They are looking for 50+ male and female life models/actors to pose nude for new album cover of well established Irish band.  The shoot will be based on a crowd shot of the seating area of the gate theatre with the band member in the middle of the life models.  Masks or face paint will be used as props for the life models & it will be a fully private and closed shoot in the Dublin Gate Theatre on the 8th of December 2009.
Discretion is of the utmost importance, and there will be full facilities for models belongings and valubles.
The day will be run and shot by professional Hotpress photographer Ruth Medjber.
Only persons on the set will be photograher, featured band members and models.
Models required for about 4 hours.
All models will be credited on the cd, VIP guest invited to the launch night and sent the 50 first copies of the ablum when printed.

Contact Paul on 0861999225 or at  paulmckenna55gmail.com

I am a huge fan of Fringe Festivals. I love the opportunity as an audience member to experience a bunch of different types of theatre from all over the world in a short time span and only a few blocks from the next show.

As a performer it’s a great experience as well. Well, it can be. It can also be really frustrating. You never know what it’s going to be like. You might get great reviews, but small audiences. You might get crappy reviews but still have great houses. Some Fringe Festivvals avidly promote the festival within the city. Others can’t be bothered to even send a poster over to the miriad of hotels a block away to bring in tourists.

I didn’t get a spot in the Toronto Fringe Festival this year (it’s a lottery done by picking companies out of a hat). That’s disappointing. I had a great time with “The List” last year at the Toronto Fringe and I know “The Frank Diary of Anne” would have been really well received in Toronto. I am however doing the London (Ontario) Fringe. It’s close by so won’t cost a bundle to get to and hopefully there will be some press I can collect for future mountings of the show.

I’m debating applying to the Hamilton Fringe Festival. One the one hand it is also close in proximity, but I think that might mean locals would actually travel to Toronto for a Fringe. Last year they had 28 companies and returned just over $31,000 to the performers. That’s just over $1000 per show. With a festival fee of $570 plus actual costs for the show, that doesn’t leave much of a chance at a profit.

Has anyone done the Hamilton Fringe and have any experiences to share?

By Jen

There is a fun new discussion thread up over at the Movie Junkie Online Forum that Katharine Hepburn fans would certainly like to participate in!

However, it begs a difficult question:

Which Katharine Hepburn Movie is Your Favorite?

So far, most people are having a difficult time deciding on just one of Katharine Hepburn’s movies as a specific “favorite.”  Movies that have been listed include “The Philadelphia Story,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “Adam’s Rib,” “Pat and Mike,” “The Rainmaker,” and “The Lion in Winter.”

So far, the general favorite seems to be “The Philadelphia Story,” but there are so many wonderful Katharine Hepburn roles that have not yet been mentioned!

For a complete list of Katharine Hepburn’s movies and roles, click here.  You can also find her bio on IMDb.  Join the discussion at Movie Junkie Online or comment below about your favorite Katharine Hepburn film!

(If you haven’t seen much of Katharine Hepburn’s work, it is highly recommended that you do!  She holds the world record for most “Best Actress” Oscars won, and her countless incredible costars included Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor, Angela Lansbury, John Wayne, Annette Bening, James Stewart, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda … the list goes on and on.)

It snowed this morning.  It was a light dusting, but it was the kind of stuff where you could easily slip and bite it if the spot was slick.  It’s finally winter cold now too.  Up until about a week and a half ago, it was a cold wind blowing.  It’s almost Minnesota cold.  If you have never experienced it, you have no idea what that cold is like (unless you live some where like Alaska or Canada).

I think the general public outside of Minnesota or surrounding states assume it’s winter in Minnesota for about eight months.  But they’re wrong.  It’s only five at the most and only two of those are really ever that bad.  I’ve heard it said Minnesotan’s live longer, in part, because of the weather here.  Who wouldn’t want that?  Personally, I just think the rest of the country is soft.  Any athlete complaining about the weather when YOU’RE BEING PAID MILLIONS to play a sport, hardly a real job, should shut the hell up.  If you gave me a million dollars, I would sit outside for four hours a day in some cold po-dunk part of Alaska or Canada just for the hell of it, or because I was being paid millions of dollars.

Anyway.  School is still severely limiting, basically killing, any time I might have to write anything fun.

Heavens to Betsy, The Library Minute is fun to watch! This series features Arizona State University librarian Anali Perry who gives us a super fast run down on ASU’s library’s resources. Words, images, and Anali’s head float across the screen. But the best part of this video series is just Anali’s giddiness. We say, “Giddy up!”

