I have a habit of habitually checking sites like Craigslist (where I first started finding acting gigs before I had the sense to finally pay for Stagesource), New England Film and New England Theatre 411 for auditions, if I'm really bored, sometimes more than once in a day. I think I'm getting better about it. This is in spite of the fact that I'm presently more or less booked out.
How booked out? As you know I'm doing Three Sisters this June, which now that the director has finished with her other directorial commitment for the Spring will be picking up in frequency of rehearsal, intensity and momentum and then the thing you don't know because I haven't told anyone I'll be playing Alfred in Apollinaire's summer outdoor production of Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead. I'm happy with this part. Obviously, of the speaking roles in the show of which there are only like eight if you think about it, Alfred is the smallest. But he's not a spear carrier, he's a living human being with a troubled past. Also he gets to wear a dress, and I'm sure I can find some fun physical comedy type business for him to engage in as part of the ensemble of tragedians. And he gets to imitate Gertrude. All in all, I think it's a win for me. It is a family show, and we are toning down the elements where the Player offers him as a uh... prostitute to Rosencratz and Guildenstern, but hey while I'm not doing anything else I can build those given circumstances into my portrayal. I mean think about it, this kid has been really actively abused up to this point. Probably he was sold to the Player, who hits him and makes him do things he doesn't want to do to the point of... yeah. How would someone who'd gone through that carry some selves? I mean this kid is a victim of serious trauma. Oh yeah though, it's a comedy. Look at the funny man in the dress!
So that'll be exciting. Another habit I have is not preparing as well I should. I have quite a bit of getting off book to do. For Three Sisters and for The Apology the one act which we're presenting on Friday at 7 PM in Roxbury, for free so come see that because I think it's going to be really good.
Also my staged reading of The Last Jews by Larry Jay Tish featuring Chuck Schwager, Amber Williams, myself oh and BOBBIE STEINBACH which is May 7th at Boston Playwrights Theatre. Our rehearsal for that is next Monday and it's pretty exciting too.
Before that though, my improv troupe is trying our first stab at doing long form at Improv Boston's Geekweek this Sunday at 7:30. So many awesome opportunities for you to see me doing great stuff. Which is to say if you are reading this you are invited to those things. So come see them. Or not. I'll understand.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Times Flies When You're Busy Doing Stuff
OK, time to blog! And so much so far this week worth blogging about.
For one thing, I had a callback on Monday for Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead. How'd it go? Pretty good! OK can I be honest? I feel a little weird blogging about it, because it was for Apollinaire and having worked there this past year I sort of know all those people and it feels weird blogging about our interactions because well, they might read it, right? That's the point of blogging, so people read what you write. So I do have more of a point of view then "pretty good", for example I could have prepared better. But, I was in the show, so I kind of know it. I guess I did have one epiphany worth sharing that I don't feel weird about. At the very end of the show, Rosencratz and Guildenstern realize they are going to die and they turn to the Player for answers. But, he doesn't have any for them. Guildenstern in a fit of rage, frustration and powerlessness, pulls the Player's own knife on him and threatens him with it, ultimately stabbing him (seemingly) to death. I was going over the side, trying to figure out "What does Guildenstern want and why?" and I realized it was purely vindictive, in the face of his own powerlessness he wants to feel more powerful than someone else, to take hold of some kind of control in the face of an absurd universe and the most available individual is the player. Now, maybe that's wrong, but that's what I was feeling in the audition. And I thought "man that's really heavy stuff, to be face to face with your own absurd, meaningless existence and imminent death, then to take that rage and vent into the most available human being by harming them". Now to be fair the player is kind of despicable. He prostitutes a young boy, literally. But I mean man, that's just so raw. And I don't think I was able to get that across. So probably I didn't get Guildenstern. We'll see. Whatever the case, much love to my Apollinaire peeps, I'll be back in the fall for our revival of Uncle Vanya.
Speaking of which, Uncle Vanya was nominated for three Eliot Norton awards!!! Outstanding fringe theatre production, outstanding direction in a small/fringe theatre and outstanding performance for my friend Ronald Lacey as Astrov. Man, does that feel good to say. All three feel good for different reasons. I'm super proud of and happy for Ron. I mean, he's my buddy, we were in this show together and now he's been nominated for this super prestigious award, how could I not be? And also of course the same goes for Danielle, who brought such a wonderful light touch to the material and really made the most of the space and the staging concept (and brought me in to begin with). And I feel a sense of pride in myself for being a part of it, I really feel like I'm part of our nomination for outstanding production... because hey I was part of that production! And in an integral way, obviously not more integral than anyone else, that's not what I mean. But if this had gone to a show where I was just a spear carrier, I wouldn't feel this way. I just feels great after the fact that I was included the way I was in the staging concept, with my guitar playing and then serving as the role of guide on the Serbeiakov (I totally butchered that spelling) estate. So yeah, super happy about that.
