go. I didn't want to do the show. I told my mum I couldn't do the show. Never the less, me being rebellious to the idea of going along and doing it, I did go and a fellow cast member could see that I was having my difficulties and she showed her kind support towards me and sort of helped me get through it. I was fine until, I messed up part of the set to which I felt really upset by. I am someone who doesn't like making mistakes, and to make a few noticeable mistakes that were noticeable to me, I just got so upset by that. And I just shut myself off totally because I just couldn't face it. I didn't want to face it. Over all I got through it, but that was one of the hardest things that I ever had to do. 


As well that the events of the day before hadn't set me in good sted. Performing in a show where you felt that you hadn't done your best, and as well as that not getting a comment mentioned about you and an opinion of your performance for your first play that you're starring in and have worked bloody hard doing for months, not to get mentioned at all, I think is very rude and it shows that I am basically ignored. I was pissed off and upset that I was ignored. I am only mentioned once throughout the whole thing. That did get me down. 


There was apart of me which felt I don't want this to end, I mean this play has been my life for the last 2 and half months. I have grown so used to seeing my fellow cast members three or four times a week, you spend so much time with them on and off stage, you become so close in such a small space of time. On the other hand, I was so tired and exhausted that I just wanted to get on with it and be done with it. So it was an equal measure of feeling sad that it was ending but at the same time feeling relieved for it all to be over and to move on to other things. I had a feeling of mixed emotions on the last night.

Overall, final thoughts were I am glad that I had the opportunities presented to me, I feel I seized them with hard work and dedication and gave everything a good go to the best of my ability. I don't see the point in doing a job, if you don't try and do it well. I'm sure one actor to another you would want to do the best job you can other wise there is no point in doing it. 

I feel as a team, we were a group of unknown people coming together, working to interpret characters in collaboration in order to create and emotional and hopefully unforgettable experience, we were all f*cking good. We knew that and we knew that no matter how good or bad the audiences reactions were, we had each other. 

I liked the idea that the play was set in a changing room, and that the set was very basic and we actually provided our own costumes for it. Apart from the red shirts which we had manufactured for us, everything else we wear in the play is our own clothes. It's nice to have something that is so modern and so current to the every day life. It creates a contrast to Twelfth Night, The Shakespeare play that was on before us and Under Milk Wood, the play that is going to be on after us. It creates such a diverse, nice contrast that I think theatre does so well. It's about the mix and different types of play you can bring together. 

I liked how this brought awareness to gay people and how we should be more accepting of gay and lesbians, people are who they are and we shouldn't shy away from it. I liked that underlined message that it had and how it cleverly portrays its politics through comedy and good heartfelt drama.  

It has been a bit of a rocky road, but I am pleased that I went through with it and that I was able to show everyone what I can do. I had wonderful feedback about my character and that people really enjoyed it. Could possibly mean more high ups for the future, who knows? 

We had a fantastic, dedicated, hard working crew, Stage Managers and ASM's and sound and lighting, props and wardrobe whom without their support we would not have a show. It was so so good. 

I am very thankful that I got to do all of it. 

Thank you to everyone. 

COMING SOON: NEW ADVENTURES with The Tenth Doctor

COMING SOON FROM DANBURY PRODUCTIONS.

NEW ADVENTURES WITH THE TENTH DOCTOR

OUT IN AUTUMN 2016

A  new adventure announced today, featuring the tenth doctor will be coming out in the Autumn of 2016.

So far, I have done a story with the ninth and eleventh doctors, but have yet to do a story with the tenth and twelfth.

So here's an idea as to the story that will be coming out later in the year.

The Burial at Thebos 

Starring : The Tenth Doctor and Donna

Written By : Daniel Bury and Jamie Harrison

There are dark skies on the planet Thebos... and winter is descending. 

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Donna set off for some fishing on the rock pools at the top of the mountain of Thebos. But the TARDIS picks up some strange interference,  Further up the mountain, an aged explorer is troubled and in desperate need for help. Will the Doctor and Donna be able to help him and find out the secrets that lie beneath the caves of Thebos? 

DOCTOR WHO Review : Day of the Daleks

DOCTOR WHO REVIEW: DAY OF THE DALEKS
Written By : Louis Marks
Directed By : Paul Bernard

Continuing in my escapade of Doctor Who reviews, I have come to "Day of the Daleks" the first story of the ninth season of Doctor Who, the third season to star Jon Pertwee as the doctor.

Just going into a little background into this story, Day of the Daleks is not only my favourite third doctor story but also my number one Doctor Who story of all time. I say that because 1. It's a third doctor story, 2. It's got Daleks in it, 3. it's a time paradox story actually done well to some merit, 4. Jon Pertwee is awesome in it, 5. The Gold Dalek is reason enough.

A brief synopsis of it is, on earth in the 22nd century, Daleks have enslaved the planet and humans live in fear of their masters. Meanwhile, back in the 20th century, a peace conference is urgently needed to prevent World War Three. When reports reach UNIT of a ghost at Auderly House - the site for the conference - the Doctor and Jo decide to investigate. Danger is waiting for them there, including a trip two hundred years into the future without the TARDIS.

