I wanted to start a lesson. I started by buying a book which had almost all the training schools of the entertainment industry. I read through again and again. I didn’t realize that in Japan, there were that many agencies and schools in this industry. I didn’t know how to choose a good one for myself. Then after a while, I found one that would fit me. The first condition was that it didn’t interfere with my high school, the second condition was to find a school with cheap tuition, the third condition was it had to be a school which belonged to an agency and the last condition was to find an agency with famous people. Now I know some of the schools tuitions were cheap, but the quality of lessons were good but also some school’s tuitions were expensive but the quality of lessons were so bad. I finally found one which met all of my conditions! I don’t know why I chose only one school, sent only one resume. But my mind was ready for the school’s audition.
After a while , the training school replied. It’s been one year since I received an envelope for auditions. I went to have an interview. It was in September or October. The interview was held in a coffee shop. The guy from the school asked me some questions about why I applied and so on. I felt I did pretty good after that. Then the school called me. They told me that I passed! So I could join their lesson after 1 week. My first acting lesson was about to begin. My second life was also about to begin too…
OK now I’d like to write about my high school life a little bit to not forget about it! I was in the middle of third grade in high school ( Last year of high school in Japan. Students were about to have an entrance exam for a University). I was still struggling to see if I could proceed to a University but I was studying a little to not kill my choices. My thoughts changed a little by that time and I started thinking that maybe it would be good to study English in a University. My fever for English since I was in 2nd grand in junior high school was still there. I found a University where I could learn English more. But the other aspects of my life didn’t let it happen though…
Now go back to the previous topic! The training school was in the same town which I used to commute to for dancing. I couldn’t avoid remembering what I had done before. I met myself in the past sometimes. We were suppose to practice singing , acting and so on in the new school. Then I had to face my poor singing skills. And poor acting skills too. I realized I really couldn’t do anything… I was stressed because of my skills.
After a while since I started my lessons.. I quit my English school because of time. It was about time to have an entrance exam for us. One day the guy from the training school called me and I went to his office after school. I had no idea why he called me. Then he told me the reason. He told me that I could join an audition for a TV drama! The drama would start in January. He asked me if I wanted to join. But I had some problems. If I passed the audition, I had to give up going to a University because of the shooting schedule . My answer was of course yes! Then the day of the audition came…
The audition was held at a TV studio. I saw a lot of young actors like me. I thought I had to win them or I wouldn’t get any rolls. The audition started! I didn’t have a lot of experiences as an actor , so I just did my best. It finished quickly, and I didn’t know if I got my roll or not…
After a few weeks, the result came up. They told me I passed!! I couldn’t believe it! I would be on a TV drama! The drama was “Gokusen 2”! It was my first experience as an actor and it was also the start of my actor’s life. We all were getting ready to shoot the drama..
I was surrounded by trained actors , so I did my best to catch up to them! I had acting lesson for only a few months, so that’s what I could only do. The drama made me think about acting and characters. My understanding wasn’t that great, so it was hard to understand the script. Other actors sometimes gave me advise. 3 months past and we finished shooting! I couldn’t have made it without everyone’s help. I really appreciated them. But I didn’t become an actor who I still wanted be. I found I still had a lot of things to do to be an impressive actor.
Graduation. I graduated school in the drama and in my high school. They synchronized. After that I said goodbye to most of my friends. This meant a new page of my life was starting …
OK I won’t stop writing my column here! I’ve written my column about my past for 2 months. Now it’s time the past me moves forward!!
A new April came. I was still in the training school. I temporary belonged to the agency which the training school was in. So my lesson was still one day a week. I graduated high school, so I was finally able to make my own decisions. Nothing restricted me but nothing was certain about my future. I felt I started my life all over again. I was still a teenager at the time. My days with lessons and auditions started. I failed auditions again and again. As an actor I was still immature. There were thousands of actors like me in Japan. I was just one of them and didn’t stand out at all…
There was another aspect in my life. I was doing a part-time job. To do something not relating my dream was really hard for me. As I described before, I earned some money from my part-time job. I didn’t want to work 5 days. I really disliked working at my part-time job.
Lessons continued. I couldn’t find a big difference in myself like when I was practicing dancing. I thought this was really bad. I knew I would get old soon even if my acting didn’t improve. At the time, someone suddenly gave me a good opportunity!
In the drama, there were 2 comedians which did comedy together. One of them told me that they separated. He told me he wanted to enter our training school. He had a strong personality and it affected our school a lot. We didn’t get along first and argued. But soon we started always kidding with each other. He said he had an idea and told me.
“Why don’t we do stand-up comedy together??”
There were some comedian groups in the school. “Will I do stand-up comedy??” If so, I didn’t know where I would end up! But I knew I could study acting while studying comedy. I thought to myself what actor studies comedy in his life ?? I didn’t want to become a typical actor. I wanted to get something different that other actors didn’t have. Then I said…
“Let’s do it”
I danced in the school too. So I did whatever I could do.
Comedy was as deep as acting. Stand-up comedians and comedy actors are totally different. I didn’t know which was better, but it became a chance for me to learn both of them. Comedy isn’t about timing and strength and weakness only. My partner knew almost everything about comedy even though he was young. He was about 21 or 22 years old at the time. He is 2 years older than me though I could always say to him whatever I thought. We could talk about anything.
We kept practicing comedy. Acting lessons in the school weren’t as great as comedy lessons with him. I learned a lot about acting by learning comedy.
I noticed my life changed every 6 months. Maybe you can notice to believe this too.
When we started performing better, something happened. We both had strong opinions and he had a quarrel with the chief of the training school. They became really angry with each other and he quit being a student there. We stopped doing stand-up comedy. We had no choice. If this didn’t happen, I possibly may have became a comedian. Maybe..
The ordinary training days started again. I had acting lessons and singing lessons and so on. It was once a week. I still didn’t like doing something other than my dream. I thought I wasn’t living to do what I wanted to do one time a week. After about 6 months, I decided to leave the school. I said goodbye to my friends who were also rivals, hoping to meet them again in this industry someday.
It was February 2006. I didn’t belong to anything involving my dream. It was back to the beginning for me.
My life was becoming plain, but now I realize I made a good decision...
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment