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Do The Work!
I have a theory that part of me was worried that I would do a horrible job of my scene this week, and that is why I decided to be lazy in the memorizing my lines department. This way, when I messed up the scene, I could say it was because I didn’t know my lines, not because I’m a bad actress. As you can imagine, this is not good. You need to do the work! And I don’t just mean knowing your lines, because you need so much more. You need to find out your moment before, you have to figure out your goal, what is motivating you in…
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Self-Management for Actors
So it is not my habit to write book reviews instead of posts, but I just finished Bonnie Gillespie’s Self-Management for Actors, and it is amazing! The book starts out with advice for the actor at the beginning of their career, dealing with things like finding your type, the costs of an acting career, training, resumes, headshots, demo reels and websites. But there is a logical, or hopefully chronological progression that then goes on to finding an agent, a manager…I know the rest of the book is still advice, and I will definitely refer back to it once I become a working actor, but for now, a lot of the…
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Let the Emotion Lead Your Action
This week I discovered how similar acting and dance are. My acting class last night was interesting, to say the least. I am told that there is something about November that makes the students’ and teacher’s brains try to turn off, which leads to fits of giggles and long conversations about the unreachable ideals of Hollywood. I still find we managed to learn a lot, even when we deviated off topic, and really enjoyed it, but I do love the acting as well. I went in there pretty sure I knew my lines, but focusing on saying them more slowly than on connecting with them. Last week I was told…
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Happy Halloween! :)
Time has just been flying by lately! I had an amazing time in Buffalo with my cousins, and got lots of shopping done, including a cell phone for LA. I still have to activate it and get an LA number, but I’m getting there. Last weekend, I was out of town for a Camping Convention, since my day job is working at one. There wasn’t much going on acting wise, but I did get the time to read Margie Haber’s book, How to Get the Part Without Falling Apart, which got me extremely excited because I am actually going to study with her when I go to L.A., which…
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Weeds and The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Since I have the Camping Convention next week, Wednesday was my last class with Suzanna for the month of October. I thought I might have to do my audition scene then, so I spent a large part of the day practicing both scenes, the one from Weeds I had to do that night with Luigi, as well as the one from Cheers that I was supposed to do next week. In the end, I only did the one from Weeds, but I would much rather be overly prepared than to get in front of the camera and not remember my lines. Now, as I have said before, I genuinely love…
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We Accept the Love We Think We Deserve
Last Thursday I did something that I had never done before. There’s a first time for everything, and although going to the movies all by myself wasn’t really on my goal list, it wasn’t half bad. I do this thing where I go to the movies and evaluate the staff in return for free movie tickets. I keep losing the movie tickets, so it hasn’t been going as planned, but that was why I absolutely had to go to the movies, even without a date. I chose Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Pitch Perfect, and have to say I absolutely loved them both. I have recently come to the…
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Always Be Prepared…
A long time ago, I had decided I would do something every day to advance my career, be it acting, research, calling people or whatever.A week after making this resolution, I decided it was impossible to do something every day, but lately, I seem to be doing it without trying, just because acting is always on my mind, and my favorite thing to think about. Whenever I am near a computer, I just can’t help looking up headshot photographers, acting advice, actorfest, classes…that isn’t to say I don’t do other stuff and have a life, but I keep feeling like the dream is becoming more real, or concrete. Last Saturday,…
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I Have A Place To Stay! I Have A Place To Stay!
This is what I was singing Monday afternoon when my first choice for a place to stay in Los Angeles confirmed my booking. It is such a relief to know I won’t be homeless once I get there. Plus, it is walking distance from my class, which means I won’t have to get a car, at least not for December. Monday morning, I caved and signed up for casting workbook, since everyone I know who is on it seems to be getting a lot more auditions than I do. I still haven’t entirely figured it all out yet, but this weekend I plan on watching the tutorial. One thing they…
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The impulsivity continues…
Above is one of the many pictures I got from the Tom Todoroff weekend. Frances also has my scene on a CD for me, so all I have to do is find out how to get the CD from her hands to mine! 🙂 On Monday, in addition to having a lot of fun improvising, I found out that I should be getting money back from my car repairs, which is extremely helpful for my budget, since in addition to the deposit for the Tom Todoroff Summer Intensive, I have also been booking a lot of other things. I got an email from backstage, announcing an early sale of…
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Back to Square One…
This week did not go as planned, at all. In fact, when they say “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans” they really mean it. And so much more. One of my favorite things to do lately has been to research my trip to Los Angeles, trying to find blogs of people who went to the school I am going to, looking into apartments, etc. Someone I trust had recently warned me about NYFA, so I decided to take a deeper look and discovered an article by Bonnie Gillespie, published in Backstage (two reputable sources, I believe) where she recommended that if you were unfortunate enough to…