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Yuppified

That’s my new little expression to describe various places and people who are becoming hip to technology and general trendiness. Of late, my term describes me to the hilt. I’m at the airport right now, writing this on my laptop at Starbucks where I tried to connect to the internet using their WiFi. Unfortunately, their WiFi ain’t workin’, so I hooked my cell phone up to my laptop and I’m using that as a modem. Meanwhile, I’m suckin’ down my Caramel Frappucino (decaf) and IMing some friends.

Once I get on the plane, I’ll bust out my headphones and a DVD to kill a couple hours. All this to avoid human interaction and general boredom. Really, I like interacting with people, but I have to be distracted or I’ll count each minute of my flight. I don’t mind flying, but it’s not particularly comfortable for me, so I try to be as busy as possible while I’m on the plane.

Anyway, we’re about to start boarding, so I need to split… just as soon as I finish my Caramel Frap.

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Reading Sanford Meisner On Acting

Another student in my Meisner class told me he’s been reading this book and it’s helped him out a lot. I started reading it yesterday and it’s already been very helpful. The first thing I’ve noticed is that our class went much faster than Meisner did with his classes. After two weeks, we were where he was in over a month.

Moreover, it seems he was a little less strict with his repetition exercise than our instructor has been. This is true for a few aspects of the exercise. First, our instructor seems to want us to keep repeating each line for quite a while. I know there’s a fine line between flowing in repetition and doing a scene, but I always felt like we were closer to repetition than doing a scene while our instructor seemed to feel the opposite. I’m not saying I think she was wrong, just that we were more right than we thought. Also, one thing Meisner seems to emphasize is that we not say anything until we feel we need to say it, until our partner does something that makes us want to speak. This has been something I’ve felt is necessary and yet I’ve felt our instructor pushing us to answer quickly and passionately… problem is I often don’t feel like answering right away and the passion isn’t there.

Overall, I think the book is giving me more of a perspective on what Meisner intended with his technique. I have been gleaning little bits from my class, but I’ve also felt sort of helpless and lost for a good portion of it. This book is filling in the gaps and answering lots of questions. Before our final session, I intend to read and re-read the first few chapters of the book since they cover what we’ve done in class. Hopefully, I’ll understand it better and perform better for our last session.

One thing I’m seeing more and more is that I have to get out of my head with this exercise. It’s frustrating because we moved so quickly into adding levels of complexity to the exercise that I almost have to stay in my head in order to just keep afloat. What I mean is that we have several levels to each exercise: my activity, my expectation of who’s coming to the door, my interpretation of the knock at the door and finally the need of the person on the other side of the door. We take all this into account and then do the repetition exercise. Problem is I never became totally comfortable with the raw exercise itself: two people repeating a line.

Anyway, I think I’m learning a lot, especially now that I’m supplementing the class with the book. Hopefully I’ll be better prepared by the time we meet again and I’ll do better work.

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I can’t believe it

For the first time since 1986, the Gators won at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee. This after we fired our coach in October. After last year at Gainesville, I couldn’t be happier that we knocked up the 8th ranked ‘Noles. Looks like the refs weren’t there to bail them out this year.

Of course, I’m becoming more and more unsure of my support for the school’s decision to fire Zook. At first, I was really supportive (I just felt like we weren’t going forward, even in our third year since we hired him), but now I’m realizing he may have his best year yet… and with a young team that is a dead ringer for SEC Eastern Division Champs next year.

I guess now we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Since Spurrier seems to be headed for South Carolina, it seems likely we’ll get Urban Meyer from Utah. Or at least we’ll pursue him. The guy seems to know what he’s doing and his offense will fit very well at UF. It’s so Spurrier-esque it’s scary.

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Seventh Meisner class: Revisited

So, everyone was there this time, including a sincerely apologetic instructor. Everything was cool until the class actually began. I was so flat… I was so flat I can’t even think of a cheesy analogy to describe it. I was awful and everyone knew it, especially me. I had no energy, probably because I’d worked nine hours the day after I worked 12 hours two days after I worked 8 hours and spent 3 hours driving downtown and back for no reason. That run-on sentence is symbolic of how run-down I was.

No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t give any energy to what I was doing. I was in a grumpy mood and my instructor’s fairly abrasive teaching style didn’t ameliorate that in the least. Long story short, I spent two hours watching the clock and counting seconds. Finally, it was over and I went home, knowing how bad that just was.

There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is I have another class and I’m not looking forward to struggling through it. The good news is I’m starting to feel a little spark. That spark is telling me that I’ll have the day off work when we meet again and that I should have tons of energy. That spark is telling me I can perform well, even if I don’t particularly enjoy the exercises. That spark is telling me it’s time to do or die, in the basketball parlance that I grew up with.

Now what?

My confidence has been shattered lately: I didn’t book Noon Preview though I was essentially told I had; I’ve been seriously struggling just to make it two hours each session in this Meisner class; I couldn’t even find the stupid Noon Preview when I tried to go today. I’m beginning to question my ridiculous decision to forsake engineering for a career in acting.

