03/18/02: Wednesday night I started acting classes again down at the Herberger.
Seven other students, with only myself and Mr. Rich having any real acting experience. Ahem. One of the seven, I sure hope drops out soon, or it is going to be a very, very, very, long eight week class. It's strange how some individuals get it into their heads that an acting class is actually a group psychotherapy session. And your Master Thespian knows more about those than I am willing to share! The one huge difference between June of 2000, the last date I attended acting class, and Wednesday night was my total absence of nervousness. If you are new to acting, you might wonder how long it could take for you to cure the heebie geebies. Better hope it is not as long as it took me, for I can still vividly recall completely blanking out on stage over 34 years ago!
I notice a fellow former Herberger student, Gina Tleel, is appearing in the On the Spot Theatre production of Dancers, Dreams and Elephants. In our acting classes at the Herberger, Gina and I were always the 'wild ones' (she physically, me verbally) thus creating a ravenous desire for the rest of the class members to witness us paired together in a scene. Alas, it never happened. Break a leg Gina! (Yes, we created a 'ravenous desire'.)
|
03/12/02: According to the March 11th, 2002 East Valley Tribune newspaper, PBS
is in Arizona filming the Masterpiece Theatre production of "Skinwalkers." This is yet another production that the embattled Arizona Film Commission has brought to Apache Junction, Arizona. This made for tv movie is budgeted for $3,000,000 and is about a serial killer of medicine men in an Arizona town with the handle of Big Rock, Arizona.  Big Rock? is that hokey much? Of course, only the extras in the movie are Arizona based, with the main characters last being seen in the movies, "Smoke Signals" and "Dances with Wolves" (thank God, it's not Costner.) For those of you not familiar with Apache Junction, it's east of Queen Creek on U.S. 60 and is near the mysterious Superstition Mountains and is also bordered by several Indian reservations. Which is always good if you're making a movie about Indian's aka: Native American's.
|
03/05/02: Here's a chance for some of us stage denizens to become a little more
well known. In the March 1st, 2002 View column by Susan G. Hauser, in the W.S.J., I read about Gary Cole, a formerly successful lawyer, who now records small stage plays onto digital video tape. But that's not all. His company, StageDirect, plans to market these tapes to hotels, offering an alternate to sophisticated guests of watching the regular slew of video movies or an actual stage play. "In time, the company will offer the tapes as rentals in video stores, with six to 10 new titles per year." But, it's not just your cousin Vinnie with a cam corner sitting in row three taping the play. StageDirect uses four cameras, with two of them getting close-ups and two for long shots.  How neat! Mr. Cole's partner is Jeff Meyers who, "... selects the plays to be taped, directs the taping and edits the final product." And, then, get this, they tape the play four to eight times and then edit the best pieces together to make the final video. A stage actor's dream of in one night doing everything right! Mr. Cole is sad that the technology and his idea wasn't around earlier, for he would have taped a play he saw in a school basement in Chicago featuring the then unknown John Malkovich and Gary Sinise.
|
02/27/02: I've decided that since I can't get cast in a play, not because I can't act, but
because the job I hate requires me to be 'on-call' twenty four hours a day, I've decided I'll go back to the place that really gave me the burn for theater and that's Judy's acting class at the Herberger. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn. You young people, you must begin in a career you love. Do what you love, and start young and the money will surely come. And if it doesn't, it won't matter, because you will be doing what you love. You will not be trapped in the f#$@ing hell-hole of labor your Master Thespian has dug for himself; where on a good day I've only gotten three phone calls from my pace-maker powered boss telling me how I'm doing everything wrong and on a bad day I quit giving one hour's notice and an ultimatum and then get a two dollar an hour raise and am 'forced' to stay on ...
But on to my acting class. Knowing that I must schedule an interview prior to enrolling in the class, I phoned Judy's office the other day. The call went to voice-mail so I transferred my call over to her assistant, my old acting buddy ('old' but younger and alas also better) Dee Rich.  Sadly, I got Dee's voice mail. Of course, what should I expect, it was a Friday. So, repeating my cell phone number, which Dee was unfamiliar with, I left a message for her to ring me back about the class. Only, I left the message assuming the personage of one with a severe speech impediment and stating that I was concerned that my handicap could affect my acceptance into the acting class and my planned future in the theater. Since I hadn't heard from Dee over the next several days, I was sure she had discovered my ruse and brushed it off. Talking with her on the phone the following Tuesday, I ended our conversation by asking, "So, you don't return your phone calls, eh?" Dee, clearly not understanding what I was referring to replied, "What?" I then began speaking in my 'hairlip' voice. A long pause followed which she ended with, "You don't know what anguish that call has caused me!" And then relieved she did not have to deal with the anonymous message of last Friday, she laughed so long and hard she probably wet her pants. Of course, in today's 'don't-offend-anyone-even-if-they-are-holding-a-gun-to-your-gut-society' one would have had to been involved to understand the humor of the situation. But, doncha know? I just gotta act?
|
01/12/02: It's a brand new year and I haven't acted since May, but I'm still alive.
If you are wondering how long my stint of working every single day without a single day off lasted, the answer is one hundred and one days. A new record for me. Of course I could handle an acting assignment like that and never break wind, I mean stride.
My talented and troubled actor-daughter is back from North Hollywood and no sooner does she arrive in temperate Phoenix, than she gets called to audition for a movie being filmed here.
And, true to fate, shortly thereafter, your own Master Thespian's voice mail issued forth a personal message from the managing director of a local and well-funded theatre company to venture north and audition also. Sadly, I had to turn down the opportunity because, as far as I know, I'm the boss down at work and if someone fails to show up I'm the "fifteen dollar an hour Go-To man" twenty four hours a day. And do you know what's really pathetic? I got into the security guard business so I could sign onto the 'graveyard shift' (11:00PM to 7:00AM) in order to get paid to study my lines at night and act during the evening. Little did I know, that my actions, showing evidence of an IQ that actually ventures into three digits (very rare in the private security industry) that I would I be anointed O.I.C. (Officer In Charge) and mandated to work the one shift where I'm busier than an Afghan Taliban cave digger!
|
|
