2 Things I've Fallen In Love With

So, this is a rarity, but in just the last 2 days, I've fallen in love with 2 new things in the entertainment industry. One music video, and one TV show.

First, lets go with the music video.

At the end of each year, pitchforkmedia.com does their 40 best videos of the year article, where you can watch each video. Last night, I went through each video and one stood out. The song is called Toe Jam by The BPA. The BPA is Fatboy Slim's new project. The song features Dizzee Rascal (I'm not really into rap and hip-hop so I have no idea who that is), and David Byrne. Yes that David Byrne of The Talking Heads! Every year there is one amazing video that comes out that just totally enhances a song, that is usually already pretty darn good by itself. Think Weezer's Buddy Holly or Beastie Boy's Sabotage. Well The BPA's Toe Jam is that video for 2008. Basically there is a large group of young men and women who look like they are from the 70s who strip down naked for what seems to be a swingers "gathering". For most people, this is already pretty enticing. However, those pesky black csensor bars are up covering all the essential bits. What is amazing is that the director choreographed everything so those balck censor bars "dance" throughout the video. I don't really know how to explain it, but check it out. Here's a link:  http://www.keithschofield.com   you'll see a link for the video in the upper left corner: 

The other thing I fell in love with was a new TV show. To preface, there was this awesome underground game we played in High School called Assassination, about 200-500 or so students would play depending on who was organizing. Whoever organizes the game, takes all the people registered to play, and organizes their name in one giant circle or loop. Whoever's name is in front of theirs is who they are trying to assassinate (with water) and nobody knows who each other has going after them. So player A tries to assassinate player B, B is after C, C is after D, etc. Once player A gets B he gets all of C's cards and goes after his target. Lets say A just assassinated B, and B had already assassinated C and D. Now A would be going after player E. The game goes on until the final two players try to assassinate each other to win all the money. The game is so much fun and for those couple of months a quarter of the student body is absolutely paranoid, trying not to be assassinated. Anyways, I was flipping through channels 2 nights ago when I hear on the Sci Fi network (which I never watch) they are playing a real-live action video game to win over 25,000 dollars,, called Cha$e. Instantly, I was hooked. The premise of the game is similar to Assassination, which hooked me even more. Their are 10 contestants called runners. They are let loose in part of a city, ie the warehouse district of LA, or Universal Studios in LA. Throughout the next hour, they are being tracked down by Hunters, who try to tag them. If they last for the first 55 minutes or so (only a few of the 10 do) the finish gate opens, and whoever gets their first wins the game and the money. That may not sound interesting to you, but watch one episode, I never have seen a gameshow that is so intense! Watch episodes for free here: http://www.hulu.com/chae

Help a Friend Out

So, my friend and MFA classmate Rony Sheer has started his own business.  He has created a Judaica t-shirt company.  That's a terrible way of me to put it because that doesn't sound interesting.  However, his Judaica t-shirt company is very interesting.  He is just starting out and only has a few designs as of now, but they are sooooo clever and funny.  If you aren't Jewish the t-shirts may not make sense, so let me explain them briefly.  Two of the t-shirts are clever asides on how Judaism is helpful to the enviorment.  The holiday of Chanukah is based off of when the Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem they only found oil to keep the holy candles lit for 1 day, but the miracle was the oil lasted 8 days.  So Rony made a Chanuakah t-shirt about how Chanukah is celebrating fuel efficiency for over 2000 years!    The other enviornment friendly shirt he came up with is about the Jewish Sabbath (Shabbat).  Traditionally, Jewish people are not supposed to use any electricity on the Sabbath, so Rony came up with "Shabbat: Prevents Global Warming" and "Shabbat: For a Smaller Carbon Footprint" organic t-shirts.  

His other design is a "I'll challah at you later" t-shirt with a big loaf of challah where the word would be!

These are really creative.  Check them out at www.cool4shul.com   and order them if you like.  They also come in sweatshirts, long sleeve, etc.

CEOs Make Me Want To Have A Nasty Catharsis...(Puke)

So, as I've mentioned before, I love sports. Playing, watching, reading, keeping stats, etc. My favorite writer is Bill Simmons...aka: The Sports Guy. He writes about sports, obviuosly, but does so with creativity and wit. One of my favorite things he has come up with is the slightly racist group called The Reggie Cleveland All-Stars, caucasion athletes who sound like they have black names. Slightly racist, pretty funny. He also writes about pop-culture...ie The Hills, and The Road-Rules Real-World Challenge which he has proposed to take over the slot of the 4th major American sport...from hockey.
My second favorite sports writer is Gregg Easterbrook...aka: Tuesday Morning Quarterback, who I have quoted on my blog before. Every Tuesday he writes a very in depth article about what happened the previous weekend in football, mostly pro, and some college. He also has a Christmas Creep section where fans get to write in about when they see Christmas things, ie sales and decorations in stores, way too early...As in September and October when they should be focused on Halloween. Possibly because I'm Jewish, this has always been a pet peave of mine, and I find it hilarious Easterbrook has his fans writing in about it. He also delves into astronomy a lot, and other serious topics such as economy and politics.
This week a section of Easterbrook's article was on CEOs and their spoiledness and hypocrasy. If everything Easterbrook wrote about CEOs is true, their actions made me soooooo angry I had to post this part of his article. It is long but worth reading all of it. Here it is:

The Corporate Security Hustle: When they come to Washington again Tuesday to appeal for subsidies, the Detroit automaker CEOs are likely to travel by Greyhound, if not hitchhiking. What possible excuse did they have to fly in private jets the first time? "Like many corporations, [the Big Three] have policies requiring their CEOs to travel in private jets for safety," CNN reported. Safety? That cannot mean crash safety -- U.S. commercial airline fatality rates are so phenomenally low that you're safer aboard a big commercial jet in bad weather than you are riding a bicycle in the park on a sunny day. By "safety," corporations mean security from terrorism: not being aboard a commercial airliner that might be hijacked. General Motors "requires top executives to fly on company planes for their security," the Washington Post added. But the odds a person will board a jetliner that is hijacked are substantially lower than the odds any given person will drown, yet no big companies forbid their CEOs to swim. Even taking into account the horror of 9/11, over the past decade the chance that a regularly scheduled U.S. airline departure would be involved in a terrorism incident was about one in 25 million, while the chance of being struck by lighting in the same period was about one in 700,000. So do corporations require their CEOs to wear lightning rods?
The real reason CEOs demand private jets is to stroke their egos. Private jet travel is luxurious, there's no waiting in line with the unwashed, no crowding on the plane, no security checks. At most airports a limo can drive right up to the door of a private jet parked in the general-aviation area. Security is the cover story for CEO airborne luxury. No corporate leader needs to fly a private jet to be safe. They do so to feel important and lord over others. The suspicious "requirement" that CEOs "must" travel by private jet is usually imposed by boards of directors composed largely of people who are themselves CEOs, and who know that inventing a private jet rule at one company creates a justification for the same luxury at their own companies. If 9/11 had never occurred, CEOs would be saying, "I must fly in a luxury private jet for protection against climate change."
Security is being used as the cover story for all manner of CEO perquisites, including armored chauffeur-driven SUVs, that have little to do with protection of life and everything to do with granting CEOs a visiting royalty treatment at the expense of shareholders and workers. Recently Joann Lublin of the Wall Street Journal reported Occidental Petroleum spent about $775,000 in 2007 on security for its CEO, much of this money for bodyguards. No CEO actually needs bodyguards, but the guards lend an illusion the CEO is some kind of world leader. ("Make way, make way, VIP coming through.") The Journal reported Oracle spent about $1.7 million in 2007 on bodyguards and other security for CEO Larry Ellison, while Limited Brands spent about $1.2 million to protect its CEO. Macy's approved $87,000 last year for CEO Terry Lundgren for "a specially equipped SUV driven by a security professional for his commute and his personal use." Driver, take me to the golf course, where I will boldly play a round of golf in defiance of these terrorists.
It may well be there is an inverse relationship between top-management pay and corporate success -- the more CEOs are overpaid and treated like little kings, the less they care about the real-world concerns of shareholders, workers, and most of all, customers. Corporate America has experienced meltdown after meltdown in the past decade -- the very period in which CEO pay has skyrocketed and costly luxuries such as private jets have become considered by top management as necessities. The CEO can't stand in line at the airport like everyone else, the CEO is a little king! Perhaps the overpay and the perks are causative factors in the meltdowns.
Government officials are now also using security to justify spending that could never pass the giggle test otherwise. The independent Project on Government Procurement recently reported that the Air Force wants to divert $16.2 million from counter-terrorism funds to build personal comfort "capsules" for senior officers traveling in its transport planes. Most military transport aircraft have austere seating, plus it's much louder inside than in a commercial airliner. But there's a difference between adding decent seats for soldiers and providing luxury for generals -- the latter is what the Air Force wants. The Project on Government Procurement reports the Air Force has already spent $2.7 million building the first luxury capsule, a unit that can be loaded into the open area of a cargo plane: it has leather chairs, a 37-inch flat screen television and other luxo touches. Supposedly, generals need more comfort in order to focus their minds on fighting terrorism.

Later he goes on about AIG CEO Edward Liddy:
Note 2: AIG, which has been shoveled $152 billion of your children's money without accountability, announced last week that new CEO Edward Liddy will work for $1 a year and receive no bonus. Sounds good, and media reports were favorable. But buried in the announcement is that Liddy is also receiving stock ("equity grants"). The announcement mysteriously does not say how much. With AIG selling for $2 a share -- the strike price of the grant would be the price when awarded -- even if the shares rose only to $5, a large block of stock acquired at $2 could be quite valuable. So how come AIG doesn't disclose how much taxpayer-subsidized stock its CEO is pocketing?
Also buried: Liddy "may be eligible for a special bonus for extraordinary performance." Have you ever read anything more transparently phony? A good guess is that no matter how the current CEO does, the board will find he deserves a "special bonus" that won't be announced until media attention has shifted to whatever the next scandal is. Sadly, reader Melanie Cleten of Providence, R.I., notes, "AIG's management has tricked taxpayers into handing the company $152 billion. What other corporate executives in history have brought in so much cash so quickly? Maybe they do deserve bonuses, unless we are fools." She leaves it there.

