Building Your One-Person Show: Workshopping
Before you throw a ton of effort and money into an official production of your show, make sure you’ve got the best show possible: that your writing is tight, staging is compelling, and that the show communicates what you want it to. How do you know? You workshop your material and get feedback.
Who’s the star?
If you work in this wacky business as a host, actor or even a grip, I highly recommend reading the trades as it’s important to be fluent in the goings on in the industry. The following 3 paragraphs (regarding which hosts will likely be nominated for Emmys) are courtesy of Cynopsis, an online trade…
Fist Fight With Time
Wow, did I just barely come out on top in a fight I just had! The battle royale was with Time Control. I got to tell you, TC had me on the ropes for a couple weeks. Here’s what happened: I had set a couple of important acting goals/challenges to accomplish before August 1st. Well, […]
Hot Career in Cool Summer
While Los Angeles is having it’s coolest Summer possibly EVER, let’s hope your acting pursuits are creating some heat. When I taught the first twelve years after college, I enjoyed the three favorite things about being an educator: June, July and August. I suspect we actors get into a vacation mode somewhat during the Summers […]
How can I get into looping?
Now that you know WHAT looping is….I’m sure your next question is…”How do I GET into looping?” This is the question I am asked the most once someone finds out I loop. This is a tricky one. Most people that want to loop do not even REALLY know what it is…they’ve just heard it’s this […]
AND THE NOMINEES ARE …
I always say it’s important to know what’s selling and what’s winning… Read on, if you’d like to stay in the know. Lifted from Cynopsis…
The “avail” phenomenon in commercials
What is it with being put “on avail” in commercial casting? So has anyone else noticed the “avail” phenomenon of the last few years in the commercial world? It used to be that when you were put “on avail” for a commercial, you booked it—90% of the time. In the last few years that has […]
How To Get People To Meet With You: part 1
“Do you have a minute?” When someone says that to you, you pretty much know you’ll be talking to them for more than a minute. (And if you get out in under ten minutes you count yourself lucky, right?) “Just five minutes” really means fifteen… and “fifteen” is around a half hour… and, well, you […]
Anna’s Mocap Edification
Woody Schultz wrote a fantastic blog post on mocap here: https://theactorsnetwork.net/blog/?p=338 So of course, I gotta follow up with a quick story about my recent introduction mocap… Last month, my voice over agent called me to schedule a callback for a few roles in a sequel to a popular video game. I had done some […]
Why They Don’t Want To Talk To You
One of my favorite (paraphrased) quotes is by business consultant Alan Weiss: “If you can read with comprehension, write with expression, speak with influence, and listen with discernment – the world is yours.” That quote is the reason I am contributing to this blog. Because by helping you learn how to use language to lower […]