Nostalgia

Fade In

Hackneyed stand up on stage

Hackneyed Stand Up: Hey you know what's crazy? Childhood nostalgia! Ever watch anything from your childhood and think "wow! that sure is strange/sophisticated/simplistic/disturbing or otherwise different from how I remebered it as a kid? And man! Those disparate images and recollections bringing back all those prior associations and experiences, crazy, huh?! AMIRIGHT?! SHOW ME APPROVAL

Fade Out

I don't know why I structured the beginning that way. I guess I felt like the subject of this post was rife for  a send up of... hackneyed stand ups doing stand up, or something. Anyway the subject is nostalgia. Now that I have all this down time, last night I was inspired to start watching old episodes of the early 90s pre Family Guy post The Simpsons animated comedy The Critic. I pretty vividly remember when this show was on TV circa 1994 in what felt to me like a more up beat phase of childhood, that being Berkeley California. I remember I was away from the crazy cult run little K through 2 school I was at while we were at Davis where I felt isolated and outcast because I was isolated and outcast because the people who were all members of this weird protestant cultish church and had put their children in this one school didn't like my secular intellectual partly Jewish parents and instead was at a quirky little montesori school where I had quirky friends and generally liked it there and was happy. Part of my family life that I remember most specifically and fondly, was all watching The Simpsons every Saturday or Sunday or whenever new episodes of golden age Simpsons episodes used to air during that period, and also The Critic.

Rewatching old episodes is like opening a psychic time capsule for me, as images I remember when watching and rewatching the show, particularly the myriad cut aways to movie spoofs (see Family Guy parallels) are recontextualized by my more mature understanding of cultural references and satire. Like this clip.

The show was ahead of it's time. Along with The Simpsons, it's DNA is definitely present in all the comedies you love, 30 Rock, Community, Family Guy... 30 Rock. Looking back on it now, I can't help but wonder how much the show and in particular it's protagonist helped shape my view of the world and my sense of humor. Jay Sherman is an easy guy for me to identify with, especially as an adult, artsy, intellectual, self aware, an outsider... also snobby, elitist, and as the show harps on for much of it's comedic effect, schlubby and grossly misshapen. The character is both what I aspire to be and not to be. But it's comedic sensibility reflects much of my own, and that's probably because I watched and identified with it in my childhood, along with the members of my family.

Well, that's all I can think of to say about that. But all this nostalgia stuff does tie in sort of Thanksgiving, right? One of my favorite holidays, a celebration of food and family and giving thanks for stuff. It's a harvest festival. An ancient tradition as old as agriculture. It's not particularly political, unless your Native American or have an agenda either way on indigenous issues in which case OK the back story is pretty political, thanks Howard Zinn you can sit down now. I agree about socialism. Moving on...

It's a pretty neat holiday! I like it because I get to cook and eat turkey, drink and watch football, back at the home I grew up in, with my parents and brother and girlfriend. I really don't like traveling to other people's houses for holidays, that feels to me against the point. And also because my immediate family always found ways to make such visits exercises in passive aggressiveness. But that's another post!

Things I'm thankful for... the myriad acting opportunities I've had this past year, graduating from college, advancing my career, advancing my craft, living in something resembling a democracy although that is increasingly debatable, I am thankful for the ability to debate the presence or non presence of democracy in the place that I live, all the people I've met, the new friends I've made and the one's I've held on to, oh and everything else. Happy thanksgiving, all you motherfuckers.

Audition A/Audition B

Well, Our Town came and went. It was a pretty fantastic experience, every performance had some new discovery for me, and overall it was maybe the most satisfying live theatre experience I've yet to have in my career. That's pretty funny, considering I never thought I'd be doing Our Town when I was younger and if I knew I was I'd be more likely to guess I'd be playing George Gibbs and not Mr. Webb, but life is always full of unexpected surprises. I met some great people, made some new friends whom I hope will stand the test of time. It's an experience I'll look back on for a long time.

Also ending this past week, was Company One's Professional Development for Actor's class, which has been taking up my Tuesdays these past eight weeks. Yet another learning and growing experience, where I met a whole different group of talented individuals whom I hope to see in the near future. Tuesday was our show case, and we kicked it's ass! Particularly, I received positive feed back from audience members for a scene I did from Biloxi Blues, where the naive Neil Simon analogue (played by Matthew Broderick in the movie) loses his virginity to a prostitute. I also did more dramatic scenes from The Glass Menagerie (playing Jim! Jim and not Tom! Another role I wouldn't expect to find myself in) and Dinner With Friends by Donald Margulies both of which I was very happy with. Another great experience, worth reflecting on for some time.

The title of this post reflects my day today. This morning, I went to the BCA for Meals For Monologues, an event organized by CP Casting where actors could donate dried or canned goods to do two minutes of material in the form of a monologue for Carolyn Pickman of CP Casting and the head casting director for LDI Casting in Rhode Island. Prior to leaving my apartment this morning, I had thought I would use a piece from Crossing Delancey a romantic comedy where a pickle salesman tries to convince his more up town love interest of his inherent worth and to make him see what about him is lovable. I've only really used this piece once though, and knew it would be a risk to use it in this context and instead decided to go with a much more well worn and comedic piece from Suburbia by Eric Bogosian. My thought process was that they would be seeing a whole bunch of heavy handed "dramatic" monologues all day, and it would make more of an impact and also play more to my strengths as an actor to do something comedic. One possible complication, I hadn't used this particular piece in months, and I was standing in line waiting to go in for my two minute time slot, I had to think "wait how much of this piece do I actually remember?" and dig through my brain for all the verbs and wording and such not. If going up by myself in front of a couple of influential New England casting directors wasn't enough pressure, now I had to make sure I actually knew my piece, which I did but it made for a serious adrenaline cocktail.