Fast forwarding to yesterday, that was quite eventful. I may not have mentioned it explicitly, but I'm not part of one of six one act plays premiering Friday, April 27th as part of Six Playwrights in Search of a Stage at Roxbury Repertory Theatre. The play I'm in is called The Apology and it's about incest! Sounds fun, right? It's actually a good challenge. On paper, it sort of looks like a Lifetime movie but reading it aloud it kind of feels like an echo of August: Osage County or something. And taking a very dramatically heightened situation like that, a son confronting his mother over the rape of his older sister by his older brother, trying to find an answer to the question "how could you let this happen?" and really grounding that, and trying to make it truthful and real... it's going to be a great acting challenge. And it's only 7 pages long, so that's a bonus. So far, the director and the actress playing my mother have been great. I'm really excited to dig into this piece.
After that was the second session of Auditioning for Film and Television with Carolyn Pickman over at CP Casting and I've already gotten my money's worth. I was looking over a side as a grocery clerk in a crime drama and I said to her "what do I do to nail this?" and she told me "look for the second choice, not the most obvious one, but the second one and do that". In this case, the most obvious choice was an "oh shit" reaction when the matriarch of a criminally connected family tries to give me a counterfeit bill. But instead, I played the first beat a little light "Oh, I'm sorry miss I can't take this" then when that doesn't work, "oh shit, what am I going to do" because the majority of auditioners are just going to be saying "oh shit" for the whole thing. If you can find that second beat though, you'll stand out. This fits with what Scott Zigler taught in Practical Aesthetics, find one tactic, then when it doesn't work, find a completely different one, and so on. So anyway, it's been great so far. I'll try to pepper in any more easily digestible nuggets as they come up.
Then after that, I played music with people for the first time in ages. Two thirty something dudes near where I live by Porter Square, and we just jammed on some blues and classic rock tunes. All Along The Watchtower, Sunny, Jammin, etc. And it was a good time. One of them plays rhythm guitar and sings, the other plays bass, so as a lead guitar kinda guy, I was a real good fit. And that felt great.
All in all, things are feeling good. Hey by the way, Crooked Arrows is being featured on Extra tomorrow, so check that out. Well, I know, it's Extra so I don't blame you if you don't. After it does, the official trailer will be released, so do check that. Until then, au revoir.
For one thing, I had a callback on Monday for Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead. How'd it go? Pretty good! OK can I be honest? I feel a little weird blogging about it, because it was for Apollinaire and having worked there this past year I sort of know all those people and it feels weird blogging about our interactions because well, they might read it, right? That's the point of blogging, so people read what you write. So I do have more of a point of view then "pretty good", for example I could have prepared better. But, I was in the show, so I kind of know it. I guess I did have one epiphany worth sharing that I don't feel weird about. At the very end of the show, Rosencratz and Guildenstern realize they are going to die and they turn to the Player for answers. But, he doesn't have any for them. Guildenstern in a fit of rage, frustration and powerlessness, pulls the Player's own knife on him and threatens him with it, ultimately stabbing him (seemingly) to death. I was going over the side, trying to figure out "What does Guildenstern want and why?" and I realized it was purely vindictive, in the face of his own powerlessness he wants to feel more powerful than someone else, to take hold of some kind of control in the face of an absurd universe and the most available individual is the player. Now, maybe that's wrong, but that's what I was feeling in the audition. And I thought "man that's really heavy stuff, to be face to face with your own absurd, meaningless existence and imminent death, then to take that rage and vent into the most available human being by harming them". Now to be fair the player is kind of despicable. He prostitutes a young boy, literally. But I mean man, that's just so raw. And I don't think I was able to get that across. So probably I didn't get Guildenstern. We'll see. Whatever the case, much love to my Apollinaire peeps, I'll be back in the fall for our revival of Uncle Vanya.
