Acting is a Job. You're Allowed to Complain About It
Let me asking you something: Have you ever had a bad day at work? Has your boss ever treated you unfairly? Have you ever become so frustrated with your job that you begin to question why you put yourself through the stress day in/day out?
I'd say most, if not all of us, have had days like this. It's normal to want to vent your frustrations about your workday.
However, I find it interesting that when actors complain about their work, instead of the "I hear that" type of replies, they're thrown the cliché "Well this is the business" or "If you can't handle it, get out" or "You don't know what stress is yet" or any other proverb that tries to disqualify an actor's frustration because it's the industry.
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Meisner and Me: The Start Of A Journey
For the past few months, I have had the honor and privilege to attend a true, rigorous acting School. Being an out of state student (Chicago Pride all the way!) New York has given me a breath of fresh air and this school has given me a new outlook on acting. I'll never forget my first day of acting class, there I am clad In all black ready to take on whatever challenge I'm faced and ready to perform! Ideas running through my mind, scenes playing in my head! This was it!
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Through Good and Bad, My Dad and I Always Had Theatre
The last show I saw with my father was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. It was an early October evening in 2014, and it was the first time I realized he was sick. He coughed all through dinner and the show, insisting it was just a cold, but his pallor and inability to focus indicated otherwise. He died of a rare cancer the day after Thanksgiving that year.
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Accents or No Accents
Are accents important and integral to productions? I say yes.
I recently attended a production of “Titanic” where the vocals were good, the acting good, but the accents required were barely there (if at all) and when they were present, most executed it poorly. In a show like "Titanic", accents are non-negotiable.
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The 5 Most Underrated Theatre Colleges for 2018 - Southeast
Here at OnStage Blog, we spend months compiling, researching and comparing college theatre programs to come up with what we feel are the very best colleges in the country. While names like Tisch, Juilliard, Emerson and Baldwin Wallace get plenty of attention, there are a ton of schools out there with incredible programs that deserve more.
So we wanted to highlight some of these underrated programs. Whether they are programs that have amazing facilities and curriculum or have a ton of value when it comes to their cost, these are schools that are doing tremendous things in theatre that might not be known on a national level.
Remember, we're talking about schools we feel are underrated. If you don't see certain programs here, it's more than likely that they're already getting a ton of credit.
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10 Songs I Never Mind Hearing At Auditions
There are so many lists warning you what songs you shouldn't audition with, I thought I'd switch things up and list a few that I'm always glad to hear. Songs not to avoid. But this is just to get your mind going. The best audition song highlights the things you do best, better than others. That's going to be different for every person.
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"You suck... She's prettier... You suck... You're not talented": The Destructive Inner Dialogue of an Actor
Over the last year, I've auditioned for at least ten projects. Out of all those auditions, I booked half, an unusually good ratio for me, but then again, I'm not in a super competitive area like NYC. No matter what city you're in though, auditions where you don't get the part start to take a toll on your self-esteem. Your thoughts begin to turn for the worst, and sound something like this: "You were terrible. Of course they didn't give you a callback (part, auditions, etc.)! You'll never make it in this field. Dad was right... I should take advantage of my English degree." And it goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on. You're killing your chances with your negative BS, and I'm here to tell you why you probably didn't get the part:
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When Unhappy Exhaustion Kicks In
About a month and a half ago, I was sharing breakfast with my fellow cast mates, and who I consider to be some the most dedicated theatre makers I’ve had the privilege to work with. While munching through bowls of cereal, because every philosophical discussion relating to theatre is done over a bowl of Lucky Charms, one of my friends touched upon an adage that was all too familiar in the theatre world. He remarked that theatre people are some of the most, if not the most, hardworking people there are, but due to the surrounding stigma that we never get paid, our hard work is often seen as trivial or even irrelevant.
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The "Mother" of All Roles
I had planned to do some new material last night. I knew it was a risk to bring in a surprise element to my nightly routine, but the bit I had thought of earlier in the day, when bagging up the bite-sized strawberries and cutting the PB&J in half, was just too good to let go. I know my audience typically prefers me to stick to the bit, and even when there is collaboration, I know I need to be sure it's my audience who's making the call on anything new.
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College Auditions from the Parent Perspective: Part 1
You think your kid is talented (what parent doesn’t, right?). Maybe talented enough to make a career out of this music or theater thing. But those careers are pretty unstable, aren’t they? There must be a million actors waiting tables hoping for their big break and musicians working ‘day’ jobs so they can play with their band at night. But maybe, just maybe--your kid could be the one to make it. So you agree (maybe reluctantly) to look at college music and theater programs.
I’m a flutist and college music professor with over 30 years of teaching and playing experience. In 2017, my older daughter decided to take auditions for collegiate musical theater programs. While I am very familiar with how auditions work for music programs, adding theater to the mix brought new challenges. I started reading as much information as I could. I had several panicky moments--what if she had never taken tap dance lessons? What about acting camp? Should she ignore her school theater program for other opportunities in the community?
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