What year is this? That’s right, it’s 2008. We have gay adoption, marriage, and work place security in some states. We have been witnessing history with the first woman, and the first African- American male running for president. We have seen a lot in the past 30 or so years. So why, with all of these great strides toward acceptance and diversity, do I still hear HOMOSEXUAL people making comments to others like “you aren’t a lesbian if you have slept with (or would even consider sleeping with) a man?”
Anyone who is familiar with gay movie culture can surely quote the infamous words about sexuality from Chasing Amy. The premise is simply this: for many of us it doesn’t matter what sex you are, it only matters who you fall in love with. I know, I know…scientists have now proven that there is actually a genetic programming connection to being gay, but what about those of us who don’t feel “pre-disposed” to being gay?? I do not truly wish to get into the nature vs. nurture argument, but I would like to remind many of you that if you open up a Psychology textbook anywhere in the country and look under “sexuality” what you will see is a line chart of sexual fluidity.
True, some people fall into the distinct category on the extreme right or left of that line (totally straight or totally gay) but a lot of people also fall in the middle where they either question or move around depending on whom they are seeing. No, I am NOT talking about bi-sexuality. I am simply talking about people who are monogamous to whichever sex they happen to be dating at the time based on who they fall in love with. Why is that so hard to deal with?
The homosexual community seems to have a problem. That problem is that we are total hypocrites. We stand in our pride marches and lobby for non-discrimination and acceptance yet we don’t (or can’t) even be accepting to other people in our own circles.
Why say derogatory things about a lesbian because she has been with a man? Why get all riled up because a transgender man wants to be a father but has to give birth to the baby to get it? Why do we accept lesbians who have had past relationships with men before they came out, but not the ones who choose to continue them when they aren’t with women? Let’s be honest here. Does never having sex with a man (or woman) make you any better or worse than someone else? Does forcing your opinion on other people in a derogatory way really get across your “supposed” superiority, or does it just make you look like a self-righteous, closed minded, un-accepting individual? Isn’t that EXACTLY what the homosexual community has been fighting against? Come on people, if we cannot even accept each other we don’t even have a fighting chance of getting acceptance from those in the conservative community. You don’t have to agree with it, but you certainly don’t have to take the opportunity to let them know how you feel. If you don’t like someone’s life choices then don’t date them, just like we ask others to do for us.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Problem With the World Today
We have allowed our government to wiretap our phones, search our e-mails, and detain our citizens for simply LOOKING suspicious. We attack a foreign country to PREVENT terrorist attacks that MIGHT come our way. We condone torture as a method of gaining information.
Someone spits at us, we take a swing at them. Someone takes a swing at us, we tackle them. Someone tackles us we draw a knife.
All in the name of security, and demanding respect. How much more of our honor and stature are we going to sacrifice to these false gods? We lower ourselves to the standards of the dregs of the world around us. We no longer take defensive actions, we defend, then strike back, and do not care who gets hurt because it is in the name of Justice… and we do not stop until they are utterly destroyed, and we claim it is a kindness as we rebuild the rubble.
I was asked, “If you knew your mother might be killed by a terrorist one day, would you not do everything you can to stop that?” It’s a hard question, and it is the one that has people all over lowering their moral standards, and allowing nations to kill people who MIGHT strike at us; who differ in opinions. And the US Government wants to continue to watchdog our activities, and create an environment where there are no repercussions for allowing them to do so. Anyone remember Welle’s “1985”? Big Brother is watching. Far-fetched you say? We already have a computer program flagging our e-mails to be read for using words such as Bush, President, bomb, terror or anything that may be suspicious or subversive. Is it that much of a stretch to believe that one day someone will be tempted to abuse that power?
The Statue of Liberty gets bombed, and the President immediately implements active surveillance on anyone who used the word statue or lady in their e-mails. Anyone known to have ever belonged to a “subversive group”, for example a Muslim, or a kid who signed up with “Anarchists of America” on line gets brought in for “questioning” (read: torture) and America cheers. We can feel regrets later, right? If we were wrong, we did it to save lives.
So why do we stand by Israel so adamantly? Israel was given land that belonged to Palestine for over 1500 years. What did they do? Killed and expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, but that is ok, because they are God’s chosen, and have suffered enough, right? Where does that give them the right? If a man in the US is molested and beat as a child, verbally and mentally abused, and then turns around and murders a man, we send him to jail. We do not offer to give him a better gun to kill his enemies.