Speaking of which, Uncle Vanya was nominated for three Eliot Norton awards!!! Outstanding fringe theatre production, outstanding direction in a small/fringe theatre and outstanding performance for my friend Ronald Lacey as Astrov. Man, does that feel good to say. All three feel good for different reasons. I'm super proud of and happy for Ron. I mean, he's my buddy, we were in this show together and now he's been nominated for this super prestigious award, how could I not be? And also of course the same goes for Danielle, who brought such a wonderful light touch to the material and really made the most of the space and the staging concept (and brought me in to begin with). And I feel a sense of pride in myself for being a part of it, I really feel like I'm part of our nomination for outstanding production... because hey I was part of that production! And in an integral way, obviously not more integral than anyone else, that's not what I mean. But if this had gone to a show where I was just a spear carrier, I wouldn't feel this way. I just feels great after the fact that I was included the way I was in the staging concept, with my guitar playing and then serving as the role of guide on the Serbeiakov (I totally butchered that spelling) estate. So yeah, super happy about that.
Fast forwarding to yesterday, that was quite eventful. I may not have mentioned it explicitly, but I'm not part of one of six one act plays premiering Friday, April 27th as part of Six Playwrights in Search of a Stage at Roxbury Repertory Theatre. The play I'm in is called The Apology and it's about incest! Sounds fun, right? It's actually a good challenge. On paper, it sort of looks like a Lifetime movie but reading it aloud it kind of feels like an echo of August: Osage County or something. And taking a very dramatically heightened situation like that, a son confronting his mother over the rape of his older sister by his older brother, trying to find an answer to the question "how could you let this happen?" and really grounding that, and trying to make it truthful and real... it's going to be a great acting challenge. And it's only 7 pages long, so that's a bonus. So far, the director and the actress playing my mother have been great. I'm really excited to dig into this piece.
After that was the second session of Auditioning for Film and Television with Carolyn Pickman over at CP Casting and I've already gotten my money's worth. I was looking over a side as a grocery clerk in a crime drama and I said to her "what do I do to nail this?" and she told me "look for the second choice, not the most obvious one, but the second one and do that". In this case, the most obvious choice was an "oh shit" reaction when the matriarch of a criminally connected family tries to give me a counterfeit bill. But instead, I played the first beat a little light "Oh, I'm sorry miss I can't take this" then when that doesn't work, "oh shit, what am I going to do" because the majority of auditioners are just going to be saying "oh shit" for the whole thing. If you can find that second beat though, you'll stand out. This fits with what Scott Zigler taught in Practical Aesthetics, find one tactic, then when it doesn't work, find a completely different one, and so on. So anyway, it's been great so far. I'll try to pepper in any more easily digestible nuggets as they come up.
Then after that, I played music with people for the first time in ages. Two thirty something dudes near where I live by Porter Square, and we just jammed on some blues and classic rock tunes. All Along The Watchtower, Sunny, Jammin, etc. And it was a good time. One of them plays rhythm guitar and sings, the other plays bass, so as a lead guitar kinda guy, I was a real good fit. And that felt great.
All in all, things are feeling good. Hey by the way, Crooked Arrows is being featured on Extra tomorrow, so check that out. Well, I know, it's Extra so I don't blame you if you don't. After it does, the official trailer will be released, so do check that. Until then, au revoir.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Another Epiphany!
Increasingly I suspect that these blog posts about Three Sisters and my character work on Tuzenbach are only interesting to me... but who knows! Maybe not! Someone must read them, even if it's just my Mom. (hi Mom!)
Well, anyway tonight was our first Three Sisters rehearsal in like two weeks. I can't think of the last time I had that much of a gap between rehearsals of a play, unless it was like a read through. In the meantime, I've been off in the land of improv and auditions and seeing shows and stuff, you know? In fact, in the time since we last rehearsed, I rehearsed and shot a presentation of another show, joined the cast of another, had three auditions, and went to four theatrical performances.
So tonight, I was dropped back into the world of Chekhov and those three crazy sisters, amIright? I'm still figuring out how aware Tuzenbach is of how creepy his obsession with Irina is because it's pretty... yeah, I want to say delusional. We talked in rehearsal in the contrast between Tuzenbach and Solyony, both of whom are in love with Irina. In his mind, Solyony has cast himself as the romantic lead in his own story and he lashes out at people who don't share or contradict that viewpoint, whereas Tuzenbach on an almost metaphysical level (since Chekhov has written him this way) has been unwittingly cast as the TRAGIC lead in a romantic love story, one seemingly modeled on... wait for it, The Sorrows of Young Werther. Oh, wait wait wait! That's why he's German... he's an echo of Goethe's Werther! Arguably the original and quintessential tragic romantic hero, whom when he is unable to possess the affections of his beloved, kills himself. Just like Tuzenbach. Sad, I know.
