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.

When she said…

In Tony Award winner Katie Finneran’s acceptance speech, she said “…focus on what you love, because it is the greatest passport; it is the greatest roadmap to an extraordinarily blissful life. Just focus on that one thing. Don’t listen to anybody else and you will run into the right people, the right teachers, the right moments and circumstances…”

As always, the Tony’s inspired yet again. Yeah, they had their incredible share of technical difficulties, like WAY too many, but I couldn’t help but feel that upheaval in my soul that pulls at my heart because I am wanting to be on the stage.

DREAM

1. n. a series of pictures or events in the mind of a sleeping person.

2. n. a daydream or fantasy

My Favorite 3. contemplate the possibility of; have any conception or intention of

These are just a couple of the definitions in the Oxford Dictionary for this wonderful and beautiful word.

Everyone dreams. The only difference is how they go about thinking about them once they “wake up”.

As a kid, I would have the most horrible dreams. They were always terrifying. I guess the best thing would be to say that they were nightmares. I think those dreams are the cause of my current fears. Strange how that works, huh?

As a teenager, I would try and interpret my dreams with the many books that I surrounded myself with in the local library. It was such a pain, researching an item and then having to cross reference that item with other details regarding said item. Let’s see if I can give you an example. The other night about two weeks ago I had a dream where in one moment, I am lying in bed and there is someone outside the door that I believe wants to come into the room but there was a MASSIVE red and orange blotched ant that was on the wall directly above the door. Just finding what the ant could mean takes a ton of research. The ant itself because its in the house, according to Zolar’s Encyclopedia & Dictionary of Dreams, signifies an illness in the family, the colors red and orange mean quarrels and fortune respectively, and the door could mean fortune as well. Now we can add a little more crazy to this and determine if the ant was red, scarlet or crimson which indicates quarrel with friends, family quarrel, or pleasant news from a friend. Mix with that the notion that several colors mixed together mean you have false friends. Seeing how we are just talking of two colors, I think I will let that go. But do you see the madness that was involved in doing that? I used to sit in the libraries, local public and the school, for hours.

As an adult, I have come to realize that dreams are what we make of them. Definitions in a book are not the be all end all that I once thought they were. I don’t know what that ant meant, but who cares. There is a belief that if you say your thoughts aloud or write them down on paper then it’s a stepping stone to helping your dreams come true. The energy of the act is supposed to wander out into the universal ether and help you make your way to that dream. In a word it boils down to BELIEVE.

I guess Salt N Pepa said it best when they said “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, you will achieve.”

How do YOU think of them? Do you try to interpret them from books? Do you use them as a road map for your life? Or do they simply help you get away from the thoughts that are in your head at the time? Let me know what you do with your dreams. And lastly, I hope they come true.

Heeerrre’s….

_Episode 7

(Click to listen)

I chat with Ronnie Misra from WVLO’s “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”, an update on “Breaking Up” and my current project “Shakespeare 3 Ways” also my pick for Best Winner of a Musical at tonight’s Tony Awards! Let’s see if I am right.

For show notes click HERE.

It’s that time…

Episode 06

(Click to play)

Next week, I’ll have an interview with Ronnie Misra and give rehearsal updates for Shakespeare 3 Ways and Breaking Up is Hard to Do. Show notes will be up shortly.

Enjoy your weekend!

Don’t you hate it when…

I had a great original idea that I told to a few people. Everyone that I mentioned it to said that it was something that they had never seen before, and that it was a fantastic idea. So, I bring my idea to the people that I would like to pitch it to. And my great idea, which wasn’t so original after all turns out to have been done before. Awww, fooey!

So rather than let it discourage me, I asked more questions about what was done before. My idea was short and sweet, whereas the other was nice, but too long, and ultimately it actually turned a few people off from looking further into the project. So, I hope to learn from that mistake, even though, I was never planning to get as overly involved as what was described to me, and present it to you in a way that is enticing and fun. So be on the look out for that.

The British got there first!!!

For some dancers, if not all, Step Up 3D was something to look forward to this summer. If it’s anything like the first two, yeah, it’ll probably have the cheesy predictable plot, but that’s not what’s important. The importance of this movie is the DANCING! If you were to cut out the story, and just have dance after dance, I would still pay to see it in the movie theaters. Maybe I’m crazy, but it’s true. So, with that being said, I am sorry to say that Director Jon Chu had better have some show stoppers planned for this movie because the British have beaten him to the punch.

STREET DANCE 3D!!! This is the first 3D movie for the British, and it’s looking like it could do really well. Some of the buzz around this movie is that the star Nichola Burley, who seems to be a big deal in Europe as in A-Lister, does a bang up job. Which is where the movies may differ. In the Step Up films, the acting is mediocre at it’s worst and just a step up from that at it’s best. Is it due in part to experience? Possibly. But Directors Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini want to give a solid showing all around apparently. Although as far as her acting goes, I am not entirely impressed, but I’ll wait until I see the whole movie to say for sure. While hearing all of this chatter, I am wondering why, then, there really isn’t more of a focus on Ms. Burley’s dancing in the trailer? Maybe they want to get people curious. However if, like me, you have never heard of the lead, then wouldn’t you want to show that this person can pull off these dances by giving just a little more. I concede that she is lightly sprinkled throughout, but those moves aren’t ones that show technique. Just link a few more of those movements together and it could be much more intriguing, I think. Luckily, you get a small taste of it at the end which shows not only her but the rest of the group hitting those movements strong and clean. It looks incredibly promising.

I also love the “twist” on the story with the girl being the street rat and the boy being the ballet dancer. It’s just nice to see that change of pace. Although, the story looks like one that we’ve seen time and time again. But like I said earlier, who cares? It’s about the DANCING!!!!!

May the best movie win!

Here’s the trailer.