Wet wet wet

What a wild, wet week! L.A. has had a thorough soaking this week - or as a friend of mine put it, a gigantic enema - with heavy rain every day.  Winter is definitely here, after a slow start that saw skyfulls of sunshine through Christmas and New Year.  Truth be told, I'm a bit sick of all the rain after six consecutive days, but its still something to be celebrated and exclaimed upon.  Flooded streets in this sprawling desert city are a rare sight indeed.

I'm in a celebratory mood this evening, on a high after meeting with Cindy, who is to be the director of Beaten Hearts (L.A.).  We talked through the various scripts of mine and Bridgette's that I sent her as possibilities for the show - too many to all be included - and how the show may be shaped.  Next week we'll get the cast together for a read through.  Last night I saw a cabaret show, called GravityWorks, in Hollywood, which was designed as a showcase for twelve talented but unknown actors.  It was an energetic, frequently hilarious, evening's entertainment, and served as further inspiration and impetus to push forward with Beaten Hearts.  Which will be a different kettle of fish; theatre rather than cabaret.  Cindy has some great ideas for the show, and feels like a perfect fit for Baggage Productions.  I'm flattered and excited by the interest and enthusiasm of Cindy, and the other actors I've recruited, for the scripts and the show.  I'm so lucky to have found a group of talented, like-minded individuals so soon.  One of my cast-members, Suzanne, recently lauched a webseries that she wrote and starred in, called Playing Dead.  It's very funny and well-produced and has me inspired to create a webseries of my own, or at least make short films of some of my short plays.

In the meantime, the agent hunt continues.  I mailed copies of my headshot and resume to 12 handpicked agents - with the help of a monthly published report on agents and who/what they are looking for, and Regi's guidance and encouragement.  I followed up with polite phone calls a few days later, but so far no bites.  It's so frustrating!  This is the tough part for me.  I've got lots of energy for pushing forward a project like Beaten Hearts, but knocking on doors and selling myself requires a different kind of hard-nosed energy.  Uncomfortable, but necessary.  Ugh, I hate it!  I feel that my resume is a poor reflection of my potential.  Being non-union at this stage also plays against me somewhat.  Please, somebody sign me up and get me some auditions!  My audition to callback/booking ratio is pretty good, I just need to get in the room.  Lemme at it!

I joined a gym this week, the better to increase my cardio exercise.  There are so many nationally franchised gyms here, membership rates are highly competitive and much cheaper than Melbourne (I'm paying less than half the rate per month, and have access to Bally gyms nationwide).  On Thursday morning I checked out a HiLo class - old school aerobics.  L.A. doesn't experience the same rush hours as other cities, on the roads or in the gyms.  The class was at 8.45am and was packed (about 70 participants), as was the rest of the gym, from weight training equipment to cardio machines.  Apart from the size of the class, the most notable thing about its participants was their age.  I've never seen so many over 60s in an aerobics class.  I kid you not, there were about half a dozen who had to be over 70.  In fact, we sang Happy Birthday to a gentleman called Al, who was celebrating his 80th.  So I knew the choreography was not going to be complex.  Nonetheless, I worked it hard and produced a good sweat.  This morning I attended a class called "Straight Up Strength", kind of like a Pump class, based around lifting light-to-medium weights at high repetitions.  This was at another location within the gym's franchise, in Studio City, and had a lower average participant age.  Unlike the other location, in Encino (about equi-distant from Sherman Oaks), the group exercise studio had some natural light and views of the street (or at least the parking lot), which I preferred to the enclosed, cave-like experience at the HiLo class in Encino.  I must say though, that after the meticulous, form-conscious intruction of Pump classes I used to take at Genesis in Prahran, Straight Up Strength felt rather slap-dash.  If I'd never worked with weights before, I could easily have injured myself, especially with exercises that combined two muscle groups; such as doing bicep curls while balancing on one leg and raising the other (thus working the bicep and the outer thigh/buttock simultaneously).  Try it - that's a lot to think about all at once!