Finally

Not even the weekend and I already have three auditions lined up for next week. That's what I like to see.

Sheila remarkably remembered my existence and is sending me on a call for an IHOP commercial on Monday morning and then after that I have the reading for the Sharon Lawrence webisode that I have diligently been studying for. As with all auditions, I would LOVE to get the job, but I go in with reasonable expectations so that I don't cry a freaking river when I don't get it. It's all part of building that armor to help me get through this seemingly impenetrable wall of rejection. Then later on in the week I am so glad to be auditioning for my friend Josh Heisler and Tracy Woodward's production of bobrauschenbergamerica for their company called The Theatricians. They are really quite wonderful and regardless of the outcome it should be a fun day of workshopping the play. Everyone who knows me knows that Charles Mee is my favorite writer and bob is my favorite play so it would just be lovely to be able to perform in it again.

Second to last performance tomorrow of AYLI and we have been sold out since Monday which is so fantastic. It's just wonderful energy when you have a full house. If only the strippers weren't there. le sigh.

I'm off to Candyland!


FRENCH PEOPLE I LOVE FRIDAY:



la magnifique Marion Cotillard

oops

Every day I think of things I should write here but I have not had a chance to sit and write it and now that I actually have a minute I am drawn blank. I am probably being distracted by the manliness that is Bear Grylls.

Had a good performance on Saturday. I felt a bit better than the first one, though we are sharing a dressing room now with a Burlesque show that is performing on the stage next door. It's a nightmare as you can imagine. There is no room and everyone is perpetually shushing each other and it's hard to keep focus. Luckily I don't have a part that particularly requires an intense amount of focus. If we were doing Hamlet, you better believe I'd be losing my shit on those skanks. They aren't even a classy Burlesque show, because I actually really like burlesque if it's done well, I adore Dita Von Tees but this is just pathetic and trashy. Speaking of which, Catherine Hardwicke is directing the new concept Hamlet on screen starring Emile Hirsche and I would eat a baby for a chance to audition. Lord knows I have reservations about Hardwicke as a director but who cares. It'd be rad. But I think that would require my manager to remember I exist. FAIL. As soon as I get new headshots I am shopping for someone new.

I'm feeling so overwhelmed with the many stages of getting out into the world and how it seems like every time I pass some kind of hurdle, another seemingly insurmountable one rears it's head at me. Usually I take this in stride but the past few weeks I've just felt the weight of it.

On Monday Alexa set up a meeting with a woman who wants to start an acting class that I would be really interested in taking. She wants to tailor it to people who are already professionals and are trained but want to fine tune their work and do some scene study, which I think is great. A huge part of why I haven't found a class I like out here yet is because so many seem to have people of different abilities and goals and that leads to alot of time wasting and is not helpful to me at this point I think. So I really hope it works out and that I can afford it when the times comes.

I hate this weather.
excuse my crankiness.

Finally

We opened last night after about a month of an insane rehearsal schedule and even crazier rehearsal locations. It went much smoother than I had anticipated really, I was very worried about tech coming together but there were not any problems that I noticed and the play flew by. I was frantically trying to help poor Megan do all her costume changes because it always seemed we had more time in rehearsal. The only mishap I noticed was when Kerry was waiting behind a curtain before she entered onstage and for no reason the curtain just fell and everyone saw her standing back there waiting. But those are the hilarious things that happen in live theatre that make it better I think. Definitely more entertaining at the very least.

I thought I could have hit some of my own beats better, to be honest I didn't feel comfortable until about halfway through the play which of course is when my part is essentially finished. But I am feeling like next week is going to go much better in terms of my own performance. But too bad for me that there were two reviewers in the audience. Hopefully they didn't take notice of little me.

Sometimes I think that going out and hanging iwth the cast after a show is the best part of performing.

I have effectively slept most of today away, which was my goal. Now I must engtertain Maeby because she was a trooper and laid with me all day. Best dog ever.

Geesh

It's hot. Not conducive to still be MEMORIZING MY LINES. FML. I'm actually not doing too badly at the moment, it's just the thought of having to sit and finish that is draining. Eternally procrastinating. It's kind of crunch time now so I have no choice in the matter.

Lots of real life work this week. Good for my bank account, bad for learning lines and playing with Maeby. She is overheating. Eskimo's aren't supposed to live in Los Angeles. I'm missing the all nighter's at Greenberg. Not so much because I love extra work but because I know that experience probably won't be replicated. It was the perfect storm of good crew, good friends, easy job and Zoe's bungalow.



Another Zooey I love. Can't wait for this movie in July.

Watch Grey's Anatomy tomorrow for guest star Amy Gumenick! So glad she is working tons.

