Author: theactorvist

I love the Theatre. It's my church. It's my joy. I have been performing in plays and musicals for over half of my life, and I would be lost without it. Now more than ever, people are cutting back on everything that is too expensive or unimportant to their lives. As an actor, heck as a person, I don't know of anything that is more important than the arts. Art reflects history. It shows humanity at its worst but also its best. Every day some artistic program is getting cut from a school or a great show goes unseen. Maybe a talented singer isn't able to audition for American Idol. There are a ton of people who live in the South Bay Area of California, who go unseen or unheard. There are many production companies that are just bursting with talent, but people don't see the shows. I will do my best to bring you interviews with local artists of every kind, send out the call for local companies looking to cast people in productions, and much more. Stay tuned because this is only the beginning.

No more Mr. Nice-Guy?

Finally an answer!  I guess it’s true…if you put your question out into the world, you will get an answer if you are paying attention.

Let me backtrack a little.  A few weeks back, I recounted a situation that I must figure out.  As someone who is trying to help promote the local arts scene, I found it incredibly difficult to only talk about the “good” things for events and not so much about why I dislike some things or events because I was worried that the event wouldn’t get an audience.  I felt that by only speaking of the good things, I may praise an event that most people may not like thus tarnishing any possible future reputation that I may have.  However, if I criticize an event, would the organizer of that event ever want to allow me access to pictures of their future works.  I understand the concept of constructive criticism and accept it whole heartedly, but what if you see something that isn’t really that good, like Step Up for example?  Fantastic dancing, but everything else was meh.  So that was my dilemma.

I recently began to read my copy of Theatre Bay Area Magazine and read the executive director’s note.  Brad Erickson wrote a brilliant piece that I found was exactly what I needed.  The note was about excellence and promoting it throughout our community and not being so nice about everything.  I took this article with a grain of salt. Being on both sides of the the fence, I know that I would like to know how to make myself a better performer through critique and such but at the same time I know that opening myself to that negativity will stay with me for a very very long time.  As one who is talking about performances, I feel I owe it to the people reading about it an honest account of what I felt and thought while being at that particular event.

So it turns out that yes, I should make comments about the things that I dislike in a performance but to do it in a way that would not be viewed as mean.  If I were an actor having something possibly upsetting being written about me, I would first love to be told about it upfront before it hits print.  I think that would be my personal choice.  When writing about an event, I wonder if that still applies?  Argh, clearly some more time and thought needs to be put into this issue.  However, I am elated that I have confirmation that I am not being too hard if I were to give an honest critique regarding future works.  We shall see how this plays out my friends, we shall see.

In the final paragraph, Mr. Erickson offered up this wonderful piece of imagery “…the etymology of the word “assess” is “to sit with” or “sit alongside.” What a beautiful image for this effort: to sit beside one another, supporting each other in our individual efforts to reach greater excellence.”

Brilliant.

If you were about to receive a bad review, how would you like to find out?  How would you handle receiving criticism of your work?  How do you deal with negative comments?

I know I just shot a machine gun style barrage of questions at you, but honestly how would you answer them?

Step Up 3, no D

I was crazy excited for this movie to finally make it to the big screen, especially since I had mentioned that the Europeans had already had theirs out for months.  Well, that and the fact that Adam Shankman was hyping it up on So You Think You Can Dance.  So I went to the AMC Mercado and had two minutes to spare before previews began.

Here’s the plot: Dance crew (House of Pirates)  needs money to save their home, and the only way to do it is to win a battle where the prize money is 100 grand.  That’s all.  There’s a few minor things that happen throughout but really the whole story is bleh.

The movie opens documentary style with dancers being asked why they dance.  This opening sequence was fantastic and featured some SYTYCD greats, like Twitch and Legacy. I found those first four minutes of the film to be the most satisfying “acting” bits in the entire movie.  But then again, when I think of the past ones, of course the acting isn’t great in those either, so at least you won’t be disappointed there.  The emotional arc is less of a hill but more like a speed bump that no one would really slow down for.  The acting throughout, while decent (use the term loosely)  put a complete halt on the energy of the movie.   So let’s get down to the dancing.  I don’t want to give you all the details because I hate it when people do that to me for a movie that I want to see.

