THE DRESSING ROOM DYNAMIC AS A HOLDING CELL

Sometimes it bugs me when I’m sitting in the dressing room, a room full of actors who auditioned to be part of a production, actors who have rehearsed for weeks and then they state nonchalantly that they’re not really actors as they sit there applying their makeup just before stepping into the spotlight. I think they’re giving themselves a license to fail cause they are saying I don’t have to be professional I’m not really actor.

In case you haven't heard, I'm in a play. My subsequent appearance on the boards clarifies any misconception of who I am for I am an actor. I have been and still am a music supervisor, a professional musician, a producer with experience producing musical artists and even an occasional project in the realm of television, a marketing specialist including traditional, street and digital marketing as well as promotion and also including work in the realm of branding strategies.

My only experience in a holding cell (thank god) has been my appearance in the windowless, hot box dressing room which I find somewhat comforting in this show with it’s lack of rodents and roaches that so many Hollywood dressing rooms offer at no additional charge.

We just went through our first weekend of shows after a 12-14 week rehearsal schedule which is the longest I’ve ever rehearsed for any show. By the time we were on stage muscle memory had taken over after so many rehearsals. Opening weekend ticket sales were brisk which was very positive cause we’ve got a fairly good sized theater to fill. It is amazing how varied the energy has been at each show thus far. It affects all of us up on stage. The other day I heard an elderly woman talking loudly during a pensive moment in the stage action. I thought perhaps we had some improvised dialogue spew from one of the cast members. There was brilliance in the performance when a fellow cast member had a meltdown forgetting his speech but made something up and recovered beautifully with the help of another Thespian who entered at an appropriate moment feeding that actor the comfort of familiar lines to get him back on track. The audience was for the most part none the wiser. At another performance one of the cast could barely get his lines out as thoughts of hot juicy tender fried chicken with a fresh crispy outside kept popping into his head while on stage. I wanted to work fried chicken into my lines in a salute to his gourmet consciousness. After our last show a woman came up to me in the parking lot. As she approached I readied myself for a compliment on the show. She asked me how to retrieve her hidden key from key device used to start a keyless ignition that wasn’t cooperating. Turns out the manufacturer hides the key within the keyless device itself for rapid deployment in the event that their electronic door command doesn't respond. There was no mention of the show but I’d done my Good Samaritan deed for the day.

And what of those actors in the dressing room stating "I'm not really an actor"?! An actor is an actor, if only for those fleeting moments he or she appears on stage and in front of an audience. If you look at it any other way you're robbing your yourself and more importantly your robbing your audience, many of whom may have just paid to see you perform and they want to see an actor! An actor who makes such statements cause they’re not earning a living acting would benefit from a look at the actual statistics with regard to earning a living as an actor. Most of us should actually be called “professional auditioners” cause we spend a much greater percentage of time auditioning than actually acting in projects. And with regard to earning a living I'm not speaking of background work but actual jobs with dialogue.

Literally only 1% of actors earn the exciting salaries we all hear about and dream about someday earning while 11% of all actors roughly earn enough to scrape by. The majority of actors make under $35,000, way under. 80% of all actors don’t even have professional representation cause there are not enough agents or professional management companies to go around. It’s a tough racket made even more challenging these days with less pilots being shot overall and of those an even smaller portion being shot in Southern California. Add the damaging effect of reality television to the shrinking list of available roles and the growing number of film stars accepting television roles which was once practically nil and the challenge is even greater. Sharon Stone is appearing in Law and Order SUV in the next couple of weeks, Lawrence Fishburn is a CSI cast regular, Forest Whitaker is appearing on television and even Dustin Hoffman is slated for television. In todays marketplace, even if you have a brilliant audition and look the part there is a greater possibility you will still not be cast. However, opportunities for actors to create their own vehicle to showcase their talents on the small screen are rising to offset disappearing opportunities in other areas. Content is king in the digital media marketplace and digital media is demanding an even greater amount of it…


Appearing in a stage play there is plenty of time in the dressing room to exchange stories about the goings on in your week. This serves several purposes. It can provide possible source material for any standup comics amongst the cast, is rather uplifting when you compare notes and hear that other actors in the cast are in the midst of similar struggles to your own and such conversation can provide an inspiration for new goals and a greater focus in your own life. Dressing room banter can also provide a source of guy time for those actors such as myself who don’t have a lively social calendar of buddies they hang with and lastly an opportunity to pimp information on any number of subjects from subject experts in those fields as the opportunities arise.

After a recent show I was attempt to relax and began seeing people in the halls of my home that aren’t really there. One might wonder, were they ghosts? angels? spirit guides or maybe just leftover digestive enzymes swimming about in the brain from an over stimulation of my frontal lobe during the performance? I’ll let you know when I do.

Should you attend you may find my character a bit un-likeable. What can I say except, there’s only so much you can do with your like-ability quotient when you’re a greedy, murdering adulterer. Se la vie. I’m really not a bad guy. I get to let out all that darkness under the lights so I sleep well at night. For tickets go to www.conejoplayerstheater.org. and don’t forget to use GOD12 for a discount. See you under the lights! Feel free to write me, comment or stop by after a show to say hello. Was hoping to work in a picture of my dogs but I’ll save that for another post. Oh and if you do stop by after the show or write me please feel free to recommend the winning lottery numbers, there’s a big jackpot in the coming days!

EVEN SEA SLUGS CAN BE INTERESTING (though a bit slippery to hold…)

While doing laps around the Beverly Hills High School track one afternoon I spied an older gentleman dressed in sweats with a towel tucked around his neck and donning an English driving cap. I felt his energy from the moment I arrived and though focused on my own training I was drawn to him. He appeared to be mumbling to himself and oblivious to the outside world. By the second mile I was acutely aware of his incredible focus. He appeared to be concentrating, working from within on some problem perhaps, but doing so with laser precision. It didn’t hit me till a few laps later that this man was an actor learning dialogue and developing his character on that track.

Somewhere between my second and third mile and this was some years ago, I realized it was Burt Lancaster. To this day that afternoon has made an indelible impression on me. I learned that even after all the success a screen legend enjoys, he still must work hard at his craft and still give 150% in doing so.

My journey thus far has been on both sides of the camera. I’ve tasted success and failure, hard times and good but one constant throughout the journey has always been that the people I meet and places I’ve visited make life interesting…

A chance meeting in an elevator or at a gas station with someone far from the world of entertainment is often a valuable source for character development as an actor as well as a rich addition to the fabric of my journey.

And life is full of “stuff”. My life is no different. The typical acting coach will tell an actor that if they’ve had a bad day or some misfortune or are depressed they should use all that “stuff” in their performance. That same acting coach will also tell you if you’re angry use it or if you’re sad use it and so on. They’ll explain that adding your “stuff” to a performance will make that performance rich. If you’re that actor going through the “stuff”, that turmoil you feel inside may not be so easy to use in an audition or performance. The advice to use your “stuff” may be sound advice. However, we’re not always comfortable wearing all the armor needed to do so. It does get heavy.

So tonight I’m gonna take off my armor,set my stuff aside and relax a little bit before tomorrow's challenges present themselves...Of course all that happens sometime after a long night of rehearsal giving 150%. It's hard work being a murdering adulterer. Oh yeah,that's my character Tony Abbott in "Heaven Can Wait". We open April 23rd at the Conejo Players Theater in Thousand Oaks.