Thespian – translated from the Greek “one who translates”, an actor or actress.
I’ve made the miraculous jump from AM Radio personality to thespian in a matter of months of landing in Esperance, completely by chance. All I wanted to do was meet some more people, now I’m a superstar (sic).

So how did all this happen and where has it taken me? Cale Hill is the man to blame for all this, he suggested I audition for “A Christmas Carol” at the Bijou Theater, my only previous experience with the Bijou was months earlier when I was investigating this little town called Esperance before I moved here and I found a news article about McDonald’s wanting to open a restaurant in Esperance but the ‘local theater’ was complaining about the noise that would come from it and possibly impede on a production there. I mocked them at the time … now I’m ‘them’.

There’s a few things which I’m learning in the theater, here’s my list in case you fall into theater production anytime soon.

• Apparently you don’t say “good luck”, instead you say “break a leg” … I’m not comfortable with either so I say generic things like “go hard” and “give it 110%”
• You can never be too quiet in the wings or backstage
• If you’re going to be late then be an hour or two late – that’s way more fashionable than 15-45 minutes late
• Learning your lines is useless … performing them and understanding the story works for me
• Never work with animals, children or chains
• Bring lollies
• Old ladies feel they have the authority to talk to you about an eating plan once they’ve seen you in a production
• Older people will laugh at everything if you call it a pantomime
• It’s fully ok to be in your underwear in front of others backstage
• It’s fully not ok to be in your underwear in front of others on stage
• People at shops don’t understand why you’re wearing makeup and buying fast food at the same time
• Makeup is not emasculating, apparently it’s “for the lights”
• The smaller the number of directors the better
• Saying the word prompt doesn’t work in normal conversations with people, it only works when you’re on stage and you’ve forgotten what to say next
• Improvising is the fun part
• Secret improvising is the funner part
• The last night is when you can be naughty, but apparently not ‘that’ naughty … but you can have fun with the scenes as long as the story still carries and the cues aren’t missed. Apparently walking onto stage in your underwear is “too far”
• Hot chips are an ok replacement for real meals when you’re a thespian
• In local theater you don’t get your own dressing room

Oh it’s been a journey

Mediacorp star Michelle Chong visited Pornsak’s apartment in the wee hours of the morning, according to Pornsak, the top ten most popular Mediacorp artiste, on his twitter page.

“Michelle Chong came by and went through all the scenes for tomorrow,” said Pornsak on his twitter page at 1:30 a.m. this morning.

Calling Michelle affectionately as “barbarella”, a character by Michelle on Channel 5’s show “the Noose“, Pornsak said she was preparing him for his first Channel 8 telemovie.

Pornsak is acting as the lead of a Channel 8 Lunar New Year Telemovie special, alongside with fellow celebrities Dai Yang Tian and Joanne Peh.

In an update to his twitter page around 12:30 p.m. today, Pornsak exclaimed “Michelle Chong’s method works” after filming the first scene of the movie.

Pornsak and Michelle first got acquainted when they hosted New Foreigner in Town 新客到 last year.

Pornsak is super hardworking and doing his best for the show. Looking forward to the first movie for Pornsak!

Pornsak at the opening ceremony of the filming of his first telemovie yesterday.

(Picture from xin.sg)

Looking out my apartment window today I see a ten storey high Robert Downey Jnr. is Sherlock Holmes alongside him a Mr. Jude Law is Watson staring at me, lol how wonderful, I don’t mind at all that being the first thing I see when I wake up

It’s private rehearsal today this Wednesday on a short script we were given yesterday were I am playing “Sister Ray” and need to perform on Friday, heading off to read lines with my script partner and block it out. Completed some study before and today is the knuckle down learn lines, prepare and get ready for a full on day tomorrow.

Have also been very excited at the prospect of possibly having some visitors from back home arrive in January and extended this journey a few more days in order to travel a few places after this Actor’s intense training.

So back to study now, hopefully will have an opportunity to hit the gym after and then straight back to line learning, looking forward to what tomorrow will bring;

Until then…

Miss D

Sleeping Beauty, originally uploaded by magnum_lady.

Jono was given tickets for the Sligo pantomime which is performed by the Coolera Dramatic society and takes place in the Hawks Well theatre.

This is the 3rd year we have seen the pantomime. This years one was Sleeping Beauty. The actors are very good and there is lots of singing and dancing. Also some jokes about Mary Harney and the gang which made Jono laugh.