What I was hoping for was brief dialogue in between these epic dance numbers.  What I got was a lot of typical story with a few dances thrown in to break up the acting.  The first dance segment, which takes place on the NYU campus, is between one dancer (Kid Darkness played by Daniel ‘Cloud’ Campos) who represents the “House of Samurai” and the other is a freshman at the college.   The Samurai dancer was actually one of Madonna’s tour dancers and the co-star in one of Shakira’s videos where she’s flipping and dancing around on a bed. But back to the movie. The student (Adam G. Sevani), nicknamed Moose, tries to follow a pair of rare Nike high tops (yeah, that’s exactly what happened.  Lame.) when he gets caught up in the middle of this battle.  I was put off right away, because the cameras were trying to get so close to the action that they cut the “picture” of the dancer.  What I mean by this is that instead of seeing the entire body of the dancer, you see the torso and head.  I want to know what he was doing with his feet, too, to get the whole picture.  This happens only when it’s one dancer being focused on and it really bothered me.  This particular scene was most bothersome because the “Samurai” was literally twisting 3 or 4 times in the air, but you only saw mostly torso, so the full effect wasn’t as incredible as it could have been.  There were one or two tricks done that I’d never seen before, but in that whole 3 minute sequence I wanted to be blown away.  I appreciate the effort to try and get the viewer as close as possible, but I wanted to see everything so it just frustrated me.

There’s a club scene that had so much potential.  The leader of the Pirates, Luke (Rick Malambri) has a crush on this mystery girl, Natalie, (Sharni Vinson) who shows up at his club, but always runs away after a minute or two of playing cat and mouse.  Luke also wants to be a filmmaker and tries to film her dancing which is only the same body rolling and hair flicking that you get from the Brittany wannabe dancers.  Unimpressive.  Meanwhile, because Moose defeated the “Samurai” dancer at the school, some of the Samurai crew lead by Joshua from SYTYCD tried to battle him in the bathroom at the club.  This last for 30 seconds before the “House of Pirates” come to Moose’s aid and a brawl erupts.

This competition (World Jam) that the Pirates enter into requires them to get past 2 rounds of other crews to make it to the finals.  Isn’t that the same as You Got Served?  Maybe it’s just my bad memory.  I’ll have to watch that again. Anyway…where was I?  Oh, yes…So with only three major battles implied, I felt let down.  Although just before the last battle, after some drama, Moose and his BFF, Camile (played very, very well by Alyson Stoner) have this little number that travels down the block to a fun little jazzy tune that is very Musical Theatre in style and is a lot of fun to watch.  I was actually smiling at this number for being adorable and not overly cheesy.

As far as the battles themselves go, the dancing is great!  My gripe is that if you are part of a crew dancing together to present an image and an impact, for crying out loud, you have to be in sync.  I know there’s the whole idea of dancer individuality which is cool and wonderful when you are dancing as such, but when you are choreographed in unison…  Just sayin’.  I think there were only two times that I said “Cool” or was impressed by the execution of movement, and only once when I saw a brand new trick.  There wasn’t really anything new being brought to the table by way of choreography.  I was really hoping for something that I could flip my lid over, but the movie never truly seems to go for it.  Almost as if they had to hold back because of the fact that this was being filmed in 3D.

Oh, I just remembered something else that struck me as weird with regard to the filming.  Whenever they show the main members of the Pirate crew, they never show Legacy.  Yet, in the battles you see him all the time.  He is even in the documentary film that Luke was working on.

