Been around the world (...and I, I, I)*

Hello there.  Long time, no post.

But I'm back!  I was on the high seas spending a lovely cruise with my husband's family and it was great being able to spend quality time with everyone.  We had to avoid the first tropical storm of the season as we started our journey and then we had to skip the last port so we could avoid the second tropical storm of the season on our way back.  But we survived the stormy seas and have good memories to last us.

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

Now, just getting back into the swing of things...and the swinging is going well!  I had a commercial audition yesterday, which was a lovely way to kick off the week.  Last night I went to another Tuesdays@9 and I am definitely going to be making this a weekly occurrence.  Of course, they are going on summer break in a few weeks but I'm glad to have discovered it now and may even submit some of my writing to be considered for the rotation in the fall.  I put a link there so you can learn a little more about it but it's basically a cold reading series where writers (about five or six a night) have about 10 pages of a project read aloud and they cast from the actors that are there that night to read.  My friend from my improv class had a piece going up a few weeks ago so I went to listen and she gave me a little part to read, which was a lot of fun.  Since I was traveling, I hadn't had a chance to go back yet but last night was my chance.  And turns out she was having part two of her piece read so I got to participate again.  I've really enjoyed the energy and the spirit of these nights.  Reminds me of NY and the communal spirit of wanting to create.  They also have a musical break after the first three pieces are read.  Last night the artist was Natalie Gelman and man-oh-man did she have a voice.  She started to sing and it sounded like she had a mic but she didn't.  Her voice filled the room. One of the songs she sang was called Long Stemmed Roses and I've already listened to it a few more times today.  I'm definitely a fan now and will be following her career...hope it's a big one!



* Also, the title of this post is courtesy of that late 80s hit by Lisa Stansfield, All Around the World.  "...I can't find my baby...I don't know when, I don't know why..."

Upfronts Week: A Roller Coaster of Tweets

Upfronts, where the networks announce their fall schedules in order to court advertisers, were this week in NY.  Which shows are getting another season, which pilots are getting picked up.  It is undoubtedly an exciting time for those that got a time slot this fall.  It is also a sobering time for those that had a show canceled or a pilot that didn't make the cut.  With social media, we are seeing the emotions played out through 140 characters like never before.  When it was announced his show was not coming back Patrick Wilson, star of The Gifted Man, made some waves by tweeting,

"So...shocking to no one: #agiftedman is done. Found out via email...and not from the network. Stay classy. Thanks to AGM fans! ... but now that it's "official," I couldn't be happier. As good as it was (sometimes) it was not what I signed on for."  

Kristin Chenoweth just tweeted this morning about how her show, GCB, is not coming back and she is clearly surprised, 

"I seriously can't believe with our ratings GCB is cancelled!"  

The news that her show is not coming back has been out there for several days, so it's taking a while to sink in.  Same with Kathy Bates.  Harry's Law was canceled and she has taken to Twitter to commiserate with fans responding to tweets that she is "hanging in there."  She sent out a thank you to her fans last night, 

"Thanks all you HL Tweeters. You guys amaze me with your love and support. You've made it easier to come to grips with this disappointment."

On the other side of the coin is the people who work on the shows that got picked up or are continuing for another season.  They are all having a Twitter party.  The cast of Parenthood tweeted what seemed to be genuine surprise and gratitude about their show sticking around for a fourth season.  Mindy Kaling's pilot was picked up and she played the announcement cool by retweeting congrats from her fellow working actors and thanking them.  She also congratulated other shows that got picked up, like Whitney and Parks and Rec, by retweeting them or quoting them.

Basically, Twitter was one giant mood swing this week for those in the business of television.  And those are just people I follow or heard about or chose to mention.  There were plenty of writers, directors, show creators and more actors that sent out their excitement or disappointment this week and it has been interesting to follow along.

I was particularly invested this year in hearing about which pilots were getting picked up because I had several friends cast on pilots and I had my fingers crossed.  The shows they worked on all seemed like shoe-ins.  Major established stars and/or established plot formulas anchored their shows and I thought, "This is it!  They did it!  They booked shows - good shows - and now they are going to be steadily working for a long time.  Dreams come true, y'all!"

Dot. Dot. Dot.

...that's what it sounded like as news started trickling out late last week about which shows the networks were going with.  As the day grew longer and more shows were announced and the ones I was crossing my fingers for didn't make the lists, the sound of the ellipses grew louder.  I can only imagine how deafening it was for my friends actually on these shows.  I was just a cheerleader, hoping for a touchdown.  They are the ones that got left sitting on the sidelines, not getting a chance to play.  Surely having worked on these pilots will open doors for them and opportunities will continue to happen but I'm disappointed.  I was really hoping that the doors that they had already opened would stay open.

I think that is why I'm so enthralled with the emotional roller coaster happening over on Twitter this past week.  No matter how established your career is - whether you're just starting out or you've been working for decades - you're not immune to the disappointments.  Or to the excitements. Which isn't a great revelation but the emotional fallout has never really been this accessible.  Most people working seem to realize how rare that is.  And those left without a job are wondering where they'll end up next.  And those on the sidelines are hoping to get into the game.  And those of us cheerleading hope to be sitting on the sidelines next time around.  To mix my sporting metaphors, I feel like a lot of people are thinking..."Put me in coach...I'm ready to play today."

Trust Where You Are

Sorry for the long delay in between posts, my friends.  I served on a jury last week and then I was struck down by the flu.  Why, yes, it was a humdinger of a time.

