Vol. 3.0.0

TV | Film | Theater Links for 03/14/2010


  • "Ice Castles" Remake. Taylor Firth on Skating and Acting.
  • Actor William Mapother Speaks the Truth on Acting & More (On how to make it as an actor): "First, learn how to manage yourself -- mentally, emotionally, financially, physically. Socialize to make contacts and keep in touch with them. Take the craft seriously"
  • Emily Blunt, Star of Wolfman. Blunt was inhibited during childhood by a hereditary stutter. "It meant I didn't talk as much, so I guess I had more time to watch people and listen because I was intimidated by talking." The key to overcoming it arrived in the shape of acting. "I found it more helpful to speak in different accents when I did class plays because I didn't feel I was playing myself.”
  • Oscar's lauded leading ladies. Here are brief introductions to the 10 Oscar nominated actresses, along with recommendations of previous work that's available on DVD
  • For the finest acting, look to the elders. Holbrook, Mirren, Freeman. It's time to raise a shot of Geritol to older actors, who are doing some of the best and most exciting work in movies at the moment
  • Mabou Mines's FINN. Internationally acclaimed theater ensemble Mabou Mines celebrates 40 years of creating groundbreaking theater with the world premiere of "FINN", a digital and live-action adventure based on the ancient Celtic legend of Finn McCool

Broadway Ticket Prices | How Much Do Broadway Shows Make?

by Christopher on February 12, 2010

How Much Do Broad­way Shows Make in a Season?

A lot!!!!

Broad­way Grosses w/e 2/7/10

Show Name Gross­Gross Tota­lAttn %Cap Avg­P­dAdm
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC $893,398 7,155 96.07% $124.86
A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE $802,066 8,626 99.93% $92.98
BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL $1,006,956 10,199 89.72% $98.73
CHICAGO $331,071 4,746 54.93% $69.76
FELA! $435,122 5,936 72.04% $73.30
GOD OF CARNAGE $314,563 4,599 53.33% $68.40
HAIR $481,385 6,615 58.56% $72.77
IN THE HEIGHTS $452,976 6,607 60.50% $68.56
JERSEY BOYS $946,813 8,698 88.54% $108.85
MAMMA MIA! $553,179 7,868 65.65% $70.31
MARY POPPINS $567,310 9,253 64.36% $61.31
MEMPHIS $468,346 7,926 67.40% $59.09
NEXT TO NORMAL $276,875 4,854 78.59% $57.04
PRESENT LAUGHTER $270,551 4,695 79.31% $57.63
RACE $401,410 5,008 59.17% $80.15
ROCK OF AGES $419,338 5,647 70.80% $74.26
SOUTH PACIFIC $443,995 4,889 58.71% $90.82
THE LION KING $944,733 11,063 83.61% $85.40
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA $497,484 7,189 55.64% $69.20
TIME STANDS STILL $304,479 4,863 93.52% $62.61
WEST SIDE STORY $780,082 10,540 77.64% $74.01
WICKED $1,285,902 13,506 93.33% $95.21
TOTAL $12,878,030 160,482 73.70% $77.97

Hat Tip: The Pro­duc­ers Perspective

Love this Post? EMAIL THIS POST TO YOUR FRIENDS!! Love this Post? EMAIL THIS POST TO YOUR FRIENDS!!

{ 0 comments }

Stoke & Transformation | Jill Bolte Taylor, Part 3 of 6

by Christopher on February 11, 2010

(You can catch part 2 by click­ing on: Stoke & Trans­for­ma­tion | Jill Bolte Tay­lor, Part 2 of 6 and part 1 by click­ing on: Stoke & Trans­for­ma­tion | Jill Bolte Tay­lor, Part 1 of 6)

One of the most inter­est­ing videos at TED in 2008 was Jill Bolte Taylor’s “My Stroke Of Insight” talk. It made her an instant inter­net celebrity, and for good reason:

Stoke, Stoke Recov­ery, & Transformation

On Decem­ber 10, 1996, at age 37, Jill awoke with intense pain behind her left eye—a blood ves­sel had exploded in the left hemi­sphere of her brain and she was hav­ing a stroke. The expe­ri­ence was life-changing. Not only did Jill face years of recov­ery after her stroke—and major brain surgery to remove a large blood clot in her brain—she also dis­cov­ered a bet­ter qual­ity of life through increased use of the right hemi­sphere of her brain.

