Movie Musical Monday, February 27th: ‘Calamity Jane’
Good morning, and Happy Movie Musical Monday!
Last week MMM took a corporate holiday, but now we’re back with 1953’s Calamity Jane; or as I like to call it: That Other Musical About a Woman Who Shoots a Gun and Wears Tassels But Isn’t Annie Oakley.
Warner Brothers made this movie after MGM’s successful film adaptation of Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun in 1950, starring Betty Hutton (who replaced a “problematic” Judy Garland) and Howard Keel. Jack Warner had originally made a bid for the movie rights to the stage musical, but lost out. So they made this movie instead. The film industry does this a lot: within the span of approximately two years, you can see about two-three versions of the same movie either in production or released. I thought we pretty much covered this point two weeks ago, but seriously, guys: this happens all the time.
Since Warner Brothers was (is) no fool (except that one time they thought George Clooney should be Batman), they helped ensure Box Office $uccess by manning themselves with some big-name talent–since of course they couldn’t claim to have an original idea/concept. (But what are those worth, really? Stick to a formula that sells, people.) The solution was to pair up All-American Doris Day–who would have played Annie Oakley if they had gotten the rights all those years ago–and Howard Keel.
“Wait–,” you’re saying, “–didn’t Howard Keel also star in Annie Get Your Gun?”
Yes. Yes he did. Remember what I said parenthetically just two paragraph groupings ago about formulas? CONNECT THE DOTS, PEOPLE.
Let’s take a moment to reflect on Howard Keel, shall we? Dreamboat Howard Keel:
Howard Keel was in several movie musicals, offering up his good-looking, straight-talking, leading man qualities, with a devilish grin and a sense of the easy-going louse about him. Which all people love. But we’ll get back to that.
Incidentally, the music in this film was composed by a man who wrote song scores for Disney, with lyrics by the guy who wrote the Spiderman theme song. I’m not kidding.
WHAT IS THIS MUSICAL ABOUT?
Calamity Jane–known to most people as “Calam”–works as a hired gun for the local stage coach company. Essentially she escorts the coach on rides to and from the city of Deadwood, and shoots (or whips, as we see in the opening number “The Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away)”) at any Indians that may chase them along their route. I feel it necessary to at this juncture to remind you that this movie was made in the 1950s, so while Calam shoots her gun off quite a bit throughout the film, she never actually hits anyone. Firstly, because she’s a woman–and who would believe that? Secondly, because no one would believe that Doris Day would shoot anyone. Ever.
But regardless of being able to hit moving targets or not, our impression of Jane is that she’s not exactly a lady in the strictest of terms. She arrives at the Golden Garter (Deadwood’s saloon/theatre/house-of-ill-repute) wearing a buckskin suit and an old army cap, orders a sarsaparilla, and starts telling tall tales to the men, including Wild Bill Hickok (Keel) about the number of Sioux she’s killed today. She loses their interest, though, to the beautiful and scantily clad actress Adelaide Adams, whose picture is printed on a cigarette card. Now, before the West was won and corporate America installed printing presses across the nation, ensuring glossy paper images of Kardashians and teen moms for merely $3.99 an issue (still too much), people used to get their celebrity and beautiful-lady photographs (less the teen moms) by collecting cards that came tucked inside their cigarette packages. Think of these cards as the prize at the bottom of a cereal box. Except instead of being left with a stomach full of gluten and a plastic top, you’d get cancer and something to stare at through half-open eyes during your quality time alone in the outhouse. Later on, cigarette companies would switch from cards to lapel pins, now hot collectors items, some of which are also very clever (though possibly more hazardous in certain activities, due to those sharp pin points).
But back to the musical: Two men enter the bar, battered and bruised. They’ve just been in an ambush and it sounds like the man Jane is TOTALLY CRUSHING ON may have been killed, but they don’t really know since they had to run for ten miles before they finally escaped the “savages.” (The movie’s word, not mine.) So Jane, having that gumption of hers, which is of course totally unfeminine by this period’s standards, goes off to try to see if Lt.-What’s-His-Face-Who-Isn’t-Howard-Keel-So-Why-Would-I-Even-Have-Remembered-His-Name-In-The-First-Place is still alive. She gets to the camp where he was taken, and the Sioux run off leaving her pretty boy Lieutenant tied to a tree. She turns him loose, and they ride back to Deadwood on the same horse.
