Excalibur

Time to cross over to the dark side…

I was invited to take part in a semi-professional play to be performed at Titchfield Abbey during their summer festival. Excalibur: A Musical Play was written and directed by Susan Ellis-Sanford.
I was interested in taking part in this play to see how another playwright takes their script and turns it into reality. Directing your own work is a challenge for many reasons: Do you become precious about your lines when an actor has difficulty with the annunciation? Do you let actors change those lines when they have a better suggestion – if you do, how do you reflect them in your master manuscript? Is your manuscript technically possible – do you have enough time to change the set/costumes/special effects.

So taking off my playwright and director hats, I entered this production as an actor (but always kept a notebook handy to record my observations).

I was cast in the role of Mordred, a banjo-twanging inbred retard with an axe fetish. It was a dream to play, with one minor drawback – I had to sing! But the best part was that I was sword-fighting again. Or to be more accurate, I was axe-fighting (damned huge thing, the blade was a foot long, with a three and a half foot shaft).

The audiences were highly supportive and a damned fine time was had by all. The combination or recreating the history of King Arthur, with the additions of fictional elements and the fantasy of song provided all the ingredients that is required in good entertainment.

What did happen, which I did not expect, was I established a couple of business contacts. As I explained, this was a semi-professional play. One of the actresses had landed a role in a new television series. She had mentioned to me that there might be a possibility to gain some script writing work for her TV company. Obviously this was an opportunity I leapt at, and asked her to find out if they would be taking on writers for the second season.

Just after the final performance, she told me that the producer and director were in the audience; and would I like to meet them. I was there in a shot, talking about all of the plays that I have written and the awards they have attracted. Unfortunately, the didn’t appear all that interested. But strangely, I wasn’t taken over to them because ‘I wanted to meet them’ but they wanted to meet me! They liked my acting… No, that’s not quite right… they loved my acting!

The next thing I knew, I was asked if I would be interested in auditioning for one of the secondary characters of the series. Naturally, I leapt at the chance! So, I should soon be an Equity card holder.

I’ve been looking at finding way of gaining credibility for my plays. Unfortunately, the awards that my work has attracted so far has cut no way with agents. The audience figures don’t seem to make an impact either. But let’s see what happens when I can cite myself as a professional actor, who has worked with some very well known actors…

I wish I could tell you something about the series in question – but until I formally receive my contract, it would be somewhat unethical. Even when I do receive it, I will only be able to tell you limited things about the format and premise – most certainly not what my character is or does… we have to keep the audience watching don’t we (and I do so hate spoilers).

As per normal, I’ll keep you updated…