06/02/02: Reading Sunday's
A&E section in the Arizona Republic I notice that
my buddy Jason Barth who appeared in The Dining Room and
You Can't Take it With You
has won a role in Nearly Naked Theatre's production of The Hothouse by Harold Pinter.
 The show will be at The Little Theatre at Phoenix Theatre on 100 East McDowell Road June 7th through the 30th.
Self destruction is a cancer many actor's carry. Your Master Thespian is little different than Robert Downey, Jr., in that aspect. (That and being male are the only things Mr. Downey, an actor who brings tears to my eyes, and I share.) However, many thespians also need to deal with this possible career destroyer. Last Sunday, May 27th, I had another movie audition - and in Phoenix, Arizona those are few and precious instances. The only challenge was, the audition was actually Saturday. Rather than checking my note that I had written and catch and correct the discrepancy between the day and the date, I insanely assumed the non-SAG cattle-call was scheduled for Sunday. So, I missed the audition. Many of us do the same thing. You have your own version of self sabotage and you need to recognize it and deal with it.  Myself, having done this for decades, can, directly from my heart, reveal to you that your efforts at self sabotage are not something to feel guilty about or moan or groan about or get drunk or blasted about or blame your parents or your job about or even accept for an excuse. If you, or I, want to make it in this very peculiar and wonderfully weird business we all just need to develop the awareness to have that 100 watt chain light click on every time the cockroach of self sabotage skitters into our environment and simply put it to sleep and get on with our careers.
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05/18/02: My movie reading at the Burton Barr Library went pretty well this morning
Mr. Marty Farnsworth, from Sunworth Productions, was holding auditions for actors to appear in his own marketing trailer.  Those of you who haven't been to try out for a movie may find my own effort informing. Arriving almost an hour early, I signed in. Getting there quite prematurely allowed me to grab a script and work on the lines of the characters that I had chosen to read for. Such was not the case this time, and although, in my wants, I engendered the physicality of two character's mined from the Dramatis Personae emailed to me earlier this month, Marty walked out, looked at me, instructed me to say three words, which I did, then he announced, "You'll read for so-and-so." Then whirling around he promptly vanished down the narrow hallway and disappeared into the audition space. Shortly he re-emerged and handing me the plastic enclosed, single page, three word piece of the screenplay, ushered me into the audition space and explained the two scenes we were going to shoot. He told me to 'slate' then turn away, then turn back and begin the scene. I 'slated' (in this case announcing my name, my agency: 'none' and my phone number into the peering lens of the digital camera whose only eyebrow was a steady red light) and then I began acting. One scene had three words and one scene had no words. And I was done and thanked and ushered out again. The whole thing once again reminded me how very different the techniques of stage acting are from movie acting. Note that one scene had no words! This is because the movie camera is able to zoom in recording the non-verbal facial contortions often missed by a theater-goer sitting many meters away. Did I get the part? Who knows.
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05/15/02: Home for two decades to the Copperstate Dinner Theatre, Max's
Sport Bar in Glendale is no more reports the April 28th, 2002, Arizona Republic. Greyhound Racetrack purchased the bar and changed the stage into an off-track betting area. The track then built a theater for Peter J. Hill and his wife Noel Irick at the 3801 East Washington Street location. And yes, this is the same Peter J. Hill who is so busy at the Fountain Hills Community Theater. The Washington Street theater opened on April 19th, with "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change!" Using four different levels, the venue seats an audience of up to 180 hungry theater goers. our Master Thespian, having been present when the tilt-up structure, now housing the EDG company, three hundred yards across 40th Street from the track, was completed in 1974, is quite familiar with the area. The food in the dining section of the Greyhound Park was always far better than one would expect of 'dog track' cuisine. As a matter of memory, I had one of the best steak dinners I've ever had seated in the glass enclosed and refrigerated stands while at the same time taking in the sunset shrouded view of east Phoenix all the way to Camelback Mountain. A plus for actor's on the east side of the Valley, is that the new location of the theater puts it ten miles closer and within audition range for more of us.
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05/05/02: My eight weeks of the Stages Actor Training at the Herberger
are over, so what's next for Master Thespian? And who cares? Well, I've got a screenplay of about fifty five pages that I need to memorize and I have no idea of how to do it.  (If you are familiar with 'indie' movie production, you know that virtually every line of the script could change overnight anyway.) And I figure I'll add a TV/Film acting class to my resume that is taught down at PVCC by the wonderful Alan Tongret. Only problem is, the class starts at 2:00PM and I get off work at 2:00PM so . . . I'll hurry, I'll hurry. Why movies? Well, due to our horrible financial condition, I really need to keep the horrible job I have and it just doesn't allow time for the commitment of the six night a week stage work that I love. While, the movies, the movies I'm in anyway, are filmed at night and on weekends, so they are less likely to interfere with my obligation to be available to my employer twenty four hours, seven days a week.
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05/01/02: The new, R and sometimes X-rated, Dinner for Five, is billed as an IFC original
series created and hosted by Jon Favreau. Mr. Favreau is credited as an actor and film maker, and for my tastes talks too much about Jon Favreau, but hey, it's his show, eh? The non-actor wife and I watched the first installment, which we both thoroughly enjoyed. But since Jeff Goldblum was one of the guests at the table, he alone may have contributed mightily to her satisfaction. The concept for the show is really a great one, where Mr. Favreau 'invites' four actors who have appeared in independent films (virtually anyone younger than Charlton Heston) and they five then imbibe at the supper table with the never empty goblets of wine. I'm sure the fruit of the vine will produce some interesting comments throughout the tenure of the show. The episode we viewed included a muted Christian Slater, Mr. Goldblum, Deanna Douglas and Fred Willard. As billed, we did hear some comments that I don't believe would've been made during the average staged and scripted interview, I also listened as these actors aired some issues that were strictly of interest to fellow actors. The program is shown on IFC, The Independent Film Channel, at the 8PM time slot on Monday's.
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