The star of the show for me was Dame Goodbody. Who was a typical pantomime dame (as in a man dressed as a woman!) We especially liked his Pokemon dress and also his version of Queens ‘Don’t stop me now’……especially the pink inflatable guitar.

It was a great night out although it’s on for roughly two and a half hours which I think is a long time especially for little ones, there were quite a lot of tears at the end due to tiredness. Also at 17 euro each ticket (adults and children) I think it’s very expensive. We were lucky to be given our tickets.

Taylor Lautner on GQ. Photo Credit: Gossip Teen

I woke up to a horrendous display of advertisement–or really, it was a rerun clip of Access Hollywood’s Shaun Robinson interviewing Taylor Lautner in the “New Moon” premiere in Westwood a couple weeks ago. Robinson is seen showing off a shirtless Mattel doll version of Lautner’s character, Jacob Black, and asking him of his opinion. Lautner was embarrassed–seemed uncomfortable. The whole thing was sort of awkward. You could see it for yourself at the end of the entry. Over at Twitter, a female friend of mine joked about how she was counting down the day that Lautner turns legal. He is only 17, but in the words of Jacob Black, “Age is just a number, baby.”

Britney Spears was 17 on April 1999 cover of Rolling Stone, Photo Credit: Dolly Mix

I have to admit, I am interested in this Taylor Lautner phenomena, mainly because of the ramifications that who he is and what he’s done is steering the change of how we view masculinity and femininity today. Don’t quite follow me yet? Take for example this countdown that a fan made to countdown the days that Lautner turns 18. Now let’s go backwards in time–countdowns like this have been used to celebrate past “jail-baits” as Britney Spears, the Olsen Twins, and Lindsay Lohan. Grown men that counted down the days were seen as perverted and disgusting. Now, fast forward to 2009. It’s the women’s turn. Now, I’m all about equal opportunity, but are women getting as much flak ove their comments on Lautner and the fact that he is “jailbait?”

I don’t think so–and definitely not at the same degree as men. Actually, there isn’t much clatter about cougars eyeing the shirtless Lautner, except on sites like Just Mommies, a message board for moms. So apparently, it’s okay that a shirtless seventeen-year-old boy can pose provocatively, but when a seventeen-year-old girl (and she doesn’t have to be shirtless, i.e., Britney Spears) poses provocatively, it turns heads. Double standard?

And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, I discovered that they made a more realistic Taylor Lautner-Jacob Black action figure. And yep, you guessed it, he’s shirtless. I have to agree with fellow blogger,  Nobody Puts Baby in a Horner, when the blogger writes:

“I’m not saying that you can’t have him as your object of lust-eyes because you can do whatever you want, but I am saying it’s difficult to forget how, unless you’re another teenager, those lust-eyes are technically statuatory-rape-eyes.  Sure, the thought police aren’t throwing anyone in jail over the a few idle thoughts, but still: He’s only seventeen, so YIKES!!!”

Yes, big YIKES!!! With 3 exclamation marks means extreme warning. I don’t know whose bright idea it was to create such an action figure. Apparently, it was revealed in Comic Con for the Twihards (a term for die-hard Twilight fans). Poor Taylor Lautner. Poor Tay-Tay. Will he ever escape his identity of just being eye-candy instead of being an actor? I mean, that is what he wants–to be recognized for his acting talent. A Showbiz Spy article reveals Lautner’s ultimate desire:

“I worked hard to get in shape for this role,” Lautner explains. “My motivation was the movie and the fans, but I don’t want to become known as just a body. If I had to choose, I would never take my shirt off again in a movie, but I guess that’s not very realistic. I certainly won’t be asking to do it, though.”

Well, that’s a start. I’m no fortune teller, but I predict that the next few roles you’re going to get will continue to exploit you. Sex sells, eh?

Now you may be thinking, what’s the big deal? Am I advocating that it’s okay for older people–men and women–to lust over underage teens as long as there is equal flak on both sides? No. I’m just quite concerned that people forget that Lautner is still a boy with a man’s body–well, at least until February 11, 2010. People should stop and take a look at themselves. Let me repeat again, he’s 17!

Jacob Black action figure. Photo Credit: Twilight Book Addicts

Now, you might be saying for me to take a look at myself, that I’m just jealous that I don’t look like him. Heck ya I’m jealous–me and every guy that doesn’t look like him gets jealous. And the men of the world felt the same way when 300 came out. But that’s exactly how Lautner is changing, or rather, adding to masculinity. Men are running to the gym again, and cougars are on the prowl. Now, women are the ones with the “lustful eyes” and men are the ones “lusted after.” As 2009 comes to a close, we find ourselves at a changing landscape: the image of “jailbait” isn’t a girl; it’s a boy…a really buff boy at that.

