So there have been a couple recent posts in the technical sense, but
nothing actually chronicled. Been a bit busy. So here's the scoop (for
whatever any of it is worth).
WRAPPED FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR:
This weekend were the concluding three court sessions of the medical
malpractice exercises for a tort law class. I was Dr. Lauren Hill, the
medical expert in emergency medicine for the defendant, Dr. Hill who
testifies as to the defendant, Dr. Christine Read's, meeting the standard
of care. Dr. Hill was convinced she met the standard; I am not so sure,
which, I suppose is good, only because I know my Hill came off as
convinced he was right.
This was a bit of a lighter year for me in terms of U.D. Law gigs. A few
times when opportunities came up I had conflicts. Next year, maybe a few
more ‐‐ or maybe I'll be so busy with other gigs......
PLAY READING, PONDERING AND TIPS:
‐‐ This weekend (AKA: "last night") I sat down to read
Martin McDonagh's
The Pillowman
cover to cover. Didn't quite finish, but will today and in plenty of time
to reasonably prep for auditions tonight.
At first I had almost a tunnel-visioned focus on the character Ariel, one
of the two police interrogators. That focus was based on using a monologue
of Ariel's during my recent advanced acting class with
Kay Bosse
at
The Human Race Theatre Company.
As I knew it might, as I became more familiar with the work as a whole, my
interest has widened. I'm essentially equally interested in either police
detective, Ariel or his partner, Tupolski. In fact, the latter may be a
better fit for me, though I know I can pull off Ariel more than
successfully. I also would be open to accepting a role as either of the
brothers, though I see me as correct type for neither. I'll list my
preference for roles accordingly on the audition form.
‐‐ Meanwhile, the general auditions for the 2013/14 Human Race season
are up in mid May, with May 1 being the day to call to set an appointment.
I'm not sure if I am going for musicals this year or not. It's a ponder at
the moment. If I do, my one monologue needs to be comedic because, at the
moment, my instincts say my best chance at a substantial straight role is
for Steve in
Becky's New Car.
I suppose also Becky's husband Joe. At any rate, in terms of straight
plays, I'm guessing if I make the Race stage in a full production, it's
going to be in this one. Of course, I'd be open to the second
Marsha Hanna New Play Workshops,
the play of which I don't believe has been yet announced.
‐‐ I also got a notice about a casting call from a production company
that is "producing a prime time docu-series for a major, highly
respected cable network" and states they will "use a mix of
dramatic scenes, graphics" experts to tell the story of a
hypothetical world event. It does look interesting. I received the info
independently of any talent agency.
‐‐ As for the recent screentests for movies and commercials: no castings.
SERVE ME:
As for
Greg Nichols'
new short-subject horror movie, which features
Chuck LarkowskiAlex Carmichal,
Ayn Wood, and myself,
the first day of shooting is still April 22. Greg just sent out what he
claims is the locked screenplay.
SUCCESSFUL OPENING WEEKEND:
I was on site both Friday and saturday for the whole performances and the
audiences responded well to the show. They found it fun, which of course
was the goal. I dropped in only for a few moments, after my U.D. gig, then
headed on home. The audience was laughing during my brief visit, so it
seems Sunday went well, too.
Of course, the podcast is finished and up,
See youtu.be/RmcBZyqFqEk,
and, of course, there are a couple dumbassed errors that I will fix and
repost to youtube after the show closes. That, only because the url to
the podcast is circulated, and the new version will not have the same
url. I don't want the confusion out there. I had to do this self-same
thing for the Ghosts podcast because of information errors, though
that time they weren;t my fault. This time, the errors are mine. I
misspelled two people's names. I will fix them, so the archive is correct.
There are few productions coming up I want to catch to support friends, as
well as see the shows.
It starts with the national tour of
Mary Poppins, with
Tonya Thompson
as Mrs. Corry. Tonya was the amazingly lovely voice of The Moon in
Caroline, or Change,
at The Human Race.
Other COC castmate, Saul Caplan and I will see Ms. Thompson this coming
Saturday afternoon at
The Schuster.
Later Saturday I am likely to be at
The Dayton Art Institute's
NCR Renaissance Auditorium
for Zoot Theatre Company's
production of
Michael Slade's
And A Child Shall Lead.
Michael is, of course, an acquaintance and a colleague in that I was
part of the team that helped workshop
Gingerbread Children
last month at HRTC. The cast features a few folk I know to one extent
or another, including Ms. Heather Atkinson who co-starred with me in
Blackbird,
two years ago at DTG, Ayn Wood, who is about to be my castmate in the
Nichols movie, Darren Brown, who has been a classmate in a couple
acting classes at HRTC, Chris Hammond, Michelle Weiser and Juliet
Howard-Welch, the three whom I've not worked with but am at least
acquainted with from the local theatre world.
And I'd like to work in
at The Dayton Playhouse,
which features past and soon to be (Serve Me) castmate Chuck
Larkowski, and also in the cast: Jennifer Lockwood and Matthew Lindsay.
Then,
Springfield StageWorks
opens Othello on April 18. That cast includes Josh Katawick,
whom I've shared the stage with, Jared Mola, Mike Taint, Jon Hung,
and Amy Diederich, all whom I've worked productions with.
There are other productions up, but I just can't fit them in
.
As planned, I attended night number one of auditions for
Martin McDonagh's
The Pillowman
at DTG. I know only four things:
1) competition was strong and only will be so again tonight.
2) I feel reasonably good about my audition.
3) I am trying not to focus on point number one.
4) I am trying not to second-guess point number two.
Neuroses: what fun!
Um, let's see. Today is April 9. Fifteen minus nine equals six.
Thus, I have less than a week to get my damned taxes filed.
There have been years when I had my return spent already before
April Fool's Day rolled around.
It's the question of finalizing all the records for 2012, most
especially tracking back all the mileage....You
know: that mileage I had resolved to keep up with keeping track of
throughout the year, each instance as it occurred ‐‐ which I have
been as "diligent" about, thus far THIS year.
Didn't work on it when I got home after auditions last night.
Probably should tonight. Certainly will in the evening tomorrow,
as I will have a free evening.
Hoping I do NOT have a free evening Thursday, but rather the
table read for the latest show I am cast in.
2) I know I was in some real consideration for a role, but: we'll see.
THE DAYTON THEATRE GUILD 2013/14 SEASON:
There hasn't been a big announcement yet, but we did announce at the
opening of Leaving Iowa. There will be more detailed info out
later, but here are the shows:
45 Seconds from Broadway, by Neil Simon
Directed by Fred Blumenthal. Runs Aug 23-Sep 8, 2013
Time Stand Stills, by Donald Margulies
Directed by Debra Kent. Runs Oct 4-20, 2013
The Gifts of the Magi, by Coats & Germain ‐‐ (The Holiday Extra)
Director to be announced. Runs Nov 22-Dec 8, 2013
The Subject Was Roses, by Frank D. Gilroy
Directed by Marcia Nowik. Runs Jan 10-26, 2014
Expecting Isabel, by Lisa Loomer
Directed by Natasha Randall. Runs Feb 28-Mar 16, 2014
An Inspector Calls, by J.B. Priestly
Directed by David Shough. Runs Apr 18-May 4, 2014
The Dead Guy, by Eric Coble
Directed by Saul Caplan. Runs May 30-June 15, 2014
When Roger Ebert passed, I was too busy to sit down and create a graphic
for this, and now that I more or less have the time, I've still decided to
not do that but instead just pass on these words, which I wrote when I
first heard the news:
Mr. Ebert was a man that I wanted to meet and get to know. He seemed
such a thoughtful, gracious and classy human being; I suspect the image
was real to the man. His courage in the last decade or so of his life, not
allowing his serious physical ailments to hold him back, his refusal to
retreat from life, was truly amazing and inspiring. I am sad for his
friends and family, and I think our pop culture has lost someone special.
In honor of the friendly jabs these men made at each other on their
template program:
In the great celestial netherworld, Mr. Siskel is impatiently
rolling his eyes at all the "Thumbs Up" references that
have been made as of late; meanwhile, Mr. Ebert is close by,
quietly amused by Mr. Siskel's annoyance.
Got my weekends mixed up for Ms.
Tonya Thompson's
Dayton appearance in the national tour of
Mary Poppins as Mrs.
Corry. My ticket for the performance at
The Schuster
is for next Saturday afternoon, not today.
So I take the opportunity today to continue to
gather together needed information for my 2012 tax return.
Congratulations to the whole cast and production team. And Congratulations
to Mr. Slade, of whom which the word "compelling" seems to be
the catchphrase for his work.
SERVE ME:
Greg Nichols
has moved the first day of shooting for his new short-subject horror
movie to April 29.
So. What can I say about Mr. Feel-good, lift-up-humanity Mamet? The
characters are always interesting for actors to play. None of the characters
in this play are especially valuable toward a successful society, and I'd
rather not even share a lunch date with any of them, much less associate
with any of them in any meaningful manner. But, they are all great roles
for actors to climb inside. And I enjoyed all the actors' work. I have to
give a special kudos to Mr. Watson; his border-line spastic Jack Lawson
was a lot of fun to watch.
Coming Up!:
So, there are a few more performances, theatrical or otherwise, I intend
to attend over the course of the next several months, staring this weekend.
Some are firm commitments.
Looking at another concert: Steely Dan.
They'll be playing close by in Dayton at the
Fraze Pavilion just a few days after
McCartney, on July 24, on their "Mood Swings: 8 Miles to Pancake
Day" tour.
And I'm looking at another Chicago trek to again see
William Petersen
on stage. This time in
Slowgirl,
by Greg Pierce
at Steppenwolf, which runs July
19 through August 25. Another two actor show; another man and woman; though
the relationship is not the same as in
Blackbird,
at all ‐‐ Blackbird being my first attendance at a Petersen stage
performance, and a play that then became a great moment, if too short, in
my own acting experience.
Of course, there is Ms.
Tonya Thompson
as Mrs. Corry in
Mary Poppins this
Saturday afternoon at
The Schuster.
The show opened in Dayton this past Tuesday and closes Sunday.
I'm shooting for Othello at
Springfield StageWorks
during the second week of its run, with me likely in the audience next
Thursday. That show has, as I've said before, Josh Katawick, Jared Mola,
Mike Taint, Jon Hung, and Amy Diederich, all with whom I've somehow worked
in productions, either on or back stage.
Of course, whether on stage or not, I'll be at
FutureFest 2013
at the end of July.
Serve Me ‐‐ Auteur
Greg Nichols
has revised the first day of principal photography for the short movie to
Sunday, April 28. I assume I still have a call for Monday the 29th, but
we'll see.
Guest Speaker for a UD Class ‐‐ I've been invited
to speak in a class session of the continuing education course,
"Before The Magic: a Look Backstage,"
for the
Osher Life Long Learning Institute: University of Dayton.
