Exciting news from the worlde of music! Talented and eccentric Frank Felice, recent winner of BU's Blackbox Awards Best Sound Design for our recent production of Lamentations has agreed to lend his hand to the impending sound design of my personal project A Man Sees Death in Things. With Felice's expertise, this work is yet another step closer to reaching its true potential. Needless to say I'm elated with this news and will have meetings with him over the coming weeks - after this whole graduation thing is out of my curly hair. ^_^ More to come, and with any luck, by late May/early June the script will be posted in pdf format for parousal. Stay tuned, Gilga-fans. I'm looking at potentially early January for staging this work with rehearsals beginning in mid-November, so visit for updates on auditions. (You are free to listen to Frank Felice's intriguing works at http://www.frank-felice.com.)
Peace and prosperity,
-Jo-
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Big Thoughts and a Tightenning Wallet
An update about the goings on in the acting world for this graduating senior. This past March I had the privilege of working extensively with my unofficial acting coach, spiritual guru, and confidant Elaina Artemiev on a total of 5 monologues so that I might have a full arsenal of classical and contemporary works to take with me to this year's NETC, or New England Theatre Conference. When I arrived, I was taken aback at the ...variety of people I saw in attendance. I've spent the past 4 years of my college career dabbling in all aspects of traditional and experimental theatre such as site specific works and the like. What I found when I auditioned that early Saturday morning were girls much younger than me (looking about 18'ish) in treacherous-looking stilettos and with an inch of makeup on. All of which were singing showtunes in their bubbily, warbling falsettos to the canary-colored lounge walls and dark doors. Needless to say, I was glad to have my dear brothers with me for some much needed Linklater warm-up to drown them out in my head. As I got my number and bits and pieces and looked them over, I found that most if not all the theatre companies that were in attendance and/or looking for performers were -musical theatre- companies. Such explained my painted, fake-eyelashed and high-stepping company, didn't it? Out of the 50 companies that attended, less than 10 were looking for non-musical performers. Divide that in twine to ease out the children's theatre teaching companies searching for education faculty, and there were even fewer companies I wished would call for me. I was dissapointed.
I am pleased to say that out of that less-than-10 group I got called back for 5 companies total and had lovely callbacks, but ultimately this trip turned out to be a terrific bust. Such is what I hear happens for new-grads and folk like moi. However, though I had invested a good deal of my savings in this first trip out to test my skills...I was not dismayed. I used my talents, was not shaken by the fact I was part of only a freckling of -color- among the snowy Mass./New Hampshire crowd of prancing horses, presented my unique material flawlessly, made it to my callbacks on-time, and did all I knew to do to get noticed without being a nuisance. (I even had the chance to walk out of an audition because of a certain theatre company's apparent -refusal- to let me read for a leading lady's role, regardless of my time in the room. I also suspected...distasteful filtering at work, so I excused myself. I wish I had my headshot back...) So, in short, though this trip might outwardly look like a waste, I gained a firm grasp of "what it'll be like" coupled with a refreshing competitive energy that welled up inside me like a warm summer wind.
I would not suggest one attend these Midwest/Southeast/Northeast theatre conferences though at the end of the day. Considering the amount of travel time, money involved in the hotel stay added to the "processing fee" of one's application on top of the price of food/locale you might be stuck in upon arrival...it's not worth the preparation or time. Seriously. I'm continually amazed at my educational institution's failure to warn me of such scams and advise you to audition exclusively for what. you. want. to be apart of. Then you may stay at the hotel you choose, sight-see if you want, and save yourself all these dubious fees. As theatre practicioners, you must keep your eyes open for who is and who isn't trying to squeeze the dollar from you. I'm happy to've learned this lesson early.
Thank you, however, to any and all people who supported me in my efforts. As a personal update, I now have a whopping 10 monologues I can do without fail from classical and contemporary works including August Wilson, Anton Chekhov, Niel Simon, Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw, and several other authors of repute. I'm currently working on a high honors paper concerning August Wilson's contributions to contemporary theatre (since my dept. head deems Beckett more worthy of praise than him...)
I have a portfolio in the works for an original piece I wish to devise for the stage with masks using text from the Epic of Gilgamesh with the current working title A Man Sees Death in Things for which I am adapting/writing the script and designing and constructing the masks. I hope to get the aide of Butler's wonderful Frank Felice when devising music for the work as well and wish for it to have a dark, ancient, craggy and delightfully earthy darkness to it. With any luck, this summer will see my moving to Chicago -and- the finishing of the script as well as beginning sketches of the masks to be involved. Posts will appear more frequently concerning this event, too, so stay tuned. ^___^
Love, Peace, and Everlasting Light,
-Joanna-
P.S. Wish me luck at upcoming auditions for CCCT and HART in Indy these coming weeks.
I am pleased to say that out of that less-than-10 group I got called back for 5 companies total and had lovely callbacks, but ultimately this trip turned out to be a terrific bust. Such is what I hear happens for new-grads and folk like moi. However, though I had invested a good deal of my savings in this first trip out to test my skills...I was not dismayed. I used my talents, was not shaken by the fact I was part of only a freckling of -color- among the snowy Mass./New Hampshire crowd of prancing horses, presented my unique material flawlessly, made it to my callbacks on-time, and did all I knew to do to get noticed without being a nuisance. (I even had the chance to walk out of an audition because of a certain theatre company's apparent -refusal- to let me read for a leading lady's role, regardless of my time in the room. I also suspected...distasteful filtering at work, so I excused myself. I wish I had my headshot back...) So, in short, though this trip might outwardly look like a waste, I gained a firm grasp of "what it'll be like" coupled with a refreshing competitive energy that welled up inside me like a warm summer wind.
I would not suggest one attend these Midwest/Southeast/Northeast theatre conferences though at the end of the day. Considering the amount of travel time, money involved in the hotel stay added to the "processing fee" of one's application on top of the price of food/locale you might be stuck in upon arrival...it's not worth the preparation or time. Seriously. I'm continually amazed at my educational institution's failure to warn me of such scams and advise you to audition exclusively for what. you. want. to be apart of. Then you may stay at the hotel you choose, sight-see if you want, and save yourself all these dubious fees. As theatre practicioners, you must keep your eyes open for who is and who isn't trying to squeeze the dollar from you. I'm happy to've learned this lesson early.
Thank you, however, to any and all people who supported me in my efforts. As a personal update, I now have a whopping 10 monologues I can do without fail from classical and contemporary works including August Wilson, Anton Chekhov, Niel Simon, Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw, and several other authors of repute. I'm currently working on a high honors paper concerning August Wilson's contributions to contemporary theatre (since my dept. head deems Beckett more worthy of praise than him...)
I have a portfolio in the works for an original piece I wish to devise for the stage with masks using text from the Epic of Gilgamesh with the current working title A Man Sees Death in Things for which I am adapting/writing the script and designing and constructing the masks. I hope to get the aide of Butler's wonderful Frank Felice when devising music for the work as well and wish for it to have a dark, ancient, craggy and delightfully earthy darkness to it. With any luck, this summer will see my moving to Chicago -and- the finishing of the script as well as beginning sketches of the masks to be involved. Posts will appear more frequently concerning this event, too, so stay tuned. ^___^
Love, Peace, and Everlasting Light,
-Joanna-
P.S. Wish me luck at upcoming auditions for CCCT and HART in Indy these coming weeks.
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