This is my third or fourth or fifth or something-ith attempt to start and finish a new blog post in the past few weeks since I wrote my last one. I keep trying to get my thoughts down about the career anxiety I've been feeling lately, and that is a lot to unpack. Let's talk about some other things.
Exercise! Going well! I've been working out a lot, consistently hitting the gym at least three times per week, sometimes four or five, and gotten a few comments on the results from people who know me. Boom! Results! Amiright?! It really does feel good though being able appreciate tangible improvement in my physical appearance and overall state of mind. Normally this is a time of year where I get kinda depressed, but that's been less the case this year, I chalk a lot of that to the endorphins from all the exercise.
I haven't been keeping up with my "play a week" goal as much as I would have hoped, but I'd forgotten plays were kind of expensive and time can become scarce and knowing what to see can be challenging, because a lot of stuff isn't very good. I am seeing Three Viewings at New Rep this week, having throughly enjoyed Collected Stories and reading a very positive review of the piece at Hub Review (a source I generally rely upon, certainly if Thomas Garvey says something is good it probably is since he is a tough critic, an aspect of his work I respect don't get me wrong).
Next week though Vanya will be full swing, and seeing things will becoming even more difficult. First world problem! I've had some fun this past week standing in for John Kuntz as Uncle Vanya, since he's been otherwise occupied and the director has wanted to work a few of his scenes for the benefit of my fellow actors. God damn do I enjoy Chekov! I can't wait to start work on this play in earnest, even though my participation will primarily be from the sidelines.
A new development this week has been my girlfriend and I watching movies together in the evenings. We've fallen into a habit of watching TV together, particularly Food Network and a few comedies we both enjoy (It's Always Sunny, 30 Rock, Community, Modern Family) but this weekend she wanted to watch a movie together, so I looked at what's come out in the past year or two that I had meant to see but didn't get a chance, and oh Bridesmaids I'd meant to see that, for example, and it was very entertaining. The next night we watched I Love You Phillip Morris, starring Jim Carrey as a gay con man, which was also quite good and then last night was 50/50, also enjoyable. It's definitely worthwhile as an actor to keep up to date with what's happening in cinema, to see potential cracks and angles one could exploit to one's advantage, because basically the film industry is much more likely to try and repeat a past success then break new ground, so you want to know what's being successful.
This kind of brings me around to my career anxiety. I've been thinking maybe pursuing film is the way to go. Certainly if I can establish myself as a film and television actor, I'll be able to bypass a lot of bull shit towards doing theatre on the East Coast, and also make a lot more money. I also kind of like the longer lasting nature of film work. Our Town was such a good play, it was a really fantastic production. But anyone who didn't see it's run this fall won't get a chance to experience it, you see what I mean? That's kind of sad. And also beautiful.
Anyway, I'm envisioning one potential inroad to agents, managers, casting directors, etc will be to pitch myself as a Seth Rogen type because clearly I don't look like Joseph Gordon Leavit but I do have strong chops at comedy and improv. Going west is going to be pointless probably until Crooked Arrows actually comes out, however and knowing where to go from there is what's causing me this anxiety. I might try New York at the same time, just to see what happens. Inevitably I'll probably have representation in both markets. Wow the future is scary and exciting. Wish me luck.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Taking a Breath
First, if you haven't seen Our Town, you really should. It's very good. Probably one of the best shows I've ever been in. But don't take my word for it, come and see it. Seriously. I'm not joking or hyperbolizing, it's just good.
The first weekend was, I thought, all in all a success. Friday's night show was amazing, we had a big old packed house of receptive audience members who gave off such a great energy and were such a joy to perform for, that the show really sung. Saturday was trickier, it being the second show which can lead to a sort of weird energy sometimes when you come off the high of opening, coupled with the awful weather, and the subsequently much smaller crowd. Regardless the people who were that night said they really enjoyed it, I'm sure they weren't aware of the little trip ups we had along the way. Today's show again had a smaller crowd, but we hit the ground running and I thought it was equal to Friday's showing.