The instructor for the class is Jacqui Theobald. Jacqui is a local painter
who also writes features about the arts for
The Dayton City Paper.
She wants me to speak about producing and teching shows at the Guild as
well as comparing what I know of the contrast between community theatre
and professional theatre procedure. Okay. Well, I know some; but, I bet I
know less than Ms. Theobald is hoping for.
About a week ago I attempted to copy the raw files for the Leaving
Iowa podcast from my laptop hard drive to the first of my two movie
storage external hard drives, each being 2 terabytes. I got the message
that there was not enough room. The two movie storage drives are redundant;
they have the same data, i.e.: one is a back-up. I don't relish the idea
of a fatal hard drive failure that renders all my movie production files
lost forever.
Monday I dropped in to the local Best Buy
to pick up two new 2 TB hard drives to start what would be the copies of
"Volume 2" of movie storage. Instead, I bought two
Seagate Backup Plus 4 TB
external hard drives. Rather than adding to the movie HD collection, I have
replaced the originals. I simply migrated all the files from the 2 TB
drives to the 4 TB drives.
So now I'm a little less than half full on my movie storage drive and its
back-up, and I freed up the two 2 TB drives for other purposes. Actually,
I already have found an assignment for one of them. I have made the more
portable one my new "Time Capsule" ‐‐ the designation for an
external hard drive used by the Macintosh
Time Machine system
back-up software. And the 1 TB drive I had been using for that is now
my main drive for all my audio files. It's a
USB 3 and the disk spin
speed is faster than the one I had been using, which was only USB 2. The
new one responds much faster to iTunes. The old one is now the back-up.
The old back-up is now free.
So, it's Musical External Hard Drives.
Though, honestly, I can't imagine why anyone out there would care about
any of this stuff, but I told you anyway.
Mary Poppins
at
The Schuster
‐‐ Saturday afternoon, Saul Caplan and I saw the Disney tour of Mary
Poppins, which has featured work from our past castmate, the most
talented
Tonya Thompson
who plays Mrs. Corry and Queen Victoria in the production. To remind,
Tonya is a fellow alumnus of
Caroline, or Change
at The Human Race, where
she awed us and the audiences with her beautiful vocals, playing The Moon.
Just as Tonya was impressive as The Moon, she was just as much so as Mrs.
Corry, who is a principal feature in
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," of course, one of the
signature, iconic songs in the Mary Poppins legacy.
Tonya was nowhere close to alone in her top-notch work on that stage; the
company is most impressive. As I watched the show, I thought to myself,
over and over, in varying approaches and couched phrases, something like:
Oh yeah! THAT'S why I'll likely never be in a show like this ‐‐ I
absolutely cannot dance like ANY of these amazing
tripple threat
can!
I give special mention to Ms. Thompson because of our connection; but I
also have to mention the work of
Sean Montgomery
who played the role of Bert on Saturday. Sean is the understudy, and we
found out from Tonya during the dinner, Saul and I took her to, that this
was the first time Sean went on as Bert. I gotta tell you, he performed as
if he'd been in the role for the whole tour. He had ease and confidence
and great chemistry and rapport with Mary Poppins (Madeline Trumble). He
impressed me! The coolest moment of the afternoon involved
Montgomery, as, with the help of fly cables, his Bert walked up the side
of the proscenium arch, then tap danced across the top,
UPSIDE DOWN, stopped in the middle to
sing, while upside down, then tapped across
the rest of the top, then walked back down the other side of the arch. Of
course, there is a whole team of people responsible for the gag, beyond
the actor who executes it, and he has a stage tech, or more, back there
guiding the slack and movement of the cables with great precision. Sean
did not do that stunt alone, but think about this: he was the understudy
who had never done it in front of an audience before, and understudies
usually get notoriously little rehearsal time. It was a successful bit
and Sean Montgomery certainly held up his part of the collaboration
wonderfully.
Being horribly afraid of heights, I don't know if I could have done it,
even if I could tap dance upright and at floor level.
Retreat From Moscow
at The Dayton Playhouse
‐‐ After said post-Mary Poppins dinner with Tonya and Saul, I then
attended the DPH production of this heartbreaking script by
William Nicholson, that, as
I indicated previously, featured
Chuck Larkowski,
Jennifer Lockwood and Matthew Lindsay, the latter whom I do not know. This
isn't one where you leave the theatre uplifted, much the same as
Race, from earlier in the week. You do leave thinking about family,
marriage, and I think, perhaps for me at least, the concept of a happy
life.
I'm off in just a few minutes to be one of two guest speakers for Jacqui
Theobald's UD continuing education course. Again, it's part of the
Osher Life Long Learning Institute: University of Dayton.
If you remember, Ms. Theobald is a local painter and a feature writer
The Dayton City Paper.
The other guest speaker, by the way, is Marcia Nowik, local actress, set
designer, and a newer member of the
DTG Board of Directors,
who will also make her debut as a DTG director this coming season in The
Guild production of The Subject Was Roses, by Frank D. Gilroy.
"Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice,
pull down your pants and slide on the ice."
Goodbye, Sidney ‐‐ Rest in Peace Allan
Allan Arbus
February 15, 1918 - April 19, 2013
"Before The Magic: a Look Backstage"
‐‐ Tuesday morning, Marcia Nowik and I spoke to Jacqui Theobald's UD
continuing education class, titled as above, and part of the
Osher Life Long Learning Institute: University of Dayton.
Marcia spoke specifically about set design; I spoke about producing and
sound design. Together, we touched on the differences between professional
level and community theatre. We also talked about how some community
theatres are more like professional theatre than others. It all comes
down to attitude, and what is expected to be brought to the table. We had
fun, the class attendees enjoyed it. It was all good.
Serve Me ‐‐ First shoot is this Sunday. I,
like the other actors invovled, am committed to be
off-book. To be honest, I've
barely begun, however I feel secure that I'll be where I need to be by the
shoot.
Come join us for the endless possibilities of good plays
done well. Frequently area premieres and sometimes rarely
performed classics make up our roster. These are plays
that make you laugh out loud, plays that thrill you with
high drama and plays that remind you that there is nothing
as interesting as your fellow man in all of his or her
possibilities when viewed through the eyes of a skilled
playwright. And all of these works are performed by
award-winning Guild casts playing in our intimate theater
where every seat is right next to the action. Come be a
part of theatrical excellence. The possibilities are
endless !
45 SECONDS FROM BROADWAY
by Neil Simon
America's comedy master sets this piece in the
"Polish Tearoom," a place not unlike the
real Hotel Edison coffee shop in NYC where Simon
once sipped coffee while meeting with other
entertainment pros. In this warm and gentle comedy
of remembrance, show business insiders, Broadway
wannabes and the occasional tourist traipse in and
out, each with a unique story. All the while a
60-ish Borsht Belt standup, Mickey Fox, dispenses
one-liners, negotiates with a London producer and
deals with a very needy brother-in-law.
Directed by Fred Blumenthal
Produced by K.L.Storer
Show runs Aug 23-Sep 8, 2013
Auditions will be held Mon & Tue, July 15 & 16, 2013*
TIME STANDS STILL
by Donald Margulies
Seriously wounded in Afghanistan, photographer
Sarah is brought home to recuperate by her writer
and live-in boyfriend, James. She is soon visited
by her editor and his new and much younger
girlfriend. He sees her work and wants a book. And
James wants something altogether more conventional,
in this gripping drama by Pulitzer Prize winner
Margulies. This drama of our times probes the
feelings and intersections of these four very
human people with insight, clarity and sometimes
rich moments of hilarity.
Directed by Debra Kent
Produced by K.L.Storer
Show runs Oct 4-20, 2013
Auditions will be held Mon & Tue, Aug 26 & 27, 2013*
THE GIFTS OF THE MAGI
~~(Holiday Extra)~~
A musical from the stories of O. Henry
Book by Mark St. Germain; Music by Randy Courts;
Lyrics by Randy Courts & Mark St. Germain
The Gifts of the Magi is a combination of those
beautiful stories we grew up with: the
down-on-their-luck couple who have no Christmas
present for each other, and the gentlemanly bum
who just can't get arrested so he can enjoy a warm
cell and three square meals for the holiday. This
is a little gem of a musical that brings a fresh,
bright glow to the holiday season.
Directed by Kathy Mola
Produced by Barbara Jorgensen & Carol Finley
Show runs Nov 22-Dec 8, 2013
Audition dates to be announced
THE SUBJECT WAS ROSES
by Frank Gilroy
This American Classic is about a dysfunctional
family (before it became a common description)
focusing on the return of a son from WWII.
Shocking and disappointing his mother with his
cursing and drinking, he seems to please his father
just by having survived. His parents appear to be
happy, but slowly the facade pulls away to reveal
emotional wounds and problems yet to be resolved.
The son feels responsible but is unable to fix the
pain between his parents.
Directed by Marcia Nowik producer to be announced
Show runs Jan 10-26, 2014
Auditions will be held Mon & Tue, Nov 25 & 26, 2013*
EXPECTING ISABEL
by Lisa Loomer
Miranda and Nick, a couple nearing forty, are at
last ready for a family, but are not so naturally
successful. This very contemporary comedy by a
playwright, a stand-up and a mother, examines the
frustration, pain and confusion of a modern couple
as they try various fertility techniques, new and
old, simple and strange. They consider adoption
and every other way to experience the final joy of
becoming a modern parent.
Directed by Natasha Randall
Produced by Rick Flynn
Show runs Feb 28-Mar 16, 2014
Auditions will be held Mon & Tue, Jan 13 & 14, 2014*
AN INSPECTOR CALLS
by J. B. Priestly
This classic suspense play, set in 1912 England,
has a timeless quality which is why it is
currently enjoying revivals throughout the
English-speaking world. It starts with a family
celebrating their daughter's betrothal only to be
interrupted by a Police Inspector who establishes
through questioning that each of them played a
part in a young, poor woman's death. As they each
realize their part ‐‐ some more, some less ‐‐ they
are unprepared (as are we) for a very surprising
ending.
Directed by David Shough
Produced by Kathy Mola
Show runs Apr 18-May 4, 2014
Auditions will be held Mon & Tue, Mar 3 & 4, 2014*
THE DEAD GUY
by Eric Coble
It had to happen: the ultimate TV reality show. A
young man gets to spend $1,000,000.00 over the
next seven days, but the show's vultures are
allowed to follow him with a camera wherever he
goes. There is a deadly catch involved ‐‐ and it
is all recorded on live TV, of course. Since he's
in a tough luck position, how can he turn the offer
down? This sharply funny play makes us laugh even
as we get a message about ourselves and our times.