Romantically speaking, this is a mistake. It’s common knowledge that no man could ever be interested in a woman who saves his life—unless he has saved her at some point before (you thought you were just going to jump in there with some Han-Leia argument, but I beat you to it by citing the exception to this generally accepted rule). This might be the way you make a great comrade in arms, but seriously ladies: it’s not how you’re gonna get a ring on it. As we’ve all been told over and over again, “You can’t get a man with a gu“–wait a minute, that’s that other musical, isn’t it, sorry.
Calam, having no sense of feminine finesse, arrives back at the bar thinking things are probably moving steadily along for her and Danny (I think his name was Danny, but again he’s still not Howard Keel, so it still doesn’t actually matter), and continues telling tales, exaggerating the rescue. Bill Hickok doesn’t buy it. He begins to walk away, and Calam shoots near his foot and challenges him. He spins around, shoots the gun out of her hand, and then asks, “Why don’t you ever fix your hair?” BOOM. Exit.
^—-This is what I was talking about earlier: chauvinism is sexy and desirable. Everybody loves a man who puts a woman in her place. You seriously don’t believe me?
You still don’t believe me?
If this song doesn’t drill 1950s feminine ideals home, nothing will. You may have thought you were mistaken, that you didn’t actually hear anyone sing, “The pies and cakes a woman bakes/Can make a feller tell her/That he loves her very much.” But trust me, you did. And Calamity’s response: “It can?”
“Yes, Jane”, calls the Sexual Politics of the Time: “Keep walking out of the cave. We have nylons and shampoo out here, and avocado kitchenettes.”
Pretty soon all the boys in town know that Katie is bunking out with Calam, and Howard Keel and Lt. Not-As-Interesting-Even-With-An-Army-Pension-Coming have a horse race to visit and ask her (Katie–DUH) to a ball at the local fort. While our man HK is out being manly and chopping firewood (getting some practice in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, no doubt), the Guy-Who-Still-Doesn’t-Have-Howard-Keel’s-Jawline professes his affection for Katie. While Katie is tempted, she’s hesitant because the bonds of sisterhood say you don’t date the boys your girlfriend likes, especially when that girlfriend knows how to use a gun. (Of course, “Katie” is a character living within a narrative Warner Brothers has established, and therefore doesn’t realize that “Doris Day” actually poses no threat to her.) She tells Danny (I really think his name was Danny) that she can’t because CJ is in love with him. Danny-Boy laughs at this, and says that he and Calam are just good friends and that “she even saved my life once.” HOLY SHIT WHAT DID I SAY LIKE A MILLION PARAGRAPHS AGO? Seriously, guys: that line carries all of the baggage of the Gentleman Caller comparing Laura to his sister. Oof. God, Jim: How could you say that? Blue Roses. BLUE…ROSES!
Anyway, HK comes back in and breaks up that little party, then he and Lt. Jim-The-Murderer-Of-Dreams draw straws to see who gets to take Katie to the ball. Bill comes up short, so he has to take Calamity, who enters shortly after covered in mud and tries to seem less disappointed with the results than she actually is. But at least she was spared the truth about Danny-Jim-Archetype. For now.
At the ball, all the men are shocked to see Calam cleaned up and actually looking like a lady, especially Mr. Hickok. Everyone’s having a grand time, until lo and behold: CJ spots Katie on the receiving end of a very passionate kiss from That-Guy-Who-Probably-Isn’t-Worth-This-Running-Joke. So what does she do? She goes all Snapped on Katie’s ass, grabs a gun, and shoots a punch glass out of her former BFFL’s hand to get her point across. Then she has Bill drive her home, where she packs up all of Katie’s stuff, throws it out, and has a good cry by the fireplace.
