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Pre New Year New Year’s List

21 Nov

I’ve been so busy this past month or so that I’ve hardly had time to write a proper blog post. I think I’ve even skipped a few weeks. And though I’m busy with good artsy stuff, it is not an excuse to put all the other things on hold. The things I’ve been kinda sorta saying to myself I’d think about after the new year– because what better excuse than the New Year to buckle down and get things done? But I know myself, I have to just DO. Too much time is wasted in the waiting for the “next time” to do the things on my list. So, slowly but surely, over the past few weeks I’ve been making a list and checking it twice, of what I want to prepare BEFORE 2012 arrives.

1. Renew Showfax: I know, shame on me that I even let it expire in the first place. But I don’t have it on auto-renew because, well, Im poor. And I waited to renew because I was so busy that I wasn’t submitting anyway. Figured I’d save myself a few bucks. However, the longer I didn’t renew, the longer I’d have an excuse to not submit and therefore not audition and therefore not book more things to keep me busy.

2. Revise Resume: This one’s a pain in the ass only because there’s not only the resume I physically hand to a CD, which I can easily update on Word, but there’s also the version on my website, on LA Casting, Casting Frontier and Actors Access. Ugh. But I have to suck it up and update them!

3. Revise Reel: Fortunately I’ve been a part of 3 projects in the past year that I can use footage from to add to my reel. It’s just a matter of tracking down all the footage, deciding what I want to use and then re-edit my reel. I’m workin’ on it…

4. Order Postcards: This is a big one for me. I know many, if not most actors have this already so they can keep in touch with CDs and do mailings and whatnot. For one reason or another (fear) I have yet to get my first ever postcards made. In the back of my mind I kept saying that there was no point in getting them until I start doing CD workshops. But I realize, that I’ve also been saying that there was no point in doing CD workshops until I have the postcards to keep in contact with them.

5. Sign up for CD Workshops: As I mentioned above, fear has held me back in a few areas of furthering my career. I’m willing to admit that I’ve been afraid to sign up for CD workshops. I’d taken them a couple years ago when I don’t think I was ready and I haven’t done one since. But it is time. I need to put myself out there more. If I can put myself out there on a stage, I should be able to do it in a casting room.

Self Producing Friends

7 Nov

I’ve talked a lot before about the importance of self-producing when it comes to making a career as an actor. I always love it when I see my friends and former co-stars or colleagues making their own work. Here’s just a little slice of my diverse talented group of friends and their Kickstarter/Indie Go Go pages. Some have expired as the projects are completed, but I wanted to include them, too, to show the results of crowdfunding and all the cool stuff my friends are doing. They aren’t waiting for someone to hire them- they’re going out there and making their own work!!

Wallflower short film

Three Puffs of Gold short film

Yo Se music video

Low Shoulders short film

 

Gypsy Gift short film

Have You Seen Alice play

Support these artists following their dreams!

When it Rains it Pours

17 Oct

I mean figuratively of course. This is LA. However, even this figurative rain is seasonal. In fact, I think right around this time last year I had a shit ton on my plate just like I do now. Of course for the past three months I’ve been twiddling my thumbs and then, all of a sudden- down pour. I don’t want to complain- this is all good. Very good! No more dry spell. No more doubts. No more thinking, really. There just isn’t the time. Here’s what I have going on:

1. Spoken Word Poetry – opening 10/21

One of my many day jobs is high school theater teacher/director. This is my second year and I couldn’t be more excited about this production, which we’ve been working on since the start of the semester. The students wrote their own pieces for an evening of Spoken Word Poetry. However, instead of performing the pieces in the style of a poetry slam or an open mic type event, they are all staged theatrically, as if each poem is its own one-act. Anyhoo, I’ve been rehearsing with them practically every day and it opens this Friday!

2. Nothing But Besties Short Film – shooting 10/24-10/26

I’ve been in rehearsals every weekend in preparation for filming this comedic short next week, which all stemmed from a little stage play that I got to be a part of. It’s crazy how everything connects and it’s fun to trace the steps back to the beginning.

