Being a young hopeful actor wanting to get into the major, one of the things I keep being reminded is that at BYU, part of the evaluation that determines whether or not we get into the Acting Major track program, is if we are courteous, punctual, and professional in all of our classes and projects at the Theater/Media Arts department. "Professionalism" is a word that my director for Cymbeline reminds her cast of every rehearsal.
By the way, I'm in a children's adaptation of Cymbeline, a play by William Shakespeare. It will play at BYU end of January and beginning of February. There are two versions of it playing at different time slots, I am in the fairytale version as a creepy villain, and a conflicted servant, and also as an old wise man in the woods. Should be fantastic.
Anyway, I keep being reminded in all of these projects I do that we need to develop professionalism and act like professionals. I am quite grateful for their concern we are already acting like the pros before we are the pros, but sometimes I don't think any of us stop to list what we mean by professionalism. I have taken it upon myself to write down what I think the biggest parts of being professional are.
1. Punctual. We need to be on time, regardless of the career path we have. In every career, the boss appreciates it when people come to work on time, and are much more likely to give you raises or recommend you when you change jobs. As actors, it is especially important to be on time for rehearsals or shooting because of how much everyone else is doing to make this project fly, and just as we cannot complete a puzzle without every piece, we can't do a film or a play without its actors. Also, it just sets a good impression of yourself, just as it does in any career.
2. Courtesy. We have all heard the celebrity gossip and actor's gossip of how poorly certain people are treated and how big divas acting like they all that, telling the world they got more money than sense, not bothering to be civil when they go, ohnoyoudidn't, cause they think life should be handed to y'all in plastic spoons but to them in a silver platter, well honey let me tell you something, 'cause THE WORLD DON'T REVOLVE AROUND YOU! There are a lot of people all working to make the film or play a hit, and they appreciate when people aren't rude and don't talk down to them. Just because you are the one on camera does not diminish the contributions of the thousands of crew off-camera. When things don't work out, accept it, rather than try to point fingers and pin blame. Show appreciation to everyone you work with, even if they don't reciprocate
3. Humility. Don't believe your press clippings, don't believe gossip, you are never perfect at what you do or at treating your neighbor like you should. Accept now that you will always be imperfect and need to improve, and seek for ways to improve. Everyone is working on the same project, and they all need to be fed. You don't get special privileges because you are an actor, get in line for food and don't hog the hot cocoa!
4. Hard work. Never be lazy on the job, it can get you fired. A lot of stuff happens before you can go on, like sets, makeup, costumes, blocking, rehearsal. You have lots of time to get lazy, but you shouldn't. When the curtain rises, the audience doesn't care whether you're in the right mood, they expect it when they pay money and see the curtain rise. The director expects your best at the second he asks you to rehearse, regardless of how talented and respected an artist you are, you are expected to perform perfectly when you come on stage, so learn to actively prepare for it by working hard and being diligent in rehearsals. Only perfectly diligent practice makes a perfectly diligent performance.
If you think there is more to professionalism, what other 5th trait would you add to this list?
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Weirder than Dreams is Truth
Although this is not about productions, it is related in some way to my artistic career. I had a dream, and it involved theater.
This is the first dream I've had in weeks. I was at a play with a man playing a nun. I'm not sure if I was an audience member or a cast member, but part of their set was a bunch of beds spread out across the floor of a great hall with a balcony. I made an honest mistake by coming to lie down at his/her feet facing him upwards with my feet interfering with the nun outfit. I realized I was in the wrong place to watch and it caused others lining the wall of the set to laugh at where I sat down to watch. I moved. After the play was over one of the directors asked me what I was thinking. I tried to say it had been an honest mistake but she told me I knew better. A costume looking director treated me as if I was 2 years old, asking me with rhetorical questions if I even knew how bad it was for a nun, for her special class, to have me do something like that, as if I didn't know. I wanted to scream, but it's just a play. He's pretending to be a nun! I felt frustrated and angry and started for the exit when a couple more directors demanded I stop and come back. I asked flippantly if they were going to further insult me, they responded "no, we're here to punish one of our priesthood brethren. The man and woman looked filipino/asian and filipina/latina and the man went on to explain at length how he was going to punch my face up and down and left and right and then he got out a big metal bat from behind himself and asked me to hold up my fists so he could hit them lightly. I did, he hit them lightly. I felt humiliated, and hot/ feverish and woke up then. The time was 6:15 Monday morning. It felt a whole lot earlier than that.
So, clairvoyant blog readers, what on earth does this mean? Is this a not so subtle hint I need to curb my pride and anger? It this a rebuttal of my assertion that my school, BYU, is a group of 21st century students stuck with 1950's professors who are unaware of the real world outside their happy valley bubble, or a confirmation of it? Am I just projecting my fears and anxieties of persecution and rejection onto the very people (the theater people) that I love and feel part of? Or am I just reading things into it that ain't even there?
