Dramatization: Reenacting the Scene.

Weird is my staple. If I’m not rummaging through my closet for a weirdly specific outfit for a casting, the role I’m asked to do requires something odd. Or a shot that looks simple on-screen requires the most awkward angle you can imagine. From either you or the camera man. Very little is strange when you’ve worked for a while.

I got the call from a friend just after I had made plans for the next day. His friend, the producer for a local TV show, was in dire need for someone to shoot the next morning. Just for two hours. The producer worked for a local, and very popular journalism show. She needed a young lady for the dramatization of segments of the show. I was roughly adequate, and roughly available for the short time notice.I was also not going to turn down the opportunity to do some paid acting work.

The subject of the show was the exploitation of women who were donating their eggs in countries outside of South Africa.  I learned while driving with the producer of the segment to our first location that South African laws are quite strict on the subject. You learn many odd facts in this kind of work. They needed me to shoot reenactments of the girls in pain after their procedures caused complications in a hospital-like setting.

There are bonuses to shooting scenes where your face isn’t needed. With no makeup, wash and go hair and barefoot in my t-shirt and tracksuit pants we started with the clips they needed to shoot. But realising that my face wouldn't be needed I made sure that my hands, feet and nails were at least in a decent condition.

“The girls had really swollen abdomens due to their complications. I need you to push your stomach out as far as you can”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“I don’t know if I can. I’ve held my stomach in for the last 13 years.”

As we shot the clips of me writhing in simulated pain I automatically drew on my training to make it look real. Despite only shooting visuals I used my breathing patterns to make the movements natural. That means my whole body is involved in what I'm doing not just the area that the camera is focused on. As we were shooting a second or third take the producer stopped the camera man halfway through:

"Oooh. Look at her feet. I want you to get a shot of that. Do that again with your feet."

The show aired last Sunday, featuring mostly my hands and feet. Despite shooting for 4 hours instead of 2 it was still the shortest shoot and fastest turn around for a project I’ve ever been part of. I’m used to waiting months before something I worked on airs. I said as much to the producer when she told me that show would be airing 5 days after she finished shooting with me.

This time it was her turn to laugh.

“That’s how it works in our business”.

Glamorous premiering: Mignon MOSSIE van Wyk

For some reason people always expect actors to be extroverts. As if because what we do on stage or in front of a camera somehow means that we are performing constantly.I like to think that the really good actors are the introverts. Those of us who watch people. How they move and interact. Not being constantly in the social spotlight so that we are blinded to the people and the lives around us. After all, if we are to portray different people as actors we need to understand them.

I think I function somewhere in between. I have my hermit periods, and times when I desperately need to leave. Even if it just means going shopping to be around other people. After my long societal exclusion due to my knee operation I was a both excited and apprehensive when I was invited to the premiere of Mignon ‘Mossie’ van Wyk. My friend Tarryn-Tanille Prinsoo wrote the script for the film and graciously invited myself and Mauritz to attend the premiere.

Dress code: Glamorous.

I have a fantastic grey number I had bought without an occasion to wear it to, and now I had an occasion. I was confident in the dress until I bumped into Tarryn two days before and saw a photo of her spectacular dress she would be wearing. My confidence in my dress waned slightly.

“I’m beginning to think my dress won’t be glamorous enough”

“Don't worry about being over-dressed. The way I look at it, you can either shine, or fizzle, and I think it’s always better to shine”.

So on Thursday evening we got all glammed up for the glamorous premiere of Mignon ‘Mossie’ van Wyk.

“I’m really glad I’m married to you. Now I always have someone who has to talk to me when I go to these events. And you can’t say no even if you want to.”

Mauritz is an introvert by nature, so he understands that I sometimes feel intimidated by crowds of people.

“There’s a very specific photo I want us to take when we get there”

 

The two introverts trying to act natural in a social environment.

There are few things better than really being impressed by a friend’s work. When you can honestly compliment them and tell them how fantastic it is and how much you enjoyed it. And I did. Tarryn’s Mignon ‘Mossie’ van Wyk is a beautiful story.I was moved by it. And as a slightly cynical film scholar I rarely am.

Mignon ‘Mossie’ van Wyk starts showing commercially on 6 May. 

The Acting Business: Per Usual

After three years of professional auditioning I rarely get nervous for an audition. Especially advert castings. For me, doing my hair and standing in front of the camera is basically a day of the office. I remember my first casting though. Driving through to Johannesburg, sitting and waiting next to a model for an hour and eventually standing in front of that camera for the first time. And as mundane as it can potentially be, it never is.

As per usual I got the usual email late on Thursday afternoon.An email attachment supplied me with a script for the Friday 10 o’clock audition. Well, more like a page long monologue with four lines dedicated to ‘Friend’. And filled with technical jargon. It took me just over an hour’s preparation to get the lines flowing naturally pacing up and down between from the kitchen to the living room.