Nations of the world pretend to some high moral standard; a holier than thou attitude. Yet we lack the honor and integrity of our pretenses. To escalate violence and condone depravity in the name of security only debases ourselves, and makes the words “Land of the Free” nothing more than empty mockery.
Someone spits at us, we take a swing at them. Someone takes a swing at us, we tackle them. Someone tackles us we draw a knife.
All in the name of security, and demanding respect. How much more of our honor and stature are we going to sacrifice to these false gods? We lower ourselves to the standards of the dregs of the world around us. We no longer take defensive actions, we defend, then strike back, and do not care who gets hurt because it is in the name of Justice… and we do not stop until they are utterly destroyed, and we claim it is a kindness as we rebuild the rubble.
I was asked, “If you knew your mother might be killed by a terrorist one day, would you not do everything you can to stop that?” It’s a hard question, and it is the one that has people all over lowering their moral standards, and allowing nations to kill people who MIGHT strike at us; who differ in opinions. And the US Government wants to continue to watchdog our activities, and create an environment where there are no repercussions for allowing them to do so. Anyone remember Welle’s “1985”? Big Brother is watching. Far-fetched you say? We already have a computer program flagging our e-mails to be read for using words such as Bush, President, bomb, terror or anything that may be suspicious or subversive. Is it that much of a stretch to believe that one day someone will be tempted to abuse that power?
The Statue of Liberty gets bombed, and the President immediately implements active surveillance on anyone who used the word statue or lady in their e-mails. Anyone known to have ever belonged to a “subversive group”, for example a Muslim, or a kid who signed up with “Anarchists of America” on line gets brought in for “questioning” (read: torture) and America cheers. We can feel regrets later, right? If we were wrong, we did it to save lives.
So why do we stand by Israel so adamantly? Israel was given land that belonged to Palestine for over 1500 years. What did they do? Killed and expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, but that is ok, because they are God’s chosen, and have suffered enough, right? Where does that give them the right? If a man in the US is molested and beat as a child, verbally and mentally abused, and then turns around and murders a man, we send him to jail. We do not offer to give him a better gun to kill his enemies.
Nations of the world pretend to some high moral standard; a holier than thou attitude. Yet we lack the honor and integrity of our pretenses. To escalate violence and condone depravity in the name of security only debases ourselves, and makes the words “Land of the Free” nothing more than empty mockery.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Samantha Says: I ADMIT IT!
I admit it. I like listening to conservative talk radio just to keep up to date on the issues that they deem important. A few days ago I received a phone call at home telling me to turn the radio on and listen. I tuned in and could not believe my ears.
Apparently, a gay man has taken it upon himself to sue two very prominent publishers of the Bible due to the homosexual references, which he claims they made up to suit their own agenda. Before I even get started let me express that I have no desire to comment on the Bible, its publishers, its revisions, religion in general, or people that read the Bible (I am one myself and this is not a commentary on whether the text of the Bible is appropriate or has been distorted). The link to the news story is: http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-07-09-gay-bible_N.htm
Let me give you a little background before I go on my personal rant. The local talk radio station took this story and ran with it. It went from the gay man suing these publishers, to gays in the military, gays getting married and on and on. From gays it goes to crazy gay lawsuits and believe me they had all the ones I had heard of, and a few I hadn’t. The stories became worse and worse until I finally called into the program myself, but they had moved onto another topic and I was denied.
I am a lesbian. I am a wife (yes, a wife- a legally married in Canada-wife). I did not get married so that I could sue for my rights. I did not get married to rub it in the face of the straight community. As a matter of fact, most of the people I come into contact with on a daily basis have no idea at all that I am a lesbian. I don’t lie to them; I just don’t make it a big deal either. We got married because we love each other, were ready to make a life-long commitment, and we don’t believe in playing house. We wanted children and we believe that a strong family unit is important to formulating the morals, values, and beliefs that we hold dear. We attend church, we own a home, pay taxes, and we added a young child to our home in the past few years. Both of us have a college education, and both give time to various charities and organizations. Yet we are the people that get the bad reputation for the actions of militant individuals that take it upon themselves to push ridiculous lawsuits into the public eye before the public is ready to even deal with the fact that gays may be human.