In better news, I did more filming for Project Orange yesterday and loved it. All my frustration and depression had a use after all in forming the characters reactions. It was also the first time in three or four years I've used a car, and I didn't hit anything. That makes me feel better. "The Notes", which is the big project I am participating in is raising money, I'll post links as I find them. Good luck and good day, blog readers!
This is the first dream I've had in weeks. I was at a play with a man playing a nun. I'm not sure if I was an audience member or a cast member, but part of their set was a bunch of beds spread out across the floor of a great hall with a balcony. I made an honest mistake by coming to lie down at his/her feet facing him upwards with my feet interfering with the nun outfit. I realized I was in the wrong place to watch and it caused others lining the wall of the set to laugh at where I sat down to watch. I moved. After the play was over one of the directors asked me what I was thinking. I tried to say it had been an honest mistake but she told me I knew better. A costume looking director treated me as if I was 2 years old, asking me with rhetorical questions if I even knew how bad it was for a nun, for her special class, to have me do something like that, as if I didn't know. I wanted to scream, but it's just a play. He's pretending to be a nun! I felt frustrated and angry and started for the exit when a couple more directors demanded I stop and come back. I asked flippantly if they were going to further insult me, they responded "no, we're here to punish one of our priesthood brethren. The man and woman looked filipino/asian and filipina/latina and the man went on to explain at length how he was going to punch my face up and down and left and right and then he got out a big metal bat from behind himself and asked me to hold up my fists so he could hit them lightly. I did, he hit them lightly. I felt humiliated, and hot/ feverish and woke up then. The time was 6:15 Monday morning. It felt a whole lot earlier than that.
So, clairvoyant blog readers, what on earth does this mean? Is this a not so subtle hint I need to curb my pride and anger? It this a rebuttal of my assertion that my school, BYU, is a group of 21st century students stuck with 1950's professors who are unaware of the real world outside their happy valley bubble, or a confirmation of it? Am I just projecting my fears and anxieties of persecution and rejection onto the very people (the theater people) that I love and feel part of? Or am I just reading things into it that ain't even there?
In better news, I did more filming for Project Orange yesterday and loved it. All my frustration and depression had a use after all in forming the characters reactions. It was also the first time in three or four years I've used a car, and I didn't hit anything. That makes me feel better. "The Notes", which is the big project I am participating in is raising money, I'll post links as I find them. Good luck and good day, blog readers!
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Project Orange
I just worked yesterday and today on a short film for Nixart Films. Bryce Bolick is the producer, and Nick Ritter is the director. I'm doing the same role for two films, this one is Project Orange, the bigger one is "The Notes" which should be filming sometime next month. I play a math professor from the south, so I have a minor role in "the Notes", but Project Orange is all about the professor having a bad day just trying to get to work. He also worries about texting a girl he's interested in, and she hasn't texted back for a whole day. Today I went to a sound-proof closet on BYU campus (at the dean's office of Eyring Science Center) to record the professor's internal monologue. I really love filming just for how much you can try and experiment. Everything in film has to be subtle and internal, but I did my best to think about what I am saying without showing how i really feel. The director is brilliant in how he seeks to provide direction in evocative imagery, as opposed to really telling the actors what to do. I find that it works, mostly for helping bring the emotion into mind and allowing the actor to connect with it in a less obvious, less showy manner. I must say, I am grateful for the wonderful direction he gave, and I only hope my performance evokes sympathy for the poor professor's girl crush and bad luck day. I'll post again, when I can find projects or productions to post about.
Friday, June 7, 2013
Timp Lodge
So, I know everyone has been wondering where I've been and what I've been up to, so here goes. I was at Timp Lodge for the BYU Writers Conference Wednesday, Thursday, and today as a volunteer actor to read the best plays and screenplays written by BYU students. I enjoyed the experience, and for one of the first times in months, I'm proud to be a Mormon artist.
For those who don't know, there are not many great Mormon written or directed film or stage projects. The original Battlestar Galatica, Napolean Dynamite, and possibley the new TV show on BYU TV, Granite Flats, are some of the exceptions to this rule, but the vast majority of films and even books within the Mormon sub-culture are not well-written, overly self-reflexive (I'm making fun of Mormon culture by showing Utah Mormon culture), or just so obsessed with staying within the Puritanical church standards that they cannot really refer to or show anything worth watching or talking about. And the high level of self-reflexiveness about Utah Mormon culture requires that you are or have been well acquainted with Utah Mormons or none of the film makes sense or makes you laugh. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints makes very good, spiritually uplifting films, but outside of Church projects, most Mormon producers make culture-specific and sappy films. (Can you tell I'm venting?) If you want a taste of how it looks from the outside, try watching Mobsters and Mormons once, or from the inside, watch Sons of Provo and try not gagging once.