I think the literary universe of Chekhov is very interesting. The plays are full of these allusions. I think my case for Tuzenbach as Werther is supported by Chebyutkin who references a group of intellectuals discussing him. Likewise, Ron (aka Vershinin aka Astrov) and I were discussing in Uncle Vanya Telegin's line "A plot worthy of Tolstoy" and it's ability to always get a laugh. Then in the Seagull there's this whole thing of Konstantin being compared to Hamlet, etc. Clearly the guy was very well read, as were the characters in his plays. Tuzenbach's counterpart Solyony is always comparing himself to Lermontov, who Scott (who's playing Solyony) told me wrote this one sort of adventure novel about this guy who fights duels and sleeps around, which is essentially what Lermontov was doing at the time and Solyony wishes he were doing.
Well, I could keep going, but I won't. In other news, the next few days will be busy. Tomorrow night I have a call back for Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead at Apollinaire, Tuesday is the first rehearsal for that show I joined up with, then my acting class with Carolyn Pickman then my first jam session with some musicians I found online. Then for the rest of the week... who even knows! I'll try and blog about it after it happens.
Well, anyway tonight was our first Three Sisters rehearsal in like two weeks. I can't think of the last time I had that much of a gap between rehearsals of a play, unless it was like a read through. In the meantime, I've been off in the land of improv and auditions and seeing shows and stuff, you know? In fact, in the time since we last rehearsed, I rehearsed and shot a presentation of another show, joined the cast of another, had three auditions, and went to four theatrical performances.
So tonight, I was dropped back into the world of Chekhov and those three crazy sisters, amIright? I'm still figuring out how aware Tuzenbach is of how creepy his obsession with Irina is because it's pretty... yeah, I want to say delusional. We talked in rehearsal in the contrast between Tuzenbach and Solyony, both of whom are in love with Irina. In his mind, Solyony has cast himself as the romantic lead in his own story and he lashes out at people who don't share or contradict that viewpoint, whereas Tuzenbach on an almost metaphysical level (since Chekhov has written him this way) has been unwittingly cast as the TRAGIC lead in a romantic love story, one seemingly modeled on... wait for it, The Sorrows of Young Werther. Oh, wait wait wait! That's why he's German... he's an echo of Goethe's Werther! Arguably the original and quintessential tragic romantic hero, whom when he is unable to possess the affections of his beloved, kills himself. Just like Tuzenbach. Sad, I know.
I think the literary universe of Chekhov is very interesting. The plays are full of these allusions. I think my case for Tuzenbach as Werther is supported by Chebyutkin who references a group of intellectuals discussing him. Likewise, Ron (aka Vershinin aka Astrov) and I were discussing in Uncle Vanya Telegin's line "A plot worthy of Tolstoy" and it's ability to always get a laugh. Then in the Seagull there's this whole thing of Konstantin being compared to Hamlet, etc. Clearly the guy was very well read, as were the characters in his plays. Tuzenbach's counterpart Solyony is always comparing himself to Lermontov, who Scott (who's playing Solyony) told me wrote this one sort of adventure novel about this guy who fights duels and sleeps around, which is essentially what Lermontov was doing at the time and Solyony wishes he were doing.
Well, I could keep going, but I won't. In other news, the next few days will be busy. Tomorrow night I have a call back for Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead at Apollinaire, Tuesday is the first rehearsal for that show I joined up with, then my acting class with Carolyn Pickman then my first jam session with some musicians I found online. Then for the rest of the week... who even knows! I'll try and blog about it after it happens.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Being Satisfied
So you might have noticed a recent Facebook post debating the merits of attending an audition when you've been wait listed. I might as well just tell you the audition was for Actor's Shakespeare Project. Before my focus was sort of reoriented towards film and television, my pipe dream had been to work with that particular company. I think as actors (or any kind of artist), it's important to have those pipe dreams, as well as tangible more easily realized immediate goals and to keep them in perspective with another. I would almost argue that they function best in sort of an inverse proportion to one another. That is to say, if your "pipe dream" is something way far out like be a movie star and it's a fantasy you actively engage with to the point of thinking "what would be the necessary steps" which is something I do with pipe dreams and practical goals a like, a good practical goal would be say getting cast in a community theatre production or getting a call back, I don't know. Everyone works differently. But for me, and I believe this is true generally, it's important to remain focused on the here and now, the immediate steps you can be taking to better yourself as an actor and advance your career... while also allowing some mental space to think "oh but what if". Anyway, for a while I was sort of fixated on being hired by Actor's Shakespeare Project. In pursuit of this goal, I actively sought out opportunities to work with and study under their company members. You might know I was in Paula Plum's workshop production of The Blue Room or when Jennie Israel came to Harvard to do an undergraduate production of Measure for Measure I auditioned (and by the grace of my prior collaborators at Harvard was cast as Elbow) and then went on to take their class they teach, Shakespeare Workout. I realized though, to be honest, I'm not good enough at Shakespeare to perform it at a professional level. Also, seeing some ASP shows, I could tell I just wasn't at that level as an actor and so allowed that pipe dream to go up in smoke. Speaking practically, I'm also just not really the type that they cast for right now as a comedic character actor. Shakespeare is full of those kinds of "clown" type roles, and as a company they have a lot of actors who are good at performing them. And in particular, my big niche right now especially in terms of professional theatre are generally adolescent or post adolescent type roles with nerdy or intellectual or outsidery character traits and those are less of a thing in Shakespeare (and more of a thing in film/television right now, so the switch in pipe dreaming).
