Acting in Atlanta
Button Theatre presents Barefoot in the Park
Good audiences all weekend. Over 60 people on Saturday and over 20 on Sunday. Oddly enough I don’t remember Friday night. I have been moving all weekend from my house to a storage unit. We filled up a 10 foot truck and we still have stuff in the house. So I am exhausted.
On Sunday we had a Guest Actor for the Lord and Taylor Delivery Man. She was great and she seemed to have a good time, although I don’t remember her name. This was a birthday gift to her from her husband.
The first weekend went fine for a 3 day holiday weekend. We had over 50 people on Saturday night. Saturday was our opening, because Friday was the 4th of July. The audience was very good, very responsive.
Sunday had less than 10 people, being a holiday-and-all, but they seemed to enjoy it. Hopefully the following Sundays will have larger audiences.
As posted in the Gwinnett Daily Post on June 22, 2008:
Casting call
Button Theatre role up for grabs in ‘Barefoot in the Park’
By Jamie Ward
Staff Writer
DULUTH – For any adult who’s ever dreamed of becoming a professional actor, now’s your chance.
In a unique effort to generate community interest in its upcoming show, Gwinnett County’s professional theatre troupe – Button Theatre – is selling one of the roles in their production of Neil Simon’s comedy classic “Barefoot in the Park.”
“This role is an exciting opportunity for anyone to experience theater from the performer’s point of view,” said Director Celia Rosenblum. “Our hope is that the community will become involved in the production, and that involvement will help us give back to Gwinnett County.”
The walk-on role for sale is that of an elderly delivery person who trudges up five flights of stairs in a New York apartment building. Out of breath and exhausted, the role will allow the actor to deliver the package and receive a signature while failing to utter a word. Considering Neil Simon’s many humorous works, the role will offer the actor the chance to receive a few laughs from the audience while demonstrating their acting chops and comedic abilities at the same time.
“It’s a great way to get audience participation in a show and it’s a novel idea,” said Jake Cullens, an actor and also the drama teacher at Peachtree Ridge High School in Suwanee. “It should generate a good buzz.”
According to Mary Conti, a founding member of the group and its artistic director, the role has already been sold for several performances. She also said selling the role seemed appropriate considering professional actors are paid for their services and the Button group is a nonprofit.
“It wasn’t fair to an actor to just sit there the rest of the night anyway,” she said.
“Barefoot in the Park” will run at 8 p.m. July 5 through 27, Thursdays through Saturdays and at 2 p.m. Sundays at the Hudgens Center for the Arts. Any individual or business interested in purchasing the role should contact Button Theater at 770-831-0591 or by sending an e-mail to info@buttontheatre.com.
Rehearsals for Barefoot in the Park began this past Monday. The schedule dates have changed: All Thursday dates have been canceled except for July 3rd.
And the role of the DELIVERY MAN/WOMAN is played by you. Thats right, you can play a role in this play. Button Theatre has decided that instead of having an actor play a 30 second part, the role would be for sale for $100 for a single performance. For $100 you can play this part and then enjoy the rest of the show with the audience. More details or contact Celia Rosenblum.
Cast & Crew
CORIE BRATTER
Clarke Wolfe
TELEPHONE REPAIR MAN
Jay Croft
PAUL BRATTER
Jake Cullens
MRS BANKS
Lory Cox
VICTRO VELASCO
Jimmie Johnson
Directed By:
Celia Rosenblum
Stage Manager:
Kelly Knowlton
Lots of stuff going on:
1. Losing my job
2. website updates
3. rehearsals start soon
4. New headshots posted
5. Miscellany
OK, last Wednesday, I received notice from HR and my manager that I was 1 of 18 people part of a “reduction in staff”. If you don’t know, I am employed by Northrup Grumman, working on a CDC contract. The contract was cut about $5.5 million. Today alone I have 3 interviews. IT pays the bills so I can act. Although, I wish acting would pay the bills.
There have been 2 website updates lately. Version 3 of this site was rather bland (red borders, black background, off white text). Version 4 was released last week. It was my first attempt at a graphics heavy site. It looked great, but the images were too large in bytes and so took a long while to download. That would not do. So 4.1 is up with smaller graphics. Victorian style with future modifications to make it look Steampunk. It’s an OK looking site. I hope the tweaks will improve the look and texture. And what’s with the chairs in the left sidebar? I guess it’s better than blank space. There are a few defects that I need to fix as well.
Barefoot in the Park rehersals start on June 9th. This is my first adventure into a paying theatre. We received the scripts a couple of weeks ago and because I don’t have a very large role (10 pages in Act I and Act III), I should have it easily memorized before June 9th.
New headshots are posted on the Portfolio page. The pictures were done by Milestone Photography. They did a great job. It’s amazing how much different I look from my previous photos. I am planning on sending a mass mailing out with my new and old headshot to theaters and agents. And yes I am letting my hair grow back.
I never heard back from my audition for Madea Goes to Jail and the majority of the time you will never hear from an audition unless they want you. I did receive an email from Sally Ann Cone on my audition for An Adult Evening with Shel Silverstein. It was an email to all those who auditioned and did not get a part, which was less than 10 people. That was very nice.