I am not ashamed to be a lesbian, but I am not proud of it either. There is no need to be because I just am who I am. I personally haven’t seen a single heterosexual sporting a heterosexual pride T-shirt; because there is no need…they simply just are heterosexual. I see no need to go to gay pride rallies in funny clothing and party. Let’s face it…the pride movement has moved past its original purpose of letting people know we exist to the unfortunate purpose of a large party. I took my wife to Atlanta pride last year and we were appalled at what we saw….streakers, people heavily petting in public, disorderly and drunken conduct. In short, we were certainly not proud to witness the actions of the crowd.
I am all for raising money, I am all for letting people know we are there (without being pushy), and I am all for putting our efforts into litigation with a purpose. That purpose must be to further the ENTIRE cause, not to make us all look like raving lunatics to a majority of Americans. The gentleman suing the publishers of the Bible makes us all look bad, as do the antics of people that get out of control at pride marches. Lets all remember that if we are going to make any progress in the fight to gain equal footing in this country then we must first place ourselves in a position where we can be seen as equal in the eyes of the general public. When we are no longer the group of “crazy” people we begin to become human. Changing the text of the Bible is pointless if you cannot change the heart and minds of the people who read it.
Samantha
Apparently, a gay man has taken it upon himself to sue two very prominent publishers of the Bible due to the homosexual references, which he claims they made up to suit their own agenda. Before I even get started let me express that I have no desire to comment on the Bible, its publishers, its revisions, religion in general, or people that read the Bible (I am one myself and this is not a commentary on whether the text of the Bible is appropriate or has been distorted). The link to the news story is: http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-07-09-gay-bible_N.htm
Let me give you a little background before I go on my personal rant. The local talk radio station took this story and ran with it. It went from the gay man suing these publishers, to gays in the military, gays getting married and on and on. From gays it goes to crazy gay lawsuits and believe me they had all the ones I had heard of, and a few I hadn’t. The stories became worse and worse until I finally called into the program myself, but they had moved onto another topic and I was denied.
I am a lesbian. I am a wife (yes, a wife- a legally married in Canada-wife). I did not get married so that I could sue for my rights. I did not get married to rub it in the face of the straight community. As a matter of fact, most of the people I come into contact with on a daily basis have no idea at all that I am a lesbian. I don’t lie to them; I just don’t make it a big deal either. We got married because we love each other, were ready to make a life-long commitment, and we don’t believe in playing house. We wanted children and we believe that a strong family unit is important to formulating the morals, values, and beliefs that we hold dear. We attend church, we own a home, pay taxes, and we added a young child to our home in the past few years. Both of us have a college education, and both give time to various charities and organizations. Yet we are the people that get the bad reputation for the actions of militant individuals that take it upon themselves to push ridiculous lawsuits into the public eye before the public is ready to even deal with the fact that gays may be human.
I am not ashamed to be a lesbian, but I am not proud of it either. There is no need to be because I just am who I am. I personally haven’t seen a single heterosexual sporting a heterosexual pride T-shirt; because there is no need…they simply just are heterosexual. I see no need to go to gay pride rallies in funny clothing and party. Let’s face it…the pride movement has moved past its original purpose of letting people know we exist to the unfortunate purpose of a large party. I took my wife to Atlanta pride last year and we were appalled at what we saw….streakers, people heavily petting in public, disorderly and drunken conduct. In short, we were certainly not proud to witness the actions of the crowd.
I am all for raising money, I am all for letting people know we are there (without being pushy), and I am all for putting our efforts into litigation with a purpose. That purpose must be to further the ENTIRE cause, not to make us all look like raving lunatics to a majority of Americans. The gentleman suing the publishers of the Bible makes us all look bad, as do the antics of people that get out of control at pride marches. Lets all remember that if we are going to make any progress in the fight to gain equal footing in this country then we must first place ourselves in a position where we can be seen as equal in the eyes of the general public. When we are no longer the group of “crazy” people we begin to become human. Changing the text of the Bible is pointless if you cannot change the heart and minds of the people who read it.
Samantha
Samantha Says: SUPPORT YOUR POLITICIANS
Fund Each Other!