An unspecific amount of time elapses, and Calam shows up at the Golden Garter one night and interrupts Katie’s number to tell her she better get out of town the next day on the stage coach that brought her in. Katie responds by asking for a gun and attempting to shoot a glass out of Calam’s hand. The glass is shot and broken, and everyone is amazed. Katie is even more popular than ever, and CJ looks like a crazy, shamed, bitch. She leaves, depressed, accompanied by Bill who takes her out in a wagon and admits that he was the one who shot the glass in her hand, in order to teach her this lesson: You can’t run around with guns telling people to leave town, because that’s not going to make anyone love you, silly! CJ cries more and says that she just really loved Danny-Or-Whoever, and Bill admits that he had loved Katie. Sharing in their mutual misery, the two sit together on a rock, and Calamity confides that she had fantasized about getting married, building a cabin, and raising youngin’s. And upon this admission, proving that she really is a woman due to her desire for a domestic lifestyle, Bill kisses her and their subconscious love moves to their frontal lobes. Hooray!
The next morning, Doris Day sings an Academy Award-winning song about the discovery of love, and then goes to share this news with Katie. But what’s this? Katie’s already left on the stage coach headed out of town! Oh no! CJ is busy being wracked with guilt when The-Idiot-Who-I-Am-So-Over-Writing-About shows up to rub salt in the wound by reading her a letter Katie left him about why she’s leaving: to essentially not stand in the way of CJ and Loser-Boy’s love. So Calamity, who basically needs a moment of human empathy, is being scolded by this guy who, seriously: I mean, what are you doing standing around crying to some girl about how SHE made a woman leave you? GET ON A HORSE AND GO GET YOUR WOMAN YOURSELF AND BRING HER BACK. Oh, no, but you’re not going to do that, are you? No: you’d much rather guilt some dame into DOING IT HERSELF, for which you will then tell her that she is UNFEMININE, because you decided you’d PLAY THE WOMAN and STAY AT HOME AND CRY about your lost love, while she rode off and ACTUALLY DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT. And intermittently over the coming years, you will still make a point of casually putting her down for this, reminding her that she was acting outside of her gender definition.
Nothing makes sense.
Luckily, Doris Day turns out to be more of a man than That-Dude will ever be, rides out to the stage coach, jumps off her horse, dives through the window, tells Katie she’s marrying Bill, and gets the coach turned around, heading back to Deadwood for a double wedding. And since everyone got married before anything indecent happened, the moral ideals and sexual identifications of the 1950s were maintained. Pretty much.
End of musical!
HIDDEN GEM SONGS:
- Hive Full of Honey: As I think is made clear by the video of this number, this is a GREAT drag song. The kitsch value is WAY HIGH, but it might also work as audition song for any show girl character (Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, Gladys Bumps in Pal Joey) with the right arrangement. That being said, I don’t think it could ever be better than with a man singing it.
- Just Blew In From the Windy City: THIS is the uptempo song you want for your Annie Oakley (or even Ado Annie) audition. Just cut the soft shoe and you’re golden.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for dropping by, and Happy Movie Musical Monday!
*For the record, the author of this post is not impressed by chauvinism. It’s pretty disgusting and only showcases insecurities on behalf of the person spouting it/expressing it physically. So please don’t take my tongue-in-cheek humor seriously. Because there are no excuses for you, Mr. Chris Brown. Or even Billy Bigelow, for that matter.
Actors, The 3 Mistakes You’re Making This Tax Season!
Last week, I had my taxes professionally done by Prudential Vanguard, a business that specializes in tax preparation for artists, actors, and athletes.
My recent tarot card reading told me to start making mistakes. Apparently, I am succeeding.
Mistake Numero Uno!:
Last week, I had my taxes professionally done by Prudential Vanguard, a business that specializes in tax preparation for artists, actors, and athletes.
Something told me I didn’t like the idea of this once I got there. Could it have been the cold, stoic disposition of Walter, my tax preparer, combined with his utter lack of interpersonal skills? Could it have been the initial request of TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY RIDICULOUS DOLLARS as the cost for this forty-five minute session? Could it have been the pile of orange “Turbo Tax How To” books on the shelf behind Walter or his negligence to tuck in his shirt in a neat and spiffy manner?
Maybe.
But he had come to me through a recommendation, and, like an acting choice, I had decided to commit to this; to make my mistake and just do things differently next year.
I was pretty prepared. However …
Mistake Numero Dos!:
Not having every single receipt and thinking I could “ballpark” some of my write-offs.
