Unscripted - A Blog for Actors - Backstage

L.A. Bound

Then to have seen much and have nothing is to have rich eyes and poor hands.
- Jaques, As You Like It

We've already covered my inability to navigate the small/large town of Winston-Salem.  (Small to the  majority of students at UNCSA - large to yours truly).  This has been a issue that has been weighing heavily on my mind lately, because I feel that my reluctance to be lost has robbed me of my independence.  I don't even like going to the grocery store alone.  Lately, I have been making a huge attempt to do things alone in order to settle my worries about moving to either New York or L.A. in a year.  But...surprise, surprise!  While I was busy planning how to get over my fear of navigation, life happened.  I will be making a move to the big city sooner than I expected; I have been accepted to study with Laura Henry, one of the leading instructors of the Meisner Technique, at her Acting Studio in Santa Monica.

Something's Gotta Go.

"The time has come," the actress said, "to tweak my resume.  Make peace with the old, make room for the new, and be on my merry way."

For years now, I've been adding new credits to my resume.  Each addition was, to me, a rung on my personal ladder of success.  With recent bookings, I've had to decrease the font size as much as I dared, and finally, the time has come to start cutting things altogether.

It's bittersweet, you know?  My oldest credit has been with me for 16 years.  It's for the play that started me down this path in the first place.  I CAN'T let that go, can I?  

Can We Get A Little Spring Up In Here, Please?

This weather blows.  Where the hell is spring, already?  I see buds on the trees... last night it thundered... but why am I still wearing GLOVES?!  Goddammit.

Anyway... the show I am directing opens next week and we're in - I hope I don't jinx it! - pretty good shape.  The blocking is done (though subject to change as I am sure it will), and the actors are doing well with their lines.  I did some thrifting last weekend and got some costume and prop pieces.  Our postcards arrived this morning.  The tech guy someone referred to us called me over the weekend, and my mother and sister are making plans to visit (and I am getting us tix to Round and Round the Garden!).  Everything - for the most part - seems to be in place.  Or is this just a false sense of security?

The One Man(?) Show

It was the most beautiful moment of theatre I had seen in a long time. 

I was in the Starbucks on Belmont and Clark, in the dirty loins of Boystown, where homo-thugs, twinks and trannies collide in raucous, crazy, glorious celebration every Friday and Saturday night. 

I have seen a lot of theatre over the past year and a half of living in Boystown. Paddy wagons full of skinny boys in fishnet stockings, roving gangs of transvestites and their boyfriends picking fights with other groups of similarly crazy looking revelers. Madonna night at Spin. But none of these events rivaled the sheer beauty of what I saw at 2 o'clock in the afternoon in a coffee shop. 

Spring Break dumped me. Pass the ice-cream?

For the past week, I've been in a very serious, committed relationship with a guy named Spring Break. As of yesterday, the beautiful thing we shared came to a sudden, halting end, forcing me to consume an entire carton of haagen-daz while watching "The Notebook." Twice. 

In all seriousness, the reason I loved spring break was because I got to spend practically the entire thing working on my career, and it was so gratifying. As of tonight, I've just finished moving back into my dorm room, and am re-connecting with the college that I love. Now that Spring Break is over, I'm trying to start next quarter from a place of organized calm, and have spent the past bajillion hours trying to get everything straightened out and more zen-like (mmmm goosefraba!). Anyway, onto things more interesting than the feng sui of my sock drawer. 

      Spring break was crazy busy, but in a good way. First, I was reminded of one of the main reasons I love UCLA. The campus is so open to allowing movies to be taped here (during orientation I got to watch Tom Hanks and Ron Howard working on Angels and Demons), and is equally as willing to accommodate special events that are entertainment industry related. This year, the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards were held on my very own favorite campus on the face of the earth (I'm overflowing with Bruin Pride-- can you tell?). I think I had a total of 6 auditions over break, which made me happy. : D I took a great workshop at ReelPros from Carol Goldwasser, and even found time to take a trip to SB for a day and night to visit two of my besties. Let's see what else. . . Oh! A word on mailings. . . 

Lemon's Lurve List Item 8: Joe's Pub

This week I once again reunited with many of my Spring Awakening buddies for a 'Big Adventure.'  That’s right, super friend and Super Swing Morgan Karr performed his concert, “An Awfully Big Adventure” at Joe’s Pub this last week.  Morgan showed us just how Super he was by selling out the evening and serenading a full house of friends, fans, and family. 

Don't Shoot!

I shot my episode of "Southland" on Friday.  It was quite an experience.

New-Yawk-ing Italian? Not Quite...

It's been awhile since I've completely and mercilessly bombed anything.  An audition, I mean, not... like, a government building or Hilary Duff concert.  Not to say Friday's audition was truly demolished, persay, but it definitely isn't one of the ones I'll muse about all weekend... hoping for the "I simply have to get one on this!" callback.

Type.  The elusive, ephemeral, perpetually quizzical Brand You type.  I've never really seen myself as an Italian, Brooklyn/Queens type -- thus, when Delightful Agent Assistant rang my phone late Thursday afternoon, I was intrigued at the notion that they were actually calling me in for something like this... but a bit disconcerted at the same time.  Didn't have the accent.  Didn't have the time to develop the accent.  Wasn't sure if my "regional" take on the character was going to be correct, overdone, or simply wrong.  And I hadn't ever met this particular pilot casting director before.  And this was for a series regular.

Back Up Plans Are For Suckers

  

  I was having a lovely after-show drink with an actress who'd just moved to the city, and we got to talking about back up plans. The plan B's that many actors/writers/dancers have if their 'thing' doesn't work out. She has a couple back up plans, or options and I realized that I don't have any. There are things that I CAN do and am good at, but I don't really believe in back up plans. I think it distracts you from making your 'thing' happen. But that's just me, maybe for some it eases their anxiety. I just know that if I had something to fall back on I'd be tempted by it, instead of throwing myself into this career full force, and working as hard as I can to make a name for myself - by producing my own work, doing meet and greets, taking classes, networking, blogging(!), or buying a billboard in times square and plastering my face on it.

Just a Choir Geek at the Library

Did you know there is a place where you can get almost any book you want and borrow it for free?  There are even movies!  There’s even a room to view the movies.  If you’re a singer or musician, you can get your hands on almost any piece of music you can think of at this place.  The only cost is if you decide to photo copy something, but  fifteen cents a page is definitely cheaper than buying your music from a music store.  Plus, the selection at this place is way better.  I knew this place existed, but I had forgotten since college.  It might not be the coolest place in the world, but it is definitely one of the cheaper, yet satisfying, ways to spend a Saturday.  This place is called The Library, and New York City has some of the best.