6/30/01: For fans of the WB Network's 'Angel', casting is open
until July 8th, 2001 and you can visit the casting notice over at Actors Exchange for precise particulars. They are asking for actor's from age 18 to middle 40s, both SAG and non-SAG. Hey, it's a long shot I know, but if you take enough shots and you are bound to hit something. (Even if it's a 'B' movie starring Bruce Campbell.) I am convinced that so many actors do not achieve their level of success in this business because they just give up too soon. (And if anyone gets work because of this notice, your Master Thespian would ask a signed 8x10 glossy from
Charisma Carpenter addressed to "Master Thespian, my first and only love.") |
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6/29/01: Went down to Scottsdale Community College yesterday to audition |
SCC Campus, January 2000, looking west from west end of campus. |
for a student movie and was reminded once again just how different film auditions are from stage auditions. I was not in the least bit anxious or excited or nervous (and especially for those of you who still 'complain' about those unwelcome feelings) I had nothing to pull from within myself to give my reading 'life'. In other words I sucked. But, one thing that is nice about movies is that "it's how you look" not so much how you act. And if I look like the character they imagine, I'll be cast. If not, I won't be. |
6/26/01: Well, HBO's Six Feet Under is my newest fav show. Of course it figures
that I would enjoy a series about a family operating a funeral parlor. Face it, I enjoy being depressed. Because . . . it's comfortable. I grew up depressed, it's all I know. And besides after performing roll-in-the-aisle eulogies at first my father's funeral and then a year later at my mom's, the whole morturary experience remains fairly fresh in my mind. Anyway, Six Feet Under is a funny show too. It really whipsaws my emotions, which is good for an actor.
 Since I came from from a family owned business started by my father (just like the show) and worked with my older brother (just like the show) I laughed myself silly during the first episodes watching the family fighting. The script is very well written with occasionally, the deceased (the autopsied cadaver) in various stages of dress and undress, walking and talking to family members, right up until the moment the $8,000 casket is lowered six feet into that cold earth. Sometimes the patriarch, Mr.Fisher, who passed away after being slammed by a bus while driving home the Fisher Morturary's brand new hearse in the first installment, shows up to have heart-to-hearts with his kids. The one serious, repressed brother, is gay and in love with a big black beefy cop. (Did they really have to show them French kissing? Okay already! I believe the characters are gay!) The other son is drop dead good looking (like me) and sensitive (again, like me) and dating an apparent whack-job of a lady (like my last three girlfriends prior to my 1977 betrothal). The younger sister, played by Lauren Ambrose, an actress who made two appearances on Law and Order, is a full figured (not stick-figured) lost, sometimes meth-smoking red-headed teenager. (And you know how I feel about them redheads!) And exactly like Law and Order every Six Feet Under begins with a death. It has an ensemble cast, with every actor doing their best to bring reality to the viewers. Thespians who enjoy a well written script (Alan Ball of American Beauty fame) and yearn to witness believable human tear jerking emotion played out on the small screen, will welcome this show into their viewing rooms. (Warning: This program contains very adult language and occasional full frontal nudity.)
6/24/01:'Scam I Am' is the title of an article in the June 2001 issue of Phoenix
Magazine exposing talent and modeling scams in Arizona. It seems that the missing O'Brien/Rottman Talent Placement organization has been re-opened under new ownership and address and renamed Young Artists Talent Consultants. (Of course, ahem, my readers were made aware of this fact way back in December of 2000.) Other agencies listed as questionable in the article are: Arizona Media Resources (AMR), John Casablancas Modeling and Career Center, International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA), John Robert Powers (Scottsdale, Arizona), Elizabeth Savage and Starmakers. Years ago, my incredibly gifted daughter Alycesun was signed with Barbizon and while I am certainly not accusing them of any wrong-doing, neither can I recommend them. Alycesun also was enrolled in a $600 class at Elizabeth Savage, but since the instructor was a friend of ours (and apparently was 'in' on the scam) we were not charged. (Note that Phoenix Magazine apparently has no Web presence.)
6/23/01: I finally created my Twelve Angry Men photo page from my 1992
performance at the then Mesa Little Theatre. Folks, this was during the construction of Highway 60 and when they barricaded the on-ramps at night (to paint just one more stripe) my drive, across the pre-casino Indian Reservation, at 10:30PM, took over an hour. (In contrast, nowadays, it takes me less than 25 minutes.) This was the first play I was in and I was so fortunate to be surrounded by a team of eleven dedicated actors who gave it their all even though it was for free and for the very few.
6/21/01: CNNfyi.com reports the SAG/AFTRA negotiations are dragging
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out to a possible July 1st or 2nd settlement. Operating under a news blackout, negotiators on both sides are mimicking the U.S. Congress by posing as enemies and hard workers during sound-bites, but palling around like high school buddies when backed outside of the gate of the nearest microphone. In example, the bargainers took a twelve day break for Memorial Day, attended the NBA playoffs and have begun sessions that ended mere minutes later. (Sounds like D.C. to me!) Knowledgable observers feel (as does Master Thespian) that last year's actor's strike against advertisers, the poor economy, infighting among SAG's executives, zero strike preparation and the fact that the Writer's Guild settled their gripes against the Hollywood Machine with over 90% endorsement, have taken the wind out of any possible strike sails. The article ends with, "For now Hollywood remains on enforced hiatus with expense accounts and casting frozen. Several agencies are operating with skeleton staffs, and film production continues to slow as the June 30 deadline approaches." |
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Since I came from from a family owned business started by my father (just like the show) and worked with my older brother (just like the show) I laughed myself silly during the first episodes watching the family fighting. The script is very well written with occasionally, the deceased (the autopsied cadaver) in various stages of dress and undress, walking and talking to family members, right up until the moment the $8,000 casket is lowered six feet into that cold earth. Sometimes the patriarch, Mr.Fisher, who passed away after being slammed by a bus while driving home the Fisher Morturary's brand new hearse in the first installment, shows up to have heart-to-hearts with his kids. The one serious, repressed brother, is gay and in love with a big black beefy cop. (Did they really have to show them French kissing? Okay already! I believe the characters are gay!)
The other son is drop dead good looking (like me) and sensitive (again, like me) and dating an apparent whack-job of a lady (like my last three girlfriends prior to my 1977 betrothal). The younger sister, played by Lauren Ambrose, an actress who made two appearances on Law and Order, is a full figured (not stick-figured) lost, sometimes meth-smoking red-headed teenager. (And you know how I feel about them redheads!) And exactly like Law and Order every Six Feet Under begins with a death. It has an ensemble cast, with every actor doing their best to bring reality to the viewers. Thespians who enjoy a well written script (Alan Ball of American Beauty fame) and yearn to witness believable human tear jerking emotion played out on the small screen, will welcome this show into their viewing rooms. (Warning: This program contains very adult language and occasional full frontal nudity.)