Rehearsal last night went really well. First stumble through for the first half. We finished just in time. Knew more lines than I thought but I still had my script with my for the last part of the act when I wasn't so sure about them. Rehearsing at the offices of the Gay Men's Chorus is fun, though i do wish we could get the actual theatre space. Can't complain though. That's the life of low budget theater!

weekend

Had a rehearsal this morning for As You Like It, I really need to start learning my lines. It's really gonna make a difference because it's such a physical part, I'm doing yoga like the whole play so i really need to get off book. Sigh.

Auditioned for a play yesterday, Agamemnon, that Ty told me about. I think the audition went well, I got a callback but I won't be able to go because it's the same day as my brother's graduation. They said that was ok though and we'd work it out. So I'm not exactly sure when I am going to do that. It'd be an interesting opportunity I think. They are planning on doing it under the Santa Monica Pier at sunset for a few days in July, so it could be really fun. Something different. I've always wanted to do a Greek Tragedy. I hope I get to die. If I get the part obviouslyyyyy.

Hopefully Ty and I both get cast.

Title.

I had another crazy weekend though not as exhausting as the last one luckily. On Saturday I had a rehearsal for As You Like It, which went great, it just takes every ounce of strength in my poor body to get up for an 8 am rehearsal. Especially when I had to work the rest of the day as well.

Sunday I had a rehearsal in the afternoon at a lovely park in Hollywood that I had never even heard of before and it was pretty cool. It had art installations and live music and a theatre, but we rehearsed outside. It was ridiculously hot but it wasn't too awful. Except for the fact that Jake had his bicycle stolen. That was not cool. As a person who has never stolen anything in my life I just don't understand how one can walk off with someone else's belongings! It is ridiculous! And the fact that no one saw anything just perplexes me.


I'm doing some extra work for Greenberg starting tomorrow and I'm starting to get worried that they won't give me some SAG vouchers which is really the primary reason to be doing this. I just really really need to get in the union. I'm over this! So I really hope to get a voucher out of this. Especially since I am going to have to be a vampire for the next three days. And I'm doing a raw food cleanse so I'm going to be starved the whole time and having to stay away from Craft Services which is actually the greatest part of being on set. Le sigh. I hate "The Secret" but I am going to Secret those vouchers into my hands if it kills me.

On a similar note:

"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Top officials at the bitterly divided Screen Actors Guild said they approved a tentative contract on Sunday, clearing the way for the 120,000 members of Hollywood's biggest union to vote on the deal.

"Our board voted by a slim majority to send out a deal to our membership," said SAG President Alan Rosenberg, who is opposed to the contract and described it as "terrible."

The vote, following a two-day meeting of SAG's national board of directors was 53.4 percent in favor of recommending the deal.

The membership vote, which requires a simple majority, is likely to happen in the next four to five weeks. For now, the bitterly divided union's supporters and opponents will draw up their arguments and rebuttals to present to voters.

SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents movie studios, announced on Friday that they had struck a tentative deal after months of often rancorous talks that helped bring production to a standstill amid fears of a strike.

The agreement -- covering actors ranging from struggling extras to big-name stars in movies and TV -- delivers 3.5 percent effective annual increases. It will not be retroactive to the June 30, 2008, expiration the old contract, which was a major SAG goal.

As a result, SAG members would lose tens of millions of dollars in pay increases they would have earned had SAG accepted the AMPTP's offer last June, one source said.

A key issue was how much actors should be paid for work delivered by new media, including the Internet and mobile phones, which are seen as a vital future distribution outlet. The new pact largely offers nothing extra in these areas.

Film production has slowed in Hollywood due to the labor uncertainty and the recession, and experts said a deal should pave the way for some increase in moviemaking.

Hollywood has feared a rerun of the 2007/2008 writers strike that crippled most television production and cost the Los Angeles-area economy an estimated $3 billion.

The lengthy talks split the SAG membership, with a moderate faction in January ousting hard-line chief negotiator Doug Allen, a Rosenberg ally, and forming a new negotiating team. Talks resumed, but then broke down again in February.

"I wouldn't say it's our finest moment," Rosenberg said of the infighting.

Rosenberg told reporters he would not resign from his unpaid post if members voted for the pact.

Rather, he hoped a "no" vote would force the studios to "finally deal with us in good faith when it comes to the Internet, when it comes to the future."

In a statement, the AMPTP said both sides reached a compromise deal that promised SAG members "meaningful" wage increases.

"With this agreement in place, our entire industry can work together to overcome the enormous economic challenges before us," it said."

my poor sentimental heart.

Went to go see my new friend Erwin in Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice at the Hayworth Theater last night. Sarah Ruhl is one of my favorite playwrights and I knew that I would enjoy the play and I was not disappointed. It was a really beautiful adaptation of Orpheus and Eurydice, one of my favorite Greek plays. Sarah Ruhl has a really musical and lyrical quality to her dialogue that makes every word incredibly poetic and beautiful. The cadence to all the lines is really beautiful and adds to the almost dreamlike quality to all her plays. They are all very other-worldly, and not just in the sense that this play actually takes place in the Underworld.