Keeping all of that in mind, I was hesitant initially to request a slot for ASP's non equity auditions... but then I thought "what the hell". And then I heard back and I was wait listed. I went over the pros and cons, posted the issue to Facebook, etc and in the end no one ever got anything by not trying, am I right? It's also a piece of advice I give to actor friends who want to audition for something they couldn't get a time for, because of scheduling or if it's an AEA thing or whatever. Just show up, ideally as early in the day as possible and say "hey I'd really like to audition, can you squeeze me in?" Because if you want something you have to go after it, and in the nest of baby bird's the loudest most obnoxious one gets fed first. Which isn't to say be obnoxious, be extremely polite and try to learn and remember people's names and stuff. But be persistent, and hopefully the people giving out worms will notice that and maybe you'll get one. Or not.
Anyway, I showed up right at 10 AM and held the door for Allyn Burrows as he entered the theatre which made me feel sort of like I was accomplishing something even if I wasn't. And after waiting about 45 minutes, someone cancelled for 3:36 and I was in. This was sort of an issue though, because my weekly guitar lesson is at 3:30... but it's in Porter Square and this was in Central and it lasts about an hour so if I get in at 3:36 I can probably be there by four... I thought to myself... and am I going to get another chance? OK I'll take this one. Went home. Went to the gym. Tried to nap a little. Headed back to the theatre around 2:45... and waited. They were running way behind, like twenty minutes more like thirty by the time I auditioned at 4:05 or so. This seemed to be because the three minute audition slots were turning into 5 or over audition slots as Allyn worked stuff with people in the room as is his right as the auditor. I got in, said hi to Allyn and Jennie, handed my stuff over and did my truncated Claudio from Stagesource. I had worked on the scene in SWO with Jennie and Allyn had been in the room for one of those sessions, so if nothing else I wanted to show them "hey, here I am still auditioning and here is where I'm at with my work and this piece" which took like forty five seconds, then Allyn made a comment "she's not buying it, is she" in his typical Allyn Burrows manner, they thanked me as I was on my way.
I ended up missing my guitar lesson. I didn't get any feed back or performance adjustments. It was kind of an all day thing. Leaving the theatre, it was not hard to think "well what was the point of that?" but now I think, and I believe "I did some good work in that room". I really think I did what I wanted to do with the piece, and showed them what I wanted to show them and that's pretty good. And it's probably better they just sent me off, because they were totally in the weeds, so I can count it as a mercy to my fellow auditioners who were able to go home sooner.
So I'm just going to be satisfied with what I did. Even if I don't get a call back, for the reasons listed above and since they must have auditioned like a bajillion people yesterday, I learned something from the experience about how to be content with what happens and letting go of preconceptions. Now it's just about putting the next foot in front of the other.
EDIT: Also, shout out to the guy I ran into who reads this blog! Hey man! Also anyone else reading this who I might have seen or who was at ASP auditions yesterday. What was your experience like? I'm all about starting a dialogue.
Keeping all of that in mind, I was hesitant initially to request a slot for ASP's non equity auditions... but then I thought "what the hell". And then I heard back and I was wait listed. I went over the pros and cons, posted the issue to Facebook, etc and in the end no one ever got anything by not trying, am I right? It's also a piece of advice I give to actor friends who want to audition for something they couldn't get a time for, because of scheduling or if it's an AEA thing or whatever. Just show up, ideally as early in the day as possible and say "hey I'd really like to audition, can you squeeze me in?" Because if you want something you have to go after it, and in the nest of baby bird's the loudest most obnoxious one gets fed first. Which isn't to say be obnoxious, be extremely polite and try to learn and remember people's names and stuff. But be persistent, and hopefully the people giving out worms will notice that and maybe you'll get one. Or not.