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been front page news for over a year. Now that Barack is the Democratic candidate, the two took great pains to meet in “Unity” to 1) present a united front, and 2) ask for help in paying down/off Clinton’s financial debt load from campaigning. Hillary’s debt load is around $10 million dollars. What I find amusing here is that the Clinton’s publicly released their tax returns since 2001during her campaign. Together they have grossed over $109 million dollars, $52 million of those dollars were reportedly from speaking engagements. Am I the only one who sees the irony in this situation?? Let me explain something. I believe in the American dream. I believe that if I work hard enough, long enough I will make my dreams come true. What I don’t believe is that people who already have millions of dollars need help paying down their debt.
I will admit that I started late in life, and I don’t expect to ever see a million dollars (at least until I retire). Ten years ago I didn’t care what the issues were or why I needed to vote. Now, after getting my life on track and having a son, I am concerned. I am concerned about family values, abortion, education, taxes, the war, and gay marriage like most young adults. However, I am also equally concerned about my own personal debt load. I am a married lesbian with a young son and I am about to complete my Bachelors degree. I go to school, take care of our son, run a house, and still manage to find time to work yet when I graduate yet I will still be nearly $100,000 in debt in school loans. I know what you are thinking… can she not manage money? To the contrary, we have no credit card debt, we do not rent- we own, one car is paid for and we only have a year to go on the second. Literally, our ONLY debt is college. Now, issues aside, why would I want to send my hard earned dollars to Hillary Clinton in order to help pay off a debt that she is fully capable of paying off herself? Or the other question…Why would Hillary keep campaigning if she knew she could not pay for it?
I propose a solution to this problem. There are hundreds if not thousands of young GLBT people who could use the money instead. Go buy some groceries for a student in college and show that you really care that they get an education instead of sending your money to a politician who probably won’t change a thing. Send your donations to college students who need it. Help young GLBT members of your community to achieve their potential and become productive members of the GLBT community. It is a circle. If we all just help individuals, those individuals will prosper and help other individuals. In the end we could end up with a large and successful enough community to actually pay off the lobbyists to make sure that we get the changes we need in this country. What the GLBT community needs is to help itself, not politicians. Now I am not saying “don’t vote”, I am not saying “don’t volunteer to help with the campaign”, what I am saying is that there are enough large businesses helping to support politicians that your money is being misspent. Spend it where it counts.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been front page news for over a year. Now that Barack is the Democratic candidate, the two took great pains to meet in “Unity” to 1) present a united front, and 2) ask for help in paying down/off Clinton’s financial debt load from campaigning. Hillary’s debt load is around $10 million dollars. What I find amusing here is that the Clinton’s publicly released their tax returns since 2001during her campaign. Together they have grossed over $109 million dollars, $52 million of those dollars were reportedly from speaking engagements. Am I the only one who sees the irony in this situation?? Let me explain something. I believe in the American dream. I believe that if I work hard enough, long enough I will make my dreams come true. What I don’t believe is that people who already have millions of dollars need help paying down their debt.
I will admit that I started late in life, and I don’t expect to ever see a million dollars (at least until I retire). Ten years ago I didn’t care what the issues were or why I needed to vote. Now, after getting my life on track and having a son, I am concerned. I am concerned about family values, abortion, education, taxes, the war, and gay marriage like most young adults. However, I am also equally concerned about my own personal debt load. I am a married lesbian with a young son and I am about to complete my Bachelors degree. I go to school, take care of our son, run a house, and still manage to find time to work yet when I graduate yet I will still be nearly $100,000 in debt in school loans. I know what you are thinking… can she not manage money? To the contrary, we have no credit card debt, we do not rent- we own, one car is paid for and we only have a year to go on the second. Literally, our ONLY debt is college. Now, issues aside, why would I want to send my hard earned dollars to Hillary Clinton in order to help pay off a debt that she is fully capable of paying off herself? Or the other question…Why would Hillary keep campaigning if she knew she could not pay for it?