Now that the first weekend is out of the way... I can take a breath. For the moment, I can stop living and breathing Our Town all the time. I'm sure you know the feeling, you go into those final few runs pre tech, really putting the show together, polishing the final things to be polished before adding lights and sound. Then your in the space, on the stage, oh wait you have to make that entrance a few lines sooner, because the corridor is longer then how you blocked it. These steps are narrower then we expected, oh and they aren't completely built yet. Step into the light. Wait for the sound cue. Hold please, while I program this lighting cue. 12 hours later you go home. Come back the next night, do it for six hours, go home, come back, do that again. You really find everything there is to find in the role, in the space, in the moment with the lights and the sound and your fellow actors... it's exhilarating and exhausting. When you go into it ill prepared, unsure if the show will really come together and the problems can be fixed, it's terrifying. Comparatively, this was less of that then a lot of the tech experiences I've had, scrambling to make all the pieces fit together. And then, when opening night comes and everything clicks... what a fantastic feeling.
So that has been the past week for me. It's been maybe the most satisfying theatrical experience I've had to date, in terms of everything going fantastically technically, with a super group of people and most of all envisioning a goal for my own performance, and achieving it. A lot of that had to do with my director, Jason, who was a total joy to work with, and with my own advancement artistically as an actor.
But coming home from tonight's matinee, I take a breath. Six more performances to go... but until this Friday, I can think about something else! OK, this is me, doing that.
The first weekend was, I thought, all in all a success. Friday's night show was amazing, we had a big old packed house of receptive audience members who gave off such a great energy and were such a joy to perform for, that the show really sung. Saturday was trickier, it being the second show which can lead to a sort of weird energy sometimes when you come off the high of opening, coupled with the awful weather, and the subsequently much smaller crowd. Regardless the people who were that night said they really enjoyed it, I'm sure they weren't aware of the little trip ups we had along the way. Today's show again had a smaller crowd, but we hit the ground running and I thought it was equal to Friday's showing.
Now that the first weekend is out of the way... I can take a breath. For the moment, I can stop living and breathing Our Town all the time. I'm sure you know the feeling, you go into those final few runs pre tech, really putting the show together, polishing the final things to be polished before adding lights and sound. Then your in the space, on the stage, oh wait you have to make that entrance a few lines sooner, because the corridor is longer then how you blocked it. These steps are narrower then we expected, oh and they aren't completely built yet. Step into the light. Wait for the sound cue. Hold please, while I program this lighting cue. 12 hours later you go home. Come back the next night, do it for six hours, go home, come back, do that again. You really find everything there is to find in the role, in the space, in the moment with the lights and the sound and your fellow actors... it's exhilarating and exhausting. When you go into it ill prepared, unsure if the show will really come together and the problems can be fixed, it's terrifying. Comparatively, this was less of that then a lot of the tech experiences I've had, scrambling to make all the pieces fit together. And then, when opening night comes and everything clicks... what a fantastic feeling.
So that has been the past week for me. It's been maybe the most satisfying theatrical experience I've had to date, in terms of everything going fantastically technically, with a super group of people and most of all envisioning a goal for my own performance, and achieving it. A lot of that had to do with my director, Jason, who was a total joy to work with, and with my own advancement artistically as an actor.
But coming home from tonight's matinee, I take a breath. Six more performances to go... but until this Friday, I can think about something else! OK, this is me, doing that.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
BOOM, acting
I don't have a whole lot to blog about tonight. Except, tonight was the penultimate rehearsal of Our Town, and for my money I killed it. Part of what the director has been pushing us towards has been a super light, almost farcical tone for the first three quarters or so of the show, so that when it takes a serious turn at the end, the audience really feels the impact. This tonality is something the cast as a whole has struggled with, but that I found with my character early on, and spent the rest of the rehearsal process trying to harness throughout my scenes. At last night's rehearsal the play was especially down tempo, so our director really challenged us to make it "borderline Oscar Wilde" as we have in the past, and I especially embraced that challenge, I thought, and you know, really went for it.
