Special guest stars

I'm a bad, baaaad blogger.  Sorry folks, been a bit blue over the last week or so; the jobhunt is getting me down.  Suffice to say, I'm still looking and have started approaching cafes, retailers and supermarkets.  A glimmer of hope on the horizon today: one of the recruitment agencies I have signed with is submitting me for a 4 month full-time contract job in an editorial/administrative role for a company that publishes legal journals.  I can handle the idea of full-time on a short term basis.  Four months is pushing the boundaries a little, but I would be making a decent wage and I can bite the bullet for four months.  So fingers crossed.  Otherwise, keep your fingers crossed for a cafe job; I've approached both Aroma and M Street (my two fave coffee joints) and had a positive response from both, they're just not hiring at the moment...

In the meanwhilst (Dad, please don't question the legitimacy of that word, it's an obscure Monty Python reference), I've been roped into doing a sketch comedy show - two performances only, unless our adoring public demands more more more.  It's been pulled together mighty fast  - over the course of little more than a week - so I dived into the Baggage archives for a few tried and tested beauties (hello Diandra, you sweet, daffy thing).  I've also written some new stuff.  It will be a bit of a scrambly, scratchy show; I'm looking on it as an opportunity to try out some sketch comedy in LA, an experiment, and hey, what else am I doing right now?

Last week we had a special guest teacher at Sport of Acting.  Tom McLoughlin is a film director with a list of credits as long as your arm.  Providing your arm is really REALLY long.  Oh, just IMDb him, go on click on his name, I've linked it.  He and Vinny go way back.  Anyway, so everyone in class got to work with him as if on set, on a moment from a scene of our choice (something we've been working on in class).  Tom has an acting background so he really understands the actor's process and knows how to get what he needs from us.  He worked quickly in figuring out a suitable set-up/camera angle and blocking for each scene, and then gave each of us quite a lot of time - maybe three takes - to capture the 'moment'.  He also had a few choice anecdotes about some of the megastars he has worked with, such as Kirk Douglas and Marlon Brando.  Seriously privileged to have worked - however briefly - with him.  On a side note, he also happened to be one of the people who came to see Beaten Hearts.

Another highlight of the last couple weeks was seeing Billy the Mime.  Billy (not his real name - it's actually Steven Banks, and among other things he is the head writer on Spongebob Squarepants) is another old mate of Vinny's and he is a superb, inspired and ruthlessly cynical artist.  Amongst his ambitious, brilliant, hilarious and frequently dark set were such gems as: "The African American Experience" in which he mimed key phases and historical moments from slavery to Rosa Parks to Rodney King to Mike Tyson to Obama; "David Carradine's Last Night"; "Dinner with Jeffrey Dahmer"; and "The Priest and the Altar Boy."  If you ever get the chance to see him play, GO!  He trained with Marcel Marceau, he performs in traditional garb (white face paint etc) but there is nothing old-fashioned or daggy about this mime.  As Vinny puts it, yeah you might see him mime going downstairs - but he's going down there to kill someone.

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.