Grubbing for pennies

Back to the money-grubbing. It's looking like I might get a good tranche of work doing the auditions at my old drama school. I did my first day yesterday and it's amazingly interesting. Also good for my ego, as one of the candidates had seen me in something and recognised me. I did my best to pretend not to be surprised. Essentially you meet lots of hopeful young people and occasionally get to witness one of them doing something wonderful in the most depressing basement room in the world ever. I had a 17 year old lad from Salford go completely and utterly mental all over the place as Mercutio yesterday - so completely all over the place that he gave himself a stitch the poor love. He was the only one to get recalled and it was a close thing. He had to convince people that he wasn't completely insane and that he could be simple and honest. I find myself having to do the same thing sometimes. Bless him though - doing the auditions can be profoundly depressing if nobody does well, but all it takes is one rough diamond to make the whole day worthwhile. And you learn how boring it is when people are afraid of themselves. Actors have no business being shy.