The Olympics are a Double-Edged Sword

The Olympics are a Double-Edged Sword

 

Lots of work has been created because of the Olympics. It’s just a hell of a journey travelling to it and staying anywhere remotely close to it.

 

 

I love the Olympics. I have spent much of the last two weeks glued to the telly, and was even lucky enough to have tickets to the swimming. One of the pros by being between jobs, I can watch as much as I want of it on tv as it is essentially free.

 

Another pro of the Olympics, for me at least, is the amount of work its created for me. I know pre-Olympics there was a lot of doom and gloom in the acting industry, about theatres going dark and whatnot, but I’ve been luck enough to have work that wouldn’t be happening, if it wasn’t for Olympics.

 

So far, so shiny.  That was until I started to look for digs. Throw in the fact that my options are already limited due to my being a wheelchair user, finding anywhere to say seemed like the feat of an Olympian. I spent hours, days, even weeks of my time trawling the digs lists online, in Contacts, through Equity. To no avail. Everywhere was inaccessible, or booked, or didn’t bother to answer the phone on any of my gazillion attempts to talk to some one who was ideally close to where I’m going to perform.

 

That was another restriction. Being as close to the venue as possible. I don’t use public transport (that’s a story for another day…) so have to drive. So don’t want to end up navigating countless Olympic lanes to get to where I’m going, at a surprisingly early call time due to restrictions of vehicles in the area.

 

I didn’t realize that performing as part of London 2012 meant I would have to deal with LOCOG-esque restrictions. So essentially, airport security. Adds extra time to my morning as will have to do make up before I leave the house, rather than when I’m getting into costume. Also, NO FOOD. I sincerely hope they provide food for performers, because I don’t want to spend all my earnings on £2.50 99 Flakes.

 

Now I’m worrying I’m coming off negative. Of course I am very happy I’m getting paid acting work, and that I get to be a part of what’s happening this year. I’m yearning for a performer’s equivalent of the Olympic Village, but it looks like I’ll have to settle for adding to my collection of Security passes. Which is the closest I’ll ever get to an Olympic medal, so I will treasure it to show those hypothetical grandchildren people keep going on about.