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11:35 pm - Thurs 4/6/06 I had a casting workshop earlier this evening (With Ivy Isenberg, at Paul Weber Casting). I was the first person to get there, and at one point, while I was talking to Brett (Who runs the workshop), I told him I was "hitting the wall" regarding workshops. On the one hand, I enjoy them, as I've said before (Getting to act, the cameraderie, etc). But on the other hand, it's tough, doing these things, week after week, spending the money, week after week, knowing you're doing a good job, week after week, and yet having nothing happen...week after week (Yeah, yeah, I know--The House gig. But that was one line, that got cut out of the show, over four months ago now--What have these things done for me lately?). For months now, I've wanted something to happen as a result of one of these workshops. And tonite something definitely "happened". Paul Weber Casting does Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, and is working on a half-hour comedy pilot called Minor Accomplishments, amongst other things. And during her little talk/Q&A before handing out the scenes (A talk/Q&A that was sometimes funny, sometimes profane, and very blunt), Ms Isenberg mentioned--in passing--that she'd be auditioning "security guards" on Monday. So when she was done talking/Q&A-ing, and she handed me a security guard scene--from Minor Accomplishments--there were a lot of "oohs" and "aaahs", and jokes about how I was getting my "pre-read" right then (A "pre-read" is when you're initially called into a casting director's office. If/when you get a callback, that's a "producer session"). So I went outside with my scene partner, a woman whose name I've forgotten (Charlene, or Charmayne, or something), who told us all before Ms I. arrived that she'd gotten in a car accident earlier that day and was on some big-time drugs. "Oh joy...", I thought to myself when I realized who my scene partner was (Sorry if that sounds mean. But here's the way I see it--It's too bad you got in an accident, and I feel for you, but if you're on heavy duty muscle relaxants you need to be home recuperating, not at a casting workshop where you have the potential to fuck up a potential scene partner with your slowed-down, druggy responses). (This is also a person who works the fact that she's from New York into every conversation. Which is neither here nor there, really--It just annoys me.) Well...I could get into the nitty and gritty of how the "rehearsal period" went (Ms "New York" was kind of bossy regarding how she thought the scene should go, and not happy with the casting director because of an exchange they'd had during the Q&A), but I want to move on to the good stuff. We were the second people up to do our scene (Two security guards talking about a guy they're watching on camera jerking off in his office cubicle--I guess it's "after hours"). Aside from my partner adding a lot of extraneous "Ewwws" and the like--which she didn't do in rehearsal (And which I thought was a bad "choice")--things went very well. The scene got big laughs. (I'm basically amused by what we're seeing, while my partner leans more towards "appalled".) The CD had us do it one more time (Telling my partner it was okay to just listen to me, and telling me she could really see I was looking at something), and when we were done, and I handed the scene back, she gave it back to me. For Monday. At the end of the night, she said she'd see me on Monday, warning me not to go nuts and "over-analyze" the scene in the meantime. (I don't plan to. Once I find out my audition time--I assume JS will be calling me with it tomorrow--I'm going to make sure I have the lines down cold, and that's it: This definitely falls under "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".) It's an AFTRA show, which doesn't pay nearly as much as SAG, but it's still pretty damned good money for a day's work. And more than that, it's an actual scene. Anyway, I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say about this between now and Monday. But cross your fingers...
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