Anyway, I showed up right at 10 AM and held the door for Allyn Burrows as he entered the theatre which made me feel sort of like I was accomplishing something even if I wasn't. And after waiting about 45 minutes, someone cancelled for 3:36 and I was in. This was sort of an issue though, because my weekly guitar lesson is at 3:30... but it's in Porter Square and this was in Central and it lasts about an hour so if I get in at 3:36 I can probably be there by four... I thought to myself... and am I going to get another chance? OK I'll take this one. Went home. Went to the gym. Tried to nap a little. Headed back to the theatre around 2:45... and waited. They were running way behind, like twenty minutes more like thirty by the time I auditioned at 4:05 or so. This seemed to be because the three minute audition slots were turning into 5 or over audition slots as Allyn worked stuff with people in the room as is his right as the auditor. I got in, said hi to Allyn and Jennie, handed my stuff over and did my truncated Claudio from Stagesource. I had worked on the scene in SWO with Jennie and Allyn had been in the room for one of those sessions, so if nothing else I wanted to show them "hey, here I am still auditioning and here is where I'm at with my work and this piece" which took like forty five seconds, then Allyn made a comment "she's not buying it, is she" in his typical Allyn Burrows manner, they thanked me as I was on my way.
I ended up missing my guitar lesson. I didn't get any feed back or performance adjustments. It was kind of an all day thing. Leaving the theatre, it was not hard to think "well what was the point of that?" but now I think, and I believe "I did some good work in that room". I really think I did what I wanted to do with the piece, and showed them what I wanted to show them and that's pretty good. And it's probably better they just sent me off, because they were totally in the weeds, so I can count it as a mercy to my fellow auditioners who were able to go home sooner.
So I'm just going to be satisfied with what I did. Even if I don't get a call back, for the reasons listed above and since they must have auditioned like a bajillion people yesterday, I learned something from the experience about how to be content with what happens and letting go of preconceptions. Now it's just about putting the next foot in front of the other.
EDIT: Also, shout out to the guy I ran into who reads this blog! Hey man! Also anyone else reading this who I might have seen or who was at ASP auditions yesterday. What was your experience like? I'm all about starting a dialogue.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Feeling Victorious
This week was a good one. For starters, my improv troupe Rebels Without Applause (find us on Facebook OR ELSE) went up against two other improv troupes Tuesday night at the Back Page in Lowell. It was a comedy contest judged by a local stand up and some radio personality types, first prize being a gift certificate to a local joint, and tickets and back stage passes to Who's Line Is It Anyway? alumni Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood show coming to Lowell. Going into it, I didn't think there would only be three groups performing and it never seriously occurred to me that we could win. But we did! I know, crazy right? We did some strong stuff in our opening set of twenty minutes, then in the semi final five minute one scene round, we really knocked out of the park with some kick ass scene work, singing and my guitar playing. Our plan going into it was that if we made it that far we'd do one of our signature games, "Musical" which is basically a mini musical with an ingenue threatened by a bad guy who is then saved by the hero... musical! Our heroes in this case were nuns who's bus broke down outside of a bar on the super bowl, the villians were drunken patriots fans and the hero/in this case guitar player was Jesus played by me who encouraged everybody in the joint to drink heavily and tip their bartenders well. If you are ever performing in a bar, that's probably a sound strategy. Anyhow, everybody performed awesome and it was a pretty great time. Winning was kind of icing on the case.
The show is Friday, and I still haven't fully processed it. I grew up watching the Who's Line guys in reruns (I was always more of a fan of the English version) and it definitely affected my view of performance and improv. Getting to watch and then meet someone like Colin Mochrie... let's just say it will be a blog post. And my profile picture for a while.
The past two days we rehearsed and shot a staged version of my friend Cassie Seinuk's play "The Muse", which we'd previously performed at Turtle Lane as part of their Young Actor's Winter Festival and then in New York for the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival. The script is pretty fantastic, and it just keeps having legs, because this time it was accepted as a contender for the Strike 38 festival in New York. Our options were to go and do it, or film a staged presentation, so we ended up filming it. Working on this script was like visiting with an old friend after having done it twice already. It was new again, because we had a third actor playing my scene partner. It was interesting as well, because I felt the weight of my experience doing Swimming in the Shallows upon my performance and I mean that in a good way. Malcolm Gladwell, I think in Outliers and this quote I've only heard referenced I've never read the book, thinks that to get really good at something you have to spend like 10,000 hours practicing it. I think that applies to acting. And the best way to get better is performing in front of people. Swimming in the Shallows was pretty incredible, because I got to do it live fifteen times which is quite a few more performances then I usually get. So I really felt fresh and vital revisiting Finn, and that felt good!
