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

Voiceover Q&A with Tora Boragine of Diesel Management

Talent manager Tara Boragine, founder and owner of Diesel Management, has over a decade of experience in the voiceover business. Actors that Boragine has represented can be seen and heard in national commercial campaigns, TV pilots, films, and on Broadway. Formerly an agent at ICM, she has also taught voiceover classes at Actors Connection in NYC for the past several years.

Boragine says that she is motivated to teach new voiceover actors because "I like the world of voice, I like actually teaching voiceovers, and knowledge is power for me, so I like people to be knowledgeable. Because sometimes people think, 'You know what? I could do that.' And they just go and feel that they could put a demo together and not take any sort of training, and there’s actually a lot of skill behind the world of voice."

We spoke with Boragine before her current six-week "Intro to Voiceovers" and five-week "Advanced Voiceover Class" began last week. Read our Q&A below:

Blog Stage: You say that you’re looking for actors "who have been told they have a good voice" for your voiceover class…

TB: Well, people have always said to me that I have a very interesting voice. It’s deep, and it’s raspy, and it’s not your normal girl voice. So a lot of times that’s what I get: people who are just interested in doing voiceovers, or to whom over the years people have said, “You have a really nice voice. You should do voiceovers.”

Is there anything more specific that you look for in a voiceover actor?

No, actually. I like to keep that stuff really open. They learn to figure out what a “book-able voice” is in the intro class. They’re in the booth every single week. The first class is the only time we’re not in the booth.

Tonys Snub ‘American Idiot,’ ‘Fela!’ in Score Category

The Tony Awards administration committee, which released today its eligibility list for the 2010 awards, has determined that because the Broadway productions of “American Idiot” and “Fela!” had less than 50 percent of their score written specifically for the shows, they are not suitable for nominations in the best-score category, according to Playbill. “American Idiot” is based on the Green Day album of the same title, while “Fela!” features songs by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. The Maury Yeston score for the revival of “The Royal Family,” was deemed eligible. The 2010 awards are to be held June 13 and broadcast live on CBS from Radio City Music Hall.

Read the story in Playbill.

Photo: Getty Images

Shakespeareans Do It Better

Back Stage readers should remember that in last week's cover story about Patrick Stewart, the veteran actor touched briefly on some of the similarities between acting for Shakespeare and for Sci-Fi. Stewart, of course, has performed in numerous productions of Shakespeare's plays, while also taking lead roles in X-Men and Star Trek. Chief among the similarities: fancy talk and fancy pants.

Stewart said:

Use of language and the importance of language and the potential in language to deliver complex thoughts and ideas and emotions simply. What authority means on stage. Even just how to stand and move and sit was important. I know how to sit in the captain's chair of the Enterprise. I know how to give orders. I know what it's like to be in charge of a country, to run a dictatorship. I've done all these things. This actually isn't very different except we're wearing different, funny costumes. [Back Stage]

Seems plausible. Anyway, how is Arden or Illyria so different from Mars or -- I hate to say it -- Pandora? Forbidden Planet is, after all, essentially The Tempest. There have been post-apocalyptic King Lears, and it's not too much of a stretch to imagine Hamlet or Coriolanus... in SPACE.

Tribeca Fest Award Winners Announced

Winners for the film festival’s ninth annual world competition were honored Thursday after being selected from a group of 12 narratives and 12 documentary features from 20 different countries. According to The Hollywood Reporter, in the New York Competition, Dana Adam Shapiro’s drama “Monogamy” won best New York narrative and C. Scott Willis’ “The Woodmans” nabbed best New York documentary. Feo Aladag’s German drama “When We Leave,” won for best feature and Sibel Kekilli was awarded best actress for her starring roll in the film. She dropped a thread of obscenities onstage during her acceptance when her English skills escaped her, then asked if her award would be revoked for the blunder. Although no distribution contracts have been dealt, there’s buzz floating around Sony Music Entertainment and the Billy Joel rockumentary “Last Play at Shea.” 

Read the story at The Hollywood Reporter.