I guess the main question about this review remains, why do I like this story so much, why is it my favourite story out of all the rest? I guess, I am inclined to select a third doctor story as my number one story because the third doctor is my favourite out of all of them so far, and that its got daleks in it, my favourite monsters.

The story has not have been written by one of my favourite authors, however I have liked every story Louis Marks has written for Doctor Who. He has written some cracking stories like "Planet of Giants","Planet of Evil" and "The Masque of Mandragora" and the director, Paul Bernard is not my favourite director's either.

But, I think what I like about it so much is the fact that in terms of speaking in a science fiction context, it is a time paradox story done well. A time paradox story done well in science fiction terms is cracking. You come up with a really diverse, clever, dynamic means of story telling which other stories can't do. Everything has to work in order to make it a good story though. I like the idea behind the guerrillas going back in time to change their future by altering the past and by doing so have created their own future so in effect what they did in trying to make things better actually makes things worse. I liked the story in that respect, just I liked the Doctor and Jo travelling into the future without the TARDIS and exporting themselves via a one off range of time travel. There is lots of nice clever little sci fi concepts in this story, if you're willing to spot them.

At first this story didn't have the daleks in it. It was going to be called "The Ghost Machine" by Louis Marks and basically have the same story we got, but without the daleks. They were added to get more viewers in, and it worked in that respect.

The ogrons, make a good slave work force, as these kind of butch, stupid, nasty, ogre like beings, that are just there to laze around and grunt a lot.

The daleks, they could have been more threatening, the only dalek action you get is right at the end of part four and even that doesn't look as effective as it could be, three daleks and a handful of organs marching on Auderly House. The voices as well don't make them sound scary. The actors doing it seemed to think if that they just talk into the microphones it would make them sound like daleks, what you get is slightly more robotic daleks which sound really slow "WHO - EVER IS OPER-RATING THE TIME MA-CHINE IS AN EN-ER-MY OF THE DALEKS!" It's very odd.

Jon Pertwee was excellent, he got plenty of opportunity to be the action hero, he beat up a few ogrons, as well ask zapping two of them with the laser gun, he got to ride a quad bike, he got to bombastic, and heroic and do all the scientific talking as his doctor does. You got the right mix of Jon in the doctor to come out in his performance, the only other time I think you get that, like truly get that is in his last story "Planet of the Spiders".

There's not much to say really, everything clicked, everything gels well for me in this and over all it is very very good indeed. Just wished we'd have more daleks killing people, and just more people blowing stuff up.

NEXT WEEK : The Talons of Weng Chiang.

New Doctor Who Action Figures from B&M Stories?

Hello All.

I'm sure you're all aware by now that we may not have too long to wait before the next selection of classic Doctor Who figures are on the shelves, waiting to be purchased by us Who fans. The supplier explains that a new Third Doctor three-pack will be released as a B&M exclusive in the UK and via Underground Toys in the US, all under the new Collector Range banner.

Although the set features no brand new figures, it does feature two new repaints. Firstly is the Third Doctor from Invasion of the Dinosaurs, which was originally planned for release in the canceled Eleven Doctors Boxset Two. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to have the Doctor's cloak as the original leaked prototype did, but it does mark the third time this sculpt is 100% accurate to the costume it's portraying.

Secondly we have a new Jo Grant, based on her appearance in The Time Monster. This also adds credit to a previous remark made by actress Katy Manning that three figures of her character would be released. The last figure in the set is the Master, as portrayed by Roger Delgado, which is a straight re-release.

UK retail is £14.99 and the set is due in B&M stores in July/ August time. 

For those that are interested, there is also a Tenth Doctor three pack which contains a standard Tenth Doctor, Vashta Nerada and a Cyberman with gun. 

As well as a Monsters three pack which contains a Zygon from Terror of the Zygons, a Cyberman from The Invasion and Ice Warrior from The Ice Warriors.

I will be buying all three of these sets, and I might be inclined to get 2 of the monsters set for army building purposes.   
That's all on this for now, more updates to be revealed at a later date.

Comic Book Series

Hello everyone.

Just wanted to make a quick announcement to tell you about my comic book series. Comic books were a thing, a hobby, an obsession that I had when I was younger, and going through primary school I always used to draw comic books in my spare time in class and I have to say I remember those days as if it were yesterday.

Anyway, ideas have cropped up in my ever so expanding creative brain. I thought to myself, why not bring back this hobby and start another comic book series based on a popular TV series of my childhood.

The story ideas flowed in my mind and it was just a question of putting pencil to paper and drawing the cover art for the front cover. It was quite an exciting yet daunting prospect to get back into drawing, I've been away from it for so long. Plus drawing is a very time consuming task.

But the series will be in non chronological order, what that means is I will be doing the series out of order of series. I won't start from a beginning, I'll just go straight into it and stories will come as they go.