But I take back all I have said bad about Mormon artists in general, because of what I participated in during BYU Writers Conference.
I read out loud parts of a screenplay that sounds like an instant cult classic, short plays that moved me to tears and spiritual enlightenment, and a pilot for a TV show I would want to watch over and over again, all written by BYU students in the Theater and Media Arts Department. Each one I wanted to leap for joy and hug and kiss the writer responsible. I see the future of Mormon artists and the view is spectacular. I will be first in line to see these dreams come alive and be fulfilled on stage and on screen. I'd forgotten how much I love acting until I read these and felt the life and real emotions of these written characters flow through my soul and voice for all in attendance to hear. I hope to see them produced and their writers continue to blossom.
But enough about my great week and venting about Mormon films in general. Where do you see the theater and film industries arriving in 5 to 20 years? I continue to see the great innovations of everyone on Youtube leading to more and more independent film makers in business collaborating with the real companies, and theater making a comeback on the national level, what with the great acclaim of new musicals and revival of classic plays with contemporary application. So let's help good art happen!
For those who don't know, there are not many great Mormon written or directed film or stage projects. The original Battlestar Galatica, Napolean Dynamite, and possibley the new TV show on BYU TV, Granite Flats, are some of the exceptions to this rule, but the vast majority of films and even books within the Mormon sub-culture are not well-written, overly self-reflexive (I'm making fun of Mormon culture by showing Utah Mormon culture), or just so obsessed with staying within the Puritanical church standards that they cannot really refer to or show anything worth watching or talking about. And the high level of self-reflexiveness about Utah Mormon culture requires that you are or have been well acquainted with Utah Mormons or none of the film makes sense or makes you laugh. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints makes very good, spiritually uplifting films, but outside of Church projects, most Mormon producers make culture-specific and sappy films. (Can you tell I'm venting?) If you want a taste of how it looks from the outside, try watching Mobsters and Mormons once, or from the inside, watch Sons of Provo and try not gagging once.
But I take back all I have said bad about Mormon artists in general, because of what I participated in during BYU Writers Conference.
I read out loud parts of a screenplay that sounds like an instant cult classic, short plays that moved me to tears and spiritual enlightenment, and a pilot for a TV show I would want to watch over and over again, all written by BYU students in the Theater and Media Arts Department. Each one I wanted to leap for joy and hug and kiss the writer responsible. I see the future of Mormon artists and the view is spectacular. I will be first in line to see these dreams come alive and be fulfilled on stage and on screen. I'd forgotten how much I love acting until I read these and felt the life and real emotions of these written characters flow through my soul and voice for all in attendance to hear. I hope to see them produced and their writers continue to blossom.
But enough about my great week and venting about Mormon films in general. Where do you see the theater and film industries arriving in 5 to 20 years? I continue to see the great innovations of everyone on Youtube leading to more and more independent film makers in business collaborating with the real companies, and theater making a comeback on the national level, what with the great acclaim of new musicals and revival of classic plays with contemporary application. So let's help good art happen!
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
The Hook: The Legend Is True!
Monday, April 15, 2013
Fe/Male essay
I did a fabulous job this morning with my final for acting-two contrasting monologues, which I will use again this Wednesday to audition for the Acting program at BYU. Also, I got a 100 on my last test for Performance Studies which has been one of the most interesting and multifaceted discussion classes I have ever taken. The amount of thought I had to put into writing and arguing for that class has expanded and stretched me in ways I didn't know possible. For your enjoyment and personal mind-expanding experience, I shall write one of the essays I wrote for my Performance Studies exam here. In order to understand the essay, let me tell you what I was answering. It asked me to outline a performance art piece treating the performativity of sex and gender or passing and whether it exemplified or contradicted the idea that the personal is political and how. I chose to outline a performance art piece dealing with the performativity of sex and gender and how it exemplified that the personal is political. Just to be clear, performativity refers to the performance based qualities of anything that is not performance but could be viewed as a performance, and "personal is political" refers to how a person acts and responds is making a statement on what they believe. Here then is my essay (unrevised)
Fe/Male
Sex and gender are two different things. We are born either male or female, and that is our sex. But gender is the constructed identity of our masculinity or femininity. I think the performativity of sex and gender exemplifies that the personal is political because it not only shows we are who we make ourselves but also makes freedom of performing our own gender a subject of discussion and our right to freedom of speech.
My performing art piece would be a TV with a recording of myself saying I am a guy and the masculine things I like and then being made up with makeup to look like a woman, saying I am a girl, and the feminine things I like, then having the screen split in half, with one half my man face, the other half my woman face, and then stating why we are and need to be masculine and feminine regardless of sex, and that performing a gender outside of your sex does not make one weaker but stronger. And then the cycle would repeat itself.