Pictured: Sibel Kekilli (Photo: Getty Images)

L.A. Arts Advocates Fight for Funding

Supporters of the arts have bombarded L.A.’s city hall with voicemails and emails protesting recent motions to cut finances that keep arts organizations in operation, reported the Los Angeles Times. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa proposed a 25 percent cut in city spending for the arts on April 20, as well as the elimination of the competitive application process for $415,000 in grants. Instead, he would allocate the funds to four groups of his choosing. “The way to get on the path of economic recovery is to invest in arts and culture,” said Danielle Brazell to the New York Times in response to the proposals. Brazell is the head of Arts for L.A. “It’s not investing in the arts," she said. "Its investing in L.A.”

Read the story in the Los Angeles Times.

Pictured: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (Photo: Getty Images)

More on the Tony Races: Watch Out for 'Memphis' and 'Next Fall'

To paraphrase John Patrick Shanley from a few season back when he won every award going for Doubt, we're in the middle of a s--t storm of theatre awards. Today my colleagues and I will vote on the New York Drama Critics Circle Awards. Sunday, the Lucille Lortel Awards will be bestowed by Bebe Neuwirth and Bryan Batt. Monday, the Drama Desk nominations will be announced by Brian Stokes Mitchell and Cady Hoffman and the next day the big one--the Tonys nominations will be delivered by Jeff Daniel and Lea Michele. In my last blog post, I handicapped the Best Musical, speculating that the race would boil down to a contest between American Idiot and The Addams Family. Since then, a Facebook friend reminded me that I should watch out from Memphis, the safe middle-of-the-run choice between the hard-rock Idiot and the critical-flop-but-box-office-champ Addams. There is buzz that Addams might not even make the final cut even though they just announced a national tour of the show.

The Justis Bolding Guide to Actors' Feasts and Famines

"You have to have that drive," says Justis Bolding, an actress best know for her recent two-year stint as Sarah Roberts on the long running soap opera One Life to Live. "If you don't do it, someone else is going to."

Starting out as an actress in New York City, Bolding did quite a bit for her career, waiting tables and taking acting classes with the Creative Acting Company while regularly sending out her resume and headshot. "I was literally just getting Back Stage, and sending out my headshot and resume every week to everything that was right for me." 

Bolding landed her first big role on MTV's Undressed, from a casting notice in Back Stage, and eventually found more work in musicals and television. She had a small role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Musical The Woman in White in 2005, and from 2007-2009 was a regular on One Life to Life.

Abe’s ‘Gay Dance Party’ Set for Off-Broadway Stage

“Abraham Lincoln’s Big, Gay Dance Party” will come to New York’s Acorn Theatre July 27 after last year’s successful run in San Francisco, reported Playbill. The Aaron Loeb-penned script centers on a fourth grade play in Illinois that controversially questions Lincoln’s sexual orientation. In the spirit of democracy, audience members choose the order of the show’s acts. Chris Smith (“Collapse,” “The Pool”) will direct the New York staging.

Read the story at Playbill.

Pictured: Statue of Abraham Lincoln

Disney has New High School Musical Type in Works

After the major success of its previous musicals starring squeaky clean teens, Disney is readying a similar offering based on the Mark Peter Hughes novel “Lemonade Mouth,” said The Hollywood Reporter. The narrative follows five high school freshmen from Rhode Island who meet in detention, then form a quirky garage band that includes a ukulele. April Blair penned the script for the project, which will be led by Debra Martin Chase, Emmy-nominated producer of “The Cheetah Girls” and “The Princess Diaries.” Disney Channel’s “High School Musical 2” had 18.6 million viewers in 2007, making it the most watched cable telecast ever. Since 2006, soundtracks from Disney Channel original movies have sold 27 million discs worldwide.

Read the story at The Hollywood Reporter.

Pictured: Debra Martin Chase (Photo: Getty Images)

'Race' to Run Through August

David Mamet's most recent Broadway excursion, "Race," has been extended through Aug. 23. The show, which opened in December at the Ethyl Barrymore Theatre, had been scheduled to close June 13. "Race" stars James Spader, David Alan Grier, Kerry Washington and Richard Thomas, and focuses on two attorneys who take on as a client a wealthy white man accused of sexually assaulting a black woman.

Read the story at Playbill.

Pictured: David Alan Grier (Photo: Getty Images)