Directed by Saul Caplan
Produced by Debra Kent
Show runs May 30-Jun 15, 2014
Auditions will be held Mon & Tue, Apr 21 & 22, 2014*
*) NOTE: all audition dates are subject to change
click on the graphic for info on 2013/2014 season
subscriptions or individual tickets.
The Dayton Theatre Guild
at the
Caryl D. Philips TheatreScape<
430 Wayne Ave.
Dayton, Ohio 45410
937-278-5993
Yesterday,
Dennis Turner,
Professor of Law, Emeritus at U.D., and he who runs the program, if you
will, that brings actors in to play clients and witnesses for the law
students, treated
Fran Pesch,
the acting coach, and we actors who participated in this recent medical
malpractice mock case to lunch at
Thai 9 in the
Dayton Oregon District. Though
one actor could not be there, the rest were and it was a nice extended
lunch break from the rent-payer
and a nice social event with colleagues.
By-the-way, I had the Thai 9 Fried Rice with
chicken. AND I AM "PATIENTLY" AWAITING THE
CHECK FOR THAT UD LAW GIG.
I did not make it last night to see Amy Diederich, Jon Hung, Josh
Katawick, Jared Mola, Mike Taint, and the rest in The Bard play.
I will be there tonight.
2012return
Once again I take the solemn oath to catch up-to-date then keep
up-to-date all my expenses, mileage and income, as it occurs,
so all I'll need to do is plug it into the filing next tax season.
Last night, for the second night in a row, I didn't make it to
Othello at Springfield
StageWorks to see Amy Diederich, Jon Hung, Josh Katawick, Jared Mola,
Mike Taint, and the rest in The Bard play.
I WILL be there tonight.
IN CONCERT & IN CHICAGO:
I did buy my tickets this morning for the July 24 stop by
Steely Dan at
the Fraze Pavilion on their "Mood
Swings: 8 Miles to Pancake Day" tour.
Still planning to get tickets for
William Petersen
in
Slowgirl,
by Greg Pierce
at Steppenwolf, which starts its
run on July 19. I'll be looking for tickets in August, I think. The tickets
go on sale next Friday, and a weeknight show has reasonable prices.
Actually, considering it's Steppenwolf, all the ticket prices are far
below what one might guess.
And so, Sunday and yesterday I was on location, at
Alex Carmichal's home,
appearing with Alex and
Ayn Wood in
Greg Nichols'
newest short-subject movie, the horror short, Serve Me. As I was
wrapped yesterday,
Chuck Larkowski
came in for his call to shoot. We have a scene together, but that will be
shot in a few weeks.
As for the specific meaning behind the facebook post above:
You'll have to wait for the movie.
2013/2014 Generals at
The Human Race Theatre Company
‐‐ Tomorrow morning is when to call to make an appointment for a slot in
the Human Race general auditions for next season. The actual auditions, in
Dayton, anyway, are Saturday, May 11, for
straight plays only, or Friday
& Saturday, May 17 & 18 for musicals only or for straight &
musicals.
The rub here is that I have yet to decide if I am going to sing this year.
Of course, I did last year. The first musical choice this year is,
The Fiddler on the Roof,
which is up Oct. 31-Nov. 17, (and, in which I played Lazar Wolf at the
inappropriate age of seventeen in my high school production). The other
choice is a new musical titled Play It by Heart, by David Spangler,
Jerry Taylor and R.T. Robinson, which was previously workshopped at The
Race.
I have no clue if there even is a role for me in the latter, and no real
sense of whether there is one in Fiddler. I suppose I am more
age-appropriate for Lazar this time around, but feel no lock on that at
all. I soppose I can say that I have previously played an older Jew on
The Loft stage, so, that's something. Don't have much of a sense if there
is a role, whatsoever, on the season, straight play or otherwise. I am
going to audition, I just haven't decided with what, or aimed at what.
FutureFest 2013 at
The Dayton Playhouse
‐‐ At this point auditions for this July's local new play festival are a
complete mystery for most of us: the six finalist have yet to be announced
and the audition dates are not posted. I am likely to audition. Either way,
I'll be at the festival.
45 Seconds from Broadway
at Home ‐‐
Mid-July, DTG is holding auditions for this
Neil Simon
play. I am the producer, but I have been told there are a couple roles for
me. I'll have to read it, I guess.
Othello at
Springfield StageWorks
‐‐ Yes yes YES, Saturday night I did get to
The Bard play at SSW to see all of Amy Diederich, Jon Hung, Josh Katawick,
Jared Mola, Mike Taint, and the rest of the cast. Have to say I saw some
good work. Congrats to SSW on a successful run.
Slowgirl
at Steppenwolf ‐‐ Last
night I picked up tickets for the Thursday, August 1 performance of this
new Greg Pierce play at the
famous Chicago theatre, starring
William Petersen
and Rae Gray.
I swear, sooner or later I am going to see a show in Chicago in which
Petersen is not a member of the cast.
The April session of
Film Connections
will be tonight at
DATV. There, DATV's Steve Ross and
MVCC's Andy Valeri will talk about
public access television in general, as well as how equipment, studio
space, and software can be utilized by local indy film makers.
This will be one of those times when I can make it.
2012return
I now have all my professional acting income, expenses and
mileage up-to-date, up to today's date, at least.
Now I have to get the volunteer/charitable mileage and
contributions up to date.
The big thing is now then to maintain such status by entering
things as they occur.
2013/2014 Generals at
The Human Race Theatre Company
‐‐ I made my appointment yesterday morning for the general audition for
next season. I made an appointment for Saturday, May 11 to audition for
the straight plays (non-musicals) only, rather than sing and put myself up
for any of the musicals. It was the epitome of a last-minute decision; I
vacillated on which to do until just as I made the call to set the
appointment. I can say one-hundred percent that I knew which was I was
going as the phone rang on the other end.
I pretty much immediately second-guessed that decision. In fact, a couple
minutes after I had hung up, I almost called back to change my appointment
to the mix of musicals and plays.
It's not at all that I have any great affinity for doing musicals; I do
not. I have no aversion, either, and think I carried my own during
Caroline, or Change last season at The Race. Many of my theatre
friends will know that I have what may never be a realized desire to play
John Adams in
1776
‐‐ in all lack of humility I wish I could make it on stage as that man in
that show, because I know I'd do the role great justice. Of course, the
small band of readers
here and, again, my local theatre friends, will also know I was chomping
at the bit to be Nicky & Trekkie in
Avenue Q.
Overall, though, I have no aspiration to be first-and-foremost a musical
theatre actor. Straight drama is my strongest draw. On the other hand, the
ability to make it into the cast of a musical makes it that much easer to,
well, get cast, and in terms of the professional actor aspirations: get
work. The 2013/2014 Race season is not hot with potential roles for me,
either. As I stated in an earlier post, it really seems to me my best shot
on the HRTC stage next season is the character of Steve in
Becky's New Car
‐‐ "best" as a relative term. There's nothing for me
Torch Song Trilogy,
and though there might have been a role I could do justice to in
Other Desert Cities,
that one is already cast. There may also be a role or two in
It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.
which I possibly could get a callback for.
I don't suppose getting into the
The Fiddler on the Roof
cast would be an insurmountable task; whether Lazar Wolf (which I played in
high school) would be the credit or not is perhaps another matter. I know
nothing of the musical Play It by Heart (music: Spangler and Taylor;
lyrics: Spangler, Taylor and Robinson; book: Yorkey), and of course, the
new musical for the
Musical Theatre Workshop
has not been announced, as neither has the new work for the
2014 Marsha Hanna New Play Workshop,
for that matter.
All this speculation and mental tussling led me to, almost exactly
twenty-four hours after my first call to HRTC Company Manager Kryss
Northrup, make a second call to her and switch my appointment to a
plays/musical audition on May 18.
If you are local and think you might want to
audition, you might try the link in the image on the right; depending on
when you read this, there may still be slots open.
Oh, yeah, Zoot ‐‐ Duh, well, seems I forgot
that sometime soon will be the
Zoot Theatre Company general
auditions for next season, and I am at least thinking about auditioning
again. I certainly haven't ruled it out.
Tuesday night I attended the April session of
Film Connections,
held at DATV and for which featured
DATV's Steve Ross and MVCC's Andy
Valeri, who gave an overview of local public access television then how
equipment, studio space, and software can be utilized by local community
members, especially, for the FilmDayton crowd, how such can be utilized
by local indy film makers.
I was personally invigorated enough by the information and the tour of the
DATV facility to leave with a serious intent to join DATV. On the drive
home I thought about the longer short screenplay I started in early 2005
and I fired up Final Draft and
looked the screenplay over for the first time in several years. Naturally,
I was not able to simply read, I had to make some changes and other
edits, though all were minor. This is the one that I want to have a budget
of $10,000 to $15,000, if not more, so whatever has just ignited may a
slow burn. There is still Vignettes In Bellcreek project to attack
the post production of, as well.
The 2013 Eichelberger FilmDayton Festival is accepting submissions of
short films by local film makers. I'm going to discern whether its age or
its long-standing on-line availability preclude Be Or Not from
eligibility.
SERVE ME:
Have calls for
principal photography
on May 11 and May 18. There will be some possible
pickup days after
that. At some point we will do ADR.
Let me rephrase that:
At some point we will do that goddamned ADR!
ADR is a bit of a pain in the ass.
Meanwhile, check out above the first teaser image from the production that
Auteur
Greg Nichols
has put out there.
Working on lines for the shoot coming up this Saturday, which will be shot
in a car with Alex Carmichal
and myself in the scene. I have only some idea how Director
Greg Nichols
will shoot it. I know there will be reversals,
but I don't know exactly how he's shooting them. I also am not sure if
Greg will shoot a master shot.
Greg has also made privatley available an assembly edit
(rushes> of a sort) of the
footage shot on April 28 and 29, that which I was involved with. Looks
good, despite that I do not like watching myself work on screen.
Oh, and one thing's for sure looking at that footage:
I am ever-lovin'-mother-frikkin'-out-of-goddamned shape!
2013 Eichelberger FilmDayton Festival ‐‐ Via
Withoutabox I have submitted Be
Or Not to this late-summer, local film festival. I was concerned that
it would not meet the eligibility, specifically the "finished by"
requirement, but I was several months past the date, so I'm in.
Technically, I'm not "IN" as of yet, as the film has not been
accepted at the moment ‐‐ I haven't even sent the DVDs yet ‐‐ but
I am eligible to be "IN," and the submission has been received
and approved as valid.
Perfect Luv ‐‐ With my tentative plans to
associate myself with DATV and have
access to some relatively SOA equipment and facilities, I am now looking
at the longer short-subject screenplay I started about eight years ago.