I propose a solution to this problem. There are hundreds if not thousands of young GLBT people who could use the money instead. Go buy some groceries for a student in college and show that you really care that they get an education instead of sending your money to a politician who probably won’t change a thing. Send your donations to college students who need it. Help young GLBT members of your community to achieve their potential and become productive members of the GLBT community. It is a circle. If we all just help individuals, those individuals will prosper and help other individuals. In the end we could end up with a large and successful enough community to actually pay off the lobbyists to make sure that we get the changes we need in this country. What the GLBT community needs is to help itself, not politicians. Now I am not saying “don’t vote”, I am not saying “don’t volunteer to help with the campaign”, what I am saying is that there are enough large businesses helping to support politicians that your money is being misspent. Spend it where it counts.
Acting Lesson part 1
Acting Basics – Part 1
To be an actor takes a few necessary ingredients. Take a dash of talent, mix in a smidge of desire, and some training; stir it up and you have a performer. Change measures of ingredients to taste.
Have you ever lied to someone with a straight face and known they believed you? Think back now to that time you came home late from school because you were in detention. Remember what you told Mom? That is acting. Not only that, but is called improvisational acting. Congrats, you have a dash of talent.
Do you like being the center of attention? Do you tell jokes and dance boldly in the middle of the crowded dance floor? Do you enjoy when someone laughs at your witty quip on a date? You may have the desire.
Let’s help you now with the training. We’ll start with some basic acting exercises you can do by yourself, in preparation for partnered exercises. I like to take a real-life approach to acting before advancing to character acting.
First, it is important to get comfortable with your body and its various uses. I recommend that you spend a few hours each day studying your natural movements. Try to really pay attention to your own way of walking, sitting, or holding a cup. Do you stride with confidence? Do you take small steps? Do you hold your head down and look at the ground when you walk, or do you look around you at everything you pass? These are all the little things that can help you gain an awareness of your body.
Another thing is to always stretch your muscles out every day. Take a half hour in the morning to really stretch gently to learn how your muscles work. This is not only good for gaining an awareness of exactly how a body moves, but muscles maybe you didn’t know you have. Plus it is healthy for you, and you will feel more energized for it. As you stretch, try to imagine yourself in a peaceful place, filled with light. Try to take this light into the bottom of your feet, tensing your feet, then your calves, your thighs; all while pushing this light through your body. Keep tensing your muscle groups, until your entire body is tensed up and the light reaches the top of your head and the tips of your fingers, hold the light in, tighter until you feel ready to explode, then release… you should feel relaxed now, and the light, the energy will suffuse your body and you will be more at peace. This should ideally take you to a place where you can get better awareness of yourself.
This may sound silly to you, but an awareness of self is necessary to create things that are NOT you. When you get angry, or if you can make yourself angry, or sad, look at yourself in the mirror. Examine the facial expressions you make, feel how the muscles move. Most people take for granted the expressiveness of their own faces, and how much can be read on our faces. An actor cannot. We MUST be aware of our expressions at all times when in the lights. The cramp in our leg cannot let itself be known when we are performing. We must know the positions of our facial muscles when we smile or frown, how the eyes crinkle at the edges and the forehead raises or furrows. We must know how to not let our true feelings, pain, anything other than what we want, to show in our faces or walk. No limping unless your character limps. It’s difficult, but you CAN do this.
Once you feel like you are comfortable in your skin, and a general awareness of how you move, talk, react and feel in response to situations, you can begin the next lessons.
I’ll give you some basic improvisational exercises that will get you started. These may be incredibly silly, but the purposes of the exercises are to:
1. Get you outside of your comfort zone. Learn to open up to situations you may find embarrassing or uncomfortable. Remember that class clown? He is now humiliating himself for a living, and earning money and adulation for it.
2. Get a feeling for speech. To help you to learn to ENUNCIATE, really pronounce each word crisply, Every “T” sound and every “O” comes through; even if your mouth is full on stage. This is also going to help learn how the mouth and tongue moves to shape words and learn accents.
3. Give you the basics for creating a character, and practice immersing yourself in them.
First, Let’s deal with pronouncing word crisply. Find some tongue twisters, like “she sell sea shells by the seashore”, or “a tutor taught two tooters to toot, said the two to the tooter, is it harder to toot or to tutor two tooters to toot”. Make sure you work on saying these as crisply as possible, gaining in speed as you go. Practice these every day, to keep your tongue loose and pronunciation clear, enunciating every consonant and vowel clearly. Repeat the one’s you have more difficulty with most often. Let the sentences flow.
We’ll move on to more exercises in the next part of the lesson.