3. Life Changes – opening 11/11

This experience is so reminiscent of that fateful audition that changed my life. It’s a new play written by the woman who is also producing it, as the inaugural show of her and her best friend’s production company. They put a call out, I auditioned, got cast and from the start it’s been an incredible fun and positive experience with great people.

4. The Black Eyed – opening 12/9

This play is so cool. So HARD, but so cool. I know I’m not being that articulate, which is funny because neither is my character in the play, but it is a really interesting thought-provoking piece. It’s a contemporary play about four Palestinian women, written in the style of Greek theater- very poetic and lots of chorus work. It will be interesting to memorize (not to mention the other two scripts I have in my brain!) And a funny small-world moment- this play received its world premiere in SF, which was directed by the same woman who directed my friend (who wrote PianoFight’s Forking that I was in, both in LA and SF) Daniel Heath’s latest play. I didn’t think I’d come across a name I know when researching the play.

5. Grad School! – apps due 12/1

Oh yeah, and that. I had the brilliant idea of applying to grad school amidst allll this stuff going on. Well, not really. I mean, I’ve been thinking about grad school for the past two years now. It just so happens that all these projects landed right at the same time. But, I’m up for the challenge!

I went to a theater opening party Saturday night and bumped into an old actor friend. He was having the same down pour, and we were saying how funny it is that one second you can be bored out of our mind wondering if you should just give up on this career altogether and then the next you’re seriously considering turning down projects. But neither of us did. I got offered parts in two plays just 3 days apart. I knew some of it would overlap but I was going to make it work god dammit. Short film in between? Oh well. This is what I came back here for. I’ll take it in whatever way it comes. Even if it’s a god damn hurricane.

Saucy Maid

29 Aug

Do I have a story for you!

So, like I said in my last post, jumping back into the swing of things wasn’t what I had hoped for. But, I jumped in nonetheless and slowly but surely got into the rhythm of submitting, auditioning, writing and meeting. Last Monday I went in to audition for a night of one-acts at a theater in West LA. Tuesday morning I got an email from a guy who is friends with the person I auditioned for saying that he is a casting director for a reality show to hire actors for reenactments. Followed a few minutes later by another email saying he saw me in Skeleton Stories and enjoyed my work. Tuesday afternoon I met with him. Wednesday I filmed.

One, that shows how fast things can work around here (on a much, much smaller scale) and two, the beauty of putting yourself out there and building a network of people who get to know your work. Three, shows you how I landed my first job upon returning home.

Now let’s get to the job. It was one of those experiences that I chalk up to really good late night interview material for Leno or Letterman. Like the low-budg horror flick I stared in two years ago. You can’t write this shit.

So, the job. My part was “Saucy Maid” complete with french-maid costume: fishnet knee-high stalkings, ridiculously tiny and equally useless lace “apron”, faux pearl necklace with matching bracelet and a white feather duster. Yup. My character worked for a “maid” company where women in sexy maid outfits would “clean” homes. Yes, lots of quotation marks. So there I was, standing in the typical LA summer heat (that for some reason or another didn’t come until this past week), in a very non-breathable nylon and sequin mini dress, holding a freakin feather duster in the middle of the Valley. Yeah, I felt like a prostitute… or porn star, take your pick. I also felt like a hypocrite. I spend my days avoiding breakdowns precisely like the one that most likely accompanied the very character I was hired to play. I’m a woman. I’m an actor. I’m a feminist. And I’m not Angelina Jolie or Meryl Streep where I’d get to pick my script, any script. How do these things align? How do I reconcile feminist, actor– new actor– as I take on this career path?

Now, I’m not saying I regret doing this project. Honestly, it was a blast. Cool people. Hilarious story line. Lots of fun. And a paycheck. I also know that not every part out there is going to be “Hannah” or “Erin Brokovich” nor would I want it to be. I was just standing there in my Saucy Maid outfit, killing time with my iPhone in one hand and fanning the heat away with a feather duster in the other, wondering, what does this all mean……

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