What do you think?

“Do not get me upset. Things are gonna get very ugly!” – Jacob Black in “New Moon”

Today’s Tarot card:

Wednesday, December 2
The Hanged Man Reversed
Movement. Becoming unstuck and moving forward. Consideration of viewpoints and attitudes of others. Period of suffering ending. Ready to get on with things and back in the game. An opening of mind and heart. The end of a difficult time or cycle. Illumination. The way out has been discovered and is ready to be acted upon. Conformity. Allowing other’s opinions to overrun your own. Things are turned upside down, but may appear right-side up. Look closely to discern how things really stand.

Interesting, considering the evening I had.

I went for an actor’s workshop, the one I went for last week. This time around, I took part in it, instead of just observing. It didn’t go as smoothly as planned.

For one thing, I was paired with a woman, and tasked to look for a scene from the movie Out of Sight. There really is only one scene with two women in it, and it’s not exactly a compelling scene to watch. It’s so not compelling that the writer felt the need to insert a guy who interrupts them and gets beat down by Karen Sisco, Jennifer Lopez’s character.

I had misgivings from the start, but I chose not to act on it. While yes, there is a lot of subtext and so on, the scene itself is not that interesting. There is no excitement until the entry of the third party. As a scene by itself, out of context, it’s just not something two actresses wanting to demonstrate their range would select. It’s necessary to tell the story, but it’s not the sort of scene that people purposely rewind to watch.

So after our performance, the feedback wasn’t particularly compelling either. There was nothing much to say because there was nothing much to be said. It’s not a particularly dramatic scene, and to play it realistically was to have it the way it was. If we made it some kind of absurdist play, then sure, we could up-play the tension between the ex-wife and the new beau, have us both glaring daggers at each other, a veritable tango of envy.

If you’ve watched Dexter, you’ll notice that while he’s a cold-blooded killer, he never acts that way unless he’s alone, or on the hunt. In the company of others, especially when encountering prey, his act is flawless, with all the good cheer of a jolly good fellow and only the sinister voice-over to give you a clue as to his thoughts. Take the voice-overs away, and you wouldn’t suspect a thing.

That was essentially my problem with the scene. My character is a US Marshal who somehow has a huge crush on this fugitive and is trying to find him. Now, she’s interviewing his ex-wife in hopes of finding a clue. If she goes in there sizing her up, acting like a jealous little girl, she’s not going to get her answers. So she has to put on an act. Pretend she’s just there for business. In that moment, in that room, while she may be jealous and feeling conflicted, she has to put on that poker face and just pretend that she just wants to find clues. She’s a seasoned pro, not some cop fresh out of the academy. She can do poker face.

Problem is, not everyone thought that way. They highly approved of my partner’s constant glares and glances to size me up, but thought I didn’t do enough.

Perhaps it was the fact that I didn’t like the scene in the first place. Or perhaps I wasn’t a good enough actor to have the multiple layers required to pull that part off. I don’t know.

Recently I’ve been questioning my acting. Maybe it’s just the fact that I haven’t been asked of much lately. I’m having a small crisis of faith about whether I’m good enough for my chosen profession. Despite everything I’ve worked on so far, I’ve only been able to catch glimpses of bits and pieces, and it’s not enough for me to assess myself. Or rather, I should say that I’ve not been happy with what I’ve seen so far, and I want to see more substantial work to see if I can do better with meatier roles. It’s already bloody December; how long does it take to edit a film?

Elton, my biggest fan, reassures me I still have it. That I’m a great actor, and that I think beyond what other people do, and that other may not be able to share my views. “Twilight, Interview With The Vampire, both vampire movies, but maybe all they can handle is Twilight,” he shrugged. “So give them Twilight.”

Maybe he’s right. At the same time, I didn’t feel right going into the performance. And I’m all about the feeling. It’s ironic that I would have felt absolutely comfortable acting in the other scene that was presented. That scene, I understood, and I am absolutely confident of pulling it off. This one just felt like we were trying to fit turkey stuffing in a quail. We were trying to make too much of it, without realizing that the only reason why the scene worked was because set in a movie, with the viewers understanding the context, the actors aren’t supposed to do too much, and it’s what they don’t do that makes the scene. Rather than letting it be an all-out bitch fight, it’s the subtle lies and the stolen glances that make it.