There are some scenes to fix, some technology references in the story to
update, and likely some scenes to cut and add. What I really need to do
is get tutored and otherwise better acquainted with
Final Draft, though I also have
another screenwriter's software, Celtx,
that has a pretty good rep, itself.
Destination "Final Cut" ‐‐ Not much to say
here except how absolutely, categorically, undeniably, inexcusably, and
pathetically behind schedule is the post production of this project.
THIS SUMMER'S NEW PLAY FESTIVAL IN DAYTON:
The Dayton Playhouse has
just released the finalists and the adjudicators for the 2013 FutureFest.
The six plays are:
A Position of Relative Importance by Hal Borden
On the Road to Kingdom Come by M.J. Feely
St. Paulie's Delight by Jacob Cox
The King's Face by Steven Young
The One With Olives by Sam Havens
Veils by Tom Coash
The adjudicators are:
David Finkle
Rob Koon
Faye Sholiton
Helen Sneed
Eleanore Speert
Weekend passes go on sale, June 3, at a $95 price tag. Single ticket
sales start July 8. and are $18, each.
Sir Paul opened his 2013 world tour May 4 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in
front of 55 thousand fans at the
Estadio Mineirao.
As you five who re-visit here will know, I have my ticket for his July 14
show at the
Bankers Life Fieldhouse
in Indianapolis, Indiana, a short two-hour drive west from home. There may
be some change-up the night I hear him, but, here is the song list from
the opening show, which is likely to be at least most, if not all, of the
show in July:
Eight Days A Week
Junior's Farm
All My Loving
Listen To What The Man Said
Let Me Roll It
Paperback Writer
My Valentine
Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five
The Long And Winding Road
Maybe I'm Amazed
Hope Of Deliverance
We Can Work It Out
Another Day
And I Love Her
Blackbird
Here Today
Your Mother Should Know
Lady Madonna
All Together Now
Mrs Vandebilt
Eleanor Rigby
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Something
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Band on the Run
Hi, Hi, Hi
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Let It Be
Live And Let Die
Hey Jude
ENCORE:
Day Tripper
Lovely Rita
Get Back
SECOND ENCORE:
Yesterday
Helter Skelter
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End
So, yeah, little to nothing to do with my own "Artful Things,"
but still. I guess I can argue that he's one of my major artistic
influences, if not the biggest one, especially just in terms of philosophy
and approach to art in general.
Or I could just say, "Whose blog is it?"
PLUS, POSTING
THIS ENTRY AFFORDS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE NEW SUBJECT ICONS!
Generals for
The Human Race Theatre Company's
2013/14 Season ‐‐ I have picked my song and monologue for my May
17 appointment to audition for next season at The Race. I have an option
to do material directly from shows I am interested in, so I am going for
a song and a monologue, each for characters that I believe I have the
best chance at winning roles as.
No, no Lennon & McCartney music this year. How about some
Bock & Harnick,
instead? I'm then pulling my monologue from
Becky's New Car
(Steven Dietz). I have yet to make the cuts to either. The real challenge
will be to successfully cut the sheet music to the edit cut I make of the
sound track recording of the song I'm using ‐‐ given how weak my music
theory acumen is.
A "fiddler on a roof" ‐‐ In some
beautifully coincidental synchronicity, I potentially have a gig in a
couple weeks as a rabbi on a roof, mimicking playing the violin, as guests
enter for a wedding. Decent pay, too, for the amount of time I'll put in.
A higher rate per hour than I made for my stand-in work on the set of
The Ides of March.
Yep, me on a roof. Never mind that I am afraid
of heights.
Greg, Carol, & myself, in Alex's house as Greg looks
over the script to prepare to shoot the car-drive scene.
Photo taken by Alex Carmichal
Yesterday we shot the car-drive scenes between myself and
Alex Carmichal. On production
was Carol Narigon, acting as producer, script supervisor
and all-around PA.
Our fearless director, Greg Nichols,
only shot reversals, with
no master shot of the
car scenes ‐‐ a master would have been difficult without a lot of external
rigging for the car.
What Greg did was set his tripod over the transaxle console in the
front seat, between the driver and the passenger, then trained the camera
on the actor being shot. Alex drove while I was in the passenger seat,
doing my lines on camera.
When the camera was flipped, I was not in the car, but was back at Alex's
house. The reason being that Greg was in the passenger seat shooting Alex
and because of the angle of the shoot, the left passenger seat, behind the
driver, needed to be empty. So Carol stayed in the back seat on the right,
on script, feeding Alex my lines. The back seat hadn't been an issue
when I was shot, because of the placement of the camera rig ‐‐ the back
seat wasn't at all in frame.
Greg & Alex in the car, while Greg sets up the camera
rig to shoot the first of the automobile interiors of the
car-drive shoot.
Gotta admit here: I have not yet gotten to the cuts for either my song nor
my monolog. I have some podcast editing to do today, but it would behoove
me to at spend time looking seriously at both the song and the text. It
doesn't help that I am vacillating on my choice of song, either.
Next To Normal
at the
Victoria Theatre
‐‐ I, along with others, only one whom I am sure of who, have been
afforded the opportunity for comp vouchers for the Human Race Theatre
Company
Broadway Series
production of Next To Normal, which is up right now. Looks like I'll
catch it on its closing day, next Sunday.
You five regulars may remember that I had an strong interest in being Dr.
Fine/Dr. Madden, but was skeptical of much chance for even a callback, and
that which I did not get. I was skeptical because I'm not really
typed well for the role. Doesn't change the fact that the doctors' songs
are most certainly in my range and I love the music. I love this show, a
lot; at least I love the show and the music as performed on the
original Broadway cast recording.
The role of the doctors went to
J.J. Tiemeyer,
who I know to some extent: talent guy and certainly closer to type for
the doctors than I. Also in the show is
Jamie Cordes,
who was a fellow castmate in
Gingerbread Children
at The Race a few months back.
I am excited to have the chance to see this. Frankly, the money I have
recently spent on McCartney, Steely Dan, and
Slowgirl
(at Steppenwolf) tickets, some
$534.68, made the Next To Normal ticket prices somewhat out of
reach, even the nose-bleed $40 weeknight tickets.
Avenue Q
‐‐ Of course, in a few weeks this gem opens on the HTRC
Loft stage;
"Preview Night" is June 6. I am most certainly going to be
there on Can Night, but may buy a
ticket for another performance in the run. This one, of course, you five
may recall, was one of my big casting desires for the season, and I
did get the callback for this, and for the role of which I was
covetous: Nicky/Trekkie Monster. I know I gave a great audition, but alas
I was not cast. I am yet still excited to see this one, too!
Today? I have taken the day off from
the rent-payer. For the
most part, today is about final audition prep. I am close to ready, as I
write this sentence at 10:46 a.m. (taking a break from audition rehearsal
for a few minutes). I will be ready at "show time."
I have a decent accomplishment on the words to, and the performance of, my
monologue; my cut for the song is, I believe solid, even if I am
essentially music theory challenged.
So, I guess all that is left to do is polish it all up this morning and
this afternoon then perhaps I ought take the feeling of edginess and
channel it to my advantage.
SERVE ME:
I should wrap the HRTC audition just prior to 6:30. Then it's home, or
wherever, to put the final push on being off-book for what should be the
wrap of principal photography
for Greg Nichols'
short-subject horror
movie.
It may seem like I am waiting to the last minute to get those lines down,
but it's a case of triage: I have to get down what needs down first. There's
been a bit going on and other deadlines came earlier than off-book for
Saturday. There's not a boatload of lines, so I'll be okay.
SD DV TAPE, DSLR, MOVIE SHOOT SNAFUS AND THE ABSENCE OF A
GOOD A.D.
OH MY!:
Dual degree? Yes. I graduated with a degree in English
(concentration: Creative Writing) and Mass Communication
(concentration: Media Production); with a minor in
Sociology (Concentration: Family Socialization). Though it
stretched my academia out at least another year, if not
another year and a half, I went for the dual degree so I
could take more writing courses and still have them count
toward my diploma. I could only take so many such English
classes as an English major. But virtually all the writing
courses were offered under both an English (ENG) and a
Communication (COM) heading. By adding the Mass Com
program. I was able to take more writing courses. They
would be, for instance, "Writing for Cable News ‐‐
COM. 356" as well as "Writing for Cable News ‐‐
ENG. 356."
Then came the irony: Just about the only writing course I
did not take, in either department, was Technical Writing.
So, for the first few years after graduation, guess what
sort of writing I did on a regular basis on the job?
Of course, I also took a boat-load of production courses
for my Mass Com degree.
Yes, yes: a degree in "writing" and yet I still
make at least one or two dumbass typos in every post, here
or elsewhere!
When I was in college, (you know: last century?), I had an Advanced
Video Production class for the "Mass Communication" half of my
dual degree. In that class, I and a classmate partner produced a
promotional video for a leg of our university that was known as The
Center for Employee-Management Cooperation. I may actually have that title
a bit wrong, but the important thing is that "Management" is in
there; that word was, indeed, part of the title.
The video was much like the DV movies I make for the DTG podcasts: very
documentary in style. We shot footage of the facilitators working with the
clients in the classrooms and on site at clients' companies. We
interviewed the facilitators and clients, and edited together a video of
about fifteen minutes. I was in charge of the titling process. We used the
TV center on campus and their key matting
process to overlay the titles.
We finished it and moved on. Both of got an A in the class. Everything's
fine.
Months after the class was wrapped, perhaps even after I had earned my
degree, I was showing some of my video work from college to a visiting
friend. I popped in the VHS version of the tape (the original was
three-quarter tape; this was the 1990's) and here we go: I'm about to
impress my friend with my great work on my Grade-A project!
The main title pops up. My friend says, "Management is spelled wrong."
Sure enough, the main title said:
The Center
For
Employee-Managerment
Cooperation
She also caught the misspell "Cheif" in a later key matte for
a client identification title at the bottom of the screen during an
interview.
And that video was actually used by the Center when pitching service to
potential new clients!
Sometime after that, weeks, months, some point, I related this bozo
blunder to WSU faculty/staff member
George Frey, who at that time was heavily involved with the campus
television and video productions. His response was: "That's why God
made assistant directors and
script supervisors;
'cause directors are too busy with the big picture to attend to that crap."
That's probably not an exact quote ‐‐ it's been a while ‐‐ but it's
probably close, and it is certainly that way he would couch the sentiment.
So, there's that story, all to set up this story: Thursday night,
I shot a short little vignette for the start of the latest DTG podcast.
It's a little opening sequence for the DV movie, a short, non-dialogue
narrative bit, using an actor (Kenneth Laudermilk-Spellman). I shot it in
the theatre space, on the set for the Guild show, with the use of a few
specialized props. The shoot went well.
Except....