As per usual I arrived about 30 minutes before the casting was scheduled to start. There’s usually a smattering of actors by then. We can start on our paperwork and no one minds as long we keep ourselves out of the way. It also helps to be a bit early so if 50 ladies pitch up for an audition you get to go in and get it done. And not wait for 50 other women to do the exact same thing before you walk into the room.

Not per usual, the casting studio was locked up tight when I arrived. It was the first time I had ever arrived at a closed studio for a casting. Two other ladies were sitting in their cars. When I climbed out and stood aimlessly in front of the locked gate I was informed by another actor that she had already contacted her agent, who was already trying to find out what was happening. After about 30 minutes of waiting around, I checked to make sure my lines were still fresh in my head. To the horror of two of three actors standing with me. They hadn’t received the script. I silently thanked my agent as I passed them my printed page and called my agent to hear what was happening. It was already past ten and the venue was slowly starting to crawl with impatient actors.

About 15 minutes later the casting director arrived, the doors were opened and our jobs began.Girls who didn’t receive scripts from their agents were given print outs and nervously stood trying not to hear anyone else’s voice as they desperately tried to memorize lines. Those of us who were prepared were asked to go first to give them time. I sat in my line with a number two label stuck to my shirt. Number three waiting next to me nervously informed me:

“This is my first casting. Ever.”

“I promise it doesn’t always go like this.”

She looked at me slightly skeptically.

“You’re going to be nervous when you walk in for this one. Then you are going to do another and you’ll be less nervous. By the fourth audition it will be business as usual.”

Because it is business. As per usual.

Rain or Shine or Glamorous Casting.

As an actor the work you do doesn’t always fit the season. I’ve been asked to shiver in South Africa’s January heat and I’ve done bikini castings in the dead of winter. I’ve run around in high heels and large feathery headpieces on sand dunes during extreme winds. I’ve performed dance shows in teeny-tiny costumes at 10 at night in a theatre so cold I could see the vapour of my breath as I danced on stage. It’s part of what we do. And timing is rarely great.

Last Thursday I had all my planning and timing done so as to leave on holiday for my father’s birthday at lunch. As usual just when I thought I had all my Ps and Qs in alphabetical order I got a late afternoon email for a casting in Thursday morning. The dress code: glamorous evening wear. The weather on Thursday morning: cold and pouring with rain.

The rain worked fantastically for my hair, but not so much for anything else. Not to mention that the dress I wanted to wear had already been packed into my suitcase. The first order of business was fishing it out of my suitcase. The second was protecting it from the weather. As I don’t have any rain coats with a hood, I grabbed one of my husband’s bulky jackets he often used for work which would cover my red dress and protect it from getting drops on it as I walked from my car to the venue. I ran into the audition venue heels in hand, flats shoes on and covered in a large black coat with water running off of me. In essence, I was ready to audition.

Post knee-op I only put on my high heeled shoes just before I had to audition. Even with a healthy knee I'm far from happy in heels. I won't mention the models on their high heels who all glide into castings already taller than myself without the help of their shoes. And as fate would have it, I was required to dance on my heels, exactly 5 weeks after my knee operation.

After my audition I walked out on my heels head held high and removed them as soon as I was out of the venue. Bundled up in my rain coat I headed home, this time not caring about the drops that could potentially wet my dress or flatten my hair.

Getting home after an audition is only a shimmy away!

As a dancer I’ve always had an element of grace. Whether it was natural or taught in the hours spent next to the ballet barre its something I realised I’ve relied upon. No matter how fat or ugly or dishevelled I happened to feel, I could sweep into a room with my head held high, gracefully. My knee surgery removed that feeling of late. I’ve been waddling from room to room without my crutches, and using them the moment I left our home. There are stairs and uneven surfaces out there in the world.

On Tuesday something wonderful happened. As I walked out of the front door to go to the physio (the only place I’ve been leaving the house for of late)  I realised that I wasn’t putting weight on the crutch i was using to walk up the incline to the car.

“I’m not using my crutch”

“Then leave it at home”

And as simply as that I was off my crutches.

Just in time for my Thursday theatre audition. Not being allowed to drive was driving me insane, and feeling like a burden to my husband he was taking me everywhere wasn’t helping my general demeanour. On Thursday morning I received a call from my agency:

“A lot of the actors auditioning today have cancelled. The director wants to move your audition up from 15:30 to 12:00”

I had to phone Mauritz to hear if it was possible as we had already planned my audition around his meetings:

“We can make it, but I have a meeting on 13:00”

“The audition slots are all scheduled for 30 minutes so I’ll go in at 12:00, finish at 12:30 and you can be back for your meeting at 13:00”

We arrived a few minutes early for my slot. At 12:05 the director told me he was running late and asked if I could please wait…

“Go. You can pick me up afterwards, I’ll just wait here. Or I’ll take an uber home”

Then I heard my friend’s voice from within the audition venue. Suné also worked at our agency which wasn’t too far from where I lived. She could drop me off at home after my audition before returning to the office.