Comedy is interesting. I think the best comedy comes when you are the most removed from your inhibitions, and completely in touch with your instincts. Admittedly, some of what I've struggled with in terms of really bringing my role to life has been my lines. I've known them for a while, but because we haven't had as much rehearsal as I'm used to, and it's in rehearsal that I really get familiar with a text, I've been a little iffy on them for much of the process. Leading into and then over the course of tech week, I would say I've gotten them to a really solid place, and having run everything in the space more then once, tonight I was able to take the director's challenge and really let loose. Comedy, like jazz, is all about space. You have to know how to let a moment breath. If your in a huge rush to fill it, then the audience won't appreciate the tension you are trying to create, and humor is a reaction to tension (or so goes my theory). It takes a lot of comfort and trust to make comedy really happen, you have to commit to your choices, commit to your spaces and commit to breathing. *In a yoda voice* Commitment! Specificity! These things will comedy make.
Anyway, tonight was I think the best work I've done in this role, and maybe some of my best work up to this point as an actor and I just wanted to capture that. It's going to be tough from here on out, not just trying to recapture the numerous discoveries I made tonight, but to try and build on them and make new ones. That challenge though is what I really appreciate about acting, and why I want to make this craft part of my life and my profession. I have tomorrow, and then nine performances to chase it, and I'm looking forward to the challenges and discoveries to come.
In short... BOOM, acting.
Comedy is interesting. I think the best comedy comes when you are the most removed from your inhibitions, and completely in touch with your instincts. Admittedly, some of what I've struggled with in terms of really bringing my role to life has been my lines. I've known them for a while, but because we haven't had as much rehearsal as I'm used to, and it's in rehearsal that I really get familiar with a text, I've been a little iffy on them for much of the process. Leading into and then over the course of tech week, I would say I've gotten them to a really solid place, and having run everything in the space more then once, tonight I was able to take the director's challenge and really let loose. Comedy, like jazz, is all about space. You have to know how to let a moment breath. If your in a huge rush to fill it, then the audience won't appreciate the tension you are trying to create, and humor is a reaction to tension (or so goes my theory). It takes a lot of comfort and trust to make comedy really happen, you have to commit to your choices, commit to your spaces and commit to breathing. *In a yoda voice* Commitment! Specificity! These things will comedy make.
Anyway, tonight was I think the best work I've done in this role, and maybe some of my best work up to this point as an actor and I just wanted to capture that. It's going to be tough from here on out, not just trying to recapture the numerous discoveries I made tonight, but to try and build on them and make new ones. That challenge though is what I really appreciate about acting, and why I want to make this craft part of my life and my profession. I have tomorrow, and then nine performances to chase it, and I'm looking forward to the challenges and discoveries to come.
In short... BOOM, acting.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Comedy
I saw the Divine Sister today at Speakeasy, it was funny! If you enjoy broad humor ala Mel Brooks, you'd probably like it. I started into it with hesitance, wondering it perhaps was too broad, but I ultimately gave myself over to it and enjoyed it. I had a few caveats, I get that it was a send up of 60s cinema, but the sheer number of varying plot threads including brief send up of the Da Vinci Code/60s spy movies and then this extended riff on Suddenly Last Summer(?) were a bit much, but those are textual issues. And I'm not really trying to write a review. Again, if you like Mel Brooks and fairly broad comedies (which the complaint I just made fits into the framework of, ala History of the World Part 1), check it out.
It was a pretty informative experience, and served as part of my overall effort to see more Boston theatre. It's not that I don't like going to plays, I'm just pretty lazy, and that shit's expensive. Luckily I have a source for comps that I've been taking advantage of which I hadn't previously, and when a performance time comes up that I can definitely make, I'm checking it out. This is also how I saw Collected Stories last week.
Anyway, I wouldn't call the humor in "The Divine Sister" subtle, but it was very capably delivered by the cast and I laughed a lot. Maybe my favorite moment of the show is when (my friend and teacher) Paula Plum's sexually repressed nun hears a charged remark from a cast member... and I'm not doing a very good job of describing this moment. Basically he goes into detail about his member, and Paula reacted in character, and even though it was a blatant penis joke it really worked for me. So, why? Well, Paula's delivery, specificity, her commitment to the bit, and the overall strength of her character and her choices.
