Yes, I know, it’s been quite some time since my last post. What a bad blogger am I! And after sixteen (!) years of Catholic school, can you just imagine the guilt I’m heaping on myself??
Life, that heartless force, has repeatedly intervened by throwing to-do’s into my path. Among the obstacles are work, sleep, traffic, and saving puppies from burning buildings. You know, the usual.
So to help ease me back into posting, a fun link for you fans of Sesame Street is here.
Yesterday the Screen Actors announced the candidates for its upcoming 2010 Board election. The listing is here.
Although I know you’re just dying to spend 10 minutes reading all the names, I’ll cut to the chase: Yours truly is running yet again. (Must be something in the water..)
The candidates’ names are drawn at random for listing on the ballot. I got #43, a number first identified by the ancient Egyptians as the single luckiest number under the sun.
Significances of the number forty-three: It’s the 14th smallest prime number; I-43 runs through Wisconsin; and 43A.D. began on a Tuesday. I mean, seriously, how can I lose?
Ballots are mailed out to members on August 23. Don’t forget
Actors just starting out often ask me for advice, and I’m always happy to answer. I haven’t yet been sued for my advice, so I’ve decided to tempt fate by starting to offer some here from time to time. As if there weren’t enough wanton destruction in this world. I don’t promise that it will be profound, or even useful to everyone, only that it’s worked for me and/or other actors I know. Which means, of course, absolutely zilch unless it works for you.
Numero uno: Study yourself and your results. Make notes. Improve.
So many factors come into play during performance that it’s nearly impossible to say with certainty what caused us to soar or sink on any given day. It could be too much or too little of a frighteningly wide range of things: food, sleep, sex, prep, exercise, emotion, etc., etc.
However, over time patterns develop. If identified, they can help reduce the number of unknown factors. But you can’t expect yourself to see a pattern if all the data is bouncing around upstairs with all the other stuff in your head.
Therefore, get it out of your head. After every rehearsal, performance, etc., make brief notes on how you did and what might have contributed. Are you better at comedy pre-workouts and dramas post? Does talking to your bf/gf right beforehand help or hurt you? Do you perform better when you have the lines down cold (generally it’s yes, but perhaps you’re a freak of nature and the answer’s no)?
Once you guess at something’s good/bad effect on you, test your theory. If you’re right, then add/avoid it immediately. The sooner you discipline yourself, the sooner it will become a habit, and the sooner you’ll have one fewer obstacle to performance. Great acting is difficult enough without us making it any harder on ourselves.
Good luck.
Almost all actors know this, but most non-actors don’t: There are two unions for on-screen actors: SAG and AFTRA. This is unique among in Hollywood. All screenwriters–one union; all directors–one union; all drivers-one union; etc., etc.
Although I know how much you delight in reading the random spaz (at right, from googling ‘random spaz’) that comes out of my mind, it seems only fair to occasionally — and only occasionally, mind you — offer some random spaz from others.
So here are three pieces from a science email newsletter:
a) Meditation helps increase attention span so you can
b) Finally, techies make something useful: A robot that fetches beers! Captured live! On video!
c) An argument that our universe is actually the center of a black hole inside another universe. (And you thought you felt small before.) I know you’re busy and all, esp because this is other people’s random spaz, but here’s a sampling, just to tantalize you: “The torsion of spacetime prevents teh appearance of the cosmological singularity in the early Universe filled with Dirac particles averaged as a spin fluid.”
So what are you waiting for?!