There was this other shot, in conjunction with, but not directly related
to, the whole narrative vignette segment I shot. My intentions had been
to just get a still photograph for that other shot; it wasn't absolutely
necessary it be DV footage. But, I changed my mind and decided I would
use the DV camera to do a slow zoom to the precise framed image I want
for the podcast movie. That is what I did.
For the little vignette, I had shot about a total of twelve minutes of
footage, with about twelve shot set ups, to get the two minutes of
narrative segment. As I used the
Canon ZR800
to shoot this all, there is tape involved: an important aspect of the
story.
The mini-cassette DV tape plays its role as so: My decision to use footage
rather than a still came after I was done with all the shots for the
vignette and Mr. Laudermilk-Spellman had changed out of his costuming. At
that point I was essentially packing up, but before I got to the DV
camera I made the decision on the footage rather than a still of the other
shot ‐‐ that which is, essentially the background image for the body of
the podcast.
I set it up, hit record, did a couple slow zooms in and out, and that was
that. As I was finishing the shot I noticed the time tracker on the DV
camera view screen was registering just over one minute.
When shooting of the vignette
had wrapped, I rolled back the tape to have it ready to export into
Final Cut Express
for the editing process. I forgot that little fact!
So, yes! I RECORDED OVER FOOTAGE I HAD EARLIER THAT EVENING SHOT FOR THE
OPENING VIGNETTE!
And, so, yes: Mr. Laudermilk-Spellman, who fortunately was still there
with me, had to costume back up for a few shot set-up reshoots: four, if
I remember correctly.
Thus, aside from a whole host of other reasons why shooting with a
DSLR camera
is better, there's the there's no tape to roll back
over and lose footage argument.
*See down below for the finished podcast.
During a break from audition rehearsal, I bought my weekend pass for this
year's FutureFest (AKA: FutureFest 2013).
Very likely I'll audition for a show, too. The notices aren't out yet,
but I have my radar on.
So here's hoping I have a free seat for a friend for one of the
performance.
OPENING TODAY
For mature audiences only
The last show of the 2012/2013 Dayton Theatre Guild season opens tonight.
Meanwhile, preproduction for the 2013/2014 season is underway.
So, several DTG board meetings ago, when the board approved the directors
for the new season, it was determined, as is customary, to at least name
the producer for the first show. Director Fred Blumenthal requested me,
and I complied.
To that end, I have been pushing for the audition specs to be finalized and
gotten out there. Yesterday the audition announcement hit our
facebook page,
and Publicity has the info.
PS: guess what dumbass agreed to also
produce the second show of the new season?
There's my late Friday post on facebook, last week, referring to my
audition earlier that evening. To elaborate on the "(there were
'problems')" part, and I'm not sure which order this was, but either
I slightly lost pitch then went up on some lyrics or I went up on some
lyrics then lost pitch. One of them faciliated a loss of focus that then
engedered the other. I was just so caught up in the moment that I can't
tell you now which happened when. I do know that the instant I went off
pitch I knew it and simply was not able to grab back my focus to adjust
the pitch back to key.
What'd I do? you ask? I soldiered through to the end, said, "Thank
you," chatted for a few moments, then left.
A while ago, quite a while ago, I read an opinion piece by an industry
person ‐‐ can't remember if it was an actor, a casting director, an agent,
or some other player ‐‐ that discussed the after-period of an audition. I
also don't remember which trade it was, but I am thinking it was an
on-line link to a Back Stage
article. The meat of the article was essentially about being a pragmatist
in the wake of an audition. Ask yourself a few questions:
What do you feel good about?
What do you feel not so good about?
What do you know you nailed?
What can you do better next time
In other words: what did you learn from this one?
In this case, what do I feel good about? ‐‐ My overall demeanor was in a
good place. Of course, it is true that I have a relationship to some degree
with most of the people who were in the room; I have been directed by and
have also been in a show with one person who was there; and have a pretty
good, if fledgling working relationship with two others who were there. It
wasn't like I was in a room with a group of strangers.
I also feel very good about the monologue, as I wrote above, and it was a
comedic monologue, to boot. You five regulars may remember that I have a
not-too-small insecurity about my comedic abilities and timing, but I do
believe I gave a great delivery on this one. At least it felt that way
to me.
Another thing I feel good about (or, what's the silver lining in that dark
cloud?): The fact that I "soldiered on," that despite being
derailed, I at least kept enough of my cool to keep the train moving
forward, that despite the fact that I was immensely pissed at myself, I
kept a performer's demeanor as I struggled with words and pitch, managed to
recover lyrically but, alas, not in terms of getting back to the key. Yet,
it was not the total melt down it could have been because I was able to
at least keep that from happening.
What do I feel not so good about? ‐‐ Clearly I am not enthused with
going off key and forgetting lyrics during the song. The song was simply
not a "WOW! I kicked
some serious ass!" event. I also realized after I left
that I had failed to tuck my shirt in before I went in ‐‐ chalk that up to
some level of nervousness that made me forget. That's really a bit of a
minor point, yet still, not standing in front of them all, even if we have
a relationship already, with my shirt tail out would have been better.
What do I know I nailed? ‐‐ Well, the comedic monologue, of course. For those
who are interested, I did what could be called the "Little Boy and
Puppy" monologue from
Becky's New Car,
by Steven Dietz.
The audition specs this year had one choice for a program that was,
"Come prepared with 1 one-minute monologue and 1 song (up to 32 bars)
in the style of the show(s) or from the show you are interested in."
Becky's... is the first show of the season, and Steve, who is the
character speaking this monologue, is a character I am typed for, so there
is some sort of a chance. I had another advantage as we had worked on
scenes from the play in my last Advanced Acting class with
Kay Bosse,
though in the class I played Walter, a rich widower in his sixties. But
when I saw the "Come prepared with 1 one-minute monologue...from the
show you are interested in" allowance, I was familiar enough with
the script to know that Steve is a good fit for me and I should target him.
Like I said, I did right by myself with the Steve monologue; got laughs,
that's kind of the goal with a comedic monologue.
Going back to the "feel good" question: it also feels good to
risk utilizing a skill set I am less accomplished at (comedy) and to
succeed.
What can I do better next time? ‐‐ Okay, well, to state the achingly
obvious, I could, um, Sing On Key! I could Not Go Up On Lyrics!
Those two things for a starter. I also need to learn to calm down and
cool up a bit. I say this because the fact that I did not tuck my shirt in
before I went in is evidence I was a little more high strung and nervouse
than I remember, thus, I missed a small but important image action. I also
have a habit, I have noticed before, of being nervouse enough that I don't
attend to the small niceties of personal introductions with those in the
room I don't know as well. These aren't as salient as being in key and
remembering all the words, but they aren't unimportant, either.
What did I learn from this one? ‐‐ I need to remember my lack of formal
musical training and procure help with the song. Last year the song went
well. You five regulars may remember that I sang the McCartney Beatle song,
"You Never Give Me Your Money,"
a song I started singing more than forty years earlier; so, immediate
rehearsal, though not unimportant, was "brush up" not
"learning." I bought a copy of the sheet music from
Sheet Music Plus, that which
was a piano/vocal score, but scored precisely to The Beatles' performance
on Abbey Road.
As that performance, that arrangement, was the template for my
performance, it was easy for me to use my limited music theory knowledge
to correctly get a cut for the audition. What I cut was the extended intro
as well as the instrumental bridge between "Oh that magic feeling /
Nowhere to go" and "One sweet dream...," for those of you
who know the song. Having a fairly intimate, decades-long working
familiarity with the song, and with the sheet music being scored closely
to the original recording, I was able to accurately correlate sheet music
cuts with the edit I made to the recording, the latter which I rehearsed
with.
I elaborate all that because this year, based again on the allowance to
use a song from the musical I am interested in, I went with "To
Life" from
The Fiddler on the Roof,
which is the established musical that is up next season. Okay, for those
who don't know, I was Lazar Wolf in the Wilbur Wright High School 1976
production of Fiddler, right before my eighteenth birthday. Thus,
I sang, in my distant past,
"To Life," as it is essentially a duet between Tevye and Lazar.
That was almost forty years ago, and once the weekend of
performance was over, back in 1976, I never sang the song again until
just recently. Not quite as practiced on "To Life" as on
"You Never Give Me Your Money." The sheet music I got a hold of
for the audition was not precise to either the
original Broadway cast recording
or the
original motion picture soundtrack.
My recording edit and my sheet music cut was much more an educated guess
this time than last. This song is not engrained in me like the McCartney
song, either. It was much easier for me to be in the audition room and to
be able to actually sing the song, with accompaniment only (no recorded
vocal track I was singing along with) on "You Never Give Me Your
Money" because I was so familiar with the song ‐‐ I might have
been able to sing it a capella and not lose pitch. That's how it
worked last year: the first time I sang the McCartney song with
accompaniment only was at the actual audition. With "To Life,"
it was the same; I had not last year nor this worked with an accompanist
or vocal coach before the audition, unlike I had done for the
Avenue Q
callbacks last January, wherewith I worked with Reneé Franck-Reed
and did actually rehearse to accompaniment only.
I can't say that I "Blew Off" prepping for the audition
this year, that just would not be a correct assessment. I do believe that
I underestimated the amount of musical prep I needed. I believe that in
the end, I was under-rehearsed for the song and not properly rehearsed ‐‐
as per rehearsal with accompaniment only. I also over-estimated my
musical savvy. I have some, there can be no doubt; and I have good musical
instincts; but my misadventure shows I was not as ready as I thought I was.
There's a lesson for ya.
Off the facebook post which I shared above, I got a comment worth
attending to: "Learn from it and move on. It's usually never as bad
as we think. Let them be the judge. They know your work." Much of
that message, of course, I was already processing as part of my
post-mortem. The part I needed a little reminder about was the "...
Let them be the judge..." part. My perception matters, since I like
to improve and the self-assessment is a part of that; but, the auditors'
decisions about how I did is the ultimate authority over the main goal of
the audition: the gig.
Maybe a Commercial ‐‐ Yesterday,
PC-Goenner contacted me about a
screentest next week for a commercial. A little while after I confirmed
that I'd be there, and knew all the specs, I got another email that said
to disregard the casting call for the moment. The client changed the
casting to a headshot submission. If selected for the audition next week
the agency will get back to me. So, I may have an audition next
week.
FF13
Auditions ‐‐ The audition notice for this summer's Dayton Playhouse
new play festival have been posted:
thedaytonplayhouse.com/index.php/auditions.
The auditions are Monday, June 3 (Fully Staged), Tuesday, June 4 (Staged
readings), and Thursday, June 6 (both). I am likely to at least be at one
of those. I have access to the scripts I have an interest in, so at least
it won't be the stone-cold readings it has been the last couple times I
read for FF.
SERVE ME:
Ms. Wood's character.
