Felines, photos and BBQs

Gina moved out during the week so I have the apartment almost to myself - Milo the cat remains in my charge for the time being.  He is a bit out of sorts without Gina, but not too much since he is still king of the castle; cruising around the building, visiting his human 'girlfriends' who play with him and feed him treats, and terrorizing the building manager's cat, a fluffy white princess called Penelope who mostly stays indoors.  Just as well, too, since Milo has been known to attack her.  Does he simply dislike her that much or is he like little boys in the schoolyard who don't know how to talk to a girl they like so they just punch her and run away?  I've had some territorial battles with Milo myself.  He likes to sleep on my bed, especially now with Gina gone, which is fine so long as he sticks to the end of the bed on a blanket I've laid out for him.  He knows the rules but he likes to test what he can get away with.  More than once I've caught him settling down up near the pillows, whereupon I've moved him firmly to the blanket where he pretends to settle, only to come back 5 minutes later to see he has moved back to the pillows.  When he does that, flouting his second chance, he gets kicked out altogether. 

My new roommate, Shannon, will be moving in tomorrow, although she will then be off on holiday for a couple of weeks. 

Some ripples on the job front - finally! - over the last week.  I had two interviews - one a phone interview, for an arts admin job which I would LOVE to do (cross fingers I make it to the next round of in-person interviews), and the other with a recruitment agency after I responded to an ad for a temporary proofreading job.  It pays peanuts, but that would be better than nothing right now.  This week I have an interview to intern (aka unpaid work experience/slave labor) at an agency reading scripts and writing coverages (summary and assessment); this is something I'd love to do long term and would be able to work from home primarily but like so many entertainment industry jobs it's hard to get a foot in the door without some kind of personal recommendation.  Doing an internship will help and of course I'm hoping that donating my time, two days a week for three months, might lead to an offer of ongoing, paid work.  Will be interesting either way.

On Thursday I had some new headshots taken.  They are primarily commercial, meaning I was aiming for a few specific looks/character types (such as Mom, cop/detective, cute/quirky/comic, business suit/lawyer/reporter etc).  The photographer, Patricia, is one of my new LA friends; an actress I met in a workshop - kept meeting in workshops actually! - who also happens to be a pro photographer.  I was really comfortable and relaxed with her (which makes a huge difference) and she was always quick to spot when I was unfocused or 'faking it' - "Fake smile!" she would yell - and great at getting me back on track.  We toured around a few spots locally, using natural light and taking advantage of several different background textures and colours.  Here's a few highlights:

It's Memorial Day today (Monday in LA) which means a three-day weekend for the average American.  BBQs abound and I have already attended two.  On Saturday my Aussie friends Nicola and Mike threw a good old Aussie barbie at their home, complete with snags and home-made burgers, beer and cheesecake.  You beauty, mate!  Most of the guests were either Aussie or English; I haven't been surrounded by that many non-American accents for quite awhile.  Yesterday one of my neighbours threw a barbecue to which the whole building - Melrose Place style - was invited.  It has been a very warm weekend, so it was lovely to sit around (and in) the swimming pool, sipping on a beverage and chatting with some of the neighbours with whom I've previously only exchanged waves and polite greetings.  Very convivial.

This week Bridgette will be in San Diego - hooray! - and I'm looking forward to seeing her.  Unfortunately she'll be working most of the time, but we'll squeeze in a good catch up and yes, photos will be posted!

Powder blue shorts

What are the ingredients of a typical week in LA?  Depends who you ask, I suppose, but sunshine and sitting by the pool would be on a lot of people's lists.  Then for the actor there are (hopefully) auditions, classes, meetings, learning scripts and having coffee (ahem, networking).  Then there's the human, social stuff like catching up with friends and seeing movies.  I can pretty much tick all those things off my list this week. 

Tuesday night with Vinny we had a special on-camera class specifically playing with those oft-featured moments in film and TV where a character wakes up - at home, in a hospital, on the beach, in an alley - perhaps slowly, perhaps suddenly, and must take in and adjust to their circumstances.  Another common scenario is a character receiving a phone call that forces them to stop what they are doing and decide to take action - perhaps its great news, perhaps terrible.  Little or no dialogue, this exercise was about creating that inner monologue or narration that can help the actor through a series of discoveries leading to action, without rushing through it.  That was the key; everyone rushed their first take.  Our minds work so fast that we jump from one thing to the next before it registers to the camera (or the audience) and time seems to slow down in silence, which also prompts us to rush things because 10 seconds can feel like a minute.  Very interesting class.