The Music Man

So, no, unfortunately, I did not get cast in a touring production of The Music Man. This has absolutely nothing to do with The Music Man. This is all about music, as in music one listens to on the radio.
Music has always been a huge part of my life, even in my couple of disgruntled years as a vocal performance major at the University of Illinois.
My love of music all started when my parents used to sing to me when I was very young. I don't remember much of it, but I do remember always liking when they would sing Camptown Races. The imagery of those horses was mindblowing at the age of 2!
As I got older, I got a hold of some cassette tapes of Raffi, Ella Jenkins, Tom Chapin (the brother of Harry Chapin of Cats in the Cradle fame). My whole life I never have known lyrics to songs, even my favorite ones. i just don't pay close enough attention. However, I can still sing you bits of songs by these artists 20 some years later.
At around the age of 7 or so, I got a hold of my dad's old records (yes, that's right...records. We actually had two record players at the time. 1 nice once with great surround sound speakers, and a kids fisher price one, which i got to use!) and instantly fell in love with The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, along with some other random surf bands. My first experience of rock music. And probably my influence in always being a wannabe surfer (despite my terribly huge dislike of swimming). The songs were catchy, fun, and beautiful. Dead Man's Curve scared me to death, which I loved. And Sloop John B is still a personal favorite today. There has never been a song with better falsetto harmonizing.
This discovery led me to the oldies stations where I fell in love with a wider range of music. From folk...The Byrds, The Grateful Dead, Simon and Garfunkel, Peter Paul and Mary - to psychadelic...Jefferson Airplane, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Iron Butterfly - to faux psychadelic...The Lemon Pipers, some of the Monkees stuff. But it was those crazy brits that really got me...Crispin St. Peters, Herman's Hermits, and most importantly The Beatles. Every song I heard by the Beatles completely opened my ears. When I first heard the song Yesterday, i had an immediate cathartic meltdown. Instantly learned the lyrics and would not stop singing the song, with a bad British accent. My oldies phase started when I was around 7 and still goes strong today.
I hit a rough period when I hit my teens. I was actually a happy teenager, it wasn't rough in that way. Musically I hit a bit of a bad spell where I had no idea what type of music I liked. This is exemplified by the fact that my first two CDs ever purchased were Public Enemy's The Muse Sick In Our Mess Age, and The Lion King soundtrack. Whoa! Other band's I'm proud to say I enjoyed at the time were 4 Non Blondes, Right Said Fred, The Proclaimers, Expose, Tony Toni Tone, Paperboy, The Real McCoy, Erasure, Snoop and Dre, Garth Brooks, John Michael Montgomery. We have a little of everything folks, and most of it is not that good!
Thank God Weezer came around when I was in 7th grade and got me on the right track.
Finally, my senior year of high school i was listening to the top 25 indie songs of the year on a little local radio station at New Years time. And around number 8 on that list was a song I now consider my favorite song ever. Cathedrals by Jump Little Children. The most beautiful song ever written. The lead singers voice is a better sounding, less dramatic Rufus Wainwright, and the instrumentation is complex and harmonious. I followed that band for 6 years liking nearly every single song they wrote. Unfortunately at the end of 2006 they sadly broke up...for now. If you haven't listened to Jump Little Children find them and listen to them now!!!
I immediately had to start to look for a new band. In the past year, I found some whole new styles of music that I never knew existed. Bands that are playing with crazy rhythms and harmonies and time signatures and layering. Some favorites are Battles, Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, Sigur Ros, Cloud Cult, Josh Ritter. Priscilla Ahn, is my new favorite singer songwriter. She records her voice live, then harmoniezes with her just recorded voice then layers that, and harmonizes again, and keeps layering, but she does it all live. Crazy!!! I just found the band Mates of State which I can not get out of my head. A fun husband and wife team. The wife playing the organ, the husband playing the drums. Their tunes are catchy, super fun, with tight harmonizing. And just by listening you can hear their loving chemistry. My new current favorite band (nobody will ever beat Jump Little Children) is a group called Menomena. I first listened to them, and just didn't get it. It sounded kinda awful. The music is so complex and weird, that I think my ears didn't know what hit them. They never heard anything like it, so it just sounded bad. Just like a tritone sounded bad (dubbed: the devil's interval) when it first started to be used. Anyways, as my ears got used to Menomena I just can't stop listening to them. They are that good.
I have no idea why I just wrote all of that for you all to read. There was really no point. Maybe you can check out some of this music and be inspired by them as much as I am!

What Is Going On?