Yeah right! This is NYC, people. The only ballpark is in the Bronx and its hotdogs are overpriced.
In Massachusetts, I could ballpark some of my write-offs (i.e. food expenses, clothing) and holding onto every single receipt was something reserved for the most anal of the anal. Well, folks, start folding the ends of your toilet paper because you must be OCD about tax prep! Save every single receipt.
Mistake Number Tres!:
Thinking I couldn’t maximize my refund on my own.
I found I really didn’t need this guy’s help. I had already thought out and written down all my deductions, had already organized their documentation in labeled envelopes, had already done all the math. My visit with Walter consisted of him taking my jacket and hanging it up in his closet, an immediate clash of personalities, and suffering through his lack of customer service which was bereft of any warmth or regard for my best interest. This was followed by him sitting at a computer and plugging in numbers provided to him by me. Then he printed some papers, half heartedly and way too quickly “explained” them to me, got my signature, and finally asked me for 200 whopping dollars.
The only thing I could think to do was buy myself some time and post date the check until February 28th … right when rent is due … good goin, rockstar.
OHHHHH WELL!
How I’m Going to Do My 2013 Taxes Differently!
1.) Use Turbo Tax. It’ll only cost you around $80.
2.) Use one of one of these sheets as a guideline for write-offs.
3.) Save every single business expense related receipt and organize them appropriately.
Hopefully I’ve saved you in time and you can do this for your 2011 taxes. I hope so!
Onwards and Upwards,
Ear-Opening Experience
As I mentioned in a previous blog, one of my goals in 2012 is to write and perform in a radio drama. To that end, I’m taking a great radio drama writing course (online, through New Writing South, in the UK.) Along with getting some top-notch writing advice, and being forced, through class deadlines, to actually start to write my first radio play, I’m also getting immersed in different styles of radio drama as we are required to listen to several each week.
Can you tell I love the course?
I wanted to share it with the blog, because I think that listening to even a bit of radio drama can be an eye-opening (or should I say “ear-opening”) experience for the American actor or theatre pro, as our familiarity with the genre is so limited.
There are so many wonderful things about radio drama, but one that has really stood out for me is that the settings are limitless. You can take the story from a small thatched cottage to a spaceship to the middle of the Amazon, all in a matter of minutes, with no expensive costumes, props or set changes! And the coolest part about your limitless settings…they all look great to the audience. That’s because the listener creates their own perfect image of the set in their own imagination.
So anyway…….I know there are already a million and one things to do for research in your acting career, but I’m making a pitch for occasionally listening to radio drama (though I think you’ll find it can be addictive.) The best place to start is, the BBC (natch), at this link, where you can listen to previously broadcast dramas for up to 7 days. And if you are so inclined, have a look at some produced radio drama scripts here, at the BBC Writers Room. Try reading some out loud to get a feel for radio drama.
I’m still in the midst of a steep learning curve in this course and would love to read your thoughts on radio drama, especially as American actors and theatre professionals. Do you think radio drama still has a place in the American entertainment landscape? Why or why not? My ears are open…
The Actor Work Week: 40 Hours?
Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of people talk about how, if you want acting to be your full-time job, you need to work at it like it is one, i.e. spend at least 40 hours a week on it. I’ve always agreed with this idea in theory, but secretly thought that 40 hours a week might be an overly ambitious target.
