Don’t miss TOWHEADS!
I interviewed the brilliant director of TOWHEADS, Shannon Plumb, last month for GreenRoomBlog. Check it out HERE if you missed it.
I’m so excited that the hysterically funny, charming and poignant TOWHEADS is now available FREE online, at the first ever New York Times Indie Online Film Festival thru October 2nd 2013. Watch it HERE.
Rejection
I turned down a job last night; not a boring, normal survival job but an actual theatre job, and I had a reason to!
I got offered a pantomime job with a company I previously worked in 2011 for however I’ve recently confirmed that I would be returning to the company I worked for last year. Staying where I am is providing me all sorts of opportunities; now and in the future, that I would never get from him so I know it’s the right decision. To be honest, I found it slightly strange that I was asked considering I wasn’t asked last year and haven’t spoken to him since we finished in January 2012.
I’ve never had this feeling before knowing I’m rejecting one company over another. Normally I reject jobs because I can’t get the time off or I’m committed to an amateur production or I just don’t have any reason to reject. It’s strange but I kinda like it, knowing I’m in a position to do so.
Have any of you ever been able to reject a job? Or is there a job you regret rejecting?
Memory…all alone in the moonlight…
I apologize for the Cats reference. This post has absolutely nothing to do with Andrew Lloyd Webber and everything to do with Anne Bogart. For my directing class this semester, I am sleeping with Anne Bogart’s A Director Prepares under my pillow every night in hopes of absorbing her fantastic wisdom.
“The act of memory is a physical act and lies at the heart of the art of the theatre. If the theatre were a verb, it would be ‘to remember’.”
Chapter 1: Memory. Between reading my textbook and our class discussions, I have a few questions. What do I remember – what and who and how did theatre come before me? What is my culture and whose shoulders do I stand on? My professor asked us whose shoulders, who first gave us theatre or what happened. In my memory, there is a little stage set up in my kindergarten classroom, Annie Get Your Gun, my Junior High music teacher and my professors now whose shoulders I stand on. You hear the often-repeated advice to write what you know – I don’t know about a lot about being a Southern Belle who finds herself living with her sister in New Orleans but I do remember growing up in a small town, learning to read tarot cards, losing a family member. So for my directing project #1, I decided to direct what I know and remember.
(Re-)Catching the Writer’s Bug!
For the majority of 2013, I’ve had a serious case of writer’s block. I couldn’t get inspired for writing a play or even a scene. I tried to take a playwriting class to help inspire me, but then I found myself just writing because I had something do, as oppose to writing from the heart (and I never liked anything I wrote that I submitted to that class). However now that I’m done with grad school and I’ve just been completely freelancing for the past several months, I’ve finally found that magical inspiration to write again and LOVE what I’ve written! For any other playwrights (or writers of any sort) that have experienced the dreaded writer’s block, here’s a few tips of inspiration that’s helped me get out of those dark times:
1. Look at Theatre Submissions: Most (if not all) theatre’s and places that do new plays to be performed or published have guidelines. Read the guidelines and see if it gives you any ideas. Even if you don’t submit it to them or even if their deadline’s passed, use that inspiration to write! There’s always more places to submit to. If you want to see a ton of places to submit to on one page, check out NYCPlaywrights or Play Submissions Helper. Those are the one’s I usually use (especially NYCPlaywrights).
2. Use your own life experiences/people from your life. Theatre is life after all, and some things from your life (big or small) can be great for the stage! Also people from your life, whether it’s friends, family, or even people you barely know can make great characters! I recently wrote a 10 minute play with my best friend in it and when I told him he was honored and looked at it like I immortalized him. Sometimes you can’t tell it to people since they may not be comfortable with it, but usually being inspired by actual life events and real people can really help! Also playing “what-ifs” with things that’s happened in your life might not only break the writer’s block but also be fun!
Blurred Lines
If you are a professional actor, do you allow yourself to do community theater or other unpaid theater if it’s a show you really want to be a part of?