So, I'm shocked and utterly confused about the economy. After this huge bailout for businesses, along with General Motors recently asking for money, it was announced today that Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Phoenix...yes the cities...are asking for the govt. to bail them out. Supposedly more businesses are going to follow soon. Are people thinking they can take advantage of a new soon to be president, that he will just keep handing them money? Maybe, maybe not, I have no clue what is going on? I don't understand a whole lot about this issue. I was at first against the initial bailout because it seemed like way to much money that could be going to things that help out people that are actually in need of it immediately. For God's sake, with the amount of money given out, you could build a homeless shelter that would be as nice as one of the Trump Towers. That would actually be beneficial to society! Then, I went on board with the bailout because all the insiders said it was necessary for an immediate fix. Since then, it doesn't seem to have done anything, and more and more people are asking for money.
American citizens were up in arms when it was rumored that Barack Obama was secretly Socialist. However, when Capitalism starts to fail, people start crying that the Government should equal them out, like what happens in a Socialist country. Sooooo hypocritical.
My Father's business finally is closing shop after 94 years of existence. It has provided our family very well over the years. However, when suits became more exclusive in wear, and then with the economic situation, and with my dad and uncle getting closer to retirement age, to my understanding it wasn't worth keeping the business around. Never once did my family complain, never once did my family ask the government to help them out. That is the way Capitalism works. It is a sink or swim...or a get out when your riding the high wave type of game.
This leaves me wondering why AIG, Lehmann Bros, GM, etc., and these cities are crying right now. If anyone knows the fundamentals of Capitalism, it is these bigwig corporations. And in my totally uneducated guess, is if these corporations fail, new ones will come up after some years.
Again, I know very little about economics (however i did get a big 3 on my AP econ. test), and I'm an idiot and hate dealing with money (unless i'm playing monopoly), so I'm probably completely wrong about everything I've said above, but really. America is supposed to be a tough country. So let's do our John Wayne impression: be strong and stop whining for more when we really haven't earned it!

Migraines

So, I get migraines a few times a year. I just recently came to the conclussion that they were being triggered by caffeine. About 12-24 hours after i had a cup of coffee I would get nasty nasty migraines. So I one hundred percent stopped drinking caffeniated coffee, and 95% stopped drinking decaf coffee. Last Wednesday, before rehearsal for Stormy Weather I decided to get a hot chocolate. It was freezing cold outside so I got a venti (large). Did that turn out to be a mistake. I got the worst migraine over my right eye that I ever had. I got my usual blind spots about an hour before the headache while i was at work Thursday morning. I immediately left work and went home. There my head just started killing me. If i went under the sheets to make the room as dark as possible it was too dark and i need a little light. The second i got the light, I needed dark. I couldn't keep my eyes open, yet, it was also too painful to keep my eyes shut. It hurt under my eyelid, it hurt above my eye on my forehead, it hurt on the side of my head above my ear, and it hurt in the back of my head. Then the nausea kicked in. Things started spinning. I felt like I had an empty stomach (Like completely empty, like hollow). I'm dry heaving. My nose got all congested. And I had a big zit on my head that already hurt before the migraine started!!! I was in bed the whole evening minus about 20 minutes when i got up to eat and go to the bathroom. The next day I told people I feel like I just got knocked out by Mike Tyson.
Move ahead three days. I finish rehearsal and start eating dinner with Lauren. I start feeling extremely fatigued. Like I'm going to fall asleep on the spot, no control over the matter. Then the blindspots hit, and I couldn't believe I was getting another Migraine. No trigger!!!! I was so tired i couldn't really control it and immediately fell asleep. I woke up shortly after with a terrible headache over my left side this time. I had Lauren help me out with the lights and blinds and then went to sleep for the rest of the night, not getting out of bed until 8:45 the following morning.
Here I am now at work with the worst Migraine "hangover" ever. I just felt like I was in a 12 round slugfest that immediately followed me running the New York marathon. I am so fatigued I can barely sit up at my desk at work. I still have a bit of a headache especially when i bend over. I'm dizzy. My motor skills suck. There is a time delay between me telling me to do something, ie moving my limbs, and actually doing so. Oh and did I say I'm exhausted.
It's going to be a long day as I have to finish 4.5 more hours of work and then go for three hours of physical rehearsal and an hour sub ride home.
Oh boy, thank God that i can at least daydream of my bed!!!!

YAAAAAAAAAY for work.

So, as i'm about to finish up working at my day job, (boo!!! I like the steadiness of income) I'm about to start a new job. My friend and old classmate, Nick Maccarone, and playwrighting mfa Kelley Girod and I are putting up a little show! The tentative date is Dec. 12th so mark it in your calendars! It's going to be a storytelling performance on E. 4th street in a photography gallery owned by Alex Harsley. (At least this is the tentative location). We are hoping to make this a monthly thing so please come out and support us! It will be the most laid back, intimate performance you will ever go to. I'm extremely looking forward to creating my own work. I haven't really had the opportunity to do this since my undergraduate days and it is extremely refreshing.
This performance will ride the coattails of the play i'm currently rehearsing for called Stormy Weather. Two cute short one act plays. However after last nights rehearsal, it seems like it is going to be pretty "artistic", which is really cool and surprising. The cast and director are awesome. Just a ton of people who are getting together to create, and have a fun time doing it. Such positive, fun people to be around!
Then, in an hour I have to leave for an audition for the touring production of Freedom Train the musical about Harriet Tubman. They called me in to audition for the tough bad guy! Wow, i'll be the least physically threatening "heavy" ever!!! This is the same company I had a call back for last week, so even though it doesn't look like I got that role, it seems like they must enjoy the work I put into my auditions, which is always a nice feeling.
That's it for now.
Peace.