Whereas the other scene, of the male and female lead in a cafe, sexual tension running high, uncertain of whether they will get it on, the context just gives it a background, but the action in the scene itself is dramatic, compelling and can be taken out of context. They could just be any two random people meeting in a cafe, and the scene would still work. For once, I’m at a loss to point out the difference. I hope you understand. The first is just a transition scene, the second is an action scene. The first sort is just a lead up to the second type.

That said, a good actor should be able to pull both off. Maybe I’m not cut out for that sort of subtlety. I don’t know. And I can never know unless I get to see myself in action. Maybe it’s time to invest in a video recorder. And hunt down an acting partner who doesn’t mind playing roles with me.

Or maybe I’m just “allowing other’s opinions to overrun your own” and I need to “look closely to discern how things really stand.” Certainly, that’s what Elton tells me. I need to have a little more faith in myself as well.

A couple of years ago I saw Nick Baker of Williams College present at Computers in Libraries on making fun and interesting library videos.  This is one of the clips he showed then and it is one of the videos I still think about when I consider  just what we can do to introduce library topics to our audience. It is nominated in the Best Acting – Librarian, Best Drama, Best Acting, and Best Special Effects categories.

This library noir video was used as part of Williams’ Library Mystery Tour for 2007.  It doesn’t go too deeply into instruction but it does showcase reference librarians as people with gumshoe-like skills when it comes to tracking down information.  And isn’t that how we all see ourselves? As detectives, albeit with more regular hours and lower pay?  Exactly!

If you are interested, the previous year’s video for this annual program is available here.  And if the name Nick Baker rings a bell, he is the one who made the March of the Librarians video that is a youtube sensation, at least among the ACRL-going crowd.

Victor D’Altorio freed himself from his body Ann Marie Buydos wrote in a general email on November 12th.  This is it folks–he hit the road.

He left behind no biological children, but hundreds of children that came in the form of acting students.  Through the Meisner acting approach, he did not teach, but rather demanded that people drop all false pretense and stare head-on into the beautiful, scarred face of humanity.  To use less actor jargon, this means to simply see that the person in front of you is crying and laughing at the same time, and then allowing yourself to have your honest reaction to that.  Then in turn, they have the opportunity to see you screaming and smiling at them at the same time, and then they react.  This may seem so incredibly simple (or inappropriate) as a method for acting and there certainly is more to it.  However, it is the core of good acting and I daresay a healthy emotional life outside of acting.

I first heard about Victor when I decided I wanted to be an actor.  I had just graduated from music school in a grueling amount of time (a little more than two and half years) and was confused as to what I really wanted to do with my life.  With a sudden surplus of time on my hands I started watching a lot of movies.  Then while watching Spiderman 2, I decided I wanted to be on the screen.

About a month later I received an email from the fabulous Northeast Ohio Performing Arts List.  It was an email from an actor teacher from LA and Chicago named Victor D’Altorio stating that he had some openings in a class.  In it was a brief, liberating description of what acting is–honesty–and quotes by Megan Mullaly, Laura Innes and Toby Schiff praising his teaching and directing skills.

In my first class I was so excited and terrified.  He started with some clear demands.  One: you are never late.  It’s just not acceptable.  Two: you do not speak at all, whatsoever during someone else’s time, furthermore you should not be speaking because you are exercising full concentration on their work.  Three:  write in your journal everyday and read the assigned books.  Four: obey the rules of the exercise we were to spend most of our time doing, the repetition.

For those of you who don’t know what the repetition is, let me quickly state that it is an improvisational acting exercise designed to help students exercise being present in the moment.  To do the exercise at it’s most basic level, what you are to do is stand face to face with a partner.  Then one of you will make an honest statement about the other person that has some meaning to you.  For example, it may be honest to say, “your shirt is blue” however the blueness of the shirt most likely has little importance to you.  It might be a wiser choice to say, “you look like a fat fucking bitch” or “you are so extremely attractive” if either of those is how you feel.  Then, the other person must take that statement, switch the second person to first and say it back to you letting whatever thoughts or emotions they have ride out on the statement.  And this continues back and forth until one of you notices something else that’s extremely important to you and makes another statement and continues the process again.

Well.  I think maybe you can sense my apprehension in doing an exercise like this, but you can also feel some curious, new excitement that you have the chance to step into a world where you can really say how you feel, and hear other people’s honest reaction to you.