I’ve been asking myself that, now that I’ve been carefully crossing the line into paid performing. After all, in D.C. at least, few of us can actually earn a living at acting. Those who do earn 100% of their income in the theater world tend to have non-performing jobs as well, like theater administration, teaching, and coaching — and choose to get by on a low total income.
There is also what in D.C. is called the “evening professional”, which is what I’m starting to be — someone who does paid work, but who has a full-time job utterly unrelated to the performing arts. It’s the place for those of us with little things like children and mortgages and whatnot, who still want to act.
But if a professional show pays a stipend or a small salary, often less than $1,000 at the good independent companies, can an actor move back and forth between paid and unpaid work
The Theatre Hierarchy Trap
Ever heard the term “office hot”? Its used when a girl you work with at the office is a 10 in the work environment…and a 5 when you leave the work environment. This is because she’s the only girl in an office full of men or the only girl in the office under the age of 60. Either way, this girl appears hot as hell completely based on relativity and the fact that she’s the only moderately attractive girl that you see 5 days out of the week. As off topic as this may seem in a theatre blog, its more relevant to performers than you may think.
I work in theme parks. A lot of performers in California who crave steady paychecks choose theme parks…………………..and waste the best years of their life there. Say you hire into a theme park as a dancer in a parade. Now five days a week you walk through a 100 acre lot jam-packed with other performers in other shows. You are now unknowingly shoved into a world of oppressive theatre hierarchy, enforced and validated by the most outspoken and overbearing people in the world: theatre people. You hear nonstop banter about the shows that are higher quality, have more impressive songs, are higher paying, give more hours, have a nicer theatre, etc, etc, etc. You’re surrounded by people just itching to “move up” in the company and advance their careers here. You cant help but walk by the different shows on the way to your break room and covet the expensive costumes that other performers get to wear or the greater number of seats in their theatre.
GIVEAWAY – Free Theatre Tickets ($100 Value)
Hey y’all!
So I picked up a new gig. I’m the new Producing Intern for The Amoralists Theatre Company and guess what? This isn’t just good news for me (and bad news for those I’m working for – kidding! … I hope)
BUT ..
You get to reap some benefits.
Whatever do I mean?
The Amoralists have agreed to hook up one lucky GreenRoomBlog reader with two free tickets to their current production of The Cheaters Club. These tickets are regularly $50, but they are offering them to you free of charge! How … moral of them 😛
So what’s the catch?
To enter, do one or more of the following:
1. Like Green Room Blog on Facebook
2. Follow @GreenRoomBlog on Twitter
3. Leave a comment in the comment section, describing your creepiest paranormal experience or garish nightmare
***For each entry, please leave a separate blog comment!
Here are some examples for inspiration. Watch if you dare…
Nick Lawson’s Dream
Being A PITA
Hello, everyone. Today I am here to discuss an important topic. As performers, we all have occasional doubt or insecurity in our career. Acting is unlike almost any other business- we have to sell ourselves. There is no product. We ARE the product. We are constantly being judged by our appearance, how we speak, how we act, how we move, and so on. Sometimes it is difficult to have any ground to stand on! We feel like we have no control over our careers.
Being a vocalist, I often face the same dilemma. I send out mailings, I call venues, and I drop off our press packet in person. I am constantly at the mercy of the venues. Will the owner have time to speak with me today… tomorrow… ever? Will the owner pay us enough? Will the owner end up stiffing us, and we will be forced to pay the other musicians we hired out of our own pockets? The ball is definitely in their court. We just have to hope for the best. Recently, my guitarist came up with a code word to help keep me motivated. He often texts me and reminds me to be a “PITA”. This is my definition of being a PITA:
pi·ta (ˈpētə/)
A PITA, short for Pain In The A**, is someone who fights for what they want. They are not rude or overly pushy- however they do not back down. They are consistent, friendly, and confident.
The Green Room 