Update: Despite major mush mouth and barely being able to say the first 3 or so lines of my audition, I was called back for two parts...both of whom happen to be racists...mixed emotions about this one! It's nice to be on a little call-back roll though!

What Happens at Auditions

So, i had my two auditions today.
I had my very first voiceover audition today. I had no idea what to expect because I never asked my teachers what happens at auditions. I was planning on doing that when i have my follow up consultation this Saturday. So i get to the audition about an hour early. It was walking distance from my first audition, so I thought I'd get there early, get the voiceover copy, practice for awhile, and peek in the room to see how one is set up for a voiceover audition. So i got there an hour early, sign in, pick up the copy, and out walks the casting director, "Scott, please come in." Oh boy. Dead cold read! I only trained in commercials for voiceover, like the voice you hear on commercials on tv and radio. This was for an online website. Basically, I had to read instructions on how you sign up, so the target audience of 7-8 year old boys can figure it out. I did it. My voice sounded good, and I tried to make it seem hip. Then the casting director was like, give it some more attitude. How the heck do you say, "Enter an eight letter password," with a cool, sarcastic attitude...but not with so much attitude it is going to upset the kids parents. Difficult!!!! I gave it my best shot, which i thought was pretty good, but in retrospect, I think I played ita little too safe. Also, I didn't know I was supposed to say my name before each take, so i got chided for that as well. Oh well, I was pleased with my attempt for my first v.o. audition. It was a good learning experience.
My first audition of the day went extremely well. I got there about a half hour early, picked up the side, and was nearly off-book by the time I was called in. I sat down to start the scene between lawyers, Thurgood Marshall (the reader) and Jack Greenberg (me). I started a little rough, but got better by the end. Then they said to immediately read for Tommy, an eight year old boy, whom if cast, i'd also be playing. What? I wasn't told that before. I hadn't even looked at the scene of Tommy. Luckily I'm an energy actor. I always just want to run around the room when I'm onstage. So even though I had no idea what the scene was about, i just used tons of energy and they seemed to like it. They briefly discussed and called me back on the spot! Amazing! but then said, "Next time we see you, your lawyer needs more gravitas. He was pretty wimpy." Ouch! Talk about going from high to low in seconds. But then right back to high again, because I remembered, hey, I just got called back! And it is a good note to work on. The call back is Friday and I'm excited! Can't wait!

Happy, Happy, Happy

So, there is only one thing that can make The Happy Actor even happier...jobs and auditions! and recently I've had both.
A few weeks ago, I auditioned for a little play called Stormy Weather. My friend and producer Alona Fogel told me to audition. I had doubts, but hesitantly went to the audition and found out a day or so later that I was cast!!! The play goes up Mid-November in NYC. If you actually read this, you will definitely be getting a notification in the near future.
For the past two months, I've been taking private voiceover coaching at Marla Kirban Studios with Bruce Kronenberg. This has been the greatest thing I have ever done. I have sooooooooo much fun working on voiceovers, for whatever reason. I just made my demo and it is pretty amazing, if you ask my humble self. I just got the demo today, and have already been called in for an audition!!!!
Also, tomorrow i have an audition for a touring play called The Color of Justice, based off the Board vs. Brown hearings on integrating schools. I'm called in for Jack Greenberg. He is the lawyer that Thurgood Marshall recruited for the case straight out of Columbia University Law School when he was 28 years old. Crazy...the similarities. The audition is a cold read from the script. That should be intersting. I prefer to have the script in hand a few days before, so i can prepare a bit, but oh well. The show tours for 6 months. Pays well. And I would become Equity!!!
Between the auditions, i'm sure i'll have something crazy to post about the experiences.

Rachel Getting Married

So, now after the mediocre spell occurred, I'm gushing like crazy.
I just saw the movie Rachel Getting Married on Friday evening. The first great thing was it was cast by Bernard Telsey, a casting director of many Broadway shows. Therefore, there were many Broadway and Off-Broadway actors cast in the show, from large roles down to roles with one or two lines! Go New York actors!!!!!!!
I'm not going to give a synopsis because you can read that everywhere; I'm just going to talk about reactions. The movie is not a personal favorite of mine, however, it is one of the best films I have ever seen. Terribly emotional film. Lauren cried through almost the whole thing, and was still crying hours after seeing it. Wow, talk about a catharsis! In my humble opinion, there has to be 3 acadamy award nominations just for acting. Anne Hathaway should win for her honest portrayal of someone in the midst of going through rehab, and dealing with family and judgements. The great clown, Bill Irwin, needs to be nominated for his amazing job of playing the overprotective father. And Rosemarie DeWitt should be nominated for playing the bride to be, Rachel. Debra Winger also did a fine job, Anna Deavere Smith was great in a very nuanced performance despite not having many lines, newcomer Anisa George was just evil in a very not-evillaly (is that a word?) "acted" performance, and Tunde Adibimpe from the band TV on the Radio was endearing as the husband.
My favorite part of the movie was the Ted Demme's (Silence of the Lambs) direction, and Declan Quinn's cinematography. They filmed the movie as if it was coming from guests hand held camcorders. Thus, as the ceremony and reception were occurring, the audience also felt like we were guests at the party, and observing what all the other guests were. It never felt voyeouristic at all watching the film, we were actually a part of it! So cool!
They also had a nice touch with the score of the film. When ever a song was accompanying the film, it was being played in real time by the wedding band, and string ensemble who were always practicing or jamming together, kinding of acting as wandering minstrels!
All I can say is go see this film! It is simply a must see!!!

