Boring Weekend

Well, by most people's standards, that was a pretty boring weekend. By my own standard, it was totally par for the course of my life at this moment, and I don't particularly mind it. Yesterday, I hung out with my girlfriend and went to the gym, tonight I was in rehearsal in Hyde Park until 10:30 or so, then came home and ate dinner. I know, I am the rock and roll lifestyle personified.

One thing I did that was interesting this past week, was go to see Collective Stories. And then, I had lunch afterwards with one of it's stars, Bobbie Steinbach! By coincidence! A few weeks, maybe a month or so ago, another actor associate of mine invited me to participate in an informal reading of a new work a writer he knew was working in, which needed a male 20 something supporting character, and the other actor involved other than the two of us was Bobbie Steinbach, who hosted the event at her home. This was in a way, a lesson unto itself in "making it" on several levels. My associate, or let's just call him my friend, I knew from a workshop I did and subsequently a class we were in together. Another associate/friend of mine needed to cast a role in a show, which this person would have been a good fit for, so I got the two of them in touch. As it happened, he had a conflict with the production dates, and didn't go out for it. But I have no doubt that this lead in part to him contacting me about this other opportunity, which was a chance to meet some new people, a writer (who are some of the best people to know and work with, because if you attach your voice to the voice of a character early in it's development, oftentimes it will develop towards you and you might end up playing the part, as I likely will if this piece ever goes up) and a well known actor, Bobbie, who I respected. I then see Bobbie in Collected Stories this past Thursday, which was very good and you should see it if you get the chance. I really came away with no major criticisms. Overall it was a very satisfactory production, entertaining, engaging, thought provoking, and worth seeing. Afterwards, having time to cool and feeling hungry, I went to a eatery near the Arsenal but not in the main complex that my friend turned me onto when we working in the space this past May, and as I was finishing my sandwich, I saw Bobbie and she invited me to sit and have lunch with her and her husband, it was a lovely time.

All of which came out of being out in the world, and when I saw an opportunity that applied to someone I knew, I shared it. You know, it's a tricky dynamic. On the one hand, acting is so competitive, and it can be very "dog eat dog". If it had been something I thought I would be a good fit for, and I knew someone who also could be up for it, I might not have mentioned it especially if I wasn't especially close to the person in question, which in the case of my friend in the scenario above I'm not. On the other hand, you can't really "make it" completely on your own, you have to get help from other people somewhere along the line, and people are more likely to give help to someone who has helped them in some way prior to that moment.

It's tough knowing when to help out, and when to hold back. Granted, helping anybody out has yet to hinder me in career, and when someone I know is successful I'm always happy for them. I'm also really not in a place to hold resentments of anyone else's success, seeing as I've been getting plenty of opportunities and oh yeah I was in a movie with Brandon Routh that's coming out this Spring, so I think I'll be OK for the foreseeable future. I think I mentioned in this blog though, how in the audition for Crooked Arrows I declined to share the new sides I'd printed out and brought with me with a fellow actor also auditioning for the part. I don't know if it made a difference, but the director did say to me during shooting "Michael, the reason you got the part in this film is because you were the only one to audition who was really prepared" so go figure. And you know what? I was prepared. I printed those sides, I learned them, I did my homework. Maybe I was also lucky that the casting agency called and told me there would be new sides on the website, it doesn't matter. What does is that I got the part in that case. And that one was sheer circumstance, nothing to do with anything I done for anybody prior to that. But the next one could be.

So today's lesson, always be on the lookout, for yourself and for ways to help other people out because karma can be your friend.

Whew! I was going to talk about the other stuff that happened this week, but that was a much more interesting post. Let's leave it at that.