In my first exercise, with a woman named Jack, my world changed.  In between our bland comments like “you have a nice smile” and our giggling and thwarted attempt at kissing (fyi: in this exercise, things like kissing rarely happen because something usually comes up, like someone pulling away for a second, before the kiss and it can’t go uncommented), I saw a worthy, unpopular challenge placed before me.  To be honest.  This exercise and, frankly, living life fully requires that we don’t always have a lid on our emotions, no matter what they be.  More importantly, it requires that we are paying attention.  Like the wise geisha, we notice how people react to us.   Honesty means we see the world as it is, and go from there.

Gosh, there’s so much more I could say about what this class is (sadly this should be a “was”) about.  But instead I’ll quickly say it completely changed my life.  I had an extremely gifted palm reader (he is a well-known radio presenter in Cleveland and does not do this for pay) read my palm and notice that there is an entirely different Russell living in my head that is not being expressed.  I don’t think you had to be a palm reader to notice that when I was 19; I was always tripping over my own words and looked uneasy most of the time.  His comment stuck with me and in Victor’s class I knew, through much hard work and a solid year’s worth time in his classes, that the person in my head would finally merge with the person on the outside.

This, Victor, was an amazing gift and I think you so, so very much.  It came to pass that a couple years later, after having had some success in LA and NYC acting that I realized being just an actor was not my calling.  I was drawn to acting, and Victor’s class, because I wanted to learn how to get out of my fucking head.  It may seem that acting is about lying, and I agree it is, it is also just as much about telling the truth.  With all the time I’d spent in my life doing heady things like astrology, calculus, classical oboe and arts administration (how does one administer the arts, really?), I had never learned how to simply tell the truth.

Now that I am making my debut as me, doing all the disparate things I do, honesty is the cornerstone of making my work palatable. I am being honest in that being a bard is my fantasy world.  It is my reaction when I see the world.  When I see Lady Gaga, I see the potential for bardism.  When I accept that we are still killing thousands of people in the middle east with our sloppy policy, I see the potential for an honest reaction when no one is paying attention.  So, as this fabulous new bard I’m trying to become, I hope I can give you a slice of the truth.  As Victor said in his blog, “the truth is always far more interesting that the pretense that covers it up.”  Victor, your torch of truth lives on in so many students who cherish your memory.  Rest in peace.

“living truthfully under imaginary circumstances,”

                                              Sanford Meisner

Today it all began, the first day of an intense 8 week acting program at one of the most respected acting academy’s in the world, also the opportunity to meet people and form friendships to deter future solo basketball games hehehehe.

Meeting four emerging filmmakers on the way to school today was wonderful to speak with someone other than the concierge lol. Heading into the building, registering, orientation, photo, academy tshirt…how very exciting (powered donuts, coffee and bagels…none for me, Corn Flakes hit the spot.) Then with all the paper work out the way it was across the road to the actors building.

We exit the lift to the right, acting school to the left “Quincy Jones’ Production Office,” I’m sorry what? Really WOW! In a small room 30 sets of eyes staring at all the new faces they would be spending the next two most intense months of their lives and career with, the thrill is fantastic. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. We are split into groups and off to our class rooms.

Immediately it is practical work and loving every second, warm up exercises, breathing techniques, getting to know our fellow classmates, script work, scene study…It is amazing that this is all happening, being able to focus every minute on pure acting is wonderful, exciting and fabulous! Only one class but I can certainly tell you that more was learnt and shared today then any other class I have been apart of. Time was over but a few of us remained behind, talking and discussing for what seemed fifteen minutes was in fact 2 hours.

Today had finally arrived, and though now over, looking forward to getting up and doing it all again…

Until Then…

Miss D

This week my good friend, acting coach Jeanne Hartman, will be traveling to Hong Kong to teach another series of master classes in acting technique. Here in Los Angeles Jeanne has been my acting coach and director on a number of theater, radio and voice-over projects so I can truly say that I am envious of the students who will be attending her classes next month. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Jeanne talk about acting. Her insights and clear descriptions of the tools an actors needs to build believable characters are invaluable.

We tend to accept that investing emotionally in your character is necessary when we think about non-musical performances. But I consider it just as important when your job is to sing a song in a musical theater or live concert performance. In my work as a singer/songwriter in a folk rock band I often have the opportunity to watch other artists perform. The singers that I enjoy the most, the ones I remember and want to see again, are the ones who know how to connect with their audience. Because they invite us into their experience. Their performance makes you feel something. But in order to have an experience to share the performer must know how to create that reality for themselves and then commit to the emotional investment that will draw your audience into your imagined reality.
Which is where grabbing the chance to study with Jeanne Hartman comes in.