She’s now an artist as well as a sci­en­tist, cre­at­ing anatom­i­cally cor­rect stained-glass repli­cas of brains that are sold as fine art. She’s also pub­lished My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Per­sonal Jour­ney . The book explains in sci­en­tific detail exactly what hap­pened dur­ing Jill’s stroke and how she recov­ered. It also takes a closer look at how the right hemi­sphere of the brain works and how Jill says peo­ple with nor­mal brains can access it to find their own inner peace and improve their qual­ity of life and the lives of others.

I wanted to share videos of the inter­view she did with Oprah on “Oprah’s Soul Series” broad­cast on XM Radio. Her expe­ri­ence is inter­est­ing because 1) it essen­tially trans­formed her back into the state of an infant, so if you have infant and you want to know how she or he expe­ri­ences the world and you, Jill is remark­able clear about what it’s prob­a­bly like and 2) it also put her in a state that Patsy Roden­burg calls The Sec­ond Cir­cle. This will be most inter­est­ing to actors.

Finally, her expe­ri­ence strongly sup­ports Eck­hart Tolle’s recent themes on atten­tion, con­scious­ness, and the pow­er­ful role of choice in our lives, and our equally pow­er­ful abil­ity to imag­ine and cre­ate the kind of life we want.

There’s 12 video seg­ments, too many to put into one post, so I’m going to post only two at a time. At the end of of this point, I’ve put links to Jill Taylor’s, Eck­hart Tolle’s, and Patsy Rodenburg’s books, and I’ve included videos of Eck­hart Tolle talk­ing about A New Earth and Patsy Roden­burg talk­ing about The Sec­ond Cir­cle.

Enjoy!!

Part 5 of 12
Part 6 of 12

Read: My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Per­sonal Jour­ney.
Read: A New Earth: Awak­en­ing to Your Life’s Pur­pose.
Read: The Sec­ond Cir­cle.


A New Earth, Awak­en­ing To Your Life’s Purpose

Eck­hart Tolle and Oprah’s Web Class on A New Earth, Awak­en­ing To Your Life’s Pur­pose:


Patsy Roden­burg & The Sec­ond Circle

Patsy Roden­burg speaks about The Sec­ond Cir­cle at Michael Howard Stu­dios in NYC. For more infor­ma­tion about Patsy’s classes, visit: Michael Howard Studios


Visit: The Secret Of The­atri­cal Space. An Act­ing Jour­nal From The City Of A Thou­sand Lights And A Thou­sand Sto­ries. An Act­ing Jour­nal from New York City. Both an online “how to” act­ing book and resource for how to sur­vive and thrive as a begin­ning actor in the city of a thou­sand lights and a thou­sand sto­ries. It is my hope and goal that this blog will be well-written, up-to-date, infor­ma­tive, use­ful, and eye-opening in terms of how to “Act” both on the boards and on the streets of New York City.

Love this Post? EMAIL THIS POST TO YOUR FRIENDS!! Love this Post? EMAIL THIS POST TO YOUR FRIENDS!!

{ 0 comments }

Stoke & Transformation | Jill Bolte Taylor, Part 2 of 6

by Christopher on February 10, 2010

(You can catch part 1 by click­ing on: Stoke & Trans­for­ma­tion | Jill Bolte Tay­lor, Part 1 of 6)

One of the most inter­est­ing videos at TED in 2008 was Jill Bolte Taylor’s “My Stroke Of Insight” talk. It made her an instant inter­net celebrity, and for good reason:

Stoke, Stoke Recov­ery, & Transformation

On Decem­ber 10, 1996, at age 37, Jill awoke with intense pain behind her left eye—a blood ves­sel had exploded in the left hemi­sphere of her brain and she was hav­ing a stroke. The expe­ri­ence was life-changing. Not only did Jill face years of recov­ery after her stroke—and major brain surgery to remove a large blood clot in her brain—she also dis­cov­ered a bet­ter qual­ity of life through increased use of the right hemi­sphere of her brain.

She’s now an artist as well as a sci­en­tist, cre­at­ing anatom­i­cally cor­rect stained-glass repli­cas of brains that are sold as fine art. She’s also pub­lished My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Per­sonal Jour­ney . The book explains in sci­en­tific detail exactly what hap­pened dur­ing Jill’s stroke and how she recov­ered. It also takes a closer look at how the right hemi­sphere of the brain works and how Jill says peo­ple with nor­mal brains can access it to find their own inner peace and improve their qual­ity of life and the lives of others.