On Wednesday, I was supposed to drive 3 hours to San Diego for a commercial audition; it's a hell of a long way to go for maybe 5 minutes with a casting director, but I was prepared to make a day of it.  However, a reprieve came in the form of two other auditions I got for the same afternoon in Los Angeles.  Can't do all of them, so sacrificed San Diego.  Felt fabulous to find myself juggling all those auditions in one day!  Being a woman of a certain age means I'm squarely in the range of "young mom", unavoidable I'm afraid.  I went shopping for a couple of items to add to my audition wardrobe.  Ross is a big clearance store where fashion (and various homewares) goes to die; there are racks of clothing, including some designer stuff, hugely marked down.  You need to know what you're looking for or you could be overwhelmed.  I came away with a pair of knee-length, powder blue shorts - Greg Norman's women's label no less - which originally retailed for $60 but I snaffled for a mere $9.  Yes sirree!  I also picked up a navy blue polo short and a cute orange t-shirt for about $6 each, and some new pillows for about $8 each (my neck is already thanking me for the investment, I've been sleeping on some really cheapo awful pillows).  All up a very satisfying expedition.

Wednesday evening I had dinner with friends at their not-quite-fully-renovated-but-looking-pretty-slick home in Hawthorne, which is anywhere between a 35 minute or hour and 35 minute drive south of the valley, depending on traffic on the dear old 405 freeway.  'Twas a very convivial evening, bordering on riotous when we started in on vampire fiction.  Thanks Amber and Jamie.  They introduced me to School House Rock, a series of short, animated songs designed to teach kids about everything from grammar to basic systems of government.  Here's a link to the oh-so-catchy "Conjunction Junction (what's your function?)" -

SchoolHouseRock-ConjunctionJunction

On Thursday I hung out with Regi.  We went to see Tina Fey and Steve Carell in Date Night, a very funny comedy (seemingly a rare thing these days) about a nice married couple from Jersey having a night out in Manhatttan and getting into all manner of unlikely (but very entertaining) scrapes.  Being a beautiful, warm day we decided to go to the Getty for lunch.  We knew the view would be far superior to the cafeteria food - correct - but it was worth it.  The Getty is spectacularly located up on a hill with 360 degree views of the eccentric urban sprawl that is the City of Angels.  And there's some quite good art there too. 

Today is Friday and I have applied for a part-time admin job and filmed an audition for another commercial.  Had to do this at home using the webcam (not ideal, but useful in a pinch) as the commercial will be shot in Washington state (north of California and the home of Seattle - not to be confused with Washington city, home of US politics) and presumably the casting house is located there too.  If I get the gig, my travel and accommodation will be paid for on top of the fee for the commercial.  Fingers crossed, would be lovely to earn some money AND get to see a part of the States I haven't yet ventured to.

Still beating; my heart, my drum

Mea culpa, huge apologies for being a lazy blogger.  OK, so my last post was boasting about how well the opening week of Beaten Hearts went.  The second week went equally well - although, alas, we failed to break even.  Great houses, lots of warm and wonderful feedback, goodwill all round and a rave review in the local paper, the Burbank Leader.  I've been splashing this link around liberally, but in case you haven't seen it yet...

http://www.burbankleader.com/articles/2010/05/10/entertainment/blr-hearts050810.txt

Please note, however, that direction was incorrectly credited to me.  Beaten Hearts was (brilliantly) directed by Cynthia Kania (pictured below at the cast party).

I couldn't have hoped for more from this show; from the ease with which the cast and crew came together, to how well everyone clicked, their passion and talent, to the audience response, right down to being reviewed (no guarantee, especially with a short two-week run - the Melbourne show wasn't reviewed) and reviewed so glowingly; I have much to be proud of and thankful for.  We are now seriously looking at options to extend/revive the season, and even investigating the possibilities of touring it to New York where Alex has some contacts.  When and how this might happen will depend on the availability of the cast, recruitment of understudies and whether or not the show continues to attract an audience.  However, I think it is definitely worth trying; there is more life in this show yet and the possibilities are tantalising.

L to R: Morgan (lighting designer and operator extraordinaire), Suzanne (in Madonna circa 1986 mode), CC

We video recorded the final night performance (sadly the camera battery gave up the ghost about 25 minutes from the end) and the dress rehearsal.  Neither are really for public consumption - the show is designed to be seen live - but they serve as a record, something of interest to the cast and certain people in Australia.  We had a merry two weeks at the Sidewalk Studio Theatre; most of us went out for a drink after each performance, lots of friends saw the show and it was bags (or Baggages) of fun.  My favourite bit of indirect feedback over the last week came from someone who was overheard in the theatre foyer after the show criticising my bad British accent (what they actually heard was my natural Aussie accent).  I take that as a compliment once again to my American accent and must assume that they had not read the program notes!

Love Song in Black (L to R): Alex, Max, Suzanne, James.  CC prostrate.

A new roommate has successfully been found to replace Gina who will be moving out by the end of the month.  The search took longer than anticipated - we advertised for about a month - but finally we have someone.  Shannon seems like a nice girl and will just be staying short term - two or three months - which may just work nicely.