I should wrap this up. I'm auditioning today for Apollinaire's R&G Are Dead and then tonight I have a front row mezzanine seat to Ma Rainey's Black Bottom which I will then blog about more throughly. And also other stuff I'll have to talk about later. Till then!
The show is Friday, and I still haven't fully processed it. I grew up watching the Who's Line guys in reruns (I was always more of a fan of the English version) and it definitely affected my view of performance and improv. Getting to watch and then meet someone like Colin Mochrie... let's just say it will be a blog post. And my profile picture for a while.
The past two days we rehearsed and shot a staged version of my friend Cassie Seinuk's play "The Muse", which we'd previously performed at Turtle Lane as part of their Young Actor's Winter Festival and then in New York for the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival. The script is pretty fantastic, and it just keeps having legs, because this time it was accepted as a contender for the Strike 38 festival in New York. Our options were to go and do it, or film a staged presentation, so we ended up filming it. Working on this script was like visiting with an old friend after having done it twice already. It was new again, because we had a third actor playing my scene partner. It was interesting as well, because I felt the weight of my experience doing Swimming in the Shallows upon my performance and I mean that in a good way. Malcolm Gladwell, I think in Outliers and this quote I've only heard referenced I've never read the book, thinks that to get really good at something you have to spend like 10,000 hours practicing it. I think that applies to acting. And the best way to get better is performing in front of people. Swimming in the Shallows was pretty incredible, because I got to do it live fifteen times which is quite a few more performances then I usually get. So I really felt fresh and vital revisiting Finn, and that felt good!
I should wrap this up. I'm auditioning today for Apollinaire's R&G Are Dead and then tonight I have a front row mezzanine seat to Ma Rainey's Black Bottom which I will then blog about more throughly. And also other stuff I'll have to talk about later. Till then!
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Meeting (Your Own) Expectations
So as you most likely know from my various Facebook posts, Monday was my Stagesource audition. It did not go as I expected it would, which is not to say it went poorly, but I did learn some important lessons and some things I could have done better. I did get to the BCA nice and early, which was good, I was there over an hour before my appointed time so I had ample time to chill out. Something I forgot to do however was eat properly. I'd had a decent meal earlier in the day, but by the time five o'clock rolled around and my audition was nigh my stomach was almost growling, which is not good. Why? Well I guess everybody is different, I've heard that some stand ups need to be somewhat uncomfortable to do their best performing but I think that's because stand up inherently comes from a place of tension, whereas stage performance is the lack there of. So that was a distraction, and I think it aided in sinking my first piece, which was my at this point defacto comic monologue from Eric Bogosian's "Suburbia". It's pretty lewd, but usually effective. When I got into the room though, I saw the set to Company One's Hookman looming over me, and I was indecisive as to where I should plant myself in relationship to it (if I could give one major note to the Stagesource folks, neither time when I've done it was it clear to me where the lighting in the room was strongest and it would be nice to have a sense of focused lighting in the performance area instead of the very general, kind of dim room light of Rehearsal Hall A). This indecision further threw off my already not spot on energy and when I went into my slate I stumbled through it a little, then as I went into the first piece, the piece that I felt confident I'd be hitting out of the park because I'd done it so many times successfully my energy kind of petered out, I felt the auditors shutting down and it just kind of went limp. At least that was my perception at the time. Near the end, I was able to get a few sort of chortles, then I gave a little nod to signify it was over and launched into my next piece...
Before I get there though, let's look at those moments. Things I could not have controlled were the set up of the room, which threw me for a loop. Also, the stage manager pulled me straight from the green room and I had no heads up I would be on deck, which isn't anybody's fault and probably was because they were running behind (another factor out of my control) but I could have used the time of the previous auditioner to steady myself and really focus. But I should have been doing that the entire time regardless. Also as I mentioned before, the whole day was a little behind schedule and it was 5 o'clock with the auditors having just come off a smoke break. So, if I was depending on some of the energy in the room to help power my piece it being comedic and that being how I tend to work with comedic material that wasn't going to happen.
