January 2005 Archives

Today the article, Chasing Shakespeare, Finding Hamlet, came out in the literary e-zine, The Dusty Shelf:

The current article is more from a dramaturge's or director's perspective.

They're interested in a second article, due at the end of January. That article, I think, will compare and contrast Hamlet and Polonius, because they are quite opposite along at least one critical dimension, and it gives some insight into the nature of the two characters. So this article will be, or I'll try to make it so, from an actor's perspective, something that an actor might find interesting . . .

First audition of 2005: Friday January 8, 2005, 3PM, 31st floor Paramount Plaza, 1633 Broadway Times Square: casting: Yoga Instructor Types for an MTV promo.

First audition I've gone to where "type" was the first consideration. Desiree thought I was at least not an IBM type (with my long wild hair), and that I might pass for a yoga instructor. I was more nervous than expected and didn't take direction as well as I could have, but . . . ces't la vi: that's what getting experience is all about: to get better at auditioning. I went in with a very strong idea/feeling for the character, and the casting director had -- not surprisingly (but caught off guard I was anyway) -- a very different idea, and I had a hard time with adjustments.

I think the main problem was getting caught off guard -- not anticipating strongly enough getting direction. It was great to have a strong idea/feeling for the character, because that can start the entire audition off in a definite, specific way. What I think I failed to do was to prepare myself to receive an adjustment -- I just didn't think about it, and then got a bit flustered.

I need to go into these auditions primed to "go with the flow," not tied too tightly to any one way of doing things. I think (hope) this is a skill, a stance, that will come with experience/practice, like remaining at rest on the balls of your feet (these auditions are a lot like like "life" -- be prepared for anything) . . .

. . . and this segues into: goals for the New Year.

Goals and Ambitions for 2005
I'm working through Glenn Alterman's Making It In New York City (an actor's guide) (& I'm also getting monologue coaching from him). Chapter 11 deals with marketing, and (for me at this stage) -- setting clear, specific goals, which is the hard part, but slowly but surely things seem to be coming into focus, and he gives great advice for the beginner: "keep your game plan simple."

First is career goals -- this is so difficult to be almost impossible given all the variables, known and unknown, but right now, if I had to rank order a list of areas of focus, it would be this:

1. Theatre
2. Television (episodic)
3. Film
4. Commercials
5. Voice-over's
6. Daytime dramas (soap)

Without thinking too much about it, this is how I rank ordered these areas of focus -- I'm just assuming there was a reason for this order and I'm going to let it go at that.

1. Short-term & mid-term goals: January-March (March- June):

Formal training:
a) I want to be more simple, clear, and in the moment during a scene. I have a gut feeling that improv training might help. Last fall, I purchased Mick Napier's Improvise: Scene from the inside out. While at Illinois in the 90's, I had heard of Chicago's Annoyance Theatre and Mick. Annoyance became one of the dominate theatres in Chicago, and the country, and their improv training program gained national renown. However, I live in New York City, and so I wrote to Mick asking for recommendations here, and he kindly recommended someone at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
b) Formal training for working in front of the camera. It's very different than theatre -- in fact, allot different. Once of the difficulties I have is going into a private imaginary world in front of a conspicuous camera. It's easier to enter into the world of a play on stage with sets, lights, costumes.
c) Acting for commercials. Another very competitive area. As most commercials today (as I understand) are essentially filmed improv. sessions, some formal training/experience with improv. should be helpful.

So the short term goals are to identify and then start taking these types of classes -- 1 at a time will be plenty. I'd like to have 2 to 3 under my belt by summer, and that'll be it for the year.

2. Mid-term to long-term goals (March to the end of the year).

Performance goals
a) 1 to 2 theatrical performances (off-Off-Broadway and student films), to put into practice whatever formal training I'm getting.

3. Long-term goals.
From mid-summer to the end of year, I want to start auditioning for professional paid (non-union) work. This will require:

a) that I have 2-3 monologues down and good cold reading skills. This will be daily work, at home and trying things out at actual auditions.
b) that I have identified my "type." My roommate Chris, an actor, suggested a very good idea: a market survey. He stopped people in Union Park and asked if they would be willing to answer 3 questions: "How old am I?" "What do you think I do for a living?" and some personality dimension question (I'll have to think about this). The goal here is marketing. Once you know your type, i.e., how people intuitively perceive you, then you know what you have to offer and then you can . . .
c) get new headshots that show/suggest this type.
d) find a non-union casting agent who knows how to find audition opportunities for that type. Anyway, I'll do this is the spring, and then start using the Ross Reports to look for non-union agents.

MAJOR GOAL for the year: get one paid professional job.

And the daily work of voice, sight reading, cold reading, and working on my monologues of course . . .

So -- getting myself to sit down, think, and write down some specific goals was a goal and an accomplishment in itself! And I'll treat them like life, like auditions, i.e., don't hold too fast to any of them and be prepared for changes and opportunities.

Final note. Felt bad to give a mediocre performance for the first audition of 2005, and it's all too easy to think of actors I know how are doing (in my mind) very well, or to compare myself with some "ideal" I have of how I should be . . . all B.S. of course, but the thing that helps to remember/do is this:

Remind myself what I'm really committed to, what I love (i.e., get my focus off these comparison and ideals), and remind myself that sometimes factors over which I have no control will play against me: other people and life itself doesn't always have to be on my side, but those situations will always be temporary -- just work through it and keep trying to find the value in every situation, good and bad: that's how I'll get to where I need to go.