I wanted to share videos of the inter­view she did with Oprah on “Oprah’s Soul Series” broad­cast on XM Radio. Her expe­ri­ence is inter­est­ing because 1) it essen­tially trans­formed her back into the state of an infant, so if you have infant and you want to know how she or he expe­ri­ences the world and you, Jill is remark­able clear about what it’s prob­a­bly like and 2) it also put her in a state that Patsy Roden­burg calls The Sec­ond Cir­cle. This will be most inter­est­ing to actors.

Finally, her expe­ri­ence strongly sup­ports Eck­hart Tolle’s recent themes on atten­tion, con­scious­ness, and the pow­er­ful role of choice in our lives, and our equally pow­er­ful abil­ity to imag­ine and cre­ate the kind of life we want.

There’s 12 video seg­ments, too many to put into one post, so I’m going to post only two at a time. At the end of of this point, I’ve put links to Jill Taylor’s, Eck­hart Tolle’s, and Patsy Rodenburg’s books, and I’ve included videos of Eck­hart Tolle talk­ing about A New Earth and Patsy Roden­burg talk­ing about The Sec­ond Cir­cle.

Enjoy!!

Part 3 of 12
Part 4 of 12

Read: My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Per­sonal Jour­ney.
Read: A New Earth: Awak­en­ing to Your Life’s Pur­pose.
Read: The Sec­ond Cir­cle.


A New Earth, Awak­en­ing To Your Life’s Purpose

Eck­hart Tolle and Oprah’s Web Class on A New Earth, Awak­en­ing To Your Life’s Pur­pose:


Patsy Roden­burg & The Sec­ond Circle

Patsy Roden­burg speaks about The Sec­ond Cir­cle at Michael Howard Stu­dios in NYC. For more infor­ma­tion about Patsy’s classes, visit: Michael Howard Studios


Visit: The Secret Of The­atri­cal Space. An Act­ing Jour­nal From The City Of A Thou­sand Lights And A Thou­sand Sto­ries. An Act­ing Jour­nal from New York City. Both an online “how to” act­ing book and resource for how to sur­vive and thrive as a begin­ning actor in the city of a thou­sand lights and a thou­sand sto­ries. It is my hope and goal that this blog will be well-written, up-to-date, infor­ma­tive, use­ful, and eye-opening in terms of how to “Act” both on the boards and on the streets of New York City.

Love this Post? EMAIL THIS POST TO YOUR FRIENDS!! Love this Post? EMAIL THIS POST TO YOUR FRIENDS!!

{ 1 comment }

Stoke & Transformation | Jill Bolte Taylor, Part 1 of 6

by Christopher on February 10, 2010

One of the most inter­est­ing videos at TED in 2008 was Jill Bolte Taylor’s “My Stroke Of Insight” talk. It made her an instant inter­net celebrity, and for good reason:

Stoke, Stoke Recov­ery, & Transformation

On Decem­ber 10, 1996, at age 37, Jill awoke with intense pain behind her left eye—a blood ves­sel had exploded in the left hemi­sphere of her brain and she was hav­ing a stroke. The expe­ri­ence was life-changing. Not only did Jill face years of recov­ery after her stroke—and major brain surgery to remove a large blood clot in her brain—she also dis­cov­ered a bet­ter qual­ity of life through increased use of the right hemi­sphere of her brain. She’s now an artist as well as a sci­en­tist, cre­at­ing anatom­i­cally cor­rect stained-glass repli­cas of brains that are sold as fine art. She’s also pub­lished My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Per­sonal Jour­ney . The book explains in sci­en­tific detail exactly what hap­pened dur­ing Jill’s stroke and how she recov­ered. It also takes a closer look at how the right hemi­sphere of the brain works and how Jill says peo­ple with nor­mal brains can access it to find their own inner peace and improve their qual­ity of life and the lives of oth­ers. I wanted to share videos of the inter­view she did with Oprah on “Oprah’s Soul Series” broad­cast on XM Radio.  Her expe­ri­ence is inter­est­ing because 1) it essen­tially trans­formed her back into the state of an infant, so if you have infant and you want to know how she or he expe­ri­ences the world and you, Jill is remark­able clear about what it’s prob­a­bly like and 2) it also put her in a state that Patsy Roden­burg calls The Sec­ond Cir­cle. This will be most inter­est­ing to actors. Finally, her expe­ri­ence strongly sup­ports Eck­hart Tolle’s recent themes on atten­tion, con­scious­ness, and the pow­er­ful role of choice in our lives, and our equally pow­er­ful abil­ity to imag­ine and cre­ate the kind of life we want. There’s 12 video seg­ments, too many to put into one post, so I’m going to post only two at a time. At the end of of this point, I’ve put links to Jill Taylor’s, Eck­hart Tolle’s, and Patsy Rodenburg’s books, and I’ve included videos of Eck­hart Tolle talk­ing about A New Earth and Patsy Roden­burg talk­ing about The Sec­ond Cir­cle. Enjoy!!

