Blog Stage - Acting in Film, TV, Theatre - Backstage

Living the Dream

Every young actor aspires to be recognized for his craft.  But for this week, Nick Adams will also be recognized for his jeans. 

Adams, 25, recently starred in Broadway's A Chorus Line opposite Mario Lopez. Currently, the theater-turned-film actor is filming An Englishman in New York, starring two-time Oscar nominee John Hurt.

Now he's in a Playboy.com pictorial, Fall Style Guide.

Said Adams: "The layered looks were so comfortable and easy to wear, which was a relief as we spent the whole shoot running around and playing football!”

Good work, if you can get it. 

-- Tom Penketh

Don’t Cry (or Smoke) for Me, Alan Rosenberg

Correction appended.

You can’t write anything about politics—be it local, national, global, or within labor unions—without getting screwed. No matter how objective, truthful, you strive to be, one side or another (sometimes both) is going to accuse you of letting bias seep into your reporting. You know this ahead of time, so you just go in and do your best; quadruple-check that your quotes, facts, and numbers are indisputably correct; send your dazzling prose off to the brave copy editors and the senior editors with nice offices; and then wait for the angry emails, phone calls, carrier pigeons, etc., to roll in. And people wonder why journalists drink (and not the good stuff SAG’s switchboard operator can afford).

Bid for a Walk-on Role in 'Spider-Man 4'

We already know that casting is underway for the upcoming Spider-Man Broadway musical. But you might not even need to audition for a role in the next Spider-Man film.

Currently on eBay: a walk-on role in Spider-Man 4, for only $5,100 (for now)!

Of course, this is assuming that Spider-Man 4 is actually happening, considering that there's no script, director, or stars attached to it yet (IMDb lists the project simply as "announced," with a tentative 2011 release date).

NBC Casting News

EW.com's Michael Ausiello has reported a handful of casting announcements regarding NBC TV series in the past couple days, so we're here to give you a few highlights from "The Ausiello Files" fall TV casting news:

• David Arquette will guest star on this season of My Name Is Earl as Johnny, a small-town Evel Knievel-esque stuntman whom Earl wants to cross off his list for sleeping with his girlfriend. According to Ausiello, "There's just one problem: A past accident has left Johnny with short-term memory issues and an existence not unlike Bill Murray's in Groundhog Day."

But wait, there's more!

‘Small Craft’ a Big Deal

The White Horse Theater Company will present a limited engagement of Tennessee Williams’ rarely produced Small Craft Warnings Sept. 19–Oct. 5 at the WorkShop Theater Company, 312 West 36th St., 4th floor, between Eighth and Ninth avenues.

The Sept. 21 performance will be followed by a discussion with Williams scholars Annette J. Saddik and Thomas Keith.

The play, set in a seaside bar on the coast of Southern California in the early 1970s, offers a glimpse into the lives of the regulars who inhabit the bar as refuge from the storm of life.

Williams himself took over the role of the alcoholic doctor during the play’s original 1972 Off-Broadway engagement, which at a little more than three months proved to be the longest run for any Williams work written after 1961’s The Night of the Iguana.

Cyndy A. Marion will direct. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased at www.smarttix.com or (212) 868-4444.

For more information, visit www.whitehorsetheater.com.

Prelude Is the Main Event

The fifth annual Prelude festival, a free event featuring new works by more than 20 of New York’s contemporary theatre artists, will be presented Sept. 24–27 at Manhattan’s Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the City University of New York Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave. (at 34th Street).

Participants include Richard Foreman, Big Art Group, NYC Players, Builders Association, Jenny Schwartz and NTUSA. Curated by Andy Horwitz and Geoffrey Scott, Prelude ’08 focuses on how the space—especially nontraditional space—where a work is presented affects the context, considering various aspects of theatre, dance, performance art, spoken word, and multimedia.

All performances, running from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. each day, are free on a first-come, first-served basis. Information: (212) 817-1860 or www.preludenyc.org.

But Who Is Going to Play ‘Snowy?’

Casting associate Tineka Becker (The Lovely Bones) is slated to cast Steven Spielberg’s big-screen adaptation of the popular Belgian comic strip Tintin.

Eighteen-year-old Thomas Sangster (Love Actually, Dr. Who) is rumored to have been cast in the title role. Eric Stoltz and Andy Serkis are also attached to co-star.

Shooting is scheduled to begin in September; locations have not been released.

Uncle Ned’s Good-Time Actors Union

As I walked out of Membership First’s “meet and greet” on Sunday, a mustachioed, leather-clad SAG politico sneered at me, “So, did you get something for your blog?”

I can be a real wuss at the worst times and this guy is three times my size, so I smiled and mumbled something like, “Sure, totally. Thanks for reading it.” Where Nikki Finke and Arianna would have shot back a withering, Dorothy Parker–esque remark instantly, I drove home composing comebacks in my head, the best of which are still, “Oh yeah? Your mom’s a blog!” or “Hey, I missed Sunset Junction for this, buddy. Don’t mess with me.”

Improv Is Good For You

Members of the New York City comedy scene -- or more importantly, comedy fans who wish they could be part of the scene -- can now feel like they were there on stage after any sketch or improv show in town.

Our friends over at the New Roots Project have drawn our attention to Improv Is Good For You, a blog-style photo album of last night's comedy shows, posted almost immediately following the conclusion of each night's performance.

Join the R.Evolución Camp

R.Evolución Latina, a new nonprofit organization, will host the first annual “Dare to Go Beyond” Children’s Performing Arts Camp Aug. 28–31 at many locations in the New York City area. The free camp features Broadway professionals from such shows as In the Heights, Chicago, and The Lion King. They will lead dance and performing classes for young people ages 5–19. The camp will take place at Ballet Hispanico (Manhattan), the Point (the Bronx), the Mercy Center (the Bronx), and Barco de Papel (Queens). For more information, visit www.revolucionlatina.org.