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Debbie Bridge Acting Showreel 1

Debbie Bridge's - A Singer's Thoughts: CABARET – WHAT IS IT?

Debbie Bridge's - A Singer's Thoughts: CABARET – WHAT IS IT?: "

CABARET – WHAT IS IT?

I’ve been asking myself this question a lot lately, as I’ve ended up doing a lot of it lately. It started last year when a drag artist, known as Lady Imelda, asked me to join in on the ‘Glam Jam’ evenings at Halfway to Heaven in on Wednesday evenings. I thought it would be interesting and thus my toes were dipped in.

Now I’m just finishing a run 3 week run of burlesque/cabaret at the Tristan Bates, called ‘More or Lesque’ and I’m still in the dark as to what is this art form.

What makes someone good at cabaret? From what I can tell, I think it has a lot to do with the interaction and banter with the audience and your own U.S.P. (unique selling point). I’ve seen striptease (not to nadda, but close), puppets, comedy, men in drag, women in drag, a man dressed in lederhosen – with a bear theme and a whip, the list goes on….

It kinda gives me the impression of Music Hall and what Vaudeville may have been like. This is a world of where a wide variety of acts that stand on the fringes of entertainment and can struggle to find a home on more main stream stages thrives. Comic ability and a strong sense of sexuality seem to be quite prevalent as well.

In this most recent show, I have been the water pistol, raffle ticket selling, opera and every other genre singer. To get a better of if, come a long to our next show http://moreorlesque.kymsuttle.co.uk/Performance_Dates_%26_Venues.html or wait till the photos and documentary come out (not sure when, but hopefully soon).

One things for sure, whatever this art form is, the audiences love it and keep coming back 3 or 4 times! That’s always nice.

Crossing the Language Gap

Ack, it's all too much!

Just when I thought there would be nothing , there's too much!

Radio show, Edit Video, Do show reel, edit show reel, busk, cruising follow up work, restaurant follow up work, talk on American music, emails, phone calls, apply for auditions, prep for auditions, do auditions, keep events up t to date, blog, newsletter, learn new rep., learn more monologues, find a new agent, network, re-edit voice reel, concert, sing in artist house, follow up on concert/cd for NMB, excetra, excetra...

So how am I suppose to do all this on low or no pay?! That doesn't include any of my own personal interests or goals, which would be a list equally as long.

I thought when I finished my acting course I would be twiddling my thumbs, but the reality is quite different. I'm, now, under a mountain of admin. and wondering does it ever get less or easier?

I've done the time management courses and I'm doing my 'mind mapping' to try and keep on course, but I'm the worlds worst for giving myself a complete day off. I just think... I'll just check my emails and then I'm off sorting some sort of problem or moving some project further a long.

Things I'd like to change:

- check email once a day!
- phone people back within a week, doesn't have to always be the next day
- book days off in the diary and really do them
- tea/lunch/tea/dinner breaks
- stop after so many hours of work
- do 1 thing for an hour, then walk around the room or something, so I stop doing once thing for hours
- delegate whenever possible
- lunch with a friend - once a week
- slim things down, get rid of deadwood faster

I'm hoping that now I've written it out, it'll start to happen in reality. No human being can do everything I ask myself to do. If you have any good pointers, please point them at me!

Just read this:

Acting methods can help with presentation and leadership skills. No surprise there! What surprised us was that they teach you not only to communicate TO others - but to be responsive to communications FROM others. The skill lies in being able to be acutely aware of all that is going on around you and respond immediately, appropriately and authentically. The techniques to develop these skills are NOT about delivering a speech - much more about developing your sense of awareness and ability to respond.

So, how can we apply these skills to everyday life? Here is one example. A recent client had been particularly busy. He was looking for ways to help him keep his eye on everything that was going on in his team. He was thinking about practical techniques like keeping lists (which work for some but not others). Instead, we looked at an acting technique (which is also useful when presenting to groups). Imagine you are in a room with many people. Imagine one of those people is going to throw a ball to you - and you want to be ready to catch it. One way of doing that is to keep looking at each person in turn. That is unlikely to be successful - you will probably be looking at someone on your left when a person on the right throws the ball. Another approach is to soften your gaze - allow your awareness to expand outwards. With practice you will become sensitive to slight movements and changes of energy in any part of your gaze - which increases your ability to respond. Try it.

So, back to our client - what he had been trying to do was to focus on each of the myriad things which needed attention - exhausting! Instead, he tried sitting up, softening his gaze and allowing his awareness to expand outwards to cover all the things which needed to be done. Not only did it help keep awareness on the whole range of things to be done - holding a soft gaze helps the body relax. Try it and you will notice that your shoulders naturally drop and your breathing slows down. It stops that frenzied feeling of having too much to do.

I'm softening right now.... See ya later!

Sign Language - short film

This is a great short! Enjoy. Dx

Agents - What makes a good Agent?

Just recently I decided to let go of my agent. I can honestly say that this process is one of the tougher choices I've made in my career, as I know how easy it is to 'blame' someone else for a lack of something in my life. Also, performers are notorious for 'not liking' their agents, so I've spent a great deal of time thinking about do I stay or go and why? Plus, it's not always that easy to find a replacement, but this will be my first time, so we'll see how it goes.

Well, I've been fortunate that I've managed to have some really good conversations lately. All have come to the same conclusion - let my agent go. At the end of the day, for me, it's an instinct thing. I'm not naive, I don't believe another agent will necessarily get me more work, but I would like a better working relationship. So I've learnt what I don't want and what I'm looking for.

Not wants:

- someone who gives me the brush off when I ring them
- someone who doesn't get all the information or rushes through it to make it difficult to get it all down
- someone I'm afraid to speak to or drags up mistakes from the past like a broken record
- someone who doesn't listen to the changes I'm making in my career and puts possible jobs I know I don't want or feel are not my type in front of me, even though I've told them they aren't the jobs I want
- someone who talks down to me
- someone who says, "You'd better get this one....", I think this was meant to be encouraging, but really?!

Wants:

- someone who'll get back to me, if they can't speak to me when I call
- someone who'll give me constructive feedback on my work and promotion material
- someone who is friendly and listens to the direction I want to take with my career and gives useful feedback
- someone I like
- someone who'll work with me to get the best out of the working relationship eg: suggest getting a show reel or new photos, etc.
- someone encouraging

So folks, I'm not sure I'll find, this utopia, but I'll shoot for the stars and look forward to hitting the moon - at least! If I don't ask, I'll never get it. Re-reading this through, it doesn't seem too much to ask!

Acting Singer vs. Singing Actor

For the last two years I have had the great experience of working with Scott Williams and the Impulse Theatre Company in London, learning Meisner acting technique. I think I'm one of a very small operatically trained singers who have chosen to learn this acting technique.

I'm now coming to the end of my two years and am about to play Isabella Bird, Joyce and Mrs Kidd in Carol Churchill's, Top Girls, and wondering how do I all myself? Am I the acting signer or the singing actor? To be honest, I fell I'm both, but does this mean I have to market my work in two different ways to two different arenas of the performing arts or just choose one and run with that for awhile?

Recently, I had some advice to do the later; say I'm actress with singing as a skill. I wonder, if there are others out there who have faced the same dilemma or who are going through the same thing? I'd love to hear your experiences. Dx