All of which could have been subverted, had I prepared it better! Instead, I put the little time I did spend preparing into my second piece, an excerpt from Measure For Measure. You know, the one where Claudio begs his sister for his life. I found I went on an interesting journey with this piece. I enlisted the help of a director friend of mine (Thanks Scott!) and we tried out various "key signatures", that is to say levels of intensity, energy, movement, etc. In the end, we took it inward, removing all the gesturing, gesticulating and vocal variety I'd tried using to get into the life or death stakes of the piece and focused all of my energy into the act of just talking to my sister as if she were a real person. This is what I call "cutting out the bullshit" and it worked for me. Sometimes it works if I go in sort of the opposite direction, if you'd seen Our Town or Swimming in the Shallows or when I played Elbow in Measure for Measure those were all highly vibrant, colorful characters. My other piece is supposed to showcase this aspect of my work. Sometimes though, we forgot that most often in real life people just talk to other people directly and as human beings, so that's what we went for in this monologue. It did have a nice key change from when Claudio goes from describing the potential torments of the afterlife, to the more humanistic argument that his sister saving him trumped all over existing forms of morality and would become a virtuous act. So I played all that, and I felt like it went much better.
But who knows! At this point, it's totally out of my control and that's the actor's life. If nothing else, 40 copies of my headshot and resume are out in the world and that must be a good thing. And I learned a few lessons, if your going to be at an audition for a long time make sure you've eaten beforehand or if it's going to be a really long time bring a snack. Don't let anything throw you off, as soon as you know you might be on anytime soon start focusing in and don't stop. Then when you get in the room, let nothing break that focus. Oh and the most important thing, PREPARE YOUR SHIT. This year I tried to tell myself via this blog that I would do better than I did last year and actually I do think that I did but not as well as I would have liked or was capable of. In the end, that was my lack of preparation. And you know, that happened because I was so busy acting already. So I can't really complain, as long as I from moment to moment am getting better than in some sense I'm winning, I think.
Just remember dear readers, control what is under your control and everything that's not forget about.
Before I get there though, let's look at those moments. Things I could not have controlled were the set up of the room, which threw me for a loop. Also, the stage manager pulled me straight from the green room and I had no heads up I would be on deck, which isn't anybody's fault and probably was because they were running behind (another factor out of my control) but I could have used the time of the previous auditioner to steady myself and really focus. But I should have been doing that the entire time regardless. Also as I mentioned before, the whole day was a little behind schedule and it was 5 o'clock with the auditors having just come off a smoke break. So, if I was depending on some of the energy in the room to help power my piece it being comedic and that being how I tend to work with comedic material that wasn't going to happen.
All of which could have been subverted, had I prepared it better! Instead, I put the little time I did spend preparing into my second piece, an excerpt from Measure For Measure. You know, the one where Claudio begs his sister for his life. I found I went on an interesting journey with this piece. I enlisted the help of a director friend of mine (Thanks Scott!) and we tried out various "key signatures", that is to say levels of intensity, energy, movement, etc. In the end, we took it inward, removing all the gesturing, gesticulating and vocal variety I'd tried using to get into the life or death stakes of the piece and focused all of my energy into the act of just talking to my sister as if she were a real person. This is what I call "cutting out the bullshit" and it worked for me. Sometimes it works if I go in sort of the opposite direction, if you'd seen Our Town or Swimming in the Shallows or when I played Elbow in Measure for Measure those were all highly vibrant, colorful characters. My other piece is supposed to showcase this aspect of my work. Sometimes though, we forgot that most often in real life people just talk to other people directly and as human beings, so that's what we went for in this monologue. It did have a nice key change from when Claudio goes from describing the potential torments of the afterlife, to the more humanistic argument that his sister saving him trumped all over existing forms of morality and would become a virtuous act. So I played all that, and I felt like it went much better.
But who knows! At this point, it's totally out of my control and that's the actor's life. If nothing else, 40 copies of my headshot and resume are out in the world and that must be a good thing. And I learned a few lessons, if your going to be at an audition for a long time make sure you've eaten beforehand or if it's going to be a really long time bring a snack. Don't let anything throw you off, as soon as you know you might be on anytime soon start focusing in and don't stop. Then when you get in the room, let nothing break that focus. Oh and the most important thing, PREPARE YOUR SHIT. This year I tried to tell myself via this blog that I would do better than I did last year and actually I do think that I did but not as well as I would have liked or was capable of. In the end, that was my lack of preparation. And you know, that happened because I was so busy acting already. So I can't really complain, as long as I from moment to moment am getting better than in some sense I'm winning, I think.
Just remember dear readers, control what is under your control and everything that's not forget about.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)