I Rescind My Statement

So, in my last post I said something along the lines of: All theater should be creative, imaginative, etc. I still somewhat believe that, but I take back the "all" part. When a show, imaginative or not, is good, it's good. Simple as that.

Last night I saw the First Breeze of Summer at the Signature Theatre Company. The Sig always does a season based off of one playwright. This year they decided to do a season based off of the plays the historical Negro Ensemble Company has produced. And First Breeze...was the first show of the season. The show was interesting in that there was very little plot involved. It revolved around a grandmother's family and life. It sounds simple and fun, and that is how it does start out. At intermission I told my friend Courtney, "This is enjoyable, but I have no idea where it will go, because there has been no through line so far." And boy I could not have been any more right on about not knowing where the play will go. Act 2 has a whole different tone, and the play became brutal to watch. Brutal in every positive, and amazing way that can come out out of the word "brutal." By the end, Courtney's and my mouths were agape in awe, and we were fighting back the tears. I think most of the audience felt the same way. Ruben Santiago Hudson's direction was amazing. His transitions were so smooth that during scenes that shifted in time, I had no idea how the actors got off stage. The acting was amazing. One actress annoyed me a bit, but the people she played opposite of were so good, it didn't bother me. And when there is 10 or so amazing actors on stage, I will forgive the one I'm not too keen on. Also that one actor was very bold and confident in all of her choices, and even though it wasn't my favorite performance, it is soooo much better to watch someone like that than someone who feels uncomfortable and timid on stage. So again, forgivable, it is just me nitpicking a show that I think is great. The script is very much like a slice of life, think A Hatful of Rain. To make it work, the acting had to be spot on real. And they were. It was the most brutally honest acting I've seen along with August: Osage County. Nobody cared to hide flaws, nobody cared to hide anything. Everything just was. Also, the way they dealt with enviornment, namely the abundence of heat...and wind, was right on. They showed it to us, then dropped it, then showed it, then dropped it, just like one would in real life. They were so believable, you could feel the heat in the audience. Brilliant.

I also mentioned my first acting teacher, Brandon Dirden, was in the production. This is the third show I've seen him in, and the first since I originally saw him when he was in the Univ. of Illinois' MFA acting program back in the day. Like always he was amazing. I will never forget when I orignially saw him act in a 2 hander, called Medal of Honor Rag. It was one of my first exposures to modern, straight plays, and I was blown away. Again he is unbelievable, and so were his actual wife who played his girlfriend in The First Breeze... and his actual brother, who played his younger brother in The First Breeze... What an amazing acting family. Watch out for the Dirdens in the future!

I believe the play closes within the next week...so run to get tickets. It will be worth every penny you spend.

This is as "commercial" of a production there could be. So again, I rescind my statement from my last blog, I've just seen so much mediocre "commercial" stuff lately, I seemed to have gotten a little jaded. My new belief is, when you got a show where the team has put in the effort to work out every little nuiance, you'll have a great show. Be it "commercial", be it "avant garde", be it a radio play...If you have a damn good show, no matter what it is, it is a damn good show!