I recently watched a young singer/songwriter sing her original tunes. She sang well and her songs were well-written. But she sat at the keyboard and stared at her hands never making eye contact with the audience and never giving us any clues as to what she was thinking or feeling. She made no effort to connect to what she was singing about. Without that connection to the material you are performing there is little chance you’ll be able to connect with your audience.

Using the same set of tools that actors use to create believable characters the singer can make a song real for themselves. Which will make it real for the audience.

In the November 16, 2009 Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times there is a review by Randy Lewis of a concert that has in it this paragraph:

“He coaxed shimmering, pulsating tones from his Lowden guitar and unleashed dazzling tones and fills that never came off like Guitar Hero grandstanding because they were always inspired by, and in the service of, the emotional heart of each song.”

I’ve learned to treat my song lyrics the same way I would a non-musical monologue or dialogue in a scene. The techniques I’ve learned from coaching with Jeanne lead me to discoveries about the song’s content and my reasons for singing it that allow me to find the emotional center of the song.

So, for all you singers out there, go to the events page and sign up for Jeanne’s workshops. OR contact her through her web page and make an appointment for a coaching session:

www.JeanneHartmanactorsDetective.com

Because a song performed without the emotional investment made possible through the use of the actor’s homework is just a lot of notes.

GREAT GIFTS FOR THE NAUGHTY

Dangerous Lee’s One of a Kind Paintings – Everything must go! Make me an offer.

Fatal Charade: The Executioner’s Tale III – Lead Role

The Executioner’s Tale IV: Legacy – Small Role

Morning
Woke up, rolled out of bed, ate, watched news, drank coffee, boarded bus.

Bus Ride
Talked, maybe even fell asleep.

Early Block
Ghost out meeting with some CY kids. There were only three of us + Margo and we were all so tired it was almost like spending time in a morgue.

Geometry
Triangles and compasses and other Geometry-like things.

Advisory
Checked email, checked everyone’s blogs.

French
I am reminded again that in our class of 9, I might be the only one who actually cares about the language.

Lunch
Uneventful and normal.

History
We started to write papers. Mine is on why people decided to follow the religions they followed in France and India in the middle ages.

Human Bio
Heart review. Videos on heart attacks, I doodled.

Afternoon
Mom picked me up because I needed to get my glasses adjusted. We went to iParty and got some stuff for my Macbeth skit. We went to Starbucks and then I went to the eye doctor and now my glasses stay on my face properly. Got some fish for Violet at PetSmart and grabbed Alice’s Science binder at WCS. It was snowing on our way back to the car and I twirled around in the parking lot.

Now
Home. Reading some writing and doing some homework. Should probably study for Human Bio test/study lines for Macbeth. My eyes feel like they are going to fall back into my skull. I am so tired.

A really good action movie is one that has good writing, or at least wit. I still love Die Hard because John McClane (played by Bruce Willis) is more clever than he is cocky. He is inventive, funny, and smart, a scrappy hero, one who scrapes by with whatever is around him at the time. You know, an elevator shaft, a rolling desk chair, and a duffel bag full of C-4. In the end he is down to duct tape and two bullets. And he’s smart with them. 

This wit and inventiveness is why I liked Silverado so much, although Silverado holds an even more important place in my Movies I Love to Watch List. Because in addition to wit and creativity and great dialogue (“I got there just short of too late”), Silverado thrives on its ensemble. They bond, they work together, and that bond is forged out of who they are and strengthens them to be who they are on behalf of other people. I’m not sure I would call it a film – it is a piece of art, not Art. But it’s wonderful. Also, good shoot-outs and fights and show-downs and such.

Enter Nathan Fillion’s work as Mal in Firefly and Serenity. The acting in Silverado is very good, but Fillion is able to communicate a character who is both very flawed and very good in the midst of a strong ensemble. In fact, his character is the lifeblood of the ensemble. Mal is the captain of the ship. He is responsible for the life of the crew and their survival. It is the good in Mal that will always choose thriving when it’s an option, not mere survival. He is world-weary, he is always on the run, always about to make the big score when some needy person inserts himself or herself into his life and compels his action with their vulnerability. He is a reluctant hero. It doesn’t come naturally to him. He always chooses it.

