This week I have portrayed a sex-starved parade of men, a historic civil rights campaigner and an authoritarian father figure from a bygone era. But enough of my personal life…

(N.B. these were all assessments!)

It’s official – I have finished all my classes and am slap-bang in the middle of my first year performance, and to say that I’ve been cast against type would be an understatement. For those of you struggling to imagine the transformation, imagine Julian Clary as Stanley in Streetcar and you won’t be too far off the mark. On the one hand, I’m excited by the opportunity – it’s so easy to stay where one is comfortable and to focus on what one already does well (indeed, let’s be honest, this is pretty much going to define my career – we may all be trained to play ‘anything’ but it’s unlikely we’ll get the chance). On the other, it’s a certain kind of pressure – I want to be believable as someone who is so far removed from me and pretty much anyone I know that we are as strangers.

Here’s where the ‘falling in love’ begins. My eternally quotable director – he of the incitement of mass ‘WTF’ thought bubbles – is a fierce advocate of this and I actually – shock, horror – really understand it. Exploring the play has made the challenge seem more surmountable – there’s always something in a character that makes one say “okay, I get you”, and from there, hopefully, one is able to layer on everything else – body language, movement, voice – and build outwards. I guess that, in terms of creating characters, people have more in common than they realise – reactions, thought processes, a sense of morality – which provide an inroad. Simply put, people are people at heart and the rest is window dressing. So all I have to do is find the right outfit for the mannequin. That’s the plan, anyway.

In other news, there’s a real sense of wrapping up at school – the third years are preparing to leave and there’s a pervading sense of expectation in the air as they embark on their showcases and, hopefully, their careers. Strangely enough – despite having had a career of sorts already – the idea of being in this position in two years terrifies me. It’s incredible how safe one feels whilst at school – wrapped in a blanket that offers intriguing glimpses of the industry, but shields one from full exposure. I guess it’s the dread scenario in which I do my showcase and… that’s it, everything goes away – the link to the business, the network, the guidance… it all comes down to that moment.

I’m sensible enough to know that’s not true, of course, and that one should think of the three years purely as a training ground, a pre-battlefield in which to strategise, but the sense of desperation pervades. HELP ME.

Meh. I’ll worry about it next year…

Hamlet2B

Image: All Wrapped Up

The performing industry can often feel, for many budding young actors, like a daunting and overwhelming environment at the best of times. The unpredictability of this career is, for many budding thesps, the reason why they chose it in the first place and. as there is no single recipe for success. they are forced to learn by experience. In this blog I intend to illustrate my own perspective of this profession by talking about the encounters I am faced with; the beauty of this being that almost every day provides a completely fresh experience, a new story to be told, and a new lesson to learn and grow from.

A little bit about me: I graduated from university last year with a degree in English Language and Literature and am now training with Fourth Monkey Theatre Company on its repertory theatre training course. I have spent the past eight months training and performing with a like-minded group of people as well as with industry based practitioners, attempting to develop my acting skills and gain some experience performing top quality work on the London Fringe. This is only the first step on an undoubtedly long and winding road towards a professional career as an actor; it is going to be tough but, ultimately, very exciting.

I will document my own personal insights into everything a young actor encounters when starting out, from trying to get an agent, to headshots and financial issues. However, it would also be great to have your pearls of wisdom and experiences relating to the various components that comprise this career. Every one of my acting friends has at least one anecdote to tell which lays bare a small part of this hidden world and, with your input as well, we should be able to generate a veritable series of experiences, preparing creative young minds for the challenges before them. After all, I myself am in exactly the same position as countless others, learning by doing, and attempting to get a grasp on this ever-changing industry. If nothing else, I hope that at least one person may read this blog and take from it something that can help them within this profession and offer a stepping-stone along this bumpy path.

Essentially I am just testing the water here. I am excited about my immersion in this career and want to keep track of it all as I continue with each post; it feels like I have just stepped into a world I know very little about, but step by step I hope to find my way. If this helps future aspiring actors then great, and  if it entertains a few people, well, perfect.  It may end up being a solipsistic account of my life but I will then have to enjoy it being dredged up in the future, bringing about the dramatic downfall of my star-studded career and accept the consequences of that as and when is necessary.

For now, here we go…

Image: Mucho trabajo Project 365(2) Day 274

Last week, Abdulla Al Asam performed at Shakespeare’s Globe as part of Globe Education’s Sam Wanamaker Festival. The annual celebration brings together 42 students from the leading UK accredited drama schools. This year, Globe Education also welcomed Abdulla and his colleague Mohammed Ziyara who, from the Youth Activities Department, Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, Qatar, as part of Qatar-UK 2013 Year of Culture. Abdulla shares his thoughts with AYT…

As an actor, I never expected that my first taster of performing Shakespeare would take place in the country of his birth, let alone a location so fitting as Shakespeare’s Globe theatre. Of course, I have gained a large amount of experience performing modern drama in Qatar, which perhaps is to be expected in a country whose recent development has come to define modernity.

It was this cultural contrast between the UK and Qatar that made my experience at the Sam Wanamaker Festival at Shakespeare’s Globe so enjoyable and beneficial.

My colleague Mohammed Ziyara and I were invited to participate in the festival, alongside 42 students from UK drama schools, by Globe Education, as part of Qatar UK 2013 Year of Culture. Qatar UK 2013 is a year-long celebration of the long-lasting friendship between Qatar and the UK and aims to cultivate mutual understanding between the two countries. Our inclusion definitely brought a different perspective to the weekend, and it was a brilliant experience sharing knowledge and bouncing ideas in an international group.

The weekend involved a variety of workshops and classes, each led by an expert who helped us improve our performance skills. I found all the Globe staff I met to be extremely helpful and encouraging, but the chance to talk about acting with students in the UK who share my interests and passions was a real highlight of the trip. As a whole, I would describe my experience as both unique and extreme.

What I found most encouraging was the internationality of our medium. The UK is, of course, home to not just Shakespearean-era plays, but a whole variety of modern theatre. Working with British students in the weekend’s workshops and bringing in various performance elements that I had learnt in my home country was a great experience.

I found that acting and humour easily transfers over boundaries. My highlight of the weekend was performing the castle garden scene from Othello with Mohammed in front of an audience of 1,500 on the Globe’s stage – in Arabic! With very few of the audience able to speak our language, my ability to translate the scene through my acting was truly tested!

Standing on the stage, I felt very intimately connected with the audience and the Arabic humour we brought to the scene was definitely appreciated by those watching our performance. Throughout Iago’s devious discussion with Othello about Desdemona, we used our environment to great effect to bring Othello’s passion to life. At one point, a pillar even became Desdemona!

The weekend left me feeling even more excited by my craft and inspired with a huge range of new ideas. Exchanging these ideas with students from another culture has also really highlighted to me the benefit of Qatar UK 2013 and the cultural exchange it is promoting. I would like to thank everyone involved in the Sam Wanamaker Festival for giving me such a unique experience. And I am looking forward to the chance to welcome some UK drama students to Qatar in the future.

Image: Abdulla Al Asam performs at Shakespeare’s Globe as part of Globe Education’s Sam Wanamaker Festival, Sunday 7 April, 2013. Photographer: Ellie Kurttz 2013.