So, out of sheer curiosity, I decided to log all of the hours I spent solely on my career this week, as a measure of how well I was doing at making this a full-time kinda gig. So here’s a breakdown of what my week was like:
Monday
EPA: 4 hours
Last-minute audition! = learning sides, changing looks, and attending: 3 hours
Scene rehearsal & prep: 2 hours
Submitting to projects: 1 hour
TOTAL: 10 hours
Tuesday
Learning new monologue: ½ hour
EPA 3 hours
Memorizing scene: 3 hours
Booked studio space: ½ hour
Submitting to projects: 1 hour
Monitor for CD class: 3 hours
TOTAL: 11 hours
Wednesday
Memorizing scene: 1 hour
Agent meeting: 2 ½ hours
Scene rehearsal: 1 hour
Submitting to projects: 1 hour
TOTAL: 5 ½ hours
Thursday
Practice singing: 1 hour
Scene rehearsal w/ coach: 2 hours
Submitting to projects: 1 hour
Practice singing: 1 ½ hours
Industry research: 1 hour
TOTAL: 5 ½ hours
Friday
Practice singing: 1 hour
Voice lesson: 2 hours
Agent meeting 1 hour
Submitting to projects: 1 hour
Series of calls and emails scheduling meetings next week: ½ hour
TOTAL: 5 ½ hours
Saturday
Updating website, working on newsletter: 1 hour
TOTAL: 1 hour
Sunday
Audition: 1 ½ hours
Twitter networking throughout the week: 1 hour
Wrote a blog post: 1 hour
Read new play for book club: 2 hours
TOTAL: 5 ½ hours
***WEEKLY TOTAL: 44 hours***
Woo hooooo! That’s right, baby.
Now I will grant that this past week was a particularly busy one, with lots of meetings and auditions. But on slower weeks, I do spend a lot more time on maintenance issues like updating my resume, writing my newsletter and website “latest news” posts, sending mailings, and on things like learning new monologues and reading plays for book club. So I think my weeks generally balance out in that way.
I’d also like to note that none of these hours include running my “survival business” or any of the large amount of time I spend working as editor of this lovely blog. I’m sure all of you artistic types know what I’m talking about when I say that it just burns me up to find out that “civilians” think actors are lazy.
I guess what I’ll take away from this is that I’m working pretty damn hard so I should stop beating myself up for not accomplishing more. So…what about you? Have you ever tracked your hours for a week? What did you discover?
What You May Have Forgotten and Why You Shouldn’t
Only 50% or so of theatre manifests onstage. The rest happens somewhere else.
This weekend, I was in Foreplays2012: Full Fervor with Full Stop Collective. The show as a whole looked something like this (clips from Foreplays2011):
And it took place here:
My piece was first. Oh! There I am! (downstage left):
When it was over, management let us watch the other plays from the mezzanine of Galapagos. After being moved over and over again by these beautiful, hilarious, heart wrenching performances during rehearsal, I found myself darting for a hidden seat, craving to watch, not the stage, but The Audience.
Here, I found what was important.
- Captivated stares
- Explosions of laughter
- Drinking of booze
- Couples poking each other when a moment onstage reminded them of a moment in their lives
I loved watching people from different walks of life all get swept up by the same thing.
Actors, it’s not about us! And once we accept this, we’ll be artists. We already know that onstage, a scene is doomed if we make it about ourselves. We must put the action on the other. Same goes for theatre as a whole. It’s not about strutting our stuff or having a time to shine. When we give it our all, it’s not for our sake; it’s because we must do the story justice. We are a vessel to allow a character to live for 20 minutes or 2 hours – however long the piece. When the show is over, we get to go home to our husbands, our boyfriends, our … cat, and live out our lives. These characters that we play have no such privilege. They’re done right as the curtain falls. Their lifespans are short, and our job is to let them breathe for a their sake and for the sake of the audiences who hear their stories.
I leave you with an image I drew months ago in a workshop by Lisa Gold (whose workshops I highly recommend). She told us to create a visual that captured our overall reason of why we’re doing what we’re doing, so when the going gets tough, we still keep going. Take from it what you will.
So, my lovely artists, remember what’s important and continue to go …
Onwards and Upwards,
Movie Musical Monday, February 13th: QUADRUPLE FEATURE!!!! ‘Beach Party,’ ‘Muscle Beach Party,’ ‘Bikini Beach,’ & ‘Beach Blanket Bingo’
Good morning, and Happy Movie Musical Monday!
It suddenly turned out to be winter here in New York, so naturally I have been perpetuating a state of denial by cowering in my apartment, crouched by a steam-emitting heater, watching beach-themed musicals. Why? Because nothing puts you in a warmer state of mind than swingin’ on the beach and dodging sex before marriage. (Wait a minute…)
Back in the early sixties, a film company that doesn’t exactly exist anymore called American International Pictures hit on a GOLD MINE in producing several B movies that were aimed at teens. This was just past the point in American commerce where businesses and ad agencies started to realize how much buying power teens and young adults had. Predictably, the entertainment industry had started cashing in by making films that were unabashedly geared towards a younger generation. Then in 1963, AIP released Beach Party, and essentially founded a whole genre of film: beach party films.
