Martin Douglas was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago in a small town known as McHenry. He is the oldest of five siblings, three brothers and a sister. He first caught the acting bug at the age of 12. After taking a class on acting in commercials he decided it wasn't for him and went about pursuing a career playing professional tennis instead. He moved with his mother, grandmother, and siblings to Henderson, NV, on the outskirts of Las Vegas, at the age of 16 thinking the climate would be more conducive to pursuing his dreams of being a tennis professional.
During this time he became a certified USPTA (United States Professional Tennis Association) instructor. He soon realized that as much as he enjoyed playing tennis, teaching it wasn't for him. This lead to a job waiting tables at a local sports bar to make extra money. Six years after having moved to NV, still struggling to accomplish his dream, he decided it was time to start looking elsewhere.
Having always been interested in real estate and the investment opportunities that it brings along with it, he decided to study for his real estate license. During this time his younger brother had started taking acting classes. Realizing his shyness would be a liability in a career that relied on marketing and negotiating he decided an acting class may be beneficial. Within a month of starting the class he had caught the acting bug yet again.
He spent his first year studying with Seaan Michal Christopher. Watching a select few people in class and talking with the instructor after classes inspired him to want to learn the craft to the best of his abilites. He realized what a powerful gift it was to be able to affect people emotionally and to open people's minds to new ways of thinking and understanding through the characters he portrayed on stage.
During this time he also recieved his real estate license and after several months working for a real estate company he realized that although he liked the idea of investing in real estate the cost and time required to sell real estate as an agent was quite high. The hours on the phone making calls to potential sellers left him feeling like a telemarketer. Having gone through close to $3000 for office fee's and association fee's for his license and making no money in return he decided to call it quits.
Around this time there was a feeling that his acting was missing something, although he wasn't quite sure what. Upon a recommendation from a friend he left his current acting class to study under Vic Perillo. Mr. Perillo started off as an inspirational instructor who spoke passionately about the craft and the importance of learning to act over Hollywood's preference for "the look". He was against the idea of once a week acting classes citing that this craft can not be learned in just an hour or two a week. In order to encourage his students to take the time to learn the craft he would charge $10 for a four hour class, sometimes running an hour or two over, and hold class several times a week in hopes that students would attend more than once a week.
Mr. Perillo recommended his students write scenes for class citing that by writing about characters, specifically characters different from yourself, you would begin to see what yourself as an actor must be able to bring when you step on stage. You would understand, as an actor, how your physicality, the way you walk, speak, your life's rythm would need to change to portray a character properly. His teachings consist of techniques you read about in books by Uta Hagen, Adler, Strasberg, and Stanislavski.
Martin is currently writing a feature length version of his short film "A Dark Sleep". He also worked briefly as a writier for the for No.5 Films production company. He co-starred in the independant film, "Lickin the Quits", that premiered at a theatre in Las Vegas in October and will be playing again at the end of July 2005 at the Palms casino. He has had several pieces of his poetry published. To top things off he has designed a website for actors and other people in the entertainment industry to get together and help each other achieve their dreams.
To contact Martin Douglas send your email to Actorsite@hotmail.com
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