Fitting In!

I entitled this blog as such because I am now in Germany. For those of you that do not know about my antics, I am currently just about to embark on a six month tour of Germany with two plays that are aimed at children learning English as a second language. I'm thoroughly enjoyed to be undertaking this work, and getting to know my tour buddy Eva Sampson.

Having landed in Dortmund and being presented with a particularly white winter wonderland, the adventures got underway! We got off the plane no problem, although I of course had problems finding my passport! We were greeted by our coach driver and the rest of our group. We had met the rest of the group in the airport in Luton. It's so random how small the theatre world is. One of the girls that I spoke to actually knows Anton from my MA class. She lives in Detroit, Michigan and actually knows Anton and indeed her sister went to school with him. There was another guy called Andy who I also recognised but could not lay my finger on where I knew him from. I eventually realised that I had been in a play with him 7 years prior when I had been at school and we had been used in a production of "Forty Years On".

I find the idea interesting that there is a maximum of "six degrees of separation" between you and anyone else in the world. I think in the acting world this could even be condensed into four degrees of separation. It's like a tight-knit family where even if you don't know someone closely, you know of them. This idea is probably why actors usually adapt to each others company really well. I mean, who else would be on a plane that's been delayed for an hour demanding Champagne and playing charades in the aisles. Charades actually turned out to be a lot of fun and we did continue it for most of the flight - in between seat hopping! The plane was fairly empty so we were able to continue mingling with each other.

So we have been in Germany now and admired the landscape on the drive to the base where we will be rehearsing for the next three weeks. It really is quite beautiful here. It reminds me slightly of england, but with a vaster expanse of countryside (from what we could see at any rate). So tonight we are going to be having a celebratory meal and the going out dancing/clubbing. I have officially registered for residency in Germany now for whilst I'm here on tour. I have also opened a German bank account and now we are just waiting to find our accomodation, which apparently is the luxury one - so everyone else is slightly jealous haha.

Moving Out, Seeing Beauty

Sitting here in my bed I have a lot to contemplate. There are so many feelings going through my head. In less than three hours I will be setting out on a life-changing journey that will shape a great part of my life.

I'm ready to make this step! There is so much beauty over there that I will see. I've come to appreciate what I can see now that I'm older. Every morning when I'm driving I take a glance at my surroundings; the sun rises, the buildings, the urban jungles that surround our towns and run the skirts of our cities. It will be quite different !! ... Quite exciting... Now I think its time to try and dream these landscapes until I experience them.

Insomnia - To Be Or Not To Be?

I would like to use the term insomniac to describe myself at the moment. I realise that this is completely inappropriate, and yet it feels apt.

Google defines insomnia as; an inability to sleep; chronic sleeplessness

Right now I would find that I have an inability to sleep. I have to make sure that this is not misconstrued with not sleeping at all. I am getting some sleep, but this can range from anything between 3 and 7 hours (usually more in favour of the former). I find that I am losing the ability to dream, and for me this is an integral part of sleeping. I know that there are people out there that don't dream, or can't find a way to. I have always dreamt from a young age. I find it truly magnificent the degree to which you can create near real worlds for hours at a time. One of the most amazing parts is that despite being asleep say - for two consecutive nights and acquiring 7 hours of sleep - you can feel like the dream has gone on for X amount of time on the first night and a completely different Y amount on the second night. It would be interesting to research into how and why people can have dreams that can appear to be of different lengths, despite them happening over the same amount of physical sleeping time.

I can imagine that there will be many more random ramblings of this kind from me in the coming weeks. I do hope though that this condition does cure itself. I'm not especially looking forward to starting my new job with a lack of sleep problem. However, for now this is your adventurous actor, signing out!

2010 - What Will It Bring?

It's come to that time again where I've wondered if anyone caeres about my life. Perhaps its time to document it in some form or another. I've got a lot of memories from the last ten years, but I am quite happy to put a seal and archive that part of my life and see what the next decade has in store for me.

I was awestruck as I walked back from the pub on New Years Eve. The whole community had come together and celebrated a timestamp on this planet as one. It has always pleased me that for this one night, as far as anyone can tell people put aside all differences and enjoy themselves. All around the world we see people cheering, and revelling in the chance to start afresh - to reinvent, or revamp their personal selves into something that is even more fabulous than before. It was walking down the street and thinking these things that I happened to glance up, and there I was greeted by tens of chinese lanterns. At every corner of the sky that you looked at there was a lantern swooping across the sky - moving ever closer towards the summit of its journey. Even before Vicky and I reached home we could see more lanterns that had been sent off.

I thought that I would share this momentous moment with you all, and hope that everyone has a great start to their New Year!