Last Saturday the principal photography
for the movie was wrapped. As I stated in the last post, I worked in frame
with Alex Carmichal and
Chuck Larkowski,
the other two principals in the movie ‐‐ though it's really difficult
to say that Ayn Wood is
not also principal; even if she has a bit less screen time, it
certainly is important screen time *(see above).
Last Sunday afternoon I saw the Human Race Theatre Company installment of
the 2013/14
Victoria Theatre Associations Broadway Series
on Sunday and enjoyed my afternoon in the hall. There was very fine work
up there on the stage.
HRTCCaroline, or Change
alumnus Bruce Sabath landed a nice principal supporting role in this
Castle Rock full-length feature. A few weeks back Bruce put out that he
had done some scenes for this project with
J.K. Simmons (Chief Will
Pope on The Closer).
Last week he sent out some pics of himself with a few other actors from
the film: Hugh Grant,
Chris Elliott, and
she causes me the most envy ‐‐
Allison Janney.
Allison being a native Daytonian (okay, technically I believe she grew up
in the city of Oakwood, but still a Daytonian to me), and of course,
besides her brilliant work in
American Beauty and her great work in
many other movies and TV shows, she was
C.J. Cregg!
The plan yesterday was to read several plays. It did not work out that way.
Other life stuff commanded the day and actually has some control over
today as well. In fact, I'llliekly take several breaks during the
composition of this blog entry to deal woth some o that stuff, so despite
that it's about 7:40 as I key this sentence in, this entry probably won't
be posted till after 12 noon. I'm hopeful, however, that I can get some
play reading done beofre today ends. I have several on the docket. The
goal is now to get at least one particular play read, as I need to get it
back into the hands of the person I borrowed it from as soon as I can.
Three New Plays for FF13 ‐‐ The auditions for
this year's Dayton Playhouse FutureFest new play festival are the week
after next ‐‐ see
thedaytonplayhouse.com/index.php/auditions
for the audition dates, times, and specs.
There are three plays I seem cast-able in. It just happens that it is the
three fully staged productions, and though I am more inclined toward such,
it truly is happenstance.
‐ A Position of Relative Importance, by Hal Borden opens the
weekend, and there is at least one role for me in this one, directed
by fellow Dayton Theatre Guild
board member, Debra kent. The big problem here is that traditionally,
as this is the first production of the weekend, the final dress is
liekly to be Wednesday, July 24. I have tickets for
Steely Dan at
the Fraze Pavilion on their "Mood
Swings: 8 Miles to Pancake Day" tour. Since I haven't read the
play yet I don't yet know if I would want to unload my concert tickets
for a role in the play. I don't know if there's a good trade-off there
for me. The role I am up for is certainly supporting, and I'll have to
really find the guy worth playing to give up Fagen & Becker for
him.
‐ On the Road to Kingdom Come, by Dayton native and past
FutureFest First Place Winner (2009 for Night and Fog)
Michael Feely.
I was in Night and Fog, which was directed by Saul Caplan, as
is this new entry. Saul has, in fact, directed all four of Michael
Feely's plays to have made it to the FutureFest stage. Were I cast in
On the Road... I would again be playing an officer in the
military, as I did in Night and Fog. As has two of his other
three been, this new one is the Saturday evening performance.
‐ The third one is The King's Face, by
Steven Young,
directed by Geoff Burkman. As actors, Geoff and I have appeared
together twice on FF stages, one of those being in the celebrated
Night and Fog. We were also both in A Case of Libel at
The Guild, but never had scenes together in that. This is the one I am
sure to read today, as I need to get it back to the person I borrowed
it from. I had a concern about this one, but as I look at the calendar,
my worry subsided. This is a full-length, two-act TWO-ACTOR
play. My first thought was, Do I have enough time to commit to
getting the lines down for this one?. But, if I were to know I was
cast by the June 8 weekend, I'd be in good shape. That's about a month
to get off-book, Even if the director pushed it back to three weeks
before off-book, that's still do-able, providing I know my deadline
early enough. Now, all that is left for me is: do I care about being
Jonathon Bradmore, London surgeon and counterfeiter? Guess it's up to
Mr. Young's words to settle that.
A "potential" obstacle for those first two, which may also
preclude me from producing them is the chance that I might possibly, if
the stars align exactly correctly, the wind blows out of the north-east at
exactly the right time and force, the moon has the right hue, and I eat
the right foods for breakfast a few mornings in a row, there's a slight
chance that I might in some weird borrowing from an alternate universe,
get cast as Steve in
Becky's New Car,
by Steven Dietz at
The Human Race Theatre Company.
That one goes into rehearsal August 19, and runs Tuesdays through Sundays
September 12 through 29. That would clearly make me unavailable as an
actor for either Guild show, and it would make it pretty untenable for me
to follow through as producer for either show. Of course, there needs to
be a call back, and I have heard nothing about callbacks for the 13/14 HRTC
season, yet. I haven't received the polite, diplomatic Thanks, but no
thanks message, either, so there's still hope.
I'm also looking at our DTG Christmas extra, and rare Guild musical
offering,
The Gifts of the Magi,
music by
Randy Courts,
book by
Mark St. Germain,
lyrics by Germain and Courts. I think there's a role for me in this one,
the homeless guy, Soapy. I don't know that I am hot for the role, but it
could be fun. The caveat here is that there is a minuscule chance that I
get a callback and a casting in The Race's own holiday musical production,
The Fiddler on the Roof,
book by Joseph Stein,
music by Jerry Bock,
lyrics by Sheldon Harnick.
However, I don't even want to calculate the level of exactitude involved
in the universe aligning for me to be on stage in this ‐‐ especially as
Lazar Wolf, not only because I essentially blew the portion, of my 13/14
general audition for HRTC, that targeted Lazar and this show, but because
that's a feature supporting role and the odds favor an established
Equity character actor
with much more musicals-experience under his belt, and perhaps typed a
little closer to Lazar than I. *For elaboration on the "essentially
blew" the audition reference, see my last entry above about my musical
mishap at the generals, just ten days ago.
Still, I have the libretto and a sound track of Magi, and I have a
bit of time to study on it if I do audition, since those auditions will be
on or around October 8 & 9. The only imminent need to read for DTG
shows is for 45 Seconds, and I need to read that as producer,
anyway. Need to read Time Stands Still as producer, too, for that
matter.
A few weeks back I wrote of a potential paying gig where I'd be one of a
few rabbis on a roof, mimicking playing the violin, as guests enter for a
wedding. After an initial conversation with the person putting this
together, I never heard back. As it was to have happened yesterday.....
I was able to at least get The King's Face, by
Steven Young checked
off the reading list, at the close of my day, yesterday. Pretty nice script
and it wouldn't be hateful to portray Johnathon Bradmore ‐‐ there are
certainly a few valid directions to take the character, some close to
comedic, others more subtle.
I've unfortunately cast an actor in the role in my head, the character
actor Roy Brocksmith, who was
all over scifi TV until his death in 2001. I think he appeared in most of
the incarnations of Star Trek, from TNG onward, as well as one
episode of
Babylon 5:
"The Deconstruction of Falling Stars,"
where he really could have been classified as a guest lead performer. He's
been in countless other scifi TV shows and movies, including
Total Recall,
and has a long list of credits in other genres and straight drama, on TV
and in full-length features, and I think maybe a pretty healthy stage
carreer, too. At any rate, not long into reading the play I saw him as
Bradmore.
I must not allow Mr. Brocksmith to imprint on Bradmore in my mind or I
will have a major problem shaking him. Not that I would carbon-copy him,
but his strong presence in my head will influence what I do in audition
and if I let him get stamped in there, it will be hard for me to excise
him if I need to get to a Bradmore in audition ‐‐ or, in rehearsal and
production ‐‐ that is miles from his work.
Meanwhile, A Position of Relative Importance, by Hal Borden and
On the Road to Kingdom Come, by
Michael Feely
are left to read for FF13.
Since I am, regardless of auditioning, also the producer of
45 Seconds from Broadway
‐‐ at least at the moment ‐‐ I am not sure whether I should read that next
or one of the other FF shows.
Since I also will be doing the sound design for the show, it behoves me to
start knowing the play so I can concentrate on that. I know Director
Fred Blumenthal
wants scene transition music that is thematic ‐‐ which is what he would
have gotten, anyway. I also have no clue if any sound effects are
needed.
Plus, also, if there are roles for me as an actor, well, I need to read it
for that reason, too, right?
This is one of those months that I have the
Film Connections
night open, and I have tentative plans to be there tonight, though I may
not make it. The agenda tonight is the relationship between the director
and the actor, focusing on what the director needs to know about
communicating what they want to the actor; there's a bit more but
essentially that's the evening.
Last year I participated as an actor, in a similar session of Film
Connections, helping to demonstrate the difference between the smaller
performance for the camera and the bigger one for the stage. This year
improv games are being added to the demonstration, which will be
interesting, yet, I still may opt to deal with other things tonight.
Last Saturday we did .....................:
Okay, so, "DREADED
ADR" may be a small amount of hyberbole. Thus far the indication
is that my ADR session went well and that Director
Greg Nichols
has fresh, better sound-quality dialogue to synch with the footage.
As a refresher, or for those who don't know what ADR is, the acronym
stands for Automated Dialogue Replacement (sometimes also "Additional"
Dialogue Replacement). It's also known as Dialogue
Looping or simply Looping. ADR is the re-recording of dialogue by actors
in a sound studio during post-production, most often with the actors
speaking while watching playback of the scene to better accomodate lip
synchronization. The most common reason to use ADR is due to bad audio
from the production track (the audio recorded on the shoot site) or to
change the delivery of a line. "Bad audio" may be anything from
too much background noise, poor audio pick-up of the dialogue, or signal
noise picked up and recorded. Sometimes new dialogue is written and ADR is
used to add/insert such into a scene; though such added dialogue can only
logically be placed in the footage where the actor who speaks it has his
or her face away from the camera or is off screen.
In our particular case it was a sequence shot in a moving car and two
other exterior sequences that were in the most need of ADR. Though Greg
did loop another scene that was shot inside. The first thing we shot,
which is toward the end of the movie story line, actually had good enough
production sound (that recorded during the shoot) that Greg has been able
to use a filter software to pull out some unwanted background noise and
use the original production sound.
As for "THE
DREADED ADR," it really wasn't as bad as
another ADR session I was a part of. Between me doing a relatively good
job of matching up my speech and the ability Greg has in editing to
better match up the audio with the video, it's not probable that I will
have to do another ADR session.
VARIOUS AUDITION STUFF:
2013/14
The Human Race Theatre Company
Generals ‐‐ Thus far I have heard no yay nor nay concerning
callbacks. I know of a few actors who have callbacks; I don't know what
they being notified already and me not being as of yet means. I do know I
can at least say I have not yet received the "Thanks,
but no thanks" notification. My expectation of landing a
callback has weakened greatly, however.
