I Really Need this Job!!!

Most people have seen A Chorus Line, but I experience it on a daily basis.  I often leave auditions thinking that I am the worst auditioner ever.  I am a good actress but I never get cast.  It can be an incredibly frustrating experience.  If you’re not an actor you know how it feels too.  Especially in this economic climate.  Jobs in general hard hard to come by, and watching other people climb the ladder right next to you can be demoralizing.  I meet tons of people every day and I know that I have just as much to offer if not more than they do, but for some reason I am not the one in the shows.  They are.

So what am I doing wrong?!!

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Published in:  on May 29, 2009 at 5:29 pm Leave a Comment
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Indicators of Success – Are You a GREAT Producer?

If anyone attempted to spout off what they believed to be indicators of success you’d get quick thoughtless answers like Money, Respect, Position, etc. etc.  But there are underlying indicators that exist only for those who’ve truly reached their potential.

producer benefits

producer benefits

No one is satisfied with their paycheck – except you. If there’s anything easier than stealing candy from a baby, it’s stealing money from an artist.  This includes anyone on the creative side of the production team.  These folks are fulfilling some kind of “dream” of theirs and would be willing to work for mere pennies.  YOU on the other hand, and those on the business side of the team are the brains of the operation – the reason these artists are successful.  Therefore, YOU should be paid liberally. That is after all why you studied something practical and boring like Finance, Economics or Cinema Studies.

cack              cack                                                         cack

perfect worker

perfect worker

Your production staff includes twice as many medics than normal productions.  Not only do your employees tremble in fear at the sound of your voice, inflated occurrences of stress induced panic attacks are humdrum around your set.  Better to be feared than loved so they say.  I couldn’t agree more.  Nothing encourages a more dedicated and enthusiastic worker than unmitigated fear.

cack

you at night

you at night

Crying yourself to sleep at night.  It takes a superhuman ability to create the perfect work environment with the most efficient methods of operation.  As the producer, you not only have the most responsibility but the most important responsibility.  You must summon divine Herculean powers to endure such a task.  It stands to reason you’d need ample time at night to return to normalcy.  If you’re not crying yourself to sleep, you’re doing something wrong – obviously, you’re not working hard enough.

cack

And finally, the foremost indicator for success:                           cack (more…)

Published in:  on at 6:00 am Comments (1)
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new works lab at intar

Davey Crockett, Bar Hunter - Michael Schreck, artist

Davey Crockett, B'ar Hunter - Michael Schreck, artist

Further Life and Times, a play i wrote about my hometown, is having a free, public reading as part of INTAR theater’s New Works Lab a week from today. the play is a romantic comedy about david crockett coming back from the dead & causin’ a whole heap of trouble!

performance will take place at 5:00 PM, thursday june 4th at INTAR Theater, 500 W. 52nd St, 4th floor.  mention ICBINS and i’ll make sure you get in extra free.

- j.

Published in:  on May 28, 2009 at 2:48 pm Leave a Comment

The Tonys: Not Just the Names of Mobsters Trying to Set You On Fire.

It’s that time of year again: yes, this Sunday almost every television in America will be tuned in to reruns of Survivor…while eight of us and our grandmothers watch the Tony awards.

Since you’re local workplace is *obviously* having a Tony Awards pool, I thought I’d chime in with some of my picks for the winners.  Although you may consider all putting your money together and paying your electric bill, since the only workplaces with Tony Awards pools are dying theater companies.

Oh Economy!

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Published in:  on May 27, 2009 at 4:16 am Comments (8)

on the appeal of substance abuse

when one is an emerging writer, one really can’t help looking at the habits of The Great Ones for a little guidance.  how else are you supposed to know if you’re doing it right?

for me, a bit of a goody-two-shoes raised in a texas school system that made you feel guilty about taking that second tylenol, a problem has emerged.  take a look at some of my heroes and lemme know if you see a pattern here:

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Published in:  on May 25, 2009 at 5:37 pm Leave a Comment
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Collaboration in poetry, you know, like in a play

Mike This is a guest post by Michael Swellander, the founder and editor of Pinecones: a Podcast of Young Poets, which features interviews and readings from poets young and old. At the moment, he is studying in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Besides being an editor and a student, he is a poet and musician. He is from San Antonio, TX.