Erwin did a beautiful job as Orpheus, one of my favorite male romantic leads. Would it be weird to name my kid Orpheus? I just love him so much! Maybe my next dog? hmm..

Anyone who is in the area should check this play out, it is incredibly romantic, beautifully acted as well as visually lovely and of course, utterly tragic. My sad heart cried but as everyone knows, it is not exactly difficult to make me cry.



Tuesday night I went to Improv Olympic in Hollywood and was surprised at how wonderful the performance was. There were two groups on at the 11o'clock hour which is when I went. The first one, Gypsy Lou, was incredibly hilarious and just spot on. I find improv to be incredibly difficult and horrifyingly scary so I never do it, so when it is done well I am in awe. I could tell the amount of work and rehearsal that went into it.

The second group however was a good example of shit improv. It was hard to sit through, in fact, I got up to use the bathroom which I would normally NEVER do during a show even if my bladder was bursting. But it was just embarrassing. I went with my friends Sean and Malcolm, both actors as well. The trick is to have lots of actor friends to take me to all these amazing shows and buy me beer. It works well. Sean is filming a sex comedy right now and the details of it sounds pretty grotesque. Sex with a bagel? Oh Sean, I like how as the economy gets worse and worse our standards and ethics get lower and lower. We gotta hustle right? Malcolm would never lower himself to such indignities as he is a member of the Actor's Gang. Fancy pants.

Got lots of rehearsal coming up this weekend for As You Like It as well as doing the voice overs for Checkmate so it can be edited. As much as I say I would love to be a stay at home doggy mom (which lets face it, some weeks i am) I am so glad to have lots of work right now. Even if it is unpaid.

BUT next week I am also doing extra work on the new Noah Baumbach film called Greenberg, My sister's friend has a part in the film and got us all into a party scene. By all I mean Mariana, Me, Ty and David I think. Normally I am not a huge fan of extra work but rumor has it that SAG vouchers will abound so I am ready and willing to kiss lots of ass for a voucher. And hopefully it will be fun as well and I'll be making some skrillaaaa.

Peace.

P.S. I apologize to anyone whom I may have called "homeslice" this week. I don't know what has gotten into me. It needs to stop.

Le sigh.

Fin.

Finished principle photography today after a ten hour shoot as well as a late night shoot last night as well. Between that and my rehearsal this morning for the play at 8 am I am pretty burned out. Glad to be home again with my little Mae.

This morning we went through the first scene that I am in in the play, basically the wrestling scene. Blocked it out almost completely and did a couple of runs. It looks good already.

I wanted to put this video up yesterday but I couldn't figure out how to do it. I was on a different computer. It's just too much technology sometimes.



My favorite part of one of my favorite films. It's also a really great example of a short film that has no dialogue other than voice over. Man that shit is difficult.

Owies

I filmed a few night scenes last night for Checkmate, most of them involving getting beat with a candlestick and thrown about. It was fun though doing stunts is always a bit nerve wracking. I am not exactly the most coordinated person, not to mention the fact that I am inherently flinchy. So every time I saw the candlestick coming at my face it took all the strength in my being to not jump back and run away screaming. I was super paranoid I was going to get hit in the face and break a nose or something so I kept practicing it and of course, that went well nothing happened.



And after all that fuss when it was my turn to pretend hit fake hubby on the head with a picture frame we had it perfectly choreographed. We practiced and rehearsed like so many times that my neck hurt from holding it at a strange angle while swinging the picture frame up. When it finally came time to get an actual take they turned on the fog machine and I guess after being flung around when it came time to hit Luis with the picture frame I think the fog messed up my depth perception and I clocked him on the head with the frame. Lucky for Luis I am not very strong and the angle I was laying in made it even more difficult to put any muscle behind my hit but it made a horrific noise.

It would actually have been a great take had my face not instantly flashed total horror at having hit him. Maybe they can salvage that take by taking my reaction out somehow. I felt terrible. I really do blame the fog though, it made me totally disoriented. AND it is toxic for your brain so maybe I was high on the fumes or something.

This morning I had the first read-thru for As You Like It. It's a good, relatively short version of the play, and went quickly as most comedies do luckily. It was alot of fun and there were yummy chips. I am playing two different characters and it should actually be quite fun. They are gonna be wacky I think. My director, Jeffrey Morris, is very into doing lots of movement work and really developing characters through a collaborative, thoughtful process as opposed to just shouting Shakespeare at people.

Am very tired and am going to get some rest before a very full day of filming both tomorrow and Monday. As well as hopefully going to see the final performance of Pounding Nails by The Theatricians.

I like it.

Found out last night that I got cast in As You Like It.