The State of Theatre

So, over the last few weeks myself and Lauren have been on a playgoing marathon. We have seen 4 shows in a matter of weeks, which is actually more than we've seen for the past four months combined! And we've seen all of these recent 4 shows for free (or near free)! It's not that I'm cheap, Lauren actually says I have pretty high-maitenance tendencies, but when tickets for an Off-Bdwy show go for $70, there is no way any young professional with lots of loans to pay off can afford that.
It was great to be back in the theatre going mode again, however, the shows seen were quite a dissapointment.
First we saw Three Changes by Nicky Silver at Playwrights Horizons. Lo and I have a joint subscription there because you can get student tickets for only $10 a pop. Unbeatable subscription offer in the city. This play was a dark, dark, dark play whose sleaze seeps its way off the stage and slimes itself all over your body, so as you exit at the end of the play you feel as if you are covered with all that pinkish goopy stuff in Ghost Busters 2. The three changes refer to a new character intruding the lives of the main couple played by the excellent Dylan McDermott (He should be on the NY stage much more often...plus Lauren has a huge celebrity crush on him[I hope it is just a "celebrity" crush], so she would love to see him much more as well) and Maura Tierney (Who should probably not be on the NY stage much more often...I'll get to that later) After the third character enters their life, there is a suicide and a new family is formed. The play was very Entertaining Mr. Sloane-esque. The production got ripped by almost every professional reviewer, but Lauren and I both kind of enjoyed it. I think Lauren just liked staring at McDermott and as she pointed out, his terrible hair dye job. I just liked the dark, off-beat comedy in the play, and I loved that PWHorizons took a risk in producing something that isn't terribly commercial. Despite enjoying the show, I thought it was good, but nothing special at all...if that makes any sense. I do have a problem that PWHorizons is often using movie and tv stars in shows. It is hard to disassociate the actual star from their on-stage persona, especially when they don't do a terribly great job on stage, ie Tierney and Sigourney Weaver in a production from 2 years ago. I understand it's about getting butts in the seat, but come on, if you have an amazing acted play, it won't matter who is in it, and you will still get the butts in the seat. Quality should always come first!
Then we saw a new play Off-Bdwy called Wig Out! This was a good play but it didn't blow me away. It centers around a competition between two rival drag houses...yes as in drag queens! It was one of the most interesting topics I've ever seen put on stage. And the parts where they performed the actual drag shows were amazing!!!!!!! I thought the acting and casting were magnificent, especially Andre Holland who I can't wait to see more of in NY! Again, i disagreed with reviewers because they said the playwright is a new force to be reckoned with. However, i found the big fault of the production was in a script with giant holes in it, and for being extremely choppy. I feel if things were livened up in the script and made a lot more smooth, as in transitions from stories between the characters, to the actual drag routines, this play could have been the next big downtown phenomenon. It still may be, but i was disappointed that it didn't meet my expectations.
The same night we saw Wig Out! we headed out to see The Seagull on Broadway. This show has received some of the best reviews I have ever seen written before. I, however, thought it was terrible. I used to say I could always sit through a bad production of The Seagull just to see the ending which always gives me chills. Well, I take that back. All i wanted to do at the end of this production was to get the hell out of the theatre. Just yesterday, I finally read a review (Martin Denton's) of the show that agreed with me. I feel validated. I sent him an email commending his review and not being afraid to go against the grain of the rest of the critic world. He enjoyed my response and posted it on his blog. Yay, I've been published!!! Read my scathing response and click the link in his blog to read Denton's original review here:
http://www.nytheatre-i.com/2008/10/about-seagull.html
Last, Lauren and I saw a show called Ugo's Last Dance which our friend and my classmate Sing was in. What has become of theatre that the show with absolutely no budget was the only one that Lauren and I thoroughly enjoyed in our marathon! I didn't even completely understand the story, (To me it seemed like a Waiting For Godot, except the characters were clowns and they were waiting to go...or not go to Hell) but what they did with physical movement and song and puppetry was far more interesting than any of the other shows. If this show had the money and a little script re-working, it would be phenomenal!
Imagination people!!!!!! Creativity people!!!!! Isn't that what art is about? Isn't that why we have theatre? Isn't that how we in the profession want to entertain people? I hope, in the future, that people get sick of the same old that is produced all the time in Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Regional theatres and we can start funding more "artistic", imaginative shows that can be just as entertaining and a lot more fun to sit through!


P.S. Tomorrow I'm seeing The First Breeze of Summer Off-Bdwy at The Signature. Brandon Dirden, my very first acting teacher ever (he was in grad school, when I was a disgruntled undergrad music student exploring other art forms) is in the show. It will be the first time I have seen him act in 7 years!!!!!

Oh the economy

So, I think I graduated from grad school at the worst possible time. Obviously we are in a major recession, which is not good for anyone. But, you are completely screwed when you are entering the job market with a newly earned arts degree. All of the jobs that actors need to survive on, are the first type of jobs that get cut. And the entertainment industry gets hit hard too. As an actorin NYC, it is very beneficial to have an agent. They can help you get seen for acting jobs that ACTUALLY PAY! However, due to the economy agents have definitely cut back this year on signing new talent. Once again, not good for the actor just coming out of a training program, that is looking for representation. From currently working in the business end of the theatrical world, I also know that producers and financers are freeking out, and shows (Broadway, and regional productions...the shows that actors ACTUALLY GET PAID in) are getting cancelled left and right. Not good for any actor.

On a similar note and what actually prompted me to write this entry is because of an article I read at work today. I have a lot of free time at work and since I am one of the few actors that is a huge, huge, huge, sports nut, I spend hours a day on espn.com. Greg Easterbrook, a writer for ESPN's Page 2 mentioned this in his weekly Tuesday article, Tuesday Morning Quarterback: "Last week, TMQ asked why no one was paying attention to the fact that the national debt ceiling was quietly raised by $800 billion during the summer. Well, toss that column: The White House just asked the national debt ceiling be raised another $700 billion, for the proposed financial-sector bailout. If that happens, in 2008 alone, $1.5 trillion will have been added to the national debt: every penny borrowed from your children and their children. Stated in today's dollars, in 1979 the entire national debt was $1.5 trillion. George W. Bush and Congress have in a single year added an amount equal to the entire national debt one generation ago. And the year's not over!
It took the United States 209 years, from the founding of the republic till 1998, to compile the first $5 trillion in national debt. In the decade since, $6 trillion in debt has been added. This means the United States has borrowed more money in the past decade than in all our previous history combined. Almost all the borrowing has been under the direction of George W. Bush..."

