11/22/01: On this Thanksgiving day I'm thankful to be an American and that my
dreams are still alive. (Of course dragging my twenty six pound lighter, but still, fat ass down to work to endure my sixtieth day of being a glorified Wal*Mart greeter without a single day off AND working on Thanksgiving Day is quite depressing.  But, I still have a job, eh?) Speaking of work, reading in the October 27th, 2001, Arizona Republic, I see that Phoenix's own numero uno actress, Robyn Ferracane, has left the Land of the Burning Sun to relocate to the Big Apple. Kyle Lawson reports that her first role will be as the Wicked Witch in a revival of Snow White. Also, in the same article, the Herberger Theater Center reveals that the black-box Lunchtime Theater will begin performances in February of 2002. The one-act plays will be held during the noon hour in the Herberger rehearsal hall that we Phoenix thespians have spent so many delightful emotion-packed hours inhabiting.
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11/01/01: I was reading, again, in the WSJ Hollywood Journal, by Tom King an article
about screen stars playing against type. For stage thespians, "type" actually refers to how we are perceived by most of the members of our small audiences. For instance, your Master Thespian, in my current 252 pound configuration is perceived as a father, judge and authority type. However, when I am down to my fighting weight (in the year 2525) of 185 pounds, I will be perceived as a really evil, bad guy type. But for film actors (recall the phrase from the movie My Favorite Year, "I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star!"?) the "type" a movie actor is branded with is often the type of character he or she portrayed in their first movie seen by millions. The masses like that type, and will spend their thirty bucks at the theater to see that actor playing that type again and again. And, since movie-making is absolutely and necessarily centered around making large profits, the actor is almost always saddled with that type of role for the remainder of her career. In the article, Tom King asserts that few movie actors have been able to break type and still create profits for the Burbank studios. And those few include Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson. I'm of the opinion myself, that the few cinema thespians who can step from say comedy to drama and still create income dollars for their Hollywood producers, by continuing to draw substantial numbers of movie-goers to the nearest cineplex, are probably the few actors who can actually A-C-T! For the majority us thespians, those who are driven to act, who must act, who live to act (who act at work and are considered really strange) who research and study and rehearse for hundreds of hours in order to act (and do it for free) we can begin to understand some of the incredible frustration (evidenced by drug abuse, divorces and weird contract demands) our celluloid brothers and sisters must feel when they are absolutely condemned by their type to reprising the same type of role over and over and over again. Thank God for stage and our stinky day-jobs, eh?
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10/26/01: Being I am Master Thespian, I've just received my invite for the
 Best of Phoenix TV Emmys. Actually, I see I was mailed the invitation to the exclusive gathering because of my membership in the Friends of the Phoenix Library. Let's see, it's on Friday, November 9th at the Burton Barr Central Library Auditorium from 6:30 to 9:00PM . . . and it has a $15 admission fee! What? Don't they know who I AM? Oh, that's all right, if I came I'd only draw attention away from everyone else. Besides, the only local programming I watch are the Diamondback baseball games and the 10:00 news on Channel 12. So, I won't be attending. But you can, I guess.
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10/23/01: Even from tragedy sometimes good things blossom. In response to
the September 11th, 2001, tragedies, Hollywood movie-makers are reconsidering many of their upcoming "shot on location" projects. According to an October 19th, Hollywood Journal by Lisa  Gubernick in the W.S.J., producers are now perusing locations much closer to The Golden State. For instance, the upcoming Joel Douglas production, Smoke & Mirrors starring brother Michael Douglas and his child-bride, is currently scouting locations in Yuma, Arizona, rather than the previously envisioned North Africa. One magnet keeping movie production closer to the U.S. these days, other than gul-darned common sense, is the cost of additional insurance coverage, which post-911 can run $500,000 or more. And considering, no insurance coverage provides for "act of war" losses, staying near the Homeland makes eminent sense. While Hollywood faces this forced-reality check, a reality check that could mean a lot more acting jobs for Arizonans, the issue of runaway productions, mainly to the land of our Frozen Brothers of the North, still waits to be addressed by the MPA, Congress and the Unions.