To be an actor takes a few necessary ingredients. Take a dash of talent, mix in a smidge of desire, and some training; stir it up and you have a performer. Change measures of ingredients to taste.
Have you ever lied to someone with a straight face and known they believed you? Think back now to that time you came home late from school because you were in detention. Remember what you told Mom? That is acting. Not only that, but is called improvisational acting. Congrats, you have a dash of talent.
Do you like being the center of attention? Do you tell jokes and dance boldly in the middle of the crowded dance floor? Do you enjoy when someone laughs at your witty quip on a date? You may have the desire.
Let’s help you now with the training. We’ll start with some basic acting exercises you can do by yourself, in preparation for partnered exercises. I like to take a real-life approach to acting before advancing to character acting.
First, it is important to get comfortable with your body and its various uses. I recommend that you spend a few hours each day studying your natural movements. Try to really pay attention to your own way of walking, sitting, or holding a cup. Do you stride with confidence? Do you take small steps? Do you hold your head down and look at the ground when you walk, or do you look around you at everything you pass? These are all the little things that can help you gain an awareness of your body.
Another thing is to always stretch your muscles out every day. Take a half hour in the morning to really stretch gently to learn how your muscles work. This is not only good for gaining an awareness of exactly how a body moves, but muscles maybe you didn’t know you have. Plus it is healthy for you, and you will feel more energized for it. As you stretch, try to imagine yourself in a peaceful place, filled with light. Try to take this light into the bottom of your feet, tensing your feet, then your calves, your thighs; all while pushing this light through your body. Keep tensing your muscle groups, until your entire body is tensed up and the light reaches the top of your head and the tips of your fingers, hold the light in, tighter until you feel ready to explode, then release… you should feel relaxed now, and the light, the energy will suffuse your body and you will be more at peace. This should ideally take you to a place where you can get better awareness of yourself.
This may sound silly to you, but an awareness of self is necessary to create things that are NOT you. When you get angry, or if you can make yourself angry, or sad, look at yourself in the mirror. Examine the facial expressions you make, feel how the muscles move. Most people take for granted the expressiveness of their own faces, and how much can be read on our faces. An actor cannot. We MUST be aware of our expressions at all times when in the lights. The cramp in our leg cannot let itself be known when we are performing. We must know the positions of our facial muscles when we smile or frown, how the eyes crinkle at the edges and the forehead raises or furrows. We must know how to not let our true feelings, pain, anything other than what we want, to show in our faces or walk. No limping unless your character limps. It’s difficult, but you CAN do this.
Once you feel like you are comfortable in your skin, and a general awareness of how you move, talk, react and feel in response to situations, you can begin the next lessons.
I’ll give you some basic improvisational exercises that will get you started. These may be incredibly silly, but the purposes of the exercises are to:
1. Get you outside of your comfort zone. Learn to open up to situations you may find embarrassing or uncomfortable. Remember that class clown? He is now humiliating himself for a living, and earning money and adulation for it.
2. Get a feeling for speech. To help you to learn to ENUNCIATE, really pronounce each word crisply, Every “T” sound and every “O” comes through; even if your mouth is full on stage. This is also going to help learn how the mouth and tongue moves to shape words and learn accents.
3. Give you the basics for creating a character, and practice immersing yourself in them.
First, Let’s deal with pronouncing word crisply. Find some tongue twisters, like “she sell sea shells by the seashore”, or “a tutor taught two tooters to toot, said the two to the tooter, is it harder to toot or to tutor two tooters to toot”. Make sure you work on saying these as crisply as possible, gaining in speed as you go. Practice these every day, to keep your tongue loose and pronunciation clear, enunciating every consonant and vowel clearly. Repeat the one’s you have more difficulty with most often. Let the sentences flow.
We’ll move on to more exercises in the next part of the lesson.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
You wanna be a professional actor? Lesson one.
Let’s begin. You have big dreams. We all do. You look at yourself in the mirror and imagine masses of adoring fans asking for your autograph, clamoring to catch a glimpse of you exiting your limousine…
Maybe it can happen. However, unless you are one of the incredibly lucky (read: charismatically good looking) few, your chances of fame and glory are slim. So I pose this question to you. Do you love to act? Have you been onstage, conquered the roiling monster in your gut, and lived to wish for it again? Do you think you have talent?