These are things I've been thinking about, because The Divine Sister is the kind of over the top comedy that I hope to make my living acting in, and it was informative to be on the outside looking in on this kind of show, especially on a professional scale. I did a similar production of Steve Martin's The Underpants this past April, and this occasion seems like a good time to go into something that has reminded me of that experience...
You see, a week or two ago one of my cast mates stumbled across... a review. Personally, I thought it was a pretty good show, but this person did not. You know what, I'll just link to it and you can see for yourself. OK so it's not that they panned it, but they gave a fairly mixed review. Fair enough! Here's what they had to say about me in my role: "Versati was ... a lot. The character is a self-important, aggrandizing poet, and perhaps it was that type of character that I had so strong a reaction to, but Mike Handelman didn’t help me any. The character is hugely pompous and overblown with his own “poetic” conceits: I so understand the temptation to overplay. But Handelman seemed to channel some of the insane over-the-topness of (specifically) a Jack Black-ian persuasion. Handelman’s approach, although sometimes funny, battled the type of comedy written into the script, and usually ended up overshadowing and undermining the hilarity of the written jokes."
Better then no reaction at all, am I right? That's a rhetorical question. And although I take the comparison to Jack Black as sort of a compliment, and the reviewer admits that they were perhaps reacting more to the character in the text to my performance, I don't take their remarks too seriously. In the end any performance is a collaboration, and in my audition for the role I took the material in a very over the top direction, and the director must have responded to that because she had me continue with that throughout the production and I could have toned it down but that's not what the director wanted, and I thought it balanced out in the piece, and you can't please everybody.
Regardless, it makes me just a teensy bit... insecure. Not that I'm going to change what I'm doing, but it makes one think...
It was a pretty informative experience, and served as part of my overall effort to see more Boston theatre. It's not that I don't like going to plays, I'm just pretty lazy, and that shit's expensive. Luckily I have a source for comps that I've been taking advantage of which I hadn't previously, and when a performance time comes up that I can definitely make, I'm checking it out. This is also how I saw Collected Stories last week.
Anyway, I wouldn't call the humor in "The Divine Sister" subtle, but it was very capably delivered by the cast and I laughed a lot. Maybe my favorite moment of the show is when (my friend and teacher) Paula Plum's sexually repressed nun hears a charged remark from a cast member... and I'm not doing a very good job of describing this moment. Basically he goes into detail about his member, and Paula reacted in character, and even though it was a blatant penis joke it really worked for me. So, why? Well, Paula's delivery, specificity, her commitment to the bit, and the overall strength of her character and her choices.
These are things I've been thinking about, because The Divine Sister is the kind of over the top comedy that I hope to make my living acting in, and it was informative to be on the outside looking in on this kind of show, especially on a professional scale. I did a similar production of Steve Martin's The Underpants this past April, and this occasion seems like a good time to go into something that has reminded me of that experience...
You see, a week or two ago one of my cast mates stumbled across... a review. Personally, I thought it was a pretty good show, but this person did not. You know what, I'll just link to it and you can see for yourself. OK so it's not that they panned it, but they gave a fairly mixed review. Fair enough! Here's what they had to say about me in my role: "Versati was ... a lot. The character is a self-important, aggrandizing poet, and perhaps it was that type of character that I had so strong a reaction to, but Mike Handelman didn’t help me any. The character is hugely pompous and overblown with his own “poetic” conceits: I so understand the temptation to overplay. But Handelman seemed to channel some of the insane over-the-topness of (specifically) a Jack Black-ian persuasion. Handelman’s approach, although sometimes funny, battled the type of comedy written into the script, and usually ended up overshadowing and undermining the hilarity of the written jokes."
Better then no reaction at all, am I right? That's a rhetorical question. And although I take the comparison to Jack Black as sort of a compliment, and the reviewer admits that they were perhaps reacting more to the character in the text to my performance, I don't take their remarks too seriously. In the end any performance is a collaboration, and in my audition for the role I took the material in a very over the top direction, and the director must have responded to that because she had me continue with that throughout the production and I could have toned it down but that's not what the director wanted, and I thought it balanced out in the piece, and you can't please everybody.
Regardless, it makes me just a teensy bit... insecure. Not that I'm going to change what I'm doing, but it makes one think...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)