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10/15/01: Reading in the August 24, 2001, Hollywood Journal by Tom King
I learned about the ability of a small group of actors such as Lin Shaye, Seth Green, Anthony Anderson and William Fichtner to get cast over and over, even though there are thousands of players to chose from. Okay, okay, so I'm a little behind on my reading. Well, not actually my reading per se, but my reporting. Anyway, here's the crux of the situation.  For example, Jerry Bruckheimer cast Mr. Fichtner in his upcoming Black Hawk Down action movie "for two reasons," he gave the best audition and he has a good work reputation. (Imagine how much better his audition appeared with the casting director aware that Mr. Fichtner was not a troublemaker.) Mr. King explains, "With movie making so expensive ($10,000 per minute of film that makes it to the theater) hiring a known actor means at least that part of the production will go smoothly." Quoting Mr. Bruckheimer, "He (Mr. Fichtner) doesn't complain, he just shows up and gives a great performance." A while back, your Master Thespian discovered to my own chagrin, that one of the attractions to casting me, is that I take direction well, don't complain and don't try to re-write scripts. Sadly (that's the chagrin part) I often get cast, not because of my superb acting talents (grin) but because I don't cause problems.
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10/05/01: Yesterday I received in the mail my Dramatists Complete Catalogue of
Plays 2001-2002. I didn't order it, so, because of the effects my written words have on the world of drama, I'd like to imagine myself on some sort of exclusive mailing list. Right. As I carefully thumbed through this almost 400 hundred paged digest, I discovered it to be a virtually complete drama resource. The first thing I noticed was the inclusion of a new play by the seriously warped Nicky Silver, titled The Altruists. The play title, No Niggers, No Jews, No Dogs, by John Henry Redwood also easily caught my eye. But the best part is the hundreds of plays listed and the multiple ways they are indexed. You can locate plays by author, by title or by whether it is full length or a short play. And then as you flip to the main body of this compendium, you quickly notice that the plays are organized by the number of characters they require, from the very flexible 'various' to the virtually un-castable ' 20+ ' !  But my delightful discoveries aren't finished. For each play's title is listed and then followed by its classification (Drama, Comedy, Theatre Piece, etc.) then a few bits of favorable reviews are repeated, which are then followed by a one hundred word discourse of what the play is actually about. Finally, at the back of this tome, there are even several hundred suggestions of full length and short plays for high school students. This catalogue will be tattered by the fumbling fingers of your Master Thespian long before the 2002-2003 issue arrives next October. I can't comprehend how any serious thespian can survive without the Dramatists Play Service, Inc. Complete Catalogue of Plays resting on their drama/theater bookshelf.
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09/16/01: As all my readers realize, I now have a job that consumes much of my
meager existence. And since 'the job' involves virtually constant movement and occasional psychic trauma during my eight to sixteen hour workdays, I return to the humble Master Thespian manse both emotionally and physically drained. A privileged few of my  friends in the thespian community are also cognizant of the hundreds and hundreds of pages (amounting to well over 25 megabytes) of my work over on the political side of the internet. (Damn! Dislocated my shoulder patting myself on the back ... I'll have to type with one hand now.) It is the maintenance of that electronic folio, and the fact that my blubbery body has been beaten to the consistency of tapioca pudding by my often-times seven day a week, stress-filled stints as a security officer, that has restrained me from visiting with you all. Yes, I do have stacks of stuff to communicate to my loyal readers, however, in the meanwhile, I did find something really fun for those of you who are thespians residing in the Valley of the Sun. For over at the Tempe Wandering Cam, live clips of the stage at the Tempe Performing Arts Center are being displayed at this time! Of course, you're probably wondering how the 'cam' happened to be stationed at the same mise-en-scène where your Master Thespian has appeared so often. It's because, months ago, I suggested to the webmaster that they do just that. And, as you know, when Master Thespian makes a suggestion, many, many individuals consider it a command. (Har!)
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