During Lockdown, Dublin casting website fishpond.ie hosted a series of monologue competitions, based on screen monologues. They invited their roster of talent to apply, while providing free access to the site as a reflection of the fact that the entire freelance industry collapsed overnight.
I was actually completely oblivious to this generosity in the first few months - I had to move out of my flat in Belfast two weeks after the Lockdown started (where I did the bulk of early the Oasis videos that you'll have seen on this blog). Then because I was aware there were no acting roles being offered, I hadn't been keeping on top of all the communications coming from them (also it was largely being announced through social media, which I have consciously divested myself from in the last 18 months).
When I did spot it, I entered immediately, and the chosen monologue was from Peaky Blinders. I studied the monologue, but I had only ever watched the first two or three episodes of the show, and that was about seven years prior, so it was similar to getting a fresh script.
This is the monologue I sent in to them:
That was back in August/September. I showed it to a few friends, who charitably (!) turned it into a meme for Whatsapp! But I do what I always do with auditions, and largely forgot about it.
Until last week, when fishpond.ie announced their shortlist for week 16, which included myself! This was even more serendipidous when last night (Christmas), I receieved a peak cap gift, which got me to thinking if they had released their winners yet, and sure enough:
Which was a nice way to end the year! Thanks to everyone at fishpond and let's everyone have a better 2021!