The Right Place at the Right Time...For Once!
For the first time ever in my life I can actually say that I was in the right place at the right time. Usually I am either horrifically lost and have no idea what time it is, or I went to the wrong place on the wrong day. But tonight, tonight the gods were with me.
I went to go see a staged reading of Desire Under the Elms that a friend of mine is in town directing; I wasn't particularly dying to go and its quite a long play, but this friend is always incredibly supportive of my endeavors and someone I respect. So I arrive 10 minutes early, after a paranoic scramble through the disgustingly muggy evening, certain I was arriving late when in actuality I was only arriving drenched, and immediately spot an actor I worked with this past spring in The Vagina Monologues. This actor was not part of the core Mighty Yawp group, and I had not seen her since the production. I immediately ran over to her, thankful to not have to be the sad lonesome person knowing no other person there (minus the director, but he was being all director-y), and the first words out of her mouth were "What are you doing on the 18th?". She is doing a staged reading of a screenplay and another actor had just dropped out; she was wracking her brain trying to think of who could fill the role when in walked yours truly. So now I am also doing a staged reading of said screenplay next Monday night, which is great because there are a lot of prominent film industry people involved and well, you just never know where these things can lead. Tonight proved that at the very least, people you work with on projects will suggest you for other work. Work begets work, even if its just a reading. Plus it will be wonderful to have something to look forward to and something to throw myself into for this moment, which is well timed after the disappointment of the fringe show that isn't happening.
The callback for the Israeli/Palestinian dialect fringe play never happened. Very late Tuesday night I got an e-mail from the producer saying, "The call back has been cancelled for Good Fences. The playwright has decided to move forward on his own. We thought you were wonderful and look forward to seeing you in projects. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.", which essentially means that there was some huge drama between the playwright and producers and one side bailed. I received a voice mail message the next morning reiterating this, along with great accolades about my talent and how much they loved me and want to use me in the future and are saving my headshot and resume to definitely call me in again, blah blah blah. That's all quite lovely, but I want work NOW! Why did the stupid playwright have to be all high maintenance? His play was absurdist theatre, but must he behave absurdly too? Such is the lovely career I have chosen...even when the stars align and you give a great audition and they love you and you're practically cast, it still doesn't mean its a done deal. In fact, its never really a done deal...look at shows that close in previews.
Anyway, at least I have a staged reading of a screenplay to look forward to and more contacts to hopefully make through this. I loved that I just happened to walk in the door at the perfect moment. I guess I finally understand about the whole luck and who you know side of things.
Work begets work. This is good. So what begets motivation? And more importantly, what begets more freakin hours in the day and the energy to have a sdj so you can pay the rent and a full time career, which auditioning is? Ooh, and while we're at it, what magically begets a clean apartment, cuz mine's a freakin train wreck?
I went to go see a staged reading of Desire Under the Elms that a friend of mine is in town directing; I wasn't particularly dying to go and its quite a long play, but this friend is always incredibly supportive of my endeavors and someone I respect. So I arrive 10 minutes early, after a paranoic scramble through the disgustingly muggy evening, certain I was arriving late when in actuality I was only arriving drenched, and immediately spot an actor I worked with this past spring in The Vagina Monologues. This actor was not part of the core Mighty Yawp group, and I had not seen her since the production. I immediately ran over to her, thankful to not have to be the sad lonesome person knowing no other person there (minus the director, but he was being all director-y), and the first words out of her mouth were "What are you doing on the 18th?". She is doing a staged reading of a screenplay and another actor had just dropped out; she was wracking her brain trying to think of who could fill the role when in walked yours truly. So now I am also doing a staged reading of said screenplay next Monday night, which is great because there are a lot of prominent film industry people involved and well, you just never know where these things can lead. Tonight proved that at the very least, people you work with on projects will suggest you for other work. Work begets work, even if its just a reading. Plus it will be wonderful to have something to look forward to and something to throw myself into for this moment, which is well timed after the disappointment of the fringe show that isn't happening.
The callback for the Israeli/Palestinian dialect fringe play never happened. Very late Tuesday night I got an e-mail from the producer saying, "The call back has been cancelled for Good Fences. The playwright has decided to move forward on his own. We thought you were wonderful and look forward to seeing you in projects. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.", which essentially means that there was some huge drama between the playwright and producers and one side bailed. I received a voice mail message the next morning reiterating this, along with great accolades about my talent and how much they loved me and want to use me in the future and are saving my headshot and resume to definitely call me in again, blah blah blah. That's all quite lovely, but I want work NOW! Why did the stupid playwright have to be all high maintenance? His play was absurdist theatre, but must he behave absurdly too? Such is the lovely career I have chosen...even when the stars align and you give a great audition and they love you and you're practically cast, it still doesn't mean its a done deal. In fact, its never really a done deal...look at shows that close in previews.
Anyway, at least I have a staged reading of a screenplay to look forward to and more contacts to hopefully make through this. I loved that I just happened to walk in the door at the perfect moment. I guess I finally understand about the whole luck and who you know side of things.
Work begets work. This is good. So what begets motivation? And more importantly, what begets more freakin hours in the day and the energy to have a sdj so you can pay the rent and a full time career, which auditioning is? Ooh, and while we're at it, what magically begets a clean apartment, cuz mine's a freakin train wreck?
posted by Le Synge Bleu at 12:34 AM
2 Comments:
God I love reading your posts....
the reading was actually good and i definitely enjoyed it. the actor playing abby was beautiful to watch - she never crossed the line into unbelievable territory, even in the really difficult scenes.
some things could have been explored further with the non-traditional casting- a point i made in the talk back afterwards which was responded to a bit defensively by an actor who said "well you have to understand, this is just a reading". umm, i know that and understand the difference between a reading and a production thank you very much, but that was my point of view and feedback that i considered fairly useful in terms of proceeding with the production. i hate talkbacks, people just generally like to hear themselves talk and not much of use is said. there was a very argumentative older couple in the front row who were hysterical- they vehemtly argued about how the nontraditional casting didn't affect their perception in the least of the play, so basically for them the whole discussion was a moot point. i loved them for their unapologetic honesty.
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