Part 1 of 12
Part 2 of 12

Read: My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Per­sonal Jour­ney. Read: A New Earth: Awak­en­ing to Your Life’s Pur­pose. Read: The Sec­ond Cir­cle.


A New Earth, Awak­en­ing To Your Life’s Purpose

Eck­hart Tolle and Oprah’s Web Class on A New Earth, Awak­en­ing To Your Life’s Pur­pose:


Patsy Roden­burg & The Sec­ond Circle

Patsy Roden­burg speaks about The Sec­ond Cir­cle at Michael Howard Stu­dios in NYC. For more infor­ma­tion about Patsy’s classes, visit: Michael Howard Studios


Visit: The Secret Of The­atri­cal Space. An Act­ing Jour­nal From The City Of A Thou­sand Lights And A Thou­sand Sto­ries. An Act­ing Jour­nal from New York City. Both an online “how to” act­ing book and resource for how to sur­vive and thrive as a begin­ning actor in the city of a thou­sand lights and a thou­sand sto­ries. It is my hope and goal that this blog will be well-written, up-to-date, infor­ma­tive, use­ful, and eye-opening in terms of how to “Act” both on the boards and on the streets of New York City.

Love this Post? EMAIL THIS POST TO YOUR FRIENDS!! Love this Post? EMAIL THIS POST TO YOUR FRIENDS!!

{ 2 comments }

Acting Shakespeare For 2010

January 11, 2010

Play­ing Shake­speare | The Royal Shake­speare Com­pany founder John Bar­ton holds a mas­ter class
If you want to bone up on your Shake­speare for 2010, there’s some excel­lent resources out there.
First up is Play­ing Shake­speare. Leg­endary John Bar­ton founder holds a mas­ter class with mem­bers of The Royal Shake­speare Com­pany includ­ing: JUDI DENCH, IAN MCKELLEN, PATRICK STEWART, BEN […]

Read the full article →

Auditioning | One Way to Get Better | What You can Learn from Hugh Laurie

December 17, 2009

Non-actors might be sur­prised to learn that even estab­lished “name” actors need to audi­tion.
Below is Hugh Lau­rie audi­tion­ing for the lead on “House MD.” He’s doing what’s called a “read­ing,” i.e., read­ing a short scene, i.e., “sides” (that last under two min­utes, if that), prob­a­bly taken from a script that’s either been writ­ten by […]

Read the full article →

Holiday Gift Ideas For the Actor, Director, or Theatre Lover

December 10, 2009

One of the best the­ater book­shops in the New York City is The Drama Book­shop, and each year they pub­lish a list of great hol­i­day gift ideas for the actor, and I’m repro­duc­ing them here:
The New Pro­fes­sional in the Busi­ness: Give the new pro­fes­sional actor a book on the busi­ness to help star the New Year […]

Read the full article →

How To Create A “Real” Character | Rehearse Slow, Throw Nothing Away

December 9, 2009

An actress friend of mine, San­dra Croft, who’s also a teacher who owns and runs Empow­ered Audi­tions for young actors, 8 and up, retold a short story on face­book about going over with with some of her younger stu­dents Stella Adler’s admon­ish­ment to NOT throw the words away but rather than make them bold, confident, […]

Read the full article →

Confidence | The Confident Actor

December 8, 2009

Over the past 5 years, I’ve had the oppor­tu­nity to meet some suc­cess­ful actors, i.e., their “day job” is act­ing, either full or part time.   In most all cases, the com­mon fac­tor has been con­fi­dence, i.e., you meet them, and — it’s not ego but hon­est grounded self-assurance — you know they know what they’re doing, […]

Read the full article →

Procrastination and Fear

November 4, 2009

I just ordered Brain Tracy’s “Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Pro­cras­ti­nat­ing and Get More Done in Less Time.”
Luck­ily, I don’t really have a habit­ual prob­lem with pro­cras­ti­na­tion, but if I get scared, I start to avoid things, even though I know real­ity is my best friend and ally in my life.
Any­way, for rea­sons and […]

Read the full article →