Now that I'm feeling much better, I'm getting back into the swing of things...including blogging. While I was on my sick-couch (that's my new name for the couch I didn't leave for several days), I came across a good little article in Backstage.  It is an interview with Broadway stars Brian d'Arcy James and Donna Murphy with a little bit of advice for newcomers.  You can check out the whole thing here but I wanted to share with you something that Donna Murphy said that really stood out to me:

"There's an element of trust that you're exactly where you're meant to be at any given moment," she said. "I remember spending an awful lot of energy in my 20s thinking 'Why aren't I being seen for this or why aren't I doing this?' As I looked back, once I was in my 30s, 40s, and now a little bit later than that, I realized I wasn't ready for that or it wasn't the right moment in time. It's really about finding opportunities where you can work and if they don't come to you, you make them. You get a group of actors together - whether it's as formal as creating a company or as informal as just reading plays together once a week - so that whether you're given a job or not, you're still working. I also believe in becoming as aware a citizen of the world as possible. Because it imbues your work with levels that go way beyond what your acting training brings you. Craft to me is huge and it's also about continuing to grow as a person."

I love this.

It really is about creating opportunities.  That was our tagline and mantra with the production company I started in NY and even though that company is dissolved, the spirit lives on.  That's why web series like Girl Parts are so important.  That's why the screenplay I wrote (and am still tinkering with) is important.  That's why improv, with weekly classes and practice groups, is important.  Sketches grow from those practices.  Scenes get filmed.  Opportunities get made.  This industry gets frustrating when the phone isn't ringing.  And you can start to feel like you're not enough.  But the reason you started on this journey IS.  And when you continue to create, continue to engage, continue to work...everything else will follow suit.  And you'll start to "trust that you're exactly where you're meant to be at any given moment."

Bryan Cranston

Bryan Cranston is by far one of my favorite actors working today.  The following video where he talks about his journey and advice for actors just solidifies that sentiment even further:

Run Your Race

Just finished this race and PR'd by
nearly 2 minutes. Clearly I was thrilled.

I have never been particularly athletic.  Which we've discussed.  But I have always been competitive.  Ask anyone that's ever played a board game with me...I can be ruthless.  So when I started running consistently late last year, you better believe it had something to do with races.  Over the past year my husband has been training for and doing really well in 5Ks.  Since I'm going to be there to cheer him on, I figured I'd better run too.  I mean, these things start way too early in the morning and if I'm going to be up, I better be getting some sort of medal.  At first I would just run and hope to finish without walking along the way.  And I did.  It felt good to finish but it also felt a little lame when both seven-year-olds and seventy-year-olds would breeze past me.   When I started running regularly these past six months, I figured maybe I could improve upon my times.  Start to run a little faster.  Have a little more confidence in my abilities.  I've run three races since the start of the year and I've noticed two things:

1.  I am still lapped by people decades younger or older than me.
2.  Each time my pace has improved, which means I've "PR'd" at each race (PR=personal record).

Basically I've learned this: I have to run MY race.  Not anyone else's.

That's one of the beauties of running.  Sure, you can be in a race with hundreds of people but at the finish line the only person you need to worry about is yourself.  I find that I'll keep my eye on somebody in the race and think, "As long as I stay on pace with Pink Socks, I'm doing good."  And then sometimes Pink Socks will pick up the pace and I'll lose sight of her.  Or sometimes I'll run past Pink Socks and think, "Dang, I'm doing better than I thought."  Sometimes I'll just zone out and listen to my music, wave at the people cheering the runners on and enjoy the view.  Then I'll see a mile marker and think, "I need to pick up the pace."  Or I'll think, "You're doing good! Faster than you thought!"  I also like to sprint it out at the end.  When I see the finish line, I like to run faster and secure that PR.

So what does any of this have to do with acting?  Last night after our last improv class, we all went out for a drink to celebrate.  I was sitting, talking to two other women in my class and it was interesting because one is in her early 20s, just starting out.  The other is in her 40s, just coming back after taking time off from acting.  And I'm in the middle.  And we were talking about agents and managers and marketing ourselves and where we're at in our careers and where we hope to go and where we thought we'd be.  And it just clicked.  We're all in the same race.  There are mile markers along the way.  There are people that we stay on pace with.  There are people that we pass.  There are people that zoom past us.  And it's easy to see someone zooming past and think, "Why can't I run that fast??"  But then you forget about the other people behind you that might be thinking the same thing about you.  It's only when you focus on where you are and how you can improve your time that you start to win.  A career in acting is not linear.  You can be on a hit show one day and waiting tables the next.  You can take classes, meet casting directors, get great pictures and still not get called in for auditions.  You can go on your first audition ever and book it.  And then not book another job for years.  It's not a career where you get a degree, get an entry-level job, after a certain amount of time you get a raise and you can check off the boxes at regularly scheduled intervals as you climb the ladder.  Sure...it might happen that way.  But the intervals are far from regularly spaced.  And sometimes the next rung seems out of reach. But you'll get there.  We'll all get exactly to where we are supposed to be.

Lots of people say about acting, "It's a marathon, not a sprint."  Which always sounded like rhetoric to me...until I started running.  It doesn't matter where you are on the course.  You can be at the starting line or somewhere in the middle.  You can be young or old.  You can be trying to keep up with someone ahead of you or you can just be enjoying the view.  Our only true competition is ourselves.  And when you're competitive....you'll get yourself to that finish line.