Commercial Audition Monday‐‐ Had a screentest at
the PC-Goenner Sharonville
office Monday morning. It was for a local commercial in Charleston,
South Carolina, the call by the casting agency that handled
Army Wives,
which I believe is about to, or just did, wrap its final season. The
commercial will shoot in Charleston on June 10, so, with that being a
670-mile, ten-hour drive, oneway, it's safe to say I would be off from the
rent-payer that day, and likely the next.
I was already scheduled off for the 10th,
for more oral surgery (last two wisdom teeth extracted), and I tell ya it
just kills me to have called and postponed that dental appointment.
I feel good about the screentest, for whatever that's worth. To be honest,
I'm not wholly sure I am perfectly correct for the role, but I will leave
that up to Casting. My reason for making the ninety-plus mile trip to
do this audition is to once again put my face on a screen in front of
this casting director (Richard Futch, CSA), who will be casting feature
films as well as being the primary CD for Army Wives.
How I've been spending my lunchtime recently at
the rent-payer;
that would be
Michael Feely's
On the Road to Kingdom Come laying open in
this photographed instance.
Tuesday night I auditioned for the three fully-staged FF13 plays:
A Position of Relative Importance, by Hal Borden,
On the Road to Kingdom Come, by
Michael Feely,
and The King's Face, by
Steven Young.
By in large I think it went okay. I certainly don't think I tanked any
reading. A couple I felt pretty good about. One of the directors even
shared with me a most positive comment about one reading.
I suppose the big turn of events is that I have reconsidered just how
firm my commitment to the Wednesday, July 24
Steely Dan concert at
the Fraze Pavilion is. The dress
rehearsal week schedule is not yet finalized, as a better determination of
pairing shows that will better facilitate shorter final dress sessions
(two shows per day) is yet to be made. Traditionally, A Position of
Relative Importance would have been firm for a July 24 final dress as
it is the first show up ‐‐ the old system was the first two shows on
Wednesday, the second two shows on Tuesday, the last two shows would start
of Dress Week; don't ask me why that was the system but it has been as
long as I've been involved. But the system is changing this year, so
either or both of the others I am gunning for may be in that Wednesday
slot. That makes my concert tickets a potential problem for all three
directors. In addition, even if the show I am in does not have dress that
day, being at the last rehearsal before the weekend begins may be
desirable, and may be the strong desire (or demand) of the director.
For about two minutes late last night I had the tickets on sale at a 30%
discount. But then I decided to hold off on unloading them for the moment
while I wait to see how the wind blows. I pulled the for sale
sign as it were and posted an explanation that even though they aren't on
the market right now, that they may become an untenable conflict with
rehearsals and thus would then be back on the sales shelf. Two people have
already expressed interest if they do go back for sale; one would be
meeting my cash price; the other wants to make a trade. I really could not
afford the $152 I spent for the tickets, to begin with. Recovering $100
of that is much more attractive.
As for the
McCartney show in Indianapolis on July 14: yeah, I'm going to that one ‐‐
.
Actually, that date is not at all likely to pose any problems; in fact,
I'm very confident it won't.
Second night of auditions for the three fully-staged shows is tomorrow ‐‐
actually all six shows audition tomorrow. I will be there, though likely a
tad late as I have a DTG
board member task to attend to until just about 7:00 or a little after.
Perhaps this is, in the scheme of things, a minor hallmark, but still
IMDb has finally listed Be Or Not,
which has been out for more than a year. So now I have one IMDb credit as
an actor and one as an
auteur.
Actually, in the production section I have
a few credits for Be Or Not, but the main thing is the movie is
there and that some of my friends now have their first credit and others
have a new credit added to their already existing profiles.
One little snafu. IMDb listed Craig as another Craig Roberts for Be Or
Not. It's because I filled out the form at IMDb for this before
Greg Nichols
had a final cut of
The Wonderland Express,
which Craig is also in. But IMDb had not accepted Be Or Not when
Greg filled out the application for his film; the result was that Craig
had no other credits at the time, so we both listed Craig, independent of
each other, as a "new" Craig Roberts. Wonderland made it
in months ago, so Craig was listed with IMDb through that as
Craig Roberts (XIV).
Since I had entered him already as a new Craig Roberts, when mine was
finally accepted, which has been sometime very recently, Craig Robert's was
not associated with Craig Roberts (XIV), and a
new Craig Roberts (XVIII)
was created.
I have submitted a change to have the Craig XIV
profile that lists Wonderland as the Craig Roberts in mine. I also
have submitted a reorder so he and Natasha are listed as the principal
leads at the top of the cast list. In my submission for the change I
explained that XIV and
XVIII are the same actor, that I was deleting
XVIII and adding XIV
so Craig has both his movie credits on one profile page.
I will not even begin to claim that I am at all any good at keeping
up-to-date in a comprehensive manner with all the great work and
cool gigs being engaged in by all my friends and colleagues in the
theatre, movie and music worlds. There is no question in my mind
that at any given time, some fabulous performer whom I know is up
to something worth mentioning that I either am unaware of or it
has slipped my mind is happening. My omissions are in no way
slights to the talented folk I have the pleasure to know. It's
just the happenstance of ignorance or stupidity on my part.
With the disclaimer out of the way: The lovely and amazing
Taprena Augustine is currently in a
production of
The World Goes Round
at the
Florida Studio Theatre.
She has been for a few weeks, I believe. I had lost the info, but regained
it and so I give this immense talent a shout out and a BREAK A LEG!
Avenue Q
‐‐ I will be heading to
The Human Race Theatre Company
tonight for the "Can Night"
final dress rehearsal of this
great, fun show. I am still more than a little sorry that I am not on the
stage in this one. Still I am confident it will be an amazing experience.
There's a good chance I go back during the run to see it again.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
‐‐ Hope to get to this one at
The Dayton Playhouse, too. I
am likely to catch it next weekend rather than this one. This will be the
second time I've seen this. beyond that, at least one of you five regulars
may remember that this was the last show I was in before my long hiatus
from acting. I was Pseudolus in the Wilbur Wright High School production
in the spring of 1977. Brad Mattingly has the role in this production, and
I think it's safe to say he's gonna far outdo me as a singer.
Break legs to Brad Mattingly, Brad Bishop, Saul Caplan, Matthew Glenn, Mary
Mykytka, Jaimie McQuinn, Jeff Sams, Richard Young, Richard Brock, Jennie
Hawley, John Falkenbach, and the rest of the cast and crew, whom I don't
know yet, but surely will at some point.
Final Dress last night was a slam-banging good time! Big hats off to
Katie Pees
(Kate Monster/Lucy),
Andrew Ian Adams (Bad
Idea Bear 1, Third Hand, and New Tenant),
Shawn Storms
(Gary Coleman),
Director Joe Deer,
Musical Director Sean Michael Flowers,
Kevin Anderson (percussionist extraordinaire), Kay Craver (stage manager),
Ayn Wood (crew),
Tristan Cupp and the
Zoot Theatre gang (puppet
designs) and all the rest of
the cast
and crew for a great final dress. Here's hoping for a great run with many
broken legs along the the way!
I am now even more envious of
not making the cast than I was before!
Catch this before it closes! Preview tonight and Opening Night tomorrow.
It closes June 29.
Tonight I return to
The Dayton Playhouse for
installment number two of auditioning for the three fully-staged plays at
this year's FutureFest: A Position of Relative Importance, by Hal
Borden, On the Road to Kingdom Come*, by
Michael Feely,
and The King's Face, by
Steven Young.
I will be a few minutes late as I have to be at my home theatre
DTG until 7:00. But the
FF directors are likely to audition new faces first anyway; and since the
directors for the three staged readings are also auditioning their shows
tonight, I would likely not have been called up until sometime after I will
arrive, regardless.
*) As opposed to Night and Fog, which was Michael's 2009 FF
entry ‐‐ and the festival winner ‐‐ which is what I inadvertently
originally identified in yesterday's post as his new entry.
Just sent off the registration for the summer "Advanced Acting
Techniques" class, the latest installment in the HRTC
adult classes.
Again, Kay Bosse
is the instructor. The class starts the second Monday in July.
The task at The Guild
lasted a little longer than I anticipated, so I was close to an hour late
for the final FF13 auditions last night at
DPH. I was not read again
for A Position of Relative Importance, by Hal Borden, which did
not bother me much. The only role in that for me is not one I have any
great designs on. I was read again for both On the Road to Kingdom
Come, by
Michael Feely,
and The King's Face, by
Steven Young.
In post audition some of us actors talked of the roles we are more
interested in and have higher desires for. My two would be the character
Maj. Gen. Jason Harrington in Kingdom Come or Johnathon Bradmore
in King's Face. Bradmore probably a little more because, strictly
for ego's sake, it's a lead role. Otherwise, and more importantly, it's a
challenge in character work. Jason, on the other hand, is not new
territory for me, and strictly for ego's sake, is a supporting role.
But, accepting Jason would not be like some times in my past when I have
accepted roles very reluctantly and believed (and in every case I
was not alone in my belief) that I was being under-utilized.
Of the two, Bradmore is the plum role, though. That cannot be argued
against successfully.
The casting should be announced sometime soon.
In a related note, Kathy Mola, who is directing St. Paulie's Delight,
by Jacob Cox, has asked me to design sound for her show.
Were she alive, my mother would be Ninety-Six years old today.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM
June Storer
1917-1997
I HAVE A FREE TICKET FOR ON THE ROAD TO KINGDOM COME,
THE SATURDAY NIGHT, JULY 27 PRODUCTION AT FUTUREFEST 2013:
I actually knew this when I posted yesterday's entry, but I have been cast
as Jason Harrington in
Michael Feely's
On the Road to Kingdom Come, directed by Saul Caplan. I held back
mentioning it because I wasn't sure if it was okay to put out the word
yet. But I've since seen other actors announce their casting in some of
the other five shows.
Jason is a Major General in the U.S. Army and a member of the Joint Staff
in 1975, who I am simply sure is the younger cousin of Col. Gregory
Stratton, the post-WW II press liaison in the
American sector of Berlin, Germany, 1948, whom I played in Michael's
Night and Frog, which won FF09. That is, of course, a cheeky way
for me to say that Jason and Greg are the same archetype of a career
military officer. It is not to say that I think it's the same guy. On
the other hand, Jason is not new territory for me as an actor, so the
excitement of a new challenge as an actor is missing here. It'll still be
a good experience.
The first rehearsal, the read-through,
is Monday night. I start the line memorization process today. No such
thing as "off-book too soon."