Alex and I finished up our four week on-camera technique course with John Swanbeck.  We got a lot out of it, a few new tools for our actor kits, a different way to use our imaginations in our work to focus, create and fascinate.  This morning I audited a Masterclass at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.  An Aussie colleague, Jasper, has recently arrived in LA and is taking this series of workshops in which the actors prepare a fairly lengthy scene to the best of their ability and present it for the group (today Jasper presented a juicy scene from Kiss of the Spiderwoman).  What follows is a detailed discussion and critique by the director/teacher on the challenges faced by the actors when working on the scene, how they met those challenges, how they felt about it and what they could do to improve their work "in the first take".  Like Vinny, and to some extent John, the teacher in this masterclass spoke about finding the behaviour of the characters; in other words, DOING is more important than FEELING, in the sense that it doesn't matter how much the actor might feel authentic or moved or 'in the moment' if it's all on the inside and the audience doesn't see it.  And what was illustrated - as I have seen and experienced time and again in Vinny's class - is that sometimes doing a certain action can help create the feeling the actor is looking for.  Working from the outside in.

Big Beaten Hearts Week

Huge week.  Rehearsals every day and we opened on Thursday night to a full house, lots of laughs and rapturous applause.  I really couldn't be happier or prouder.  Then in the blink of an eye we sold out Friday and Saturday nights too!  Beaten Hearts is a special show; for a start we have great, smart, witty scripts; add an ensemble of versatile actors and mix with an excellent director and fabulous choreographer (who also happens to be a Tony Award winner!); stir in a talented young lighting designer, a charming and intimate venue, and a sexy publicity image and bing bang boom we have a winner.  I always had confidence in the show, but didn't know how it would be received in Hollywood, the land of TV, film and short attention spans.  To sell out the first three shows has exceeded my expectations.  Now of course I expect to sell out the next three shows.

http://www.examiner.com/x-40043-Burbank--Pop-Culture-Examiner~y2010m4d29-Beaten-Hearts-Opens-at-the-Sidewalk-Studio-Theater

As you see, we got some local press and on Friday night we had a reviewer in from one of the local papers.  Unfortunately, on Friday we also had a persistent, high-pitched beeping noise through the entire show.  It was most annoying and quite distracting, especially during the quieter moments (not that there's many of those) and we simply couldn't figure out what was causing it.  The best theory is that it was someone's hearing aid; a delicious irony as apparently it's owner couldn't hear the beeping.  Anyway, all clear on Saturday night when we had a bumper crowd (Cindy, our divine director, sacrificed her seat for a paying customer and instead stood at the back) and we can't wait to jump back onstage next week.  One of the biggest compliments I've had from a number of people (apart from praise for the writing and overall execution of the show) is how good my Australian accent is.  That's right, my American accent was so convincing (I adopt it in 3 out of the 4 plays I appear in) that they assumed I was American!  It wasn't until they spoke to me after the show and a look of surprise flashed across their faces as they realised I'm an Aussie - they obviously hadn't read the programme!

The biggest drama of the week, however, had nothing to do with a high-pitched beep, although I was close to emitting something like it when my laptop suddenly came under attack from a virus just two days before the show opened.  Watch out for Drew's script-o-rama, folks.  It's a site I've visited before, looking for movie scripts and monologues, but I'll never go there again.  You have been warned.  Yes, I have a virus protection program, but these trojan bastards got through.  I've never been under attack like this before; my computer went ballistic with window after window popping up, a series of warnings and recommendations to download this or that virus protector, error messages declaring it impossible to perform such an action, and scary "you have violated copyright" messages.  Some of the words in some of these windows and warnings were misspelt, a sure sign they were not to be trusted.  Meanwhile, my computer desktop got flooded with links to porn sites, the colour changed to black & white and crime scene tape was emblazoned across the whole mess.  I freaked out just thinking about having to recreate the programme for the show, let alone all the other vital information, documents, photos and so forth that are stored in my little pink laptop's memory.  I called James, one of the actors in Beaten Hearts, and a man of many talents.  I brought my poor little PC to his house - and he fixed it!  Miraculous!  And then Alex and her sister cooked dinner and they fed me.  And then we watched an episode of United States of Tara (starring the amazing Toni Colette) and all was right with the world once again.

After three kick-ass shows, the computer panic seems like a distant memory.  This afternoon I auditioned for a short film, which went pretty well I think.  In other news, the hunt for a roommate continues.  Gina will be moving out within the week, so we are both hopeful of finding someone suitable in the next couple of days!  We've had a few people look at the room, but out of two we liked one flaked completely and the other found something else; another guy came to look and he's a possibility but I'd prefer another girl so fingers crossed for someone fabulous this week! Oh, and I've applied for what looks like the PERFECT part-time job proofreading business and technical writing for "a large entertainment company" - fingers and toes crossed, people!