09/10/09

So, for just over two years I've spent the majority of my time getting more involved and embroiled in the Factory - initially as an actor, but I've also dabbled in writing, directing, company managering, and generally playing 'Mum' (ie nagging about cleaning and homework)!

It's been an incredible time, and trying to describe it here is much harder (and emotional) than I thought it would be! I've been privileged enough to spend most of my time working with lovely, open and honest people on some of the best texts available, and have been pushed creatively further than I ever thought was possible (I wish those of you who know me now could have seen me at Drama School, where I used to bust into tears in the middle of rehearsals if I had to do anything scary - like acting!). I now have huge belief in myself and the work that I do - and by that I don't mean that I think I'm wonderful, but that I trust my instincts and know what interests me.

I think the biggest and best thing (so far!) that the Factory has given me is the entitlement to do - to act, to make theatre, to try something new, to write poetry, to play with radio, to direct my own work. To get stuck into new things, work hard at them, come at them from a new angle, and to allow everything to feed back into everything else.

I've now been a 'Factory Actor' for longer than I've been a non-Factory Actor - out of Drama school for not quite two years before joining. I'm not sure what point that has ... just that I'm pretty proud ... of us, of me, of everything we've done.

Onwards and onwards and onwards!

Bedi xx


(below is the entry I first wrote on this profile, the day I joined the wiki!)

30/05/07
Hey there!

Am very excited to have my own page on this fine website!

I just wanted to say a few words about how amazing I think the Factory is … so far I’ve had a totally inspiring time working on the Hamlet project. The company is made of a lovely group of supportive and talented individuals, and the workshops have been wonderfully creative and enlightening!

I think that what Alex and Tim are setting out to achieve with this company is brilliant – I think it’s so important for actors to take charge of their careers and to remember why they started acting in the first place (hard as it is, in the terrifying and horribly competitive world of acting) … the other day I was reading ‘Taking Stock: The Theatre of Max Stafford-Clark’ and stumbled across this passage:

Why do we expect so much from theatre? Why do we expect fulfilling work to land in our laps? Until we work out our own particular philosophy, what kind of work we want to do, with whom, for whom, what we’re aiming at, it won’t happen. Why should it?

It seems to me that that is exactly what Alex and Tim have done – worked out what they want to do, why they want to do it, and then gone about making it happen.

Well, there you go! That's my thought for the day!

Bedi xx

Graduated from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School 2005
Factory shows: Hamlet, Seagull, Round 1, Midsummer Night's Dream
Other theatre: The Late Middle Classes (Ambassador Theatre Group), Invisible Mountains (Royal National Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Sprite Productions), The Lady’s Not For Burning (Finborough Theatre), I am a Superhero (Theatre 503), Cradle Me (Finborough Theatre)
Television: Affinity, Casualty, Holby City, The Bill, Doctors
Radio: Caring, Beast at Bay, Parallel Lines, One Chord Wonders