No wonder the economy stinks, I have no money, and have found myself in the completely out-of-body experience of eating out of garbages on the NYC street corners! (For family and friends who are worry-warts, 1/3 of the above statement came out of the fictional thoughts of my somewhat warped mind!)

P.S. Just to make you more mad, Easterbrook also pointed out: "And about that $700 billion about to the shoveled to the Wall Street elite -- in 2007, George W. Bush vetoed an increase of $7 billion per year in health care spending for the poor, saying the country couldn't afford it."

Update: So the $700 billion bail out was passed after it was first rejected. Which if we aren't being lied to, had to be done. However, one reason the GOP first rejected the bill was because it was too much money. The re-vamped bail out plan had a bunch of little easter-eggs attached to it ($150 billion worth) which made the GOP happy to accept this new plan. So they originally rejected the first one because $700 billion was too much, but when we added $150 billion to the plan, it was no longer too much. Greedy, hypocritical politicians, looking to help specialty groups so they will in turn help with their campaigns! Did I ever mention I hate politics!

Funny Audition Part 2

So the last audition mentioned was a bit humorous, but this next one was completely humiliating...and hysterical!

Part 2 

So while I was just finishing up my MFA Acting program at Columbia Univ., I decided to head out to the McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey.  For you Minnesotans, the McCarter is comparable to the Guthrie.  The train ride is about an hour - an hour and a half long.  Thank God for Ipods!  And I had to get up extra early in the morning since it was an Equity open call.  That means there is no audition time slots.  You just show up and it is first come first serve.  However, if you are not Equity (in the actors' union for theater), you have to wait for all the Equity members to audition before you get to go; and if they run out of time you don't even get to audition.  With all the nerves and anxiety that comes along with auditioning, this painful waiting process is comparable to waiting in line to go on your first ever roller-coaster ride.  But it is even worse because you don't have friends to talk to in this line.  And since the only people you can talk to are all trying to get the one same role, it always consists of very akward conversation.  Anyways, I get to the theater really early and am lucky enough to be the third Non-Equity person to show up.  After about 4 hours of watching Equity people saunter in and getting to audition before me, there was finally a break.  No Equity actors in the vicinity.  I get to be seen, at last!!!  Unfortunately, that was the only good thing that happened that day.  I don't know what happened, but for some reason I had no connection to the monologue I performed, I was just saying words.  I've performed this monologue a hundred times, and this was definitely a first.  The casting director and all the others watching the audition gave me the faux friendly, "Thanks for coming in," which felt like, "Thanks for wasting my time, ya jerk."  Already embarrassed with my lousy audition, I start to head out of the room.  However, I couldn't find the door to exit.  I start to look around the room, desperately wanting to get out of there, but I had absolutely no idea where the door that I entered had gone to.  Did it just vanish?  Is this some cruel joke that they play on the people who give bad monologues?  Lost and helpless, I pull a desperation move and look behind the thick, black curtain that is draped against the back wall.  Nope, the only thing back there are pipes, and dance bars, and a ladder or something.  No doors.  I turn back to the auditors (yes, they have been watching all this) and sheepishly ask them, "Ummmm, how do I get out of here?"  They smile and with a half-covered chuckle say, "Through the doors that are directly behind you."  For some reason, I had managed to miss seeing the GIANT, GIANT, GIANT sized wood double doors with the bright red exit sign over them!!!!!  Completely humiliated I exit the doors exclaiming to the auditors, "Oh man, I am the biggest idiot ever."  They say that it is always a good thing to be memorable at an audition.  Well, I was definitely memorable, and I guarantee it was not a good thing.  And needless to say, I didn't get cast!

Funny Audition Part 1

So, (Being from Minnesota I am obligated to start my stories off with the word, "so") over the last few months I have been to a few auditions that have had moments that have not gone so well.  Maybe these audition blunders are due to nerves, maybe they are do to me just being a complete dork, but no matter what, they were completely embarrassing, or humorous.  

I'll start with one I found humorous.  

Part 1

About 2 months ago I got a voicemail from a manager who wanted to send me out for a commercial audition for a bubble gum brand called Gay Gum.  I was like I have no problem with pretending I'm gay on a commercial.  And since I'm practically begging on the subways for food right now because I'm so broke, I definitely have no problem having to play a gay character in my first commercial because it pays a couple thousand dollars.  So for the day and a half between the call and the audition, I was practicing improvisations where I was being as flamboyant as I could possibly be.  When I finally showed up to the audition, I realized it was not for Gay Gum but for Day Gum.  Oh yes, I completely misheard the voicemail.  Surprisingly,  despite my lack of hearing, the audition went really well, until they told me to smile at the end.  So I smiled.  And then the casting director said, "Smile with both top and bottom teeth."  So I smiled just with my top teeth again, because I have a huge snaggletooth on the bottom row.  So the casting director goes, "and the bottom, please."  Begrudgingly, I jutted out my bottom teeth, in a huge underbite smile, which got me the immediate, "Next!"  Obviously, gay or not, I didn't get the job.