I am very glad to finally be back onstage, it seems like it has been ages, though it probably has not been an unreasonable amount of time. I ended up getting cast in a secondary role, which I have decided is actually going to work much better for me at this moment in time, since this weekend I begin filming a short film for Stuart McClave and will be working on that for about a month. So my time will need to be split between those two projects for the next couple of months.

I am looking forward to being busy with something other than watching babies. Not that I don't enjoy that. But it is just a means to an end and not something I am entirely passionate about.

Last night I went to the Ruby Theatre at the Complex to see my brilliant friends perform in Pounding Nails in the Floor with my Forehead. It was a fantastic cast - Josh Heisler and Tracy Woodward (the Artistic Directors of the Theatricians Theater Company) really did an amazing job at getting everything together and putting on a really wonderful show. Their hard work did not go unnoticed and I hope that more people are able to see the show and it gets the recognition they deserve. I am so proud of my talented friends! It is so rewarding to see wonderful actors getting to put on great shows. Oh look they have a website! www.theatricians.com. I know I am not alone in hoping they put on lots more shows!




What lovely and talented friends I have. It is so incredible that out of one acting program so many talented and hard working actors can emerge.

In other news, I think I am going to take an Aerial Arts class in the coming weeks. I am really interested in Tissu and while I know I lack the upper body strength that is required to climb up a silk sheet, I think I can do it! I am really motivated to learn more circus stuff. Trapeze and Rings are next!

Let 's not lie, I will probably break some bones but it will probably be worth it in the end.
Yes?

headaches.

Went to my callback this evening. It was at the LGBT center in Hollywood, which was gorgeous! Such a nice museum and great offices and rehearsal space for the Gay Men's Chorus. I guess the Chorus let us use their rehearsal space for the callback.

The bathrooms in the building are all unisex, probably to acomodate our trannylicious friends, but it was gross to go in and use a bathroom that clearly had been used by dirty boys. Gives me the icks. Lord knows I love a good tranny though.

The callback went well, I mean whatever they all do right? Unless I totally screw up they are all pretty much the same. I can gauge my performance pretty well and I was well prepared so I did all I could. Did two Orlando/Rosalind scenes, both twice after getting notes from the director. They were very nice and seem to know their Shakespeare which is always good to see.

Hopefully will know or not know soon.

Pretty much immediatly after an audition I let it go. I can't dwell or think or anything because I would go crazy I think. I can't just think about them once they are finished. It would probably give me a nervous breakdown. Especially as it seems to be getting harder and harder to deal with. It probably comes in waves. My ability to handle it, I mean.

As soon as I left the callback I got a pounding headache that still hasn't gone away. I think that I just so intensely have to focus on the audition that when I finally am finished all that tension goes straight to my head. It's like when people have seizures. When people come out of them they are exhausted like they ran a marathon because all the electrical shit in their brains goes haywire. It's kind of like that. Except non-life threatening. Right?

I got a callback for Rosalind for As You Like It. It will either happen on Tuesday or Thursday evening. Hopefully Thursday so I have more time to work on the sides.

In related news, turns out this is the only painting of Shakespeare that exists and it was only recently discovered to be of him.



Art historians have are saying it shows that Shakespeare was actually a part of the aristocracy by his mid forties and was not a penniless writer as most people like to think.

In my brain, Shakespeare was EXACTLY like Joseph Fiennes portrayed him in Shakespeare in Love. I don't care what anyone says. It's my favorite. Swoon.

Interesting Morning

I had an audition this morning for a play (As You Like It) at a tiny theatre on Hollywood and La Brea. I spent the night at my friend's house so that I would actually be close enough to have the energy to get out of bed while suffering from a day light's savings time change and go to the audition.

I walked to my car and there was a huge swarm of bees surrounding my car. they were mainly laying on the top of and then about a hundred were flying around it. It was terrifying. Bees can kill you! You can't mess around with them. So I stood there for a while waiting to see if they would abate, because I did not want to make them angry, and then finally I went back to my friend's house to try and see if we could brainstorm a solution to the situation.

After a while my friend decided to be brave and jumped in my car and drove it around the block to get the bees off. Meanwhile, being the brave warrior that I am, I ran, fled really back to the house.

Finally I was able to leave to my audition, thank god it wasn't a set time kind of thing, they just said to show up between 9 am and 12pm. Which by the way is stupid and inhuman because actors hate morning. I got there at about 11 40.

I read for Phebe and that went really well, luckily I have done her main speech before so it was not like a total cold read. But they thought it was! Muahaha.

Then they asked me to read for Rosalind also, which is rad because she is the lead and with Shakespeare companies it is rare that outsiders get to go straight for the top. Usually it is common knowledge that one works themselves up the ladder, though of course there are exceptions.

Would really love to get this part, I miss being onstage and I was surprised with how comfortable I was with the language since it has been a while since I have performed Shakespeare.

We shall see.