Standing outside the door of the audition, I applied the Alexander Technique I've been working on these past few months to relieve my tension, get centered and find focus as well as put myself in a place to present my best self, the confident person with good posture and stuff. With the help of the technique and the need to do well, I went through the door, focused my adrenaline and hit the piece out of the park. It was probably the best I've ever done with the piece, I started out slow and simple and as the piece escalated and I felt the casting directors following my build up, discovered bits of physical comedy I hadn't done before and really worked each individual moment. At the end they were laughing out loud, and Carolyn told me "very well done" as I walked out the door. In short, I nailed it! Why couldn't I have done that in Stagesource? Oh well you win some and you lose some.

Later that night I had another audition back at the BCA with much smaller stakes, it just being for a small theatre company I think doing it's first real show in Boston, so I took that opportunity to test drive the other, more dramatic piece I rejected earlier in the day. If you put the two performances side by side, you might think they were completely different people because it was no where near the level I was performing at earlier in the day. This came down to several factors, I had none of the adrenaline I had earlier in the day. I've barely done this piece, I tried doing it sitting down which is not something I'd tried before or even rehearsed with. I really don't rehearse like I should for auditions, sometimes this pays off like it did earlier in the day, all the physical comedy came to me in the moment and it really worked because of it whereas in this case it caused me to more self conscious then necessary. I still felt OK about the audition, and afterwards I did a side which I thought was pretty good. Also considering the number of headshots I saw on the table, frankly I wouldn't be shocked if I got a call back but if not, oh well.

So that's a snap shot of where I'm at. Things coming up, a bunch of improv shows! I wrote last time about my front burner and back burner and improv is definitely going to get some time to itself now that I have Sundays and I'm not in the middle of rehearsing or performing a show. I am at the beginning of working on Uncle Vanya however, so that will be taking more and more priority as the weeks go by. And in the beginning of December, I'm doing a little Shakespeare scene recital thing with Hyperion, a group I worked was an undergrad. It seems to me like life (like time) is relative, it only appears to slow down, but it never actually does.

A Play A Week

I find myself repeatedly using this space to chronicle not the actor or person which I am, but that I want to be. So to begin with, let's go down the list of things I've talked about and see where I'm at with them. The physical fitness/more physical as an actor thing is going well, I've been frequenting the Porter Square location of Planet Fitness with some frequency, consistently going at least three times a week, if not more! I feel good about that. I think all this physical activity is going to be a key part of avoiding a potential slump and/or seasonal affective disorder this winter, something I've struggled with in the past. Exercising feels good, and I am starting to perceive some results in my physical composition, even if they are fairly subtle, I'm making progress. Go me! I still haven't started doing yoga or taking dance, which is the other aspect of that particular goal, but I'll get there.

Stand up is pretty far on the back burner at this point. An analogy I heard recently is that in terms of multi tasking and time management, you can only have one or two things on your "front burner" at a time, of course for me the main thing is continuing to grow as an actor. In terms of time committed, second would be the physical fitness thing. Lately, improv has been on the "back burner" so to speak, since I haven't been able to rehearse with my troupe these past few weeks due to Our Town's performance schedule but we also have some shows coming up, so I'll be able to refocus on that stuff soon, which is cool. Also back there is guitar, again with Our Town it's been hard to focus on learning new stuff. And way at the back... is stand up. I keep thinking about going back out there, writing some stuff, hitting some open mics. But then I think about what else I could be doing with the two or three hours involved in those five minutes of stage time, and it's hard to get really motivated. No doubt though I'll give it another shot at some point.

Oh, and Shakespeare! Last night I auditioned for Shakespeare Now's Spring touring company, an ensemble of 7 actors who travel to Massachusetts schools performing some well known plays in repertory. How did it go? OK, I guess, not bad. I mean, it's arguably one of the most lucrative non union gigs in town, and a lot of people who have worked with Shakes-Now have gone on to more serious stuff, so it's pretty competitive. Also, I really have no personal connections within the company, that I know of. So long story short I probably didn't get it (besides all those other things my piece, while adequate, could have been better) although you never know. Regardless that's the last time I'm thinking about it.

My newest goal I've decided is time permitting, to make it out to see at least a play a week from the local theatre scene. I've kind of done that inadvertently recently, I saw Collected Stories, The Divine Sister, Slasher, and a Harvard undergraduate production of Othello, and on the improv front saw my buddies in Unforgettable Mousetraps perform with Awkward Compliment at the Somerville Theatre. Doing Our Town has made it sort of tough to see stuff, but all things considered I've been doing pretty well!

Going out and seeing plays is important for several reasons. Seeing stuff on stage you grow artistically, observing others in their craft, hopefully learning from them what you can do better or in the unideal circumstance of a let's say less than good show, what not to do. Seeing stuff locally your also supporting the local theatre scene, and engaging with what's going on around you. You know, if you or I want to work with Boston's theatre community, which of course we do (or are doing) it's good to know what people are putting up. I'm going to see a show tonight, and seeing that will give me an idea of what this company is all about, if they are someone I'd want to work with, and give me a better idea of what to do to get in their good graces, so to speak.

Well, that was a pretty good blog post, I'd say! I know people read this when I post it to Facebook, but I'm yet to get any comments. So for this one, let me conclude with a question: what are you doing to make yourself better, or to get farther in whatever it is you do? Let's start a discussion.