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Tom is our guest blogger this week

Right okay, so as you have probably seen from the ridiculous amount of social media advertisement going on, next week is the performance of our National Theatre Connections play. It’s actually quite fitting that the internet has been our main form of publicising, as the themes of this year’s production (Hacktivists) are all about how our personal information shared on the web is used by the government and how groups all over the world are intent on stopping this theft of data. 

I have taken part in 3 connections now, and every year it gets to half term and I realise that everything I was doing in the past rehearsals is about half of what I need to be giving. There is always more you can find out, about character, about relationships, about the text and most importantly, the other cast members. I have been incredibly privileged to work with some fantastic people over this process, and I would like to thank every single one of them for the last 2 months.

In terms of discoveries I have made over the last week especially, things about my character that I had never even considered have been brought to light. As an actor, I have a tendency to change the personality of my character a few times before reaching my final decision as to how I want to play them. I’m lucky I have been able to spend six hours a day this week in Pez’ shoes, as I don’t think I would have been able to decide what he was like otherwise. A special mention must go to Georgia Petts and Sam Winder, for listening and offering advice as I bored them with potential character descriptions and personality traits.  Pez has been an interesting companion, with a lot more to him than his lines offer. He isn’t a huge part, but I have enjoyed looking at how he could be portrayed. This character is a young prodigy, a computer genius with a knack for hacking into well protected databases. But I have been able to show him as much more than a geeky schoolboy. His relationship with his best friend Nisha has offered an insight into his loyalty and protectiveness, and the way he feels about the situations included in the play have been instrumental in showing me a way to perform. 

If you haven’t booked tickets to see this yet, you’re simply missing out. Take a look at the daily teaser trailers, check out the YTYT facebook wall and find the event, if you know someone in the cast get them to book you tickets. Just do what you can to come watch this excellent piece of theatre, and support the cast who’ve worked so hard in bringing it to life.

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