This art piece shows that I perform and construct my gender regardless of my sex, and also that I am not limited to performing only one gender. It is my own face that constructs both genders to make a point about how gender is sometimes viewed as an all or nothing identification of our sex, but since it is a construct it can be an amalgam of different traits, both male and female. This exemplifies that the personal is political because not only am I using myself in my art, but I am making a statement about how others view gender and construct their own identity. How we view ourselves and others is heavily influenced by the male or female gender identity. I try to break people out of that all or nothing attitude.
Gender is the greatest construct of our identity because it is the most broad and all-encompassing aspect of how we perform ourselves. I believe understanding the construction of gender helps us understand how we view people and encourages equality and acceptance of the fact that we do not all perform our gender the same way.
###
I know a couple of those sentences could use trimming and revision, but for a test writing all of this straight through, I am pleased with how well it turned out. What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Fe/Male
Sex and gender are two different things. We are born either male or female, and that is our sex. But gender is the constructed identity of our masculinity or femininity. I think the performativity of sex and gender exemplifies that the personal is political because it not only shows we are who we make ourselves but also makes freedom of performing our own gender a subject of discussion and our right to freedom of speech.
My performing art piece would be a TV with a recording of myself saying I am a guy and the masculine things I like and then being made up with makeup to look like a woman, saying I am a girl, and the feminine things I like, then having the screen split in half, with one half my man face, the other half my woman face, and then stating why we are and need to be masculine and feminine regardless of sex, and that performing a gender outside of your sex does not make one weaker but stronger. And then the cycle would repeat itself.
This art piece shows that I perform and construct my gender regardless of my sex, and also that I am not limited to performing only one gender. It is my own face that constructs both genders to make a point about how gender is sometimes viewed as an all or nothing identification of our sex, but since it is a construct it can be an amalgam of different traits, both male and female. This exemplifies that the personal is political because not only am I using myself in my art, but I am making a statement about how others view gender and construct their own identity. How we view ourselves and others is heavily influenced by the male or female gender identity. I try to break people out of that all or nothing attitude.
Gender is the greatest construct of our identity because it is the most broad and all-encompassing aspect of how we perform ourselves. I believe understanding the construction of gender helps us understand how we view people and encourages equality and acceptance of the fact that we do not all perform our gender the same way.
###
I know a couple of those sentences could use trimming and revision, but for a test writing all of this straight through, I am pleased with how well it turned out. What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Rented Christmas
This past December, I participated in helping backstage for a performance of Rented Christmas. At BYU, in order to give the largest number of students in the theater program a chance to practice their craft, they have Mask Club, where every Thursday a student directed 50 minute one act is performed. This one in particular needed people to help with costume changes, so I came on to help with all the quick costume changes that had to happen between scenes at light speed!
It was not my first time being backstage, but it was my first experience working backstage and not acting. I gained new appreciation for the numerous people who have been there to support me and help me look good on stage. Helping organize all the costume pieces by character and scene, being able to help unzip and zip up stubborn dresses, and quietly directing people to their own costumes and helping them put it on, all made the play fun and inspirational for the many people who came and saw it. No one applauded me for making sure the costumes were organized and the actors put them on, but the fact that no one noticed delays or mistakes was satisfaction enough.
It clearly isn't the amount of applause we get that determines our success, it is the consistency we apply to ourselves and our job. There are no small parts on the stage of life, only small actors. I enjoyed the experience of helping in my own small way to this production, and learned how much goes into a performance that goes unnoticed. There is always available jobs doing small but important tasks, and I learned that I don't always have to be center stage in order to participate and enjoy performance. There is so much more that I can do to participate besides acting, and the more I know how to do the more employable I become. I hope I never forget that night, and now with the wonders of digital recording, I never will!
It was not my first time being backstage, but it was my first experience working backstage and not acting. I gained new appreciation for the numerous people who have been there to support me and help me look good on stage. Helping organize all the costume pieces by character and scene, being able to help unzip and zip up stubborn dresses, and quietly directing people to their own costumes and helping them put it on, all made the play fun and inspirational for the many people who came and saw it. No one applauded me for making sure the costumes were organized and the actors put them on, but the fact that no one noticed delays or mistakes was satisfaction enough.
It clearly isn't the amount of applause we get that determines our success, it is the consistency we apply to ourselves and our job. There are no small parts on the stage of life, only small actors. I enjoyed the experience of helping in my own small way to this production, and learned how much goes into a performance that goes unnoticed. There is always available jobs doing small but important tasks, and I learned that I don't always have to be center stage in order to participate and enjoy performance. There is so much more that I can do to participate besides acting, and the more I know how to do the more employable I become. I hope I never forget that night, and now with the wonders of digital recording, I never will!
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