Here are some covers I drew this afternoon, for the first three episodes.

EPISODE ONE

EPISODE TWO

EPISODE THREE

What do you think of my drawing skills? Let me know. I'll be posting regular updates and art work on my Facebook and Twitter accounts and all updates on this comic book series will be posted on here.

I haven't got a name for the series yet, if you have any good suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks. 

Orlando

This isn't the sort of thing that I was expecting to be blogging about today. I was expecting to tell you all about a new Doctor Who toy set coming out this Summer from B&M, but the attack that has happened in Orlando has really upset me. 


I heard of this news when a friend of mine posted a picture on her Facebook of the gay pride flag, which said underneath it Love is Love. Her comment on the picture was this, and I quote "Killing people because they’re gay. WTAF?!


There I was, thinking that people/generations/communities etc were becoming more accepting of same sex relationships and then comes along Omar Mateen and slaughters 50 innocent people in a gay club! Such madness. Such evil. And so unbelievably sad.
 And just a thought, why do we apply ’gay’ and ‘lesbian’ labels anyway? Is there a label for someone who only fancies brunettes? Or someone who only fancies tall people? I don't think so. We should all just be able to love who we love. Peacefully."

I liked and commented on her photo, later it is talked about in more detail on the news at 6pm. Me, my mum and my sister were watching and just knowing that someone actually walked in to a gay night club and actually killed forty nine people. 


I just makes me feel very sad for the people who have lost their lives, and for the families who I don't know who have lost their loved ones. 

I think it's appalling that still in two thousand and bloody sixteen, still there is gay and lesbian prejudice going on in the world today. People still feel the need to show their ignorance and question whether or not a man walking into a gay nightclub with a automatic rifle and committing mass murder is actually homophobia. 

With gay pride happening this month, this should be a time for gays to feel good about themselves, let them be who they are. Gay people should stay true to themselves, live in an accepting and appreciative world, not live in fear and feel the need to hide away. Words can not describe it, it is just despicable, unacceptable and unbelievable to think that someone could do something like that just because of people's sexuality. May I point out that people do not choose to be gay, people do choose to hate, buy assault weapons, seek out innocent targets and commit mass murder. It's completely unjustified and unfair. Gays and Lesbians are people too. They are not outcasts or inhuman subjects to point and laugh at. It's 2016! Why can't we just all get along and be more understanding towards these things, eh? Some people are Gay. So what? they're not doing anything wrong apart from loving someone of the same sex. 

I have gay friends and an uncle who is gay, there just about as normal as someone like me who has Aspergus syndrome. People lash out and mock things that they don't understand. I feel perplexed as to why we feel the need to go to such extreme lengths that we need to hate gays and resort to killing and mass murder. what is the point? what do you stand to achieve? the people who died in that nightclub wanted to live, they did nothing wrong, they were ordinary people living their lives and they had their lives so cruelly and harshly taken away by homophobia. The reason why this upsets me so much is because I don't understand why this had to happen and for such pointless a reason. 

I am currently performing in a play that addresses gay prejudice, and the character that I play is a young gay man, who is scared of coming out who is in every sense of the word 'a nervous gay'. In all honesty I feel quite happy to playing a gay person, even if I am not gay myself. The storyline that my character is involved in in the play shows that it is okay to be who you are, you shouldn't be afraid to be who you are and that we should be a bit more understanding and accepting of the fact to let gay people be who they are and don't judge them. I don't know why people are so against it? I really don't. 

Especially when there have been significant signs of things moving forward, for instance, if you look back to 2013, gay people couldn't get married in Britain. Now they can. Now to learn of something like this happening, it is almost like we as species are taking one step forward and then two steps back. So in four years we haven't really learnt anything at all. 

Also for the inevitable loathsome statements from the NRA blaming everyone except themselves, please USA sort this out. If anyone's instinct is to deny this was a homophobic attack, please, in the politest terms fuck off!

On a similar matter I read somewhere about the church disapproving gays, saying if you're gay you won't get into heaven? what sort of bollocks is that? not only is that ridiculous but it is completely stupid. If God is this all loving, all forgiving, mighty being but then turns around and goes "Oh no, you're not coming in because you're Gay!" what kind of a God does that make him or it? a hypocrite. It's perfectly apparent. 

This was a target attack on gay people, the killer was narcissistic driven by hate and rage and he wanted to kill, he wanted to destroy lives. So that's what he did. What his reasons for wanting to do that were, I don't know. 

The point I want to make from all of this is, people are who they are. I sure am who I am. I get up in the morning and fully appreciate the enjoyment of living a day of human existence. Explaining my love for the music of David Bowie, or my passionate love for Doctor Who, or my drive for being a quiz fanatic. Like it or not we are all products, we are all born with an expiry date. We make our lives what they are through our choices; once you've made those choices there is no going back. No one can undo the damage that has been done in Orlando, nor bring back the people that have died but what we can do is learn to live with it. Hopefully we can draw things to a peaceful conclusion and put an end to this dangerous madness. 

Thank you very much.