“Go. I don’t want you to be late for your meeting”

Mauritz was off at 12:20 and I was in to audition. And as the fates would have it, Suné  and I auditioned together. How the audition itself went is a post for another day. The fact that the director recognised me is a bonus. The fact that he said he liked my interpretation and the way I played the character is another bonus. His notes on my voice work were not so much, but all in all it was a satisfactory audition. And Suné and I were off to my house. And in the gate. And by my front door before I realised that my house keys were still in Mauritz’s car.

“Chandré I can’t just leave you here”

“I’ll be fine. I promise. It’s a safe complex and I’ll find a way in”

“Really Chandré. I feel to bad to leave you here”

I also knew that she needed to get back to the office for a busy day.

“We have a new neighbour. For the first time in a year. Her balcony is right next to mine. I can hop over from her balcony to mine and go in through the glass door on the balcony.”

I didn’t mention that it is almost a 2 story drop from the balcony to grounds below despite our front door being on ground floor as the flat is built of up the side of a mountain. The 2 story drop also means that we rarely locked the glass sliding door on the balcony.

“I guess I’ll have to introduce myself to my new neighbour now”

Suné went back to the office.

“Hi I’m Chandré, we haven’t officially met but I live next door. I’ve left my keys in husband’s car and a friend dropped me off. Would you mind if I climbed over your balcony to get into my flat”

The woman looked at me, slightly stumped. Perhaps because the only time she had seen me before was while she was busy moving in and I was on crutches.

“If you're sure. I just can’t look while you are climbing over.”

I climbed over the balcony with my shoes in my handbag, a bum knee and a short black dress hoping that someone in the street below wasn’t looking up. About 30 seconds later I was in my flat thankful that the neighbour whose name I now knew had moved in 5 days earlier. 

Coding and Birthdays!

When I started studying drama my mom said that everything I’ve done in my life somehow lead up to my career…lifestyle… I’ve chosen. Everything from dance to music to drama to art history and even math has somehow helped me with projects and performances and productions. Whether it was analysing light and composition in a shot, doing the math for technical specifications or splitting a restaurant bill (a big joke between drama students and usually don't care much for math!). When my husband, a computer engineer, and I started dating even the programming I did in High school was helpful. I could at least vaguely understand what he was talking about when he spoke about code and hardware. Now I’ve actually started using my limited knowledge of coding in my…lifestyle.

Saying a lot has changed in 10 years when it comes to computers is more than an understatement. And I never worked on websites while I was learning the basics of computer code. Mauritz swooped in, showed me the language we would be working in, did the difficult bits and got me on my way! I coded the basics of my website and now possess the skills to keep it up to date myself too!

On Saturday Mauritz was feeling ill, and I still require crutches to make it down the stairs of our flat. The quiet afternoon gave us the time to get the website live. We launched my fancy-shmancy new website! Just in time for my birthday today! 

http://stagedbybo.co.za/

 

Knees Up!

As a dancer I have often been told to “work into my knees”, “bend the knees”, “watch your knee alignment” all in an effort to “protect your knees”. Phrases I have also told the dancers I’ve worked with and choreographed. As a dancer you know how important protecting your body is because it is your work. As dancers we watch our alignment, use our calf muscles, bend our knees when we land and work through our feet. Whenever we work in front of mirrors we are watching lines and placements, partly for beauty and partly for safety.

In all the years of battering my body has taken as a dancer and an acrobat I didn’t protect my knees enough somewhere;Well at least my right knee.  Or maybe it was inevitable? Which meant that despite performing and training in a knee guard for the last two years, somewhere between the kilometers I’ve run and the careful stair climbing my knee eventually started becoming very painful. As in I can’t walk around painful. My husband carrying me up the stairs painful.

A trip to a knee surgeon and an MRI scan confirmed that the damage to my cartilage two years ago had worsened. My meniscus, which is essentially the shock absorber in your knee, had also torn and would need to be repaired. Two years ago knee surgery scared the hell out of me. Now…I just wanted to be able to climb the stairs again. I was relieved when I was booked for surgery the week we got back from Europe. I was very optimistic, perhaps because my brother had had a similar surgery and had walked out of the hospital. If all went well I would still be able to make my 1 March musical audition three weeks later.

As I climbed onto the table the surgeon told the team that I was a dancer and they had to get me back on stage.

Before I could be discharged the surgeon came to check on my dressings and to give me feedback on the operation. My knee had been in a far worse condition than they had originally thought. He mercifully only told me about the cyst they had discovered and removed while poking around my knee once they had confirmed that it was benign. It also meant that my recovery would take between six and eight weeks.