Lately, in a particularly active corner of the poetry blogosphere, much of the discussion has been about “schools of poetry,” and whether or not one may really say “poetry” anymore without a hyphen in front of it. Does one make Flarfist or Conceptualist poetry? Is one poet a member of some as-yet-unclassified department of the School of Quietude, or does he or she fit somewhere among the post-avants? Is what he or she does even poetry? What is poetry?

One of the most beneficial things to come out of this discussion is poets who have said that they just write “poetry” without an affiliation to any school or tradition are put in a position where they (we) need to second-guess ourselves. The binary of School of Quietude and post-avantism that Silliman’s set up is most helpful in that it challenges poets who have taken poetry as a given for as long as we can remember to reexamine, from an almost atomic level,  just what it is we’re doing. Even if, in the end, we are unable to identify with a group of other poets to our complete satisfaction, it’s worth the work to try to find out who we are, and why we are the way we are. Story continued below… (more…)

Published in:  on May 22, 2009 at 1:07 pm Comments (1)
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Step One: Turn Off Family Guy. Step Two: Go Write.

V-woolf

Virginia Woolf, in her infinite wisdom, said: “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”. (What do men need, by the way?)

I have a room all of my own, and (some) money. And yet, Mrs.Dalloway is hardly pouring out of my fingers. Especially when I’m working a lot to be able to afford this room of my own with (some) money left over.

I’m definitely in a writing rut. There are no teachers to impress with my latest pages (or actors, for that matter), no meetings with directors or agents to polish up a script for, certainly no plans for productions. There’s just….gulp…me. And, in the immortal words of Andrew Lloyd Webber, “Sometimes it’s very difficult to keep momentum when it’s you that you are following.”***

Anyway, partly for the benefit of the readers of this blog, but mostly for my own, I have compiled a list of ways to keep motivated during what we will some day fondly look back on as our “pre-Pulitzer” days…(after the jump)

 

***I am aware, that, in general ICBINS is not big on musical theater….but if anyone out in the blogosphere knows what that is from, WITHOUT using google, I will be so impressed….

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Published in:  on May 18, 2009 at 6:21 am Comments (1)

You Know What They Say About Jewish Girls…

After meeting me for about one minute, there are two things that people know about me:

1) I am an actress,

and

2)I am Jewish. 

So I thought that I would dedicate this post to something that combines both. . .  Yiddish Theatre!! 

 

Most people in the theatre world don’t know much about it, and yet we are all very much influenced by it.  Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg first experienced theatre in Yiddish.  Although the methods that they adapted were in large part a reaction to the melodramatic nature of the yiddish theatre, it is impossible to deny the impact that Yiddish theatre had on the creation of modern day realism in America.

 

The great thing to know is that there is still Yiddish theatre going on in New York.  The Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre is one of the last four Yiddish Theatres in operation today, and the only one in the US.  In fact, it is the oldest continually running Off-Broadway theatre, and is celebrating its 94th consecutive season this year: a testament to the fighting nature of the Yiddish culture. Click to read more on Yiddish Theater in New York City (more…)

Published in:  on May 15, 2009 at 3:24 am Leave a Comment
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Sex is selling, perverts are buying!

Is this missing from your productions?

Is this missing from your productions?

It’s no secret that scantily clad ladies and bare-chested men have been drawing audiences to all types of media since Adam and Eve noticed each other’s naughty parts.

Even with a failing economy one thing remains constant….SEX IS SELLING

To Producers: If you’ve been struggling to get people in the seats it may be time to reevaluate the material you are presenting to your audience.   You need to be asking your writers a few questions before you decide to take on their projects:

Writers: Is your work inspiring? Is it well written? Would your renowned professors at that prestigious university you went to be proud? If you answered yes to these questions- that’s great, no no, that’s terrific!  But the question you should be asking is: Does your stageplay/screenplay contain two or more smoking hot women making out? Skim through your stage directions…is there sideboob?

Here are a few Statistics, after the jump:

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Published in:  on May 13, 2009 at 5:00 am Leave a Comment
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Shakespeare in the Park … no not that park

New York Neo-Classical Ensemble is a theater company of young actors dedicated to keep the works of Shakespeare fresh and vibrant.  On Thursday I stopped by opening night of their latest production of Shakespeare’s delightfully dark comedy Measure for Measure, a play which begs the question…

SEX OR DEATH?
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Published in:  on May 11, 2009 at 4:35 am Comments (1)
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