And Mal chooses for home, all the time. He opts for family made out of the folks who come into his orbit. Nathan Fillion can make a move with his eyes, a slight clench of his jaws, a swift movement of his arm and you see deep into Mal’s complexity: his hurt, his loss, his desperation, his longing, his boldness, his buoyancy. He writes with his acting. He was handed great dialogue (“Here’s you and me, on the raggedy edge,” and “I’ve staked my crew’s life on the theory that you’re a person, actual and whole”), but he brought it to life and pointed us to a story with his skill.

Fillion does the same thing in Castle, a relatively new series on ABC. He plays Richard Castle, a famous playboy-type author of mystery novels. Nathan Fillion drops away and you see Richard, who is flawed and good like Mal but a completely different person. There is great creation of characters in this series, and a really nice focus on dynamics that really matter. Barely any mention at all that the detective in charge of the team that Castle ends up shadowing is a woman: it is taken for granted that this works, that a woman can be in charge and delegate, and it is taken for granted that the men who work for her are happy to be there and respect her authority and competence. 

As you start the series you wonder how an immature cad like Castle can have such a mature teenage daughter and a healthy bond of love with a mother whose charm glues together narcissism and sagacity. And then you start seeing exactly why: that as immature as he is, he is also that mature. The two characteristics coexist. The whole of the character makes sense. Fillion is handed a great character who is jovial, fresh, irrepressibly curious and mischievous, smart as anything, and very hard working (scenes with his daughter often begin as she walks into his study – his screen saver is a phrase that keeps moving across the screen, reading “you should be writing”). Fillion shows his acting chops by doing a character different from Mal with the same set of acting skills, a character that is actual and whole, a real person you can recognize, even though this person has a lot more money than most of us. And lots of toys. Fillion writes the story of a mature and immature man, full of flaws, full of goodness, not  Mal. (And if you want to check out the extent of his abilities, take a gander at the recent Emmy winner Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.)

Writing is, in the end, all about truth, whether it’s fiction or not, whether it’s character portrayal or essays. Poetry is about truth. History is about truth. Even though our eyes can see now only in part, it is the fact that we can read many different parts that expands our vision of the world and ourselves. The writers behind these shows and movies tell something truthful: about true nobility in gritty life, or bravery that exists alongside fear, or love, or joy. Because Nathan Fillion can write so well, that is, create a story and tell it with his acting and crafting of character, he is able to portray some truthfulness about what it means to write and what it means to be a writer.

Richard Castle is a truthful writer, and therefore a truthful person. Ok, now, he may fib a little, but his curiosity and desire for learning drive him to inquire and to seek truth. He shadows this detective team and is always open to learning from them, always. He wants to know who they are, how they talk, what they actually do as police. And at the end of the first season, his desire to understand leads him to risk a relationship that has become dear, because to reveal the truth he has discovered means he loves enough to lose her.

For us writers, it’s helpful to see a character like this. I have no illusions that if only I model myself after him I will have the same great NYC apartment or endless toys, making a bajillion dollars. But the pattern of the writing life that he follows is the same pattern most writers follow. He works hard, daily. He seeks knowledge and understanding. He sees writing as a way of life, and allows his literary seeking of truth to form his character. He tends to family, has a “job” in addition to his writing, has to see to keeping his editors happy. Change the NYC high style apartment set to our corner brick house in downtown Madison, change the job from shadowing detectives to pastoral ministry, and really, it’s not much different at all. That’s why it’s encouraging to see Castle in his writing life: writing is a life, and it’s not a narcissistic one if it’s going to be a truthful life.

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We didn’t make the final cut, but please enjoy!

“I consider my entire movie career a complete failure. The goal of movie-making is to star in a film where your performance drives the film, and the film is either a soaring critical or commercial success, and I never had that.

 

“And now, the movies I’ve been in, I never give them a moment’s thought. Every movie I’ve ever been in, I just avoid.”

- Alec Baldwin

…and apparently he’s planning on going into politics.

Although famous, actor Alec Baldwin has decided that in 2012, when his last contract will expire, to give up acting, because from his perspective, his entire career is a failure.

Baldwin, aged 51 years who has a Oscar nomination, two Golden Globes and two Emmy awards, argues however that has nothing to be proud from his professional point of view.

“I don’t have any interest in acting anymore. Movies are part of my past. It’s been 30 years. I’m not young, but I have time to do something else”

“It’s a difficult thing to say, but I believe it: I consider my entire movie career a complete failure. I’ll tell you why. The goal of moviemaking is to star in a film where your performance drives the film, and the film is either a soaring critical or commercial success, and I never had that”

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