December 2014 - The Diary

More auditions, followed by the final Edinburgh dates of 'LETTERS TO ABERLOUR' at St John's in Princes Street during the Just Festival. The shows were followed by guest speakers and audience discussions which were fascinating and an honour to take part in.

It is looking likely that we will be touring this wonderful show again in 2015 so watch this space!

Between shows I shot a promo short film for a feature film I am involved with in early 2015. Another lovely crew of young filmmakers and an exciting project to look forward to next year.

And so endeth a rather successful year ! 2 fab tours of the UK and Scotland with KIDNAPPED and LETTERS TO ABERLOUR and a huge thanks to the creatives, crew and casts of both shows, as well as a 'Best Acting' award for THE LAST BAR. Here's hoping 2015 continues in a similar vein.

November 2014 - The Diary

Rehearsals began in earnest for 'Letters To Aberlour' at the lovely village of Coldingham., with our first night preview at the village hall. A fantastic start and we moved to Carlops Village Hall and another lovely audience and tight show. Then it was a long drive north to play Garmouth & Kingston village hall and an emotional return to St Margaret's Church in Aberlour itself, followed by the rededication of the WW1 memorial on the same weekend.

We completed our northern tour in Portgordon, before playing another of my 'bucket list of theatres', the wonderful Glasgow Panoptican, where Stan Laurel made his debut! We rounded off this part of the tour with a great show in Ednam village hall followed by a couple of local school visits in costume which went down well with the children.

Next up was a brilliant wee short film by Jack Willison, 'Don Alfonso Chadwick', in which I play another malevolent character. Great cast and young crew and look forward to seeing the results.

October 2014 - The Diary

October brings the Glasgow leg of the wonderful 48 Hour Film Festival and teamed up again with Silly Wee Films to bring retired entertainer Dusty Beaumont back to life! Our genre was Sci-fi and our film, The Last Bar won best make-up and I won Best Actor, so delighted with this effort and for our team who have competed for the last 4 years. And a bit of a departure rom my regular roles of killers and

Glasgow hard men..! But great fun and the film went down well with the audience at the Glasgow Film Theatre. You can watch the short film here:  The Last Bar

More auditions for work in 2015 and fingers crossed that next year is as busy as this has been! My episode of WATERLOO ROAD screened in mid October, in which I played an oily Pawnbroker in a fun scene and really enjoyed my time in Greenock filming this one and finally getting to work with director Rob Bangura.

My old co-star from KIDNAPPED Stewart McCheyne, captures it perfectly in this photo above.! The month finished off with rehearsals in lovely Coldingham for 'LETTERS TO ABERLOUR' which we are touring throughout November and December.

September 2014 - The Diary

Thrilled to announce that I shall be playing various roles in a Scottish tour of 'LETTERS TO ABERLOUR' with New Strides Theatre Company. Really enjoyable three days of rehearsals in Edinburgh and Coldingham and got the oportunity to work on the set and tour some of the local venues we are scheduled to play from November and a lovely cast and crew. Here's a description of the story, along with cast photo and writer James Urquart (below):

'Most soldiers in the trenches in the First World War wrote letters home. But to whom do you write if you have no family? More than 200 “Old Boys” from the Aberlour Orphanage joined the war and more than 60 of them were killed. “Letters to Aberlour” is a new production which draws extensively on the letters these soldiers wrote to back to the Orphanage which for many was the only family they had ever known.'

We go back into rehearsals next month and touring community venues throughout november and december and will post tour details as we get them. I am taking on the roles of Rev Jenks, Citizen A, Benjamin Pritchard and Albert Morrison in a cast of 5, all playing multiple characters, in a play that covers 1913 - 1967...quite a challenge!

August 2014 - The Diary

August proved just as tough as the month before. Blew my clutch on the drive south to an audition followed by more auditions but no jobs to report! Great to catch up with my former KIDNAPPED co-star Stewart McCheyne in London again, even if I was insulted by Samuel L Jackson in Covent Garden!

Back to Glasgow and time to return to the 'real world' and a new job in recruitment and just nice to be gainfully employed again whilst I pursue my acting goals! Back in the gym now as well and aiming for the next series of OUTLANDER which has just started filming again. Fingers crossed! And huge thanks to Stewart for editing together my Fight Showreel, which can be viewed here:
Simon Weir Fight Reel 2014

July 2014 - The Diary

Tour over and it was back on the audition trail, once my broken ribs had healed! Exacerbated by strenuous gym work I did myself no favours in July! Had castings for a play, short film and adverts but unable to land any work during July. Kept busy with my Family Tree research and began producing my own family history magazine and reading countless novels and trying to find that elusive perfect audition piece!

And I was delighted to hear that STV Glasgow had restarted broadcasting my old series HIGH ROAD although as it ran from 1980 it looks like I will have to wait another 15 years before I am due any repeat fees! Great to see it back on the screen though. Here's hoping for a new commission in the future..?

June 2014 - The Diary

June saw the end to our mammoth KIDNAPPED tour with 3 days at the fabulous His Majesty's Theatre with wonderful audiences and a final excellent review in the Daily Record. It was a fitting end to a great tour and I was sad to say goodbye to Alan Breck and Hamish II, my trusty sword!

On the drive back to Glasgow we stopped off at the Hawes Inn, Queensferry and had a coffee in the RL Stevenson lounge, which even included a Wanted poster for Alan & Davie! Much of the book was planned and inspired here and it was a suitably poignant moment for us all.

And so a huge thank you to all the cast, crew and production team at Sell-A-Door Theatre Company for the opportunity to perform this excellent play at 42 venues over the last 6 months