Speaking of the 3D: I don’t think this movie warrants moviegoers to have to spend the additional 8 bucks to enjoy this flick.  There was only really one scene that the 3D was well executed with.  At the midway point of the movie, Luke and Natalie have a type of Marilyn Monroe moment on top of a very large fan/vent and play with their ICEEs/Slurpies.  With this massive fan blowing everything up in the air, they drip strawfuls of the flavored ice into the air and the overhead camera is in the direct path of that slushy goodness.  That was the only thing in the movie that made me feel like there was possibly something that was heading toward my face.  Skip the 3D.  You’re welcome.

So there you have it folks, a decent dance film that isn’t really breaking new ground for the world of dance but capitalizing on technology to try and bring you something different.  The music is fantastic and during the dances it fits every step and movement.  So for you dance lovers, see the movie, but spend that 8 bucks on the snacks.

Closing time…

The last thing that I saw just before strike.

Now that “Shakespeare 3 Ways” has played it’s final performance, and the set has been taken apart and stowed away, and the theatre has been dark for a day or two.  I am getting a little anxious at the thought of the coming weekend arriving and me without a show to perform, or even any rehearsals to ease the withdrawal I tend to feel during those first two weeks away from a show.  I got so used to seeing the people that I was working with that it’s almost the same as “coming home.”  I guess it’s that sense of familiar that I crave.  I know that at a certain time, I would be on the road to the venue, and then I will have odd things to wear, whispered conversations behind the curtain as the audience files into the house.   This weekend instead of the above mentioned scenario,  I’m gonna be either at home watching a movie, or hanging out with friends which is always fun, or maybe reading, or writing.  But I know that it won’t be performing, and that makes me a wee bit blue.

At the end of the show last Sunday, Craig asked for a few minutes to get some closure on his work being brought to life “officially.”  As he began walking the stage, in one archway and out another, around the back of the main curtain, at the far end of the stage nearest the emergency exit and up onto his kingly throne once more, I wondered what was happening in his head.  He first steps on that stage at that particular time had so much of “something” in them that I felt compelled enough to grab my camera and shoot some pictures.  I couldn’t say what that “something” was, but it felt major.  So much so that now that I’ve seen the images I’ve gotten, I almost feel embarrassed for taking them.  The moments seem to private that I don’t feel like I should share them.  On the other hand, I can’t delete them.  So they shall sit in my computer as a memory for me.  A memory about the time when a group of people took a chance and cast me in two roles that originally called for someone quite the opposite of, well, me.  And when I see those pictures, I will wonder “What is going through his mind?” Is it happiness that a new theatre company that you’ve helped to create is up and running?  Is it panic, regarding the turn out of the audience?  Is it sadness that the show has come to an end?   Is it regret that the show was different than what you intended? Is it a combination of all of the above?  Maybe it’s similar to the withdrawals that I will have this weekend, but he’s just solving that problem with true closure.  Maybe one day, years from now, I’ll ask him.

Update!

Episode TEN of TheActorvist Podcast is running along with the show notes posted.  All you have to do is click HERE. The podcast features an interview with graphic designer and painter, Carmen Reid; Can you help a knitter out?; and an brief look back at opening weekend for “Shakespeare”.

Also, I have added some audition notices to the audition page, so see if  there is something that you would like to try out for.  Just click HERE.

If you follow this link to GOLRSTAR, you can get $5 tickets to “Shakespreare 3 Ways” at Theatre on San Pedro Square.  There are only 2 more performances left!!  Saturday 7/24 at 8 pm and Sunday 7/25 at 2 pm.  I hope to see some of you there.  Have a great weekend.

Editing away…

The next podcast interview is being edited and researched as I type this, and luckily for me some of the questions that I have sent out are being returned.

I always thought that people in the arts would be more than happy to respond to simple questions, and now I am happily getting confirmation of this fact.  I find it exciting that people are now a little more willing to talk to me than when I first started poking about.

I am taking some photos of the art work that is inspiring the theme of the podcast and plan to have them up on the site tomorrow.

I hope that this new layout of the website and podcast format are more diverse and help me to achieve the goal of sparking interest in the fabulously talented people that are right in our own neighborhoods.