Beach Party was the first of seven movies that AIP released in this style, and while every other studio on the block tried to copy their formula, no one could ever seem to do it with the same success. This doesn’t make a lot much sense because, I’ll be honest, the movies are just not that good. Their structure is beyond obvious and there is very little substance to speak of here. The reason I am able to even write one post about more than half of the films this company put out in this genre is because these four are, when you come right down to it, all essentially the same movie. First take a look at their titles:
- Beach Party
- Muscle Beach Party
- Bikini Beach
- Beach Blanket Bingo
AIP didn’t want anyone fearing that they were going to get anything less than they expected, so the company made sure there was no end to the kitschy titles and kept the word “beach” present at all times.
The central cast, the setting, and almost all of the plot points are also kept in tact from film to film. Here are all four films, in summation:
Frankie Avalon and Annette Funnicello played opposite each other as Frankie and Dee Dee–initially introduced as Dolores in Beach Party–who are a couple of steadies who can’t think of anything else to do besides go to the beach on vacation for four films in a row. (Further proof these are all the same movie: Beach Party through Bikini Beach all have variations on the same opening sequence. Ready? One. Two. Three.) They both end up staying in the a rented house/trailer area with their whole gang of friends, with the boys and girls sleeping apart. It should be understood that although it’s clear these kids do nothing else besides think about sex when they aren’t groovin’ by the sea or jazzin’ the glass, that there is no actual sex shown in any of these movies. Sorry! The copious shots of girls gyrating in bikinis are supposed to make up for that. Frankie’s hoping the relaxing beach atmosphere will help him get a look at what’s under Dee Dee’s swim suit. Dee Dee, however, is a woman with a mind and her eyes set on marriage. Then either Frankie or Dee Dee shows an interest in somebody else, and the two either break up or almost break up. In Beach Party they each had someone to raise an eyebrow at, but this device alternates between the two of them for every feature following. Eventually though, after a lot of swingin’, surfin’ and singin’, the friction resolves and they get back together or reaffirm their commitment.
Each film has a climactic fight sequence that goes on for-seemingly-ever (and someone always ends up getting sent through a wall) and boasts end-credits that showcase someone dancing their bottoms off, leading into a tie-in to another forthcoming AIP movie. Other features found running throughout these films include: an introduction to various alternative sports, like surfing, drag racing, and sky diving; Running jokes; the use of time-lapse photography; seemingly random celebrity cameos; adults standing around and wondering what was this thing called sex anyway, and how did these kids seem to have so much of it (even though they weren’t actually having any at all)?*
WHY THESE MOVIES ACTUALLY MATTER:
I know, I know–I started out by telling you that they are all the same, formulaic, profit-based, “meh,” factory-produced films. But you know what? They are exactly what movie musicals should be: a snapshot of a period in time (either in cultural content or in cinematic style) that still works today as a piece of feel-good escapism. And in these suddenly bleak winter months, who couldn’t use a bit of that? Plus, Stevie Wonder made his on-screen debut in Muscle Beach Party. So there.
The other reason why these movies matter apply most specifically to the musical theatre performers reading this: the songs. There are so many musicals that feature this style of music now, and these films offer so many great options for your books just waiting to be discovered and sung! You may want to take a look at these films if you are planning on auditioning for, or want to be ready to audition for any of the following shows:
- Hairspray
- The Marvelous Wonderettes
- Grease
- Hairspray
- Buddy! The Buddy Holly Story
- Cry Baby–>Ah! I heard that scoff just now. Listen: it’s being revised and is supposed to open in March of this year if all goes according to plan. So don’t say I didn’t warn you. In the meantime, though, you can always focus on that eventual audition for:
- Hairspray
For non-musical performers, watching these films will help you research your audition for Psycho Beach Party, and help you understand why the film version of that play is funny at all. Parody only works if you know the source material well. Also, they’re just ridiculous. Laugh at them.