But then I think how far I’ve come, even in the last month. I’ve gotten headshots, gone out on my first audition (and felt really comfortable doing it), taken a super difficult class and gotten myself in a position to start sending out mailers to agents and film schools. It’s very possible I’ll be represented early next year and I could be working. I know I have to give this thing time and muster all the patience I can.

I get a break this week as I head home to Florida for Thanksgiving. I’m going back to LA for a few days early in December. I get almost 3 weeks off for Christmas. I should be very refreshed in January and then I’ll be ready to roll. Right now, I just need confidence. I need the confidence necessary to ‘get out of my head’ and succeed in my final Meisner class. I need the confidence to find an agent and start working. I need the endurance to keep pursuing acting and working full time.

I needed a pep-talk and who better to give it than me?

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Noon Preview or bust

Well, after all that hype, the whole thing fizzled. Why? Apparently, both MapQuest and Yahoo! Maps conspired against me today. I was all dressed up with somewhere to go, but that somewhere was off of Creative Way and I couldn’t find that little side street for the life of me. So, prepped up in my ‘I’m an actor’ outfit with headshots and resumes in tow, I drove around for about 40 minutes and decided I’d passed the point of no return. I decided it would be worse to show up 45 minutes late and hand out headshots then to not show up at all. No one was expecting me and I’d rather my first impression not be ‘the late guy who didn’t book this gig’.

So, that’s that. Good news is I have 10 packets ready to mail once I get the addresses of some local agents and film schools.

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Seventh Meisner class

I’m not a happy camper tonight. I drove down to my class, which was inconveniently rescheduled to 4pm Downtown (I work over 35 miles north of Downtown) only to find that our instructor didn’t show up. Sooo, after sitting around for 40 minutes, I got back in my car and drove home… at 5pm in rush hour traffic. All told, I wasted 3 hours today, driving to nothing at rush hour.

Also, I will be given the option to make up the class some time in the near future. Problem is I took this particular class because it coincided exactly with the window when I would be in town (as opposed to traveling for Thanksgiving, work or Christmas). So, to reschedule will be very difficult and maybe impossible.

Of course the worst part is I’ve been anticipating the end of this class because I’m just not loving it. I’m not too happy about it taking longer than I thought it would.

End rant.

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Sixth Meisner class

Last night’s class was a little better, but still very difficult. Two more classes left. I’m sure I’ll take a lot away from this class, but it’s been tough goin’. I’ve been getting a little more positive feedback, but it’s tough for me to tell how genuine it is. I guess I just have to assume it’s genuine and leave it at that.

Anyway, we’re still working with the repetition exercise. Basically, we typically set up a scene where one person has an ‘action’ that has to be done right now. Another person interrupts by knocking on the door. The main character answers, calls the person at the door based on their knock and then repetition begins. The knocker has a specific need that can be fulfilled by the main actor, but the main actor has an objective to complete quickly.

That’s about it. The scenes are usually set up to lead into some sort of fury, which is necessary so that we can get used to allowing ourselves to be affected. It also allows us to become familiar with the gamut of emotions and feelings.

I need sleep.

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Fifth Meisner class

We changed things up a bit tonight by bringing in some students from another class. Instead of the usual four, we had about ten and the dynamic was totally different. Result? We all felt a little more at ease and it was a really fun class. I got good notes on the scene I did and I felt like I opened up a bit; but most of that was due to my own preparation to sort of thwart the unknown aspect of the exercises we’ve been doing.

After class, I talked with some of my classmates and realized that we’re all pretty much on the same page: what we’ve been doing is very difficult and we never feel like we’ve quite got it right. They both said that I would see the benefits of this class after the class. They said once I get into scene studies and other work, I’ll see what I’ve learned in this class.

First rejection: Noon Preview

Well, I got the e-mail with the list for Noon Preview and I didn’t book it. I guess the most confusing thing is that I felt the casting director essentially told me I booked it (and I don’t think I was being overly optimistic or mis-reading between the lines). I am just trying to realize that I’m learning about the process and that rejection is not only inevitable, but essential in this business.

I’ll still be attending Noon Preview with headshots in hand since the casting director said I could bring them to her there. Moving right along then…

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First audition: Noon Preview

A few months ago, I joined a local actors’ support group called S.T.A.G.E. They occasionally have a showcase called Noon Preview. Basically, there’s an audition and then the show is two weeks later. Today was the audition and it went really well. I’m pretty confident I booked it, so I need to start preparing for the actual show.

The best part of the audition was I felt completely prepared. I felt totally calm and comfortable before, during and after the audition. Mostly, I think that’s because my coach spent about 4 months helping me learn the technical aspects of acting and auditioning. I have no idea how many times he emphasized that most of getting bookings in this market is having good audition etiquette and being comfortable with the technical aspects of auditions, but he was right on.

Anyway, my first audition went well and I couldn’t be happier with the result.

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Fourth Meisner class

Another tough one. I’m beginning to think that I probably just got in over my head. I’m trying to learn as much as possible, but it’s very difficult and not very gratifying. I’m having a tough time consistently achieve the level of emotion that seems necessary to really participate. Also, we’re moving very fast and I’m having trouble soaking it all in.

In all, it’s been a good experience so far, but not an enjoyable one.