Lesson # 1 starts here. It is called REALITY.
Acting is a much harder field than most know. Take a typical NYC theatrical performer.
Your day begins early (5-6am) to exercise. Why? Your body is your instrument, your tool, your livelihood. Without a body that is conditioned, you will not be up to grueling tasks before you (you’ll understand as you read on). I am not saying your body must be that of a Greek god, nor even skinny. Just FIT. Have a little stamina. By the way, try not to wake up any of your roomies; they had rehearsal until 2am because the choreographer wasn’t happy with the Crapshooter’s Ballet.
Maybe you can make a 7am or 8am audition if you are lucky before running into “work” schlepping coffee or serving eggs to ungrateful breakfasters whose caffeine has yet to kick in. Hopefully there will be less than 150 auditioners for the role you are seeking that morning, because your boss is tired of each of his workers being late because auditions ran long. You are really hoping to get a call back, because it has been 5 months since your last show.
After your shift you go to your next audition. You enter the room with 1 or 2 monologues and an upbeat song and a ballad prepared, hand your headshot and resume to the director and before you can say two words the director says, “Thank you. Next!” Let’s assume it is a “cattle call” where you audition in a large group. Perhaps your group of 30 needs to learn a bit of a dance number from the choreographer in under 5 minutes and audition en masse. The choreographer and director then simply watch the crowd and eliminate those who don’t meet their criteria. Maybe you are too short. Maybe you don’t have the skills necessary for the dance. Maybe they want all brunettes.
You survive the cutting. Now you must sweat it out until you find out whether or not you get a “call back”, or invitation to the next round of auditions. After all this, you may get a part in a show. Now the real fun begins.
First you need to contact your day job and make arrangements around the rehearsal and show schedule, because the production simply doesn’t pay enough (IF it pays) to live off of without your daily tips. Now, in addition to your 5-8 hr. work shift, you will be rehearsing 5-6 days a week (Monday is “dead day” in professional theatre; unless you really suck), for 4-8 hrs or more as you get closer to opening night. So your daily schedule now looks like this for 4-8 weeks (if you don’t have to help construct the set, too):
4a
Wake up
5a
Day Job at food service establishment of your choice
11 am
Work out
Noon
Lunch
2pm
Studio for dance practice
4pm
Work on lines with friends (I.E. Dinner)
5pm
Rehearsals
10-11pm
Food or Stimulant and socializing or sleep or more rehearsal…
12-1am
Sleep (if not rehearsing still)
The show begins and you are now performing 7 shows a week, 6 days a week including the matinee on Saturday. You show up 2 hrs. prior to curtain time to put on make-up, check costume and props, and if the budget of the production isn’t big enough for stagehands, check and prep the set. Plus you warm up to help prevent body and voice injuries. However, if you pull a muscle, break a toe, or have a sore throat the show must go on! You grit your teeth and perform through the pain, because chances are you have no understudy. So you take pain relievers, sore throat lozenges and tea, wrap up your injuries tightly and go on. (Once I had my face gashed open in the middle of a chase scene gone wrong, and held the cut on my face closed with butterfly bandages, instead of the recommended stitches, because I could cover the bandages in make-up, and not stitches. I still have a scar years later.)
Not being one of the lead roles, you have 5 different characters to play in the show and 5 lines accordingly. You have to strip down to a dance belt (glorified jock-strap showing a whole lotta ass) side stage in front of 3 people who assist you in changing costume and make-up, freezing from the air on your sweat covered body, in under a minute so you can make your entrance at the start of the next scene. Hopefully after the bow, you don’t have to help strike the set as well.
All this, so some critic can say, “Did we really need a revival of Hair set during the first Iraqi War? The mediocre ability of the cast really detracted from what should have been brilliant choreography on the part of Mr. So-and-So… blah, blah, blah.”
So you ask me why anyone would want to perform? If you have to ask, you may not be ready for a career as a performer. If the sound of this sends thrills up and down your spine, and you think that one show a year and 5 people in a studio apartment appeals to you; if the tired sore feeling you have is how you measure accomplishment; then read my next article: Acting Basics.