Finally, these movies came out between 1963 and 1965. Need I remind you that Mad Men is back in a little over a month? Now is the time to start planning ahead for Spring/Summer fashion, and you can get a leg up by watching those styles in action.
HIDDEN GEM SONGS:
There are so many great song choices from these films, I had to make a list of them. Some of them can be perfect for a man or a woman, with just a couple lyrical adjustments.
- Don’t Stop Now: Male, uptempo
- This Time It’s Love: Female, ballad (Could work for male singer with lyric adjustment)
- It Only Hurts When I Cry: Female, uptempo (Could work for male singer with lyric adjustment)
- I’ll Never Change Him: Female, uptempo
- And so many more!
As always, hope your week is just the most, and Happy Movie Musical Monday!
*Sex, of course, was not documented or verified as truly existing until the sixties, though there had been some initial case studies done along a streetcar route in NOLA back in the fifties. Contemporary evidence, however, suggests sex may have happened as early as 1958, somewhere in France.)
Guns Ain’t Toys
I learned this when I was a kid. Back in the 80’s, toy guns looked real, as opposed to the orange or neon blue that today’s toy guns have to be by law. Back then it was a different story. My parents always told me and my brother about the kid who pointed a fake gun at a cop through the back of the car and the cop shot him. Whether this was true or not didn’t matter, it got the point across; guns aren’t toys.
About 3 years ago I was shooting a student film. I had worked with some students from the school the previous Fall and they were great. They were organized, on top of the ball, and actor friendly. I was doing a thesis film for the guy who was the AD on the previous film and the story was about a desperate father struggling in tough economic times resorts to robbing a bank to provide for his family. (Something I haven’t not considered). Anyway, the scene was to be shot inside one of the administrative buildings after hours. I don’t know if it was because I put my trust in the director and his crew, or that I was just too far removed from my childhood, but there I am, wearing a ski mask and holding a prop gun in the Admissions Building at 530 PM on a friday practicing my lines. Next thing I know two campus police enter the building, guns drawn. (This was not too far after the Virginia Tech shooting). Long story short, I wasn’t shot or in any trouble, however the director was, (in trouble). For he neglected to mention he was shooting a scene involving a gun and little did he realize, the building was still open for business. A few frightened, crying secretaries gained my sincerest apologies, I honestly never saw someone so scared in my life until then.
Just the other day I went to an audition for an indie film of some type being shot here in NY. As I am sitting outside the room (in a karate school-which should’ve been a hint to begin with), I hear the director say to the reader “at the end, hold up your shirt cause the character has a gun.” Well the reader, who was also the producer and writer (another sign to probably stay far away), says “Oh right! Hold on a minute.” He runs into an office and comes out with, you guessed it, a gun!
I don’t know for sure if it was real or not, but it wasn’t painted orange. Regardless, it didn’t matter, this was an AUDITION! There was no need to actually have a gun. I knew that if this is how these guys think an audition needs to go, what will they do on set? I simply crossed my name off the sign in sheet, put my headshot back in my bag ($1 saved!) and walked out of the creepy smoky martial arts “school.” Acting is play, guns are not.
Happy First Birthday To The Green Room Blog!
Today is a very special day here at The Green Room Blog — our first birthday!
One year ago today, February 9, 2011, we launched our very first post to a handful of readers comprised mostly of personal acquaintances of our first three bloggers. Over the past year, we’ve grown into an amazing community that brings people who have never even met together every day, and provides support to those of us embarking upon one of the most courageous life paths there is — a life in the theatre.
All of us here at The Green Room Blog would like to extend a huge thank you to our readers, for your continued support and wonderful comments. And, as editor-in-chief, I would like to send an enormous amount of gratitude to our fantastic bloggers, who have shared their best tips, most difficult struggles, and beautiful hearts with all of you.
As a birthday present to us here at The Green Room, perhaps you’ll take a moment to share the blog with a friend in the industry who could benefit from our stories? Or maybe if you’ve never commented on any of our posts, you’ll take a second now to do so and join in on the discussion here about what you’d like to see on the site in the future. We do so love birthday presents, even virtual ones!
We have some wonderful plans for new features for the blog, so stay tuned. I can’t wait to see what the next year has in store for us.
The Green Room 