Unscripted - A Blog for Actors - Backstage

I'm Still In The Picture!

I have received about 6 revised scripts for my upcoming "Legally Mad" shoot. This is my first pilot, so maybe this is normal, but it's actually kinda funny.  I haven't read the whole script yet, but I did thumb through the first one to see if I appeared in any additional scenes.  (Nope, just the one.)  Everytime I get a new version of the script, I flip to the page where my character appeared in the one before. 

Home for a Day

This week I reunited with my Spring Awakening buddies to sing at a benefit called Defying Inequality.  It was soooo much fun!! It was so wonderful to rehearse and catch up with my fellow cast members, some who I hadn’t seen since closing night back in January!!  It was also an honor to help raise money for such a great cause.  

You Will Not Defeat Me!!!

It's Day 5, and I am still sick as a dog.  I don't remember the last time I was this sick.  If you could see me now--okay, no, you definitely don't want to see me nor do I want to see you, BUT if you picture a bum in pajamas, woolly socks, an enormous fuzzy bathrobe and a green stocking cap over unbrushed hair, shivering in 70 degree weather and taking a sip of diet 7-up...well...you get the picture.  I'm miserable and I have a show tonight at 11 pm with no understudy and am producing and acting in a short on Sunday that I cannot and will not reschedule.  I'm determined to kick this flu in the behind once and for all...preferably by about 10:30 pm tonight. 

Everybody wants new head shots!

Everybody wants new head shots! Everybody wants new head shots! Every time I sign with a new agent,  manager, commercial agent, etc; the first thing they want me to do is get new head shots. Is there some secret commission being passed around under the table here between industry people and photographers? I can't take it!

In New York I spent a good chunk of money getting new pictures from three different photographers. Then last year when I moved to LA,  I'm asked to get even newer pictures. Honestly, people, black don't crack and asian don't change. I don't look that much different; maybe a little wisdom carved into my pearl creamed skin and some hard knocks of life etched into my palms. 

And maybe I don't look like this black and white ingenue here anymore, but I still get carded and hit on by college frat boys; even though I'm old enough now to have been there babysitter.
 

I'd like to thank the Academy

I've been so consumed by my agent drama that I've completely neglected sharing my incredible achievement in the craft of acting! That's right folks, I won my first Oscar this past weekend. No, stop, let me thank you.. For what? Shhh...
    First I'd like to thank the academy and their DVD-screeners, because without them I wouldn't have seen half the nominated films. I'd like to thank my family for always believing in me, and for urging me forward. I'd like to thank my neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn for always inspiring and terrifying me with new trends in fashion. I'd like to thank my roommates of past and future for putting up with my occasional actor-babble, and my weird hours. I'd like to thank myself for still living the dream after 3 years!
    What's the Oscar for? well..

Audition Update

Not that anyone has been waiting with baited breath for the outcome of yesterday's audition, but I thought I'd share with you all, anyway.

It was good.  A good audition.  I actually enjoy auditioning.  Face it - I'm not on stage often enough so auditions are like mini performances for me.  And I like that.  I'll take my minute-thirty of attention under the lights.  Thank you very much.

Back to school...

So in my new found self improvement jag (Kickboxing class today!) I have started thinking about what skills I want to hone. After my acting intensive last summer, I was sort of classed out. Now Im ready to hop back in. While our nation's economic troubles (okay, really just mine) prevent me from doing them all- here is a wish list of all the classes I want to enroll in. We'll see which ones I actually end up taking in the coming months.

The Mini-Account of an Insane Audition-Laden Day

7 a.m. - Go to bed after writing all evening.

8:25 a.m. - Wake up terrified that The Blob is invading my apartment.  Fling pillow at doorway before noting mental imbalance.

8:43 a.m. - Go to kitchen, eat small mound of chocolate, wander back to bed.

11 a.m. - Wake up, self-chastise for staying up all night.  Drink several cups of hyper-caffeinated Green Tea, consume toast.

12 p.m. - Work on Italian dialect for "might get in for it" pilot audition to play a Venetian courtesan.  Fantasize about moving to Toronto and playing a freakin' Venetian courtesan.

2 p.m. -  Get ready for massive MGM feature film audition.  Try out weird it'll-make-it-shiny hair spray.  Temporary shock at resulting shiny-ness.

Theater!

In the midst of all my agent drama, I have somehow managed to get cast in three plays that all go up between march 4th and march 28th. Seriously. 3 plays in 24 days. One is a hilarious one-act my friend Allyson wrote and is directing called 'Navigation'- it's in The Network's one-act festival. I can't vouche for any of the other 39 one-acts in the festival, but ours will be quite comical. That's an understatement. I have yet to get through the play without breaking - and I'm usually the best at not laughing. Usually I focus on the reality of the scene, and just crank up my need to reach my objective - which tends to keep me in the safe zone of not laughing. I'm starting to get there, but the more I really drop-in to the character, the more things I do that make my director cry. It's really her little giggle that makes me loose it, so hopefully in front of an audience I will find my anchor - because I won't be able to hear her laugh anymore.

    I'm also doing some sort of benefit put on by the Center for Anti-Violence Education - which involves me doing this

Workshop!!

So I'm one of those people who LOVES, THRIVES, ADORES "the process." I love insanely long rehearsal periods, I love when directors try and implement techniques and exercises (IF they know what they're doing). I love if there is incorporation of new skills (circus? wires? fight choreography? bring it on). I love that first day you are off book and you challenge yourself to get through the whole play without calling line. I love scoring your script and research on productions. I love dramaturgy and design presentations. I am such a nerd.