Maybe it can happen. However, unless you are one of the incredibly lucky (read: charismatically good looking) few, your chances of fame and glory are slim. So I pose this question to you. Do you love to act? Have you been onstage, conquered the roiling monster in your gut, and lived to wish for it again? Do you think you have talent?
Lesson # 1 starts here. It is called REALITY.
Acting is a much harder field than most know. Take a typical NYC theatrical performer.
Your day begins early (5-6am) to exercise. Why? Your body is your instrument, your tool, your livelihood. Without a body that is conditioned, you will not be up to grueling tasks before you (you’ll understand as you read on). I am not saying your body must be that of a Greek god, nor even skinny. Just FIT. Have a little stamina. By the way, try not to wake up any of your roomies; they had rehearsal until 2am because the choreographer wasn’t happy with the Crapshooter’s Ballet.
Maybe you can make a 7am or 8am audition if you are lucky before running into “work” schlepping coffee or serving eggs to ungrateful breakfasters whose caffeine has yet to kick in. Hopefully there will be less than 150 auditioners for the role you are seeking that morning, because your boss is tired of each of his workers being late because auditions ran long. You are really hoping to get a call back, because it has been 5 months since your last show.
After your shift you go to your next audition. You enter the room with 1 or 2 monologues and an upbeat song and a ballad prepared, hand your headshot and resume to the director and before you can say two words the director says, “Thank you. Next!” Let’s assume it is a “cattle call” where you audition in a large group. Perhaps your group of 30 needs to learn a bit of a dance number from the choreographer in under 5 minutes and audition en masse. The choreographer and director then simply watch the crowd and eliminate those who don’t meet their criteria. Maybe you are too short. Maybe you don’t have the skills necessary for the dance. Maybe they want all brunettes.
You survive the cutting. Now you must sweat it out until you find out whether or not you get a “call back”, or invitation to the next round of auditions. After all this, you may get a part in a show. Now the real fun begins.
First you need to contact your day job and make arrangements around the rehearsal and show schedule, because the production simply doesn’t pay enough (IF it pays) to live off of without your daily tips. Now, in addition to your 5-8 hr. work shift, you will be rehearsing 5-6 days a week (Monday is “dead day” in professional theatre; unless you really suck), for 4-8 hrs or more as you get closer to opening night. So your daily schedule now looks like this for 4-8 weeks (if you don’t have to help construct the set, too):
4a
Wake up
5a
Day Job at food service establishment of your choice
11 am
Work out
Noon
Lunch
2pm
Studio for dance practice
4pm
Work on lines with friends (I.E. Dinner)
5pm
Rehearsals
10-11pm
Food or Stimulant and socializing or sleep or more rehearsal…
12-1am
Sleep (if not rehearsing still)
The show begins and you are now performing 7 shows a week, 6 days a week including the matinee on Saturday. You show up 2 hrs. prior to curtain time to put on make-up, check costume and props, and if the budget of the production isn’t big enough for stagehands, check and prep the set. Plus you warm up to help prevent body and voice injuries. However, if you pull a muscle, break a toe, or have a sore throat the show must go on! You grit your teeth and perform through the pain, because chances are you have no understudy. So you take pain relievers, sore throat lozenges and tea, wrap up your injuries tightly and go on. (Once I had my face gashed open in the middle of a chase scene gone wrong, and held the cut on my face closed with butterfly bandages, instead of the recommended stitches, because I could cover the bandages in make-up, and not stitches. I still have a scar years later.)
Not being one of the lead roles, you have 5 different characters to play in the show and 5 lines accordingly. You have to strip down to a dance belt (glorified jock-strap showing a whole lotta ass) side stage in front of 3 people who assist you in changing costume and make-up, freezing from the air on your sweat covered body, in under a minute so you can make your entrance at the start of the next scene. Hopefully after the bow, you don’t have to help strike the set as well.
All this, so some critic can say, “Did we really need a revival of Hair set during the first Iraqi War? The mediocre ability of the cast really detracted from what should have been brilliant choreography on the part of Mr. So-and-So… blah, blah, blah.”
So you ask me why anyone would want to perform? If you have to ask, you may not be ready for a career as a performer. If the sound of this sends thrills up and down your spine, and you think that one show a year and 5 people in a studio apartment appeals to you; if the tired sore feeling you have is how you measure accomplishment; then read my next article: Acting Basics.
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