Trial By Fire

I haven’t blogged in over a month. Mostly this is because the past month has been a tad overwhelming. The ninth month of pregnancy has been…well…how do I put this? I’ve reached the pregnancy breeds contempt portion of the program. Don’t get me wrong, there is glowing and excitement. There are also lists and lists of nesting activities that need to be done before the baby comes and have filled all time not dedicated to eating and sleeping. Buuuut you didn’t tune in to hear about my aches and pains, so I’ll move on….

I’m about to turn over my job to two people who will replace me when the baby comes. My job is sort of hard to describe. It's part personal assistant, part class programmer, part actor advocate, part marketer, part human copy machine. This jack of all trades position has taught me to be a sponge to everything I get to be a part of and has led to opportunities to write, direct, coach. I feel very lucky. But how do you train a replacement to take over such a vague position when most of it really just involves trying to read the mind of a quirky old Jew. His words. Not mine. A small sample of the words I would use are: hilarious, bellowing, dapper, generous, I could go on and on.

This exact job didn’t exist before me. The awesome Erica did a lot of what I do, but it sort of grew organically out of circumstance and proximity. Suddenly three years later I find myself knowing a lot but having trouble telling someone how to do it. It’s not rocket science. If I can do it, the two very capable ladies that are taking over can do it. It’s just that no day is the same and I don’t know how to help them start.

It sort of reminds me of being a camp counselor where my job was to take care of every aspect of the kiddos…sure, the class I taught was water skiing, but the job also included getting them to drink plenty of water throughout the day, remind them to write letters to their mothers and kill all the scorpions that got into the cabin. Or when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer…I taught a few classes per week, but also had to make friends in the village, drink a lot of beer and dress up to visit the chief. What odd jobs I’ve had.

The few times I’ve found myself behind a desk, I end up wanting to slit my throat out of boredom. The routine is in no way comforting to me. Acting fascinates me because no job is exactly the same. In fact getting to immerse myself in what is unique to each character is what I love about it. Even doing the same scene twice, it is never exactly the same.

Good to know I’m pursuing something that will be a perfect fit if I can make a post-baby career happen. In the meantime, I should at least tell the replacements how the bossman takes his coffee. 

"No training can completely prepare you for the trial by fire you get in the ring."

Sugar Ray Leonard

I-POD in the finals!

Thanks to everyone who has come out to see I-POD in The Network One-Act Festival. We found out today that we made it to the finals. The smoothly run festival has been full of awesomely diverse and creative shows which makes me particularly proud to be part of one of the ten selected finalists.

It has been fascinating to watch what the competition aspect of the festival does to actors. With each performance bringing a risk of elimination, there is pressure equivalent to that of a big audition. When a job is at stake, the nerves distract from executing a scene effectively. A typical audition is just 2 to 3 minutes however, and actors can fake it for that brief period of time. But a one-act is 20 whole minutes. Long enough for an actor to think about all kinds of things...Who is on the panel of judges today? Did I really mean that last line? Do I have bad breath? Why didn't that joke land? Is that person laughing with me or at me? Did that judge just smile? Was there more laughter yesterday? Why is the guy on the front row tapping his foot? Will they take points off for my bad breath?

I have seen several very good actors walk of the stage in the last week and reveal this inner dialogue that has absolutely nothing to do with the story they were just trying to tell. They are so in their own head that normally consistent performances are thrown way off. And as a very smart acting teacher always says "When you are in your head, you are in a very bad neighborhood."

Film festivals often end with awards. Oscars are given out annually. But film producers have a single finished product to promote long after performances have been edited and immortalized on celluloid. In theatre, every performance can vary greatly with new live exciting moments happening unexpectedly. Those moments when someone is actually experiencing something right there in front of you are priceless. It would go against the laws of physics for someone to be truly in the moment and simultaneously aware of how he/she is being judged on a scale of one to ten. Acting wasn't meant to be a competitive sport, so I have particular respect for all those who have taken that on throughout this festival.

The final performances will be this Wednesday night, March 21 at 6:00 and 8:30pm. If you are able, please come support all the actors that have engaged in this contest. They deserve your laughter and applause. As long as you are laughing with them.

get tickets here

AEA members get in FREE! And The program includes some discounts for classes and seminars at The Network.

Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made.
~ George Burns

I-POD

I'm directing a play titled I-POD that will be part of The 2012 Network One-Act Festival next week. It has been so much fun to bring Natalie Menna's script to the stage. 

Nandita Chandra plays a New York City artist who agrees to spend six weeks on a self sustaining eco barge on the East River. She's the type who really has no business living among these naturalists. Will she win the Guggenheim grant that everyone on the barge is competing for?

Come check it out: tickets available here 

"'I'm not sure how serious you really are about this.' She says while inspecting my sinful leather shoes. There was a sale at Saks, bitch, and they're cheaper than your four hundred dollar vegan square-toed atrocities."
-- Stella in I-POD

2012

Happy New Year!

And welcome to my blog! I had a blog a few years ago back when we were all on myspace. Remember myspace? Anyway, I realized that I missed it. The blog. Not myspace. And after an extremely difficult 2011, I plan to concentrate on things that I enjoy in 2012: writing, acting, directing, coaching, working for the most awesome boss ever, enjoying living in New York City with my husband, fixing up the new apartment I call home, traveling, but tops on the list is preparing for the baby boy that I have due in May. This blog might cover any or all of these topics plus all those little random things we observe on any given day. Looking forward to your comments.

“I love writing, but hate starting. The page is awfully white and it says, 'You may have fooled some of the people some of the time but those days are over, Giftless. I'm not your agent and I'm not your mommy: I'm a white piece of paper. You wanna dance with me?' and I really, really don't. I'll go peaceable-like.” 
-- Aaron Sorkin