The Cast of On the Road to Kingdom Come
CHARACTER
ACTOR
Col. Thomas "Tommy" Corcoran
Shawn Hooks
Cpt. Rachel Weiss
Jennifer Lockwood
MG. Jason Harrington
K.L.Storer
Robin Corcoran
Alma Sove
The General
John Bukowski
June 18 Addendum:
Ms. Sove has had to step out of the role of Robin Corcoran and
Ms. Heather Martin has stepped in.
The first rehearsal, the read through, happened as scheduled last Monday.
The rehearsal, itself, went well enough. I, of course, never like that I
barely have a handle on the character and thus give a pretty lame reading
at the table read. Not always as undeveloped and lame as this one was;
this one was, indeed, pretty lame. It's, of course, to be expected at this
point in the game, but I still don't like it; I'm impatient to get to the
better work, which you five regulars may remember from my past
self-critical whines.
Of the cast, I have worked with only two fellow actors, John Bukowski, in
The Diviners at
The Guild and American
Buffalo for
Springfield StageWorks.
Jennifer Lockwood and I were both in A Case of Libel at The Guild,
but had no scenes together. Though I've seen Shawn Hooks in a few shows,
(all FutureFest plays, I believe), we work together for the first time.
This is also the first time I work with Alma Sove, who is new to me,
completely.
My June rehearsal schedule is pretty light. I am called to only three more
rehearsals, with a possible fourth. This of course means I have plenty of
time to work on my lines, that process which has already begun with the
infamous flash cards. See me on my front patio in the process of
writing them in the pics to the right.
In fact, for all the nights I am not called the printed June schedule has
the words, "Study Lines." As if I needed that instruction.
I don't think I'm going to bother recording the lines for this one, though
I may change my mind. But it would not be as much a necessity as it would
have been had I been cast as Bradmore in The King's Face. Bradmore
carries half the two-act play; there would have been a lot more words to
burrow into my memory. So good luck
Chuck Larkowski,
who was cast in that role.
It seems I should be able to be very familiar with the pertinent lines when
I get to my next rehearsal, which is next Wednesday, even if I'm not what
one can call "off book." Should be able to do that all the way
down the line.
We'll see.
June 18 Addendum:
Ms. Sove has had to step out of the role of Robin Corcoran and
Ms. Heather Martin has stepped in.
40 mph + dog in road + swerve + concrete curb = tire that
can't be fixed
Going back to last Monday, the read through went well. My trip in
to that rehearsal, however, not so much, as the photo to the right shows.
On my drive to the rehearsal, while I was on a throughway close to the
theatre, a dog ran out in front of me and I swerved to miss it and rammed
my right front tire into the curb, blowing the tire out. It was with a big,
ol' BANG!
that exploded pretty much the same instant my foot hit the brakes; it
sounded like a gun shot. Fortunately, there was light traffic so I had no
one plow into my rear end, or any other equal or worse auto-mishap. $105
for a new tire.
As you five regulars may know, Director Kathy Mola asked me to put together
the sound for her FF show, St. Paulie's Delight, by Jacob Cox.
Debra Kent, director of A Position of Relative Importance, by Hal
Borden, also asked me to put her sound together.
Both seem relatively easy.
Advanced Acting Techniques at
HRTC with
Kay Bosse
‐‐ I have registered for the next advanced acting class at The Race, as I
said I was planning. First session is Monday, July 8.
Acting in front of the Camera, through
PC-Goenner, with Shaunn Baker
‐‐ Shaunnn, from World Stage Media
is the instructor for this at the agency office in Sharonville. It starts
June 22 for four Saturdays. If it goes. I have responded with interest,
but have heard no further info on it.
Friday I was off work, a vacation day, ya know, because of Flag Day. Today
is a sick leave day. This morning I will have both my upper and lower left
wisdom teeth extracted.
Understandably, tonight was on my list of conflicts with rehearsals for
On the Road to Kingdom Come, with tomorrow night as a high potential
for conflict. I'm not likely to be at the
the rent-payer tomorrow,
either.
Again, all the "Diary of Artful Things" things
will show up sometime tomorrow
CAST CHANGE:
Earlier this week Alma Sove had to step out of the role of Robin Corcoran.
Heather Martin has stepped in. If there is anyone reading this who is not
local, Heather has been in Dayton theatre for quite a while, and though
she's been in several DTG
productions since I came into Dayton theatre and the Guild world, this
will be our first time to share a stage.
LINES:
Here's a tip for ya: prescription-strength Tylenol #3 does more than
"MAY" cause drowsiness.
I did not get as much line study done over the weekend as I would have
liked. Then, for some reason, I made a rather silly assumption that after
my dental surgery yesterday it would be a good chance to get a lot of study
in. I'd forgotten that the post-op pain killers would lay me out. I slept
most of the day Monday after surgery and most of the morning yesterday.
Plus, don't let the semi-lucid state of the prose in today's post fool you.
The Tylenol #3 and the Ibuprofen 800 mg have sluggished-up whatever
mental acuity is normal for me, so it's all taking much longer than usual
to work on. It's part of a multi-tasking fiasco where intellectually
numbed-out line study is a portion of the cycle, along with work as
producer of the Simon show *(see below) and other stuff.
The multi-tasking (if a little anesthetized) is actually helping with all
the different undertakings as the pain relief meds are making extended
focus on anything a challenge. For instance: even more so than usual,
today's post was hardly worked on today. It has been written in bits and
pieces over the the last several days, in between the other tasks and a
lot of recent napping.
Work on Mr. Feely's dialogue has been one of those tasks, equally
intermittent with everything else, and I have not acquired the level of
keenness on Jason's words or character I would like to have arrived at.
So-oh-well.
Rehearsal tonight.
PREPRODUCTION:
The process of trying to assemble the creative team and the production
crew for the show is underway. At the request of our director,
Fred Blumenthal,
I have approached both the lighting designer and the costumer he wants.
Neither have yet to give their answer, so I am starting to look at the
contingencies if either turns down the gig. I need to get an answer from
both quickly so I know if I need the contingencies. We have our stage
manager and our sound tech; I am designing the sound, but I do need a
lighting tech and we are likely to need run crew.
I've gotten quite a few inquiries about the upcoming auditions and I have
sent appropriate answers to each, or, to most of them. A few have been
inquiries from actors very far off, one from Canada. I think some casting
site that works as a kiosk or a clearing house or some sort has harvested
our casting information via a web spider. The actor have all sent
identically worded emails (save for their names and the characters they
are interested in). They seem to not even be aware of our non-professional
status. Another actor, the Canadian, whose original email was not the same
template as the others, even requested information on travel expenses and
local boarding during the rehearsals and production calendar.
Of course, I sent emails to all these explaining that The Guild is not an
Equity theatre nor
otherwise a professional theatre, that we are a 501.c(3), none-profit
community theatre. I tell them that all those involved in our productions,
talent and production team, participate on a volunteer basis for the love
of the art and craft of theatre. I then do assert that we do, however,
approach our productions with high professional attitude and are
considered one of the best stages in the area, professional or
non-professional. It may be bragging but it's still true that most actors
in the area can't wait to debut and/or return to our stage, even those who
work professionally or semi-professionally in the area and region. But, I
point out emphatically that Equity actors, however, are not eligible to be
cast at The Dayton Theatre Guild due to AEA union rules.
I also sent some solicited advice to some who are newer or very new to
acting, one who even said she was "excited to step outside of [her]
box and stop being afraid and finally do this." I advised this lady
and some others that any ideas they have about the characters they are
interested in should be worn like a loose garment in case the director
asks them to try a different approach to the characters' personalities.
The less, I asserted, they have locked themselves into one interpretation
the easier it is to throw those interpretations aside if they need to.
Further, I told them it is not required that they attend both nights of
audition, but if they can, that's better. It gives the director more
chance to pair each with more other potential cast members and he will get
a better idea of chemistry, look and feel. A lot of times the final
decision of who gets cast, after considerations of ability, has to do
with who seems to be a better fit. The more he can see contenders with
different other contenders, the better he can see who seems to work better
in a potential ensemble of players.
Also, I warned that conflicts with rehearsal toward the end of the process
are a big problem. And obviously actors must be available for all
performances. The actors will need to be at the theatre one hour before
the curtains. I attached the rehearsal and performance schedule as it
stands right now. It is subject to some change, The performances will not
change. I affirmed that attending the Tech Sunday rehearsal on Aug 18 and
the following tech/dress rehearsals is very important. All of the
rehearsals are important, but as we get closer to opening they become more
so. And someone who has to miss a lot of rehearsals, even early, is going
to be less attractive as a viable cast member.
That being said, the most important thing to remember is to relax and know
that those auditing the audition do not want to see the actors fail ‐‐
they are rooting for the actors. I advised them keep a few things in mind:
not to worry if they stumble over a word, just fix it and move on, but do
not apologize, just fix it and move on. I told assured them they will not
be expected to give an Opening Night performance level reading, just one
that shows they have instinct and ability to act. And if the director asks
them to try something different, do it, to not worry about it being perfect,
just to give it a shot.
Lastly, even though it's an audition for a community theatre production,
for no pay, I told them to know that the Dayton Theatre Guild approaches
its productions with a professional attitude and atmosphere. Beyond the
things unique to auditioning for a play, the audition should have the
demeanor and professionalism of any job interview.
The rumors were true! Forum at
The Dayton Playhouse was a
rollicking good time. Remember that I was Pseudolus in May 1977 in the
Wilbur Wright High School production, my senior musical. Call me bias, but
our production ‐‐ as all our productions were ‐‐ was pretty damned good,
and I am always perhaps a bit too critical of other productions of shows
I've been in. This is the second time I've seen a production since, and
though the first was good, I found this one even more enjoyable.
Kudos to Director Jim Lockwood and the cast: Bradley R. Mattingly
(Pseudolus), Brad Bishop (Hysterium), Saul Caplan (Senex), Claire Hurley
(Domina), Matthew Glenn (Hero), Mary Mykytka (Philia), Jamie McQuinn
(Lycus), Richard Young (Erronius), Jeff Sams (Miles), Naman Clark &
Suzanne Clabaugh & Malcolm Casey (Proteans), Sarah Jordan (Tintinabula),
Tamar Fishbein (Panacea), Rikki Overman & Kali Jordan-DeBruin (Geminae),
Krista Stuber (Vibrata), and Marabeth Klejna (Gymnasia).
.
![KL fb post ‐‐ "Monologue ‐‐ Check (I feel really good about it); song ‐‐ NOT check (there were 'problems'). At least most of the people in the room have actually heard me sing well. Not today, though. ['Sad' smiley face]"](graphics/KL_fb_monolgue-vs-song_HRTC13-14generals.png)
.
Actually, that date is not at all likely to pose any problems; in fact,
I'm very confident it won't.
