Tag: Matt McGahren

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First full week of 2009

Today, I mailed off the application with headshot and resume for the Unifieds. Deadline is January 16th. Hopefully I will be accepted again this year. Last years attendance got me auditions at The Alliance, Theatre in the Square, Marcus Jewish Community Center Theatre and with Tyler Perry Studios. This year, I plan to work with Pat Hurley on a couple of monologues in preparation for the Unifieds.

Tonight will be one of two things: Ether voice over for on the short film I did in August (The Interview). And/Or rehearsal for Bright Flames TV. Let’s talk about The Interview. My understanding is that this is nearly complete in post-production. Matt McGahren is hopping to submit this for the Atlanta Film Festival. Deadline is this Friday. I assume the voice over is for my part. I guess the sound is not what they wanted when originally shot. If not tonight, then tomorrow evening.

On the Bright Flames TV front, apparently Robert Howell has found a crew with equipment so we are not dependent on the local community TV studio. The local community studio never could get their act together, so this will be good. Robert wants me (and I assume the rest of the cast) to do a voice over for a trailer. And the new shooting location is at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center. Looks like a very nice place. If The Interview voice over is tonight and early enough, I can make tonight’s Bright Flames rehearsal.

Tomorrow AM is a stress test with the cardiologist to see if I can exercise without killing myself. I have been on medication for high blood pressure now for 6 days. Not fun. I have to drink plenty of fluids so my pressure does not drop too low. It did Saturday night, not enough intake during the day. So light-headednes kept me from going to the Gladiators game that night. Last night I did not sleep very well. Due to fluid intake/output, I believe I am short on Potassium. My back of my legs really ached. Very painful.

Tomorrow PM. Depending on if I do not have to do The Interview voice over tomorrow night, I plan on auditioning for BOOLIE WERTHAN in Driving Miss Daisy at Act1 Theater. BOOLIE is the son of DAISY WERTHAN. But if the voice over is tomorrow night, then I will audition on Thursday night, missing another Gladiators game.

Wednesday PM is an audition for Sabrina Fair at Kudzu Playhouse. I think I would make a good DAVID LARRABEE. DAVID is the younger brother of LINUS LARRABEE JR.

Thursday PM will hopefully be a Gladiators’ game, but that depends on … well, see above.

Friday PM is supposed to be another Bright Flames rehearsal.

So everynight this week is something. <sigh>

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The Interview

I have a small role in a short film being shot locally called The Interview. Three lines actually (well, more if you count the mumbling, etc.), but it is a funny part. The film is being done by Matt and Jeff McGahren who I had acting classes with.

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5 W’s in Acting Class

Acting class started last night. Delayed by one week to allow for additional registrations. The class consists of 8 people: Kelly Howell and I, (sister and brother), Matt and Jeff McGahren (brothers), Jayne Jacobs and Ryan Bauer (mother and son) and two others unrelated to anybody else in the class. A real family affair mostly.

It’s good being back in class again. A refresher is never a bad idea. Questions I had forgotten that I need to remember during auditions when doing a cold reading or a monologue:

Who
What
Where
When
Why

Followed up by the second question: How does that make me feel?

Some are unknowns. Items not provided in the context of the script but that could help in understanding the character, in providing a “back life” for the character. The questions more specifically:

Who am I? How does that make me feel?
Who am I talking to? How does that make me feel?
Who/What am I talking about? How does that make me feel?
What is/was the event? How does that make me feel?
Where am I now? How does that make me feel?
Where was the event I am talking about? How does that make me feel?
When was the event I am talking about? How does that make me feel?
Why am I talking about it? How does that make me feel?

And any other Who, What, Where, When, Why that can be asked. You can and probably will provide the incorrect answers to these questions, but that?s ok. Make a decision and play the character with those answers.

Pay Attention! Listen to what the other character is saying. Act and React to the situation. A lot of what acting is is reacting to your fellow actor. To do that you need to pay attention. It’s not good enough to just spit out the next line when there is a pause.

I do know this, but it’s funny because Tammy and I were watching Inside the Actors Studio and Robert Redford was the guest. Mr. Redford was talking about his first acting class and having to do a scene with another student. The other student refused to listen and just spat out his line whenever Redford paused. When they went to perform the scene for the class, Redford finally had enough, grabbed the other student, shook him and then sent him sliding across the stage. That is a reaction, but I am sure it is not the one the other student was looking for. Well the other student was not looking (listening) at all.

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First Audition

Auditions were held last night for H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man at the Kudzu Playhouse in Roswell. This version of the play by Larry Larson and Eddie Levi Lee, takes place not in England, but in Charleston, South Carolina. Matt and Jeff from class auditioned as well.

If possible we were to use a Charleston gentile southern accent. It’s just doing it during a reading. We were also to show interaction with an invisible figure. I did not put a lot of effort into that. I was reading the part of Marvel interacting with Griffen (the Invisible Man). We had about 45 minutes to read over the lines and prepare. With that much time, is it still a cold reading? I don’t think I did that well, but it was not exactly what I was expecting or, the more I thought about it, not exactly what I wanted to do (a stage production of The Invisible Man).

I arrived early and as I was waiting in the lobby, I could hear people rehearsing a play on the stage. I could not see the stage, all I could do was listen. My thoughts were, while I was listening, was “That is awful”. It was terrible. Did I want to audition for a playhouse where the current production was that bad? It was not until later when they finished up rehearsal and left, that I noticed it was all kids. So you see the beginnings of my mindset as I went into the auditions.

First, this was my first audition. Second, I thought the rehearsal I could hear was awful from what I could hear. And, third, as I was waiting to read with my partner, I was watching some of the others read their lines and some of them were overacting very noticeably. Even my partner said “overact and let the director tone you down”.

So with all that, I was not in the right mindset to read lines to the director. I know I did bad and I know I will not land a part. But it was my first audition and really did not know what to expect anyway.