“Luckily you’re at home. One of the times it helps to be a freelancer”, the physio said after my first session, referring to the fact that I didn’t need to put extra strain on my leg. I had time to elevate my knee and do my exercises.

My great “luckily” is the fact that I have an amazing husband who can keep me fed with a roof over my head while I spend six to eight weeks recovering unable to work. Not all actors are that lucky. The “luckily” is that I can take the time to allow my knee to recover properly before it has to start earning a living again. Tomorrow is the big '1 March' audition and I’m about as graceful as a T-Rex on the short stretches. I’m able to walk across a safe, level, non-slippery floor. I’m out for tomorrow’s audition, but I’ll be knee-guard free for the next one... for the first time in a long time.


Lastly, a big and public thank you to Melandi Kloppers for staying with me the whole day of my surgery, keeping me company and holding my hand. 

Knowing Things Are Possible

I’m not one for very religious posts. I feel that my convictions are my own, and in the sensationalized media of our times the content that I put out into the universe should bring people together on common grounds (which usually means laughing at me), not divide them further or spark debate. There's enough of that already. That being said, there will be a spiritual tone to my post this morning.

If you’ve followed me professional auditioning career the last year you will realise it wasn’t the best year for my career. Personally I’ve had a fantastic year and I’ve been very happy. My Masters Dissertation was submitted toward the end of the year and that saga still continues but I haven't had all that much acting work to do. The paid work I would like to do was on the light side last year. I’m blessed that I have great support systems. I’m blessed that I’m in the position that not earning a lot of money doesn’t mean that I don’t eat or pay my rent. But it doesn’t feel that great.

Then a glimmer of hope at the end of the year. A physical theatre audition that went really well and the director was willing to work around my scheduling. A call back for a big American advert. After suspending my life for three days to be ready for the call back I was cancelled via SMS the evening before the time as they decided to move in a different direction. Then I received bad news about my dissertation. Then in January I received an email from my agent “releasing” me from the physical theatre show. The last cherry on the cake was receiving an email for an audition and receiving another five minutes later stating that they didn’t want a white actress. My January had not started well. And this was only the first week of the year.

Still, all of this only hit me when I spoke to an actor friend on Saturday and he asked me what projects I had going for the year. Despite all the ideas in my head, the little plans I have, the things I want to do and projects I want to rekindle this year I was winded. There wasn’t much I felt capable of doing in that moment. I remembered saying to my mom at one point last year: “I feel like all I am right now is a housewife, and I’m not even particularly good at that”.

This morning I scrolled through my Instagram. I don’t follow anything specifically or particularly religious, but I have a lot of religious friends who post things from time to time. Between holiday photos, coffee pics and new beginnings I saw this verse on the account of a model I had worked with for 2 weeks some time ago:

It was the reminder that I needed. I entered this business on faith. Faith that God would take care of me, and provide me with what I needed. Faith that the choice to be an actress was more His choice than mine (I was planning on becoming a vet, not a performer). It was the reminder that no matter the punches I’m still here and there is a bigger plan for my life. Faith that there is still a lot I'm going to do. And that I can do it.

Some you win... some could have gone better.

It’s been a busy week. As things typically go I have no castings for a few weeks, and then everything happens all at once. Which meant that on Friday I had 2 auditions. Not 1 minute castings, but auditions with material that I needed to prepare. Music and monologues. It also meant that I got sick on Wednesday. On Thursday I had no voice, which made prepping for the vocal audition on Friday rather difficult.

Well, the first email said my audition would be a vocal audition that required me to prepare one song of my own choice. I received a later email with a time change for the audition on it while I was in a meeting. I checked the email on my phone and replied. I didn’t see that attachments. Which meant that when I arrived at my audition, still sick but well prepared with my song, I wasn’t entirely prepared. I saw the other girls practicing lines and a song.

Thankfully one of the girls lent me her sheet music and lines, and the auditions ran late. Which meant that as each girl before me auditioned I stood by the door and listened to the accompaniment learning the song. By the time I entered for my audition I knew everything I needed to know. But my nerves weren’t in check, and I didn't have the voice I needed despite the cold and flu medicine I had been using. 

They liked what I did with the character, and strangely the song I had prepared in the 30 minutes before my audition went better than my own song. But I didn’t have time to dwell. I had a physical theatre audition, and that is my forte.

The GPS took me straight from audition venue 1 to The Market Laboratory. I had never been there before, so I was thankful when I found the venue quickly and parking wasn't a problem. I had prepared the lengthy monologue and I got through it. And when they asked me to perform the piece differently I did.  I enjoyed it.

I still have a week to wait before I hear if I have the role. And as with all my auditions, I don’t expect anything. But walking out of an audition that went well means a lot. One where I had fun, and got to perform, albeit for 2 people who are judging me. Even if I don’t get the part I had fun.