Category Archives: Acting

A Bonus Musical (or Having Two Sets Of Seats For Matilda)

Posted on July 10, 2015 | Comments Off

I’ve really been enjoying my season tickets to the Pantages. I’ve still got one more show to go there, but since I didn’t renew my tickets I know that I won’t be seeing as many musicals as I have in the past year. I’m hoping that even without season tickets, I’ll still get tickets to one or two shows in the next season.

And I’m also trying to get to more theaters than just the Pantages. So when I saw that Matilda the Musical was going to be at the Ahmanson in downtown LA, I knew I wanted to see it again. I loved seeing it in New York last year and I was curious to see how the touring show would differ from the Broadway show.

The run of Matilda is coming up to a close so I was worried that I wouldn’t get a chance to see it again (I’m not bold enough yet to go to a musical alone but I’m working on it). I got an email that they were doing a promo for 4 balcony seats for $99. So I posted it on Facebook and my friend Erin said that she’d love to come with me!

Erin thought her daughter would love the show and then also invited one of her daughter’s friends, so that was a group of 4. I bought the tickets online and managed to find some pretty centered seats in the middle of the balcony.

We went to the show this past Tuesday (while I was working on getting over my cold). Sadly, Erin’s daughter’s friend ended up having a fever and couldn’t come to the show. We couldn’t find someone to come with us at the last-minute, so we were just a group of 3.

Our seats were pretty much at the top of the theater (there’s the orchestra level, then the mezzanine, then the balcony). But since the seats were similar to stadium seating, we had a pretty great view of the stage.

The show was just as great as I remembered it from New York! And it was so impressive how much they were able to do unchanged from the Broadway show. I really thought more of the sets would be changed (and the sets were one of my favorite things in the show), but it was pretty close to what they did in New York.

While the show was great, some of the audience was pretty horrendous. There were 3 people in front of us who spent a good majority of the first half of the show on their phones. Erin had asked one of them if they could put their phone away, but he ignored her. I don’t know if they were in a group together or not, but they all were doing the same thing. They were constantly texting, checking Facebook, or commenting on Instagram. One person was also taking photos, but that was actually less annoying because the screen wasn’t as bright.

At intermission, Erin asked again if they could please not use their phones during the show. One of them said that it was business and he had to take care of it. That’s just ridiculous to me! If you can’t go an hour without checking your phone, maybe you shouldn’t go to a show. Or if you do, sit in the back corner so you can turn away from everyone. Or maybe watch from the lobby.

Erin decided enough was enough and went to go find an usher. Then she came back to get me and her daughter and said that the usher was moving us to new seats. Sadly, their policy isn’t to talk to the people breaking the theater rules because of fear of confrontation. But at least we were getting out of that situation so we could enjoy the second half of the show.

Funny enough, a few days after this happened to us, there was an article about Patti LuPone taking away an audience member’s phone because they were texting during a show. I wish she was in the audience with us!

The usher moved us to the last row of the mezzanine. So we were a bit farther back, but not nearly as high up.

The second half was much better since we didn’t have the glaring cell phone screens right in front of us. The only issue was since the show was so late, Erin’s daughter was getting pretty sleepy at the end (it was way past her bedtime).

Erin and her daughter loved the show and we had a great girls night out! I’m hoping that we can go to another show together soon, but maybe we’ll make it a weekend matinée.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged girls night out, Los Angeles, musical

Playing Catchup (or Recovering From The Beginning Of The Week)

Posted on July 3, 2015 | Comments Off

After all the excitement on Monday, I’ve pretty much spent the rest of my week making up for everything I didn’t do because I was focused on both the live recording and after party.

Obviously, the first thing I had to make up were work hours. Fortunately, my box office job doesn’t have Monday hours so I didn’t have to worry about that. But with my research job, I had to make sure to work a few extra hours to make up for not doing anything Monday (or over the weekend).

The research job is still trucking along. Things are a bit slower than I’d like, but my boss is totally understanding. I think that once I get all the initial work done and it’s more about maintaining the data I’ve collected, things will be better. Now it just seems like a race against time.

Even though I got through all the festivities of Monday, the podcast team still needed to meet up on Tuesday. We met at Lyfe Kitchen and I think it’s pretty obvious that we all were pretty hungry going into the meeting.

Some of the meeting was a debriefing of how things went the night before and what we could improve on for the next event. I think most of us were on the same page about things, but I think that I also kept some of the issues I encountered too quiet as nobody else on the team knew about them. In a way that is good because I was the only person stressed out. But I’m glad I got to share them because we can make changes to prevent those issues from happening again.

We also discussed the 300th episode. Yes, it’s about 2 years away. But I’ve got to top what we did for the 200th so I’m getting a head start. I can’t share any of the ideas we’ve been discussing just yet. But if things go the way we want them to, in 2 years you will all want to come join us for our 300th episode!

I also had a friend of mine ask me to write them a letter of recommendation for Women In Film! That was such an honor. I took my time and wrote several drafts before sending it to her to submit with her application. I’ve asked for letters of recommendations plenty of times. But I never knew until know how stressful it could be! Maybe I’m just so stressed because I know how great Women In Film is and I want all my amazing friends to be a part of it as well. I’ve got my fingers crossed that she gets in!

Finally, I just had to catch up on working on my happiness checklist. I’ve been neglecting some of the things that make me happy lately (although other things have been happening almost daily). I see my therapist in just over 2 weeks and I’m planning on bringing my checklist for him to see. I want him to see that I made a real effort in the homework he gave to me to do for 3 months. I really am taking this seriously and if I want to get my dosage of Vyvanse adjusted (which I’m pretty sure it needs to be), I have to work on the mental aspect of my recovery and not just getting the “quick fix” medication.

That’s a lot of work to get done on an already crazy week! I’m glad that this weekend is a holiday weekend and I get tomorrow off from my box office job!

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

Tagged binge eating, busy, happiness, podcast, scheduling

200 Episodes (or We Managed To Throw An Amazing Event!)

Posted on July 2, 2015 | 3 comments

This past Monday was the live recording of the 200th episode for Inside Acting. I still can’t believe it. It doesn’t feel that long ago that we did the 100th episode.

This time, we did another event at SAG Foundation. They are really awesome to work with and they are so helpful. We were able to set up at Q&A with the creative team from the show “Defiance”.

For the past month or so, I’ve been sending so many emails and texts trying to get this organized. I’m sure I panicked more than I needed to, but I’m a perfectionist with anxiety. I had to make sure that everything was going to be ok.

As soon as I got to SAG Foundation, I started to relax a little. We had a line of people waiting to get into the room for the Q&A! There were a bunch of listeners as well as several past podcast guests there to support us! While everyone took their seats I was hanging out in the green room with the panelists and hosts of the podcast. And before we knew it, it was their turn to head on to the stage!

During the live recording, I hung off to the side monitoring our twitter account to see if anyone was tweeting questions that they wanted to have Trevor and AJ ask the panel. And every so often, I glanced over to the audience and was so amazed at everyone who showed up to support us.

The recording went great and I think that the panel and the audience had an amazing time! And once we finished some technical stuff at SAG Foundation, we all headed over to the after party at The Parlor.

The after party was something that caused me a ton of anxiety. This was going to be set up without anyone from the podcast there. But we were fortunate that some great friends offered to get there early to set up and help our sponsors get their things set up as well.

And as soon as I got there, I breathed a sigh of relief. Not only was the after party exactly what I was hoping for, it beat my expectations so much! The place was packed and everyone was having an amazing time!

As soon as you walked into The Parlor, we had a photo booth/red carpet setup with photography from The Headshot Truck.

I know that before the event some people wondered about if the red carpet and photo booth setup would be cool together. And I’m happy to report that everybody loved it! There were some traditional red carpet photos taken, but there were way more fun photo booth style photos taken with the props that The Headshot Truck had brought for us to use.

I definitely enjoyed the photos. And since there was wifi at the venue, the photos were added to Facebook immediately (you can see all the photos on their page). I really feel like that having them there turned the party into an event!

We also had some amazing treats that Brandi from Sugar Swag Bakeshoppe made! We had some regular cookies that everyone was eating all night. But the coolest thing was the custom logo cookies that Brandi made for us!

I think those cookies were the most photographed thing at the party!

I spent a lot of time at the party running around making sure that everyone was having a good time. I wish I was able to relax a bit more, but that’s just not who I am. But from everything that I heard from everyone and that I read on social media, everyone had an amazing time.

I still can’t believe that we pulled this off. It really turned out better than I ever could have imagined. And because I feel like things need to continue to get bigger and better, I now have to top this for our 300th episode.

At least I’ve got about 2 years to plan it.

Seriously, I’m so incredibly lucky that I get to be a part of the Inside Acting Podcast team that has created an amazing community around it.

(we left a space in the middle because one of our team members was out of the country for the 200th episode)

3 Comments

Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, celebration, event, Inside Acting, party, podcast

Another Evening Of Mentoring (or Having Faith In My Agents)

Posted on June 16, 2015 | Comments Off

Last week was another meeting of my WIF mentoring circle with our mentors. I’m really enjoying seeing almost everyone every month (and my mentors every other month) and I really do feel like as a group we have really bonded.

At this meeting, we updated our mentors on what we had gotten accomplished since our last meeting with them. I had known a bit of what my fellow mentees had done since we had our potluck last month, but everyone had some really great updates.

Some people had booked some amazing work in their fields since even our meeting last month. I love to hear that they are all doing so well and that they are moving forward in their careers. Sometimes I feel like I am so far behind in my career compared to all of them, but it does inspire me to see what is possible.

For my update, first of all my mentors asked me to log all of my auditions between our last meeting and this meeting (so 2 months worth). I had 4 auditions, and I was pretty happy about that. My mentors seemed a little surprised by how few auditions I had, but they also understood that the industry is a bit slow right now. But they still questioned why so few auditions when the other actress in the group had about 10 times the number of auditions as me. But you really can’t compare us since we are totally different types and she is non-union while I am union.

My mentors did ask me about how I feel about my agents. Honestly, I love my agents. They have worked so hard for me and truly believe in me. But I think that since I know them so well it might be tough for others to understand why I believe in them so much. It probably seems like blind faith.

But not all agents would have worked as so hard for me as they have. They have stuck with me through lots of weight changes (and some hair changes). Not all agents would have dealt with that. I bet that most agents would have dropped me for gaining weight.

But my agents believe that I can book work at whatever weight I happen to be. And they know that it’s just a matter of time before I book something great. And they know I work really hard all the time. When I’m not auditioning, I work hard at building my reputation in this industry as a good, reliable, and knowledgable actor. And hopefully with that reputation casting directors and other industry people will remember that and bring me in for parts that are right for me. And many of my auditions are at casting offices that I’ve auditioned at before. So it’s not that I’m not a good actor, it’s that the part I auditioned for wasn’t right. And hopefully those offices will keep bringing me in until the part is right for me.

I know that it’s tough to understand sometimes why I’m being so patient about lack of auditions. Or why I trust my agents so much when I don’t have dozens of auditions each month. I guess it’s because I have faith in myself and my career. I know that when it’s my time to shine, I’m going to be totally ready and prepared for it. And all I have to do is keep getting prepared and be patient because eventually it will be my time.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, audition, mentoring, Women in Film

Celebrating 200 Episodes Of The Podcast (or Come and Celebrate With Me!)

Posted on June 12, 2015 | 2 comments

Remember a while ago how I shared that the podcast I work for was celebrating 100 episodes? Well, enough time has passed now that we are now getting ready to celebrate our 200th episode!

200 episodes of a podcast is a rarity. I hate when I find a podcast that I love and they quit after a few dozen episodes. It isn’t easy to have a podcast go up regularly (we post one once a week), so it’s something to be proud of when we hit major milestones like this!

We’ve got a 2 part celebration for our 200th and you can celebrate with us even if you aren’t in LA! Both parts of the event will be coming up on June 29th (a Monday), so mark your calendars now!

First, we will be doing a live recording at SAG Foundation. We will be doing a Q&A with the team behind the tv show “Defiance”! While this event is being done at the union, it is open to both union and non-union guests. But RSVPs are required and seating is limited. So if you’d like to join us for the first part of our 200th episode celebration, go to this link and reserve your spot. But if you’d like to watch our live recording and you aren’t in LA, that’s ok! We will be live-streaming the event through SAG Foundation’s live-stream. To join us for that, you can come to this link on the 29th at 7pm.

After what I’m sure will be an awesome recording, we will be moving from SAG Foundation to The Parlor on Melrose to have a great after party! We will be partnering with the LA Actors Tweetup for the after party and will be having a photo booth by The Headshot Truck and sweet treats by Sugar Swag Bakeshoppe.

You can see the event invite on Facebook as well. Only the recording requires RSVPs. The after party is open to all and no RSVP is needed (although you can say you are attending on Facebook so we can be excited to see you!).

This is going to be such a fun evening. I know that the live-recording will be great because we have amazing guests for it. And I think everyone can agree that an after party that has a photo booth and treats is a win!

I’m so excited to be able to celebrate the podcast’s accomplishments. Even though I am a part of the team, I’m really celebrating our two hosts Trevor and AJ. They did this podcast for a long time without ever having any help. I was the first team member added and while I helped to coordinate interviews, they still had to do so much of the work on their own. Now we have a slightly bigger team, but this is all done with the leadership of the hosts. They are the captains of the ship and we should all celebrate them for creating (and maintaining) not only an amazing podcast but the wonderful community that they have created around it.

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, event, Inside Acting, party, podcast

Upgrading My Self-Tape Set Up (or 2 Auditions In 30 Minutes)

Posted on June 10, 2015 | Comments Off

I’ve done self-taping in the past, but I’ve always kind of figured out last-minute how to set things up at my house. I’ve used a towel or blanket as my backdrop and just had a friend come and run the camera for me. Most of the time, casting directors understand that when you self-tape, it’s not going to look as nice as when you go into a casting office so it’s ok if it’s not perfect.

But this week I had 2 different self-tape auditions that I needed to do so I decided that this was the time to take things a bit more seriously.

First step was getting a nice backdrop for my auditions. I knew that I wanted a blue backdrop (it’s a nice flattering color) and I figured getting a king sized sheet would be the easiest way to do it. So I headed to Bed Bath & Beyond (with a 20% off coupon) and went hunting for the cheapest blue sheet I could find.

I’ll admit that it wasn’t as easy as I thought to find just a flat sheet and not a sheet set. I looked at curtains as well, but those were pretty pricey and weren’t that wide. But I ended up finding the perfect king flat sheet and got that (and saved my receipt since this is a tax write-off).

My two auditions were pretty different. One was for a web series and had 4 different scenes each with a line or two. I submitted for that role through Actors Access (an online casting service) and instead of getting an audition request they sent me a self-tape request.

The second audition was for the ABC Diversity Showcase. This was similar to the NBC Showcase I self-taped for last year. This time, they had a couple of different scene options online and we could do whatever scene we felt best represented us.

I put a request online to my friends to see who would be able to help me self-tape, and my friend (and fellow mentee) Melissa was happy to help. She had just done her audition for the ABC Showcase as well and had a nice camera that we could use.

I ended up wearing the same outfit for both auditions (I didn’t plan on that but it ended up working out that way) and I think my outfit looked great against my new backdrop.

Melissa helped me with the web series audition first. We did 2 different takes and I was very happy with the second one.

The ABC Diversity Showcase audition took a few more takes. First, we did the introduction part of the audition. I had to say my first name, hometown, and answer one of the questions they posted on the website (I answered what superpower I’d like to have).

Then we moved on to the audition. As much as I tried to be memorized, having 2 totally different auditions in the same day threw me a bit. I wasn’t totally memorized, but I was pretty close. The audition was about 4 pages long and we went through it quite a few times. Many times, I didn’t get through the entire scene before I decided to stop. I think we only made it through the entire scene twice before I felt good about it.

We managed to knock out 2 auditions in just under 30 minutes. My brain was working overtime and as soon as we finished I relaxed and was able to think about what I just did. I was still feeling happy about my auditions so we decided that we were done.

Melissa took the memory card home with her and she emailed me the edited auditions pretty soon after we finished recording. And I was able to email both of my auditions to the respective casting directors that evening.

I’m pretty happy with the new backdrop I bought for self-taping auditions. It will be much nicer to use than a towel or blanket. And hopefully I’ll have more self-tape auditions in the future. They are becoming more common since you could even use your phone to record an audition. I will still use my regular camera or have a friend use their nicer camera for any auditions I have to do on my own. It’s nicer than an iPhone and I’d rather try to have things look as nice as possible without going crazy.

But having things more ready for self-taping (and having friends who are willing and able to help) are great steps toward being prepared for having more and more auditions come my way!

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Shopping

Tagged acting, audition, prepared, self-tape, Women in Film

Watching Musicals At Home (or Getting Antsy To Get Back To NYC)

Posted on June 9, 2015 | Comments Off

This past Sunday was the Tony Awards. While I’ve dreamed of winning pretty much every type of acting award, I’ve never dreamed of winning a Tony. I know that they have acting awards for plays, but in my head the Tonys are for musicals. And since I’m tone-deaf, I’m never going to win an award that involves singing.

But I love watching the Tony Awards. Prior to my NYC trip last year and getting this season’s tickets for Pantages, the Tonys were almost my only exposure to musicals. I love watching the presentations that each of the best musical nominees do on the show. And I’d always chose which shows I’d want to see when they came to LA (even though I never went to see them).

This year, I watched the Tonys at home alone. There were some funny moments (like this matchy-matchy dress moment).

And with any awards show, I loved watching the speeches. Especially from people who won for the very first time (some of whom won on their Broadway debut).

And of course, I watched (and re-watched) the performances several times.

I texted my sister-in-law to joke that I was watching the Tonys to pick out what musicals we should see when we get back to New York. But even though I said that as a joke, now I’m really hoping that we can make that a reality soon.

My brother and sister-in-law are moving soon. And my sister-in-law hasn’t really been able to job hunt from a different city. So she has no idea what her job situation will be like in the near future. We really can’t trip plan without knowing that.

And with my jobs now, I’m not too sure about my availability to go out of town. For my newest job, I’m sure it would be fine. I could probably even get work done on vacation without too many issues. But for my box office job, I have no idea how I can take a trip. I’d probably just have to take time off without pay (and hope that my boss is ok with that). I never asked about that when I interviewed for the job since my focus was on getting a job more than anything. But they have been flexible with me taking occasional time off for auditions as well as having time off for spending time with my family after my grandpa’s death. So I’m sure I could figure out how to take a trip.

I haven’t really thought about how I’d take a trip with my jobs, but now that I’ve watched the Tonys and have seen performances from several musicals that I really want to see; I really want to get back to New York at some point this year.

Hopefully I can figure out how to save up the money and get the time off (without losing too much of my paycheck) in the near future so my sister-in-law and I can start planning this! We said that we wanted to make our NYC trip an annual tradition and we’ve got until December to make that a reality.

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Travel

Tagged awards, Broadway, musical, New York

Productive One Way And Slacking In Another (or Working On Finding Time)

Posted on May 28, 2015 | Comments Off

Ok, I might have been over-scheduling myself lately.

Only a few weeks ago I was trying to find ways to fill time in my life. I only had one main day job and I was hoping to find something to do while doing my job to keep me busy between customers. And I wasn’t doing as much as I wanted toward my acting career.

Then I got a new day job and found a wonderful online acting class. And sadly, I think I took too much on at one time.

Obviously, the priorities in my life are work and my health. So I need to make sure I work all the hours I need to each day. That’s pretty easy for my box office job since I’ve been doing that for almost a year now and they are set hours (although occasionally I work early hours to make up for hours I might miss due to auditions or other conflicts).

The new day job is much more fluid in terms of when I work. I’m supposed to mainly work during standard business hours, but that’s not necessary because much of the work I’m researching is online. And I’m getting ok with working both jobs at once. It’s not easy, but I’m finding ways to work between 3-4 hours each day during a 5 hour shift at my day job.

And I think it’s pretty obvious by my weekly workout posts that I’m not having trouble fitting in my 3-4 workouts each week. I schedule them up to a month in advance and having them on my calendar (and having friends in my class who I look forward to seeing each time) has helped make workouts a habit and not a chore.

But with all that productivity, my online acting class has slipped. As I’m typing this post, I’ve only completed the first class. That’s exactly what I had done last week when I blogged about it. My plan was to try to watch a class each night. But on nights that I work out, by the time I’m home and showered all I want to do is read or watch tv for a bit before bed. And on days I’m not working out, I’ve been scheduling lots of things to do.

I know that I need to schedule this class the way I schedule work and my workouts. I need to find a good time a few times a week that I can set aside about an hour to watch the class and work on the homework.

The problem is finding consistent time available. Maybe I’m putting a lot of pressure on myself because I want to keep up with everyone who started the same time I did. Dustin Hoffman will be doing office hours and critiques of online scene reads soon and if I was on schedule with the class I would have those ready for the due date. But where I am right now, I’m not. And I don’t want to rush doing them because hopefully there will be another office hours/critique time in the future and I’ll have more time to prepare and make sure that I submit the best video I can.

Adding so much to my schedule at one time is very overwhelming for me. It’s not the amount of hours it requires, it’s just changing my schedule so much at one time when it’s been like the way it was for almost a year. It’s almost like when I was on temporary unemployment at my old box office job. It took a week or two to adjust to the change in schedule.

For now, I’m hoping to find time once or twice a week to work on the online class. If I don’t do that, I’m not going to be so tough on myself. Yes, it would be best if I could do the class sooner rather than later. But if I do it this month or next month won’t make or break my career. And hopefully within a week or so the 2 day job life will feel like normal and I’ll find that hour or so each day where I can focus on the class.

I have to just keep reminding myself that this class (like life, fitness, my weight loss journey, and recovery from my eating disorder) is a marathon and not a sprint. Eventually I will complete it and I will be proud of myself for sticking with it and following through.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff, Work

Tagged acting, busy, job, scheduling, work

A Summer Of Movies (or Grateful For Union Membership)

Posted on May 27, 2015 | 1 comment

While TV is the medium that I dream of working in, I love going to see movies. A couple of years ago when I was out of work (before I started this blog), I would try to watch at least one movie a week. Most of the time it was something I got from Netflix since I didn’t have money coming in. But seeing a movie at home is still better than no movies at all.

For a while, I wasn’t seeing movies that often. Money is part of the reason, but I’m not really sure why I stopped. Movies make me happy and they should be a part of my life when I can go.

Since becoming a member of SAG-AFTRA, I have more opportunities to see movies for free. Most of the free movies are around the holidays and into the new year because they are screenings for the SAG Awards (I have to see movies to be able to vote on them). I’m also getting more opportunities to see movies through Women in Film.

But for the past few years I’ve paid to be a part of the SAG-AFTRA Film Society. Between the membership into the society and the parking pass I pay for, it costs me about $200 a year to be a part of the film society. And in the past, I’ve tried to see as many movies as I can. The more movies I see, the better value the membership each year is.

This past weekend was the opening weekend for Film Society (the season runs May-March/April). And I decided to go and see both movies.

The movies that screened last weekend were “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” and “Mad Max: Fury Road”. Both movies screened in 3D and for both movies I brought a guest (all movies through Film Society allow me to bring a plus one). So with just this first weekend, I’ve already gotten about $60 value out of my membership (based on the idea that a 3D movie ticket costs $15).

I really enjoyed both movies. Neither are movies that I probably would have picked on my own. But both movies came highly recommended by friends so I decided to give them a chance.

I found it really interesting that while they were both action filled movies, Avengers was CGI based and Mad Max had practical effects (very few effects were done with CGI). It’s fun to see how the actors are able to react to effects that are really happening versus effects that get added in after the actors complete their part. Neither was better than the other, it was just different.

Now that I’ve got my Film Society membership started up again, I’m going to limit how many movies I will pay to see. I was happy to pay to see “Pitch Perfect 2” since I was going with a group. But I am spoiled because I have a tough time justifying paying for movies when I might get to see a screening for free or when they will eventually be on Netflix. But with this summer having a ton of movies I want to see, I might have to spent a bit on movies over the next few months. I usually don’t know what I get to see through Film Society until a week or two in advance, so I’m going to have to wait to see how many movies on my wish list will be included.

I’m really excited to see all the amazing movies this summer and making sure that I continue to keep myself happy by going as often as I can.

1 Comment

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged fun, movies, SAG-AFTRA, summer, union

MasterClass (or Another Online Community)

Posted on May 22, 2015 | Comments Off

I mentioned yesterday how my mentoring circle is really pushing me to better myself in my acting career. Now that I finally have a second day job with regular hours, I’m finally able to save up for acting classes.

I’ve been wanting to take improv classes for a while and each level of classes at the school I want to go to is $400. I’ve been saving up and had about $100 saved, but then another great opportunity came my way.

A friend of mine told me about a new online class called MasterClass. And one of the classes taught online is a course on acting taught by Dustin Hoffman.

The idea of MasterClass is that it is a video class taught by professionals in that particular industry. Besides the videos there are homework assignments, workbooks, and online communities to help you in the class.

I checked it out a bit and read some reviews from people who already started (nobody has completed the class yet since it only went live last week) and decided that this would be something worthwhile to spend my money on. The classes cost $90 for the entire thing and you will have lifetime access to it. So I can go through each video as many times as I would like to. There are 24 videos and it’s designed to be a 6 week course.

As soon as I purchased it, I downloaded and printed my workbook and watched the first video.

I’ll admit that I’ve only gotten through the first video, but I’m already loving it! The first video was more of an introduction type of video and the next few are watching Dustin Hoffman instructing 2 actors in a class setting. And after that are classes on script work.

But I have gone through the workbook and have looked at the homework and other assignments. Some of the assignments are watching movies and taking notes and some are working on scripts with friends or other MasterClass participants over Skype.

You can comment below any of the video classes and interact with other students and there is also a Facebook community for those taking the class. While I haven’t gotten to the part of the class where I need to work with other students, I love that the community is there and that the work can be done either in person or Skype.

Right now, I have a few friends who are also doing the MasterClass program, but we aren’t doing things at the same pace. I’d love to do the 4 classes a week like it’s laid out to be, but I’m not sure if that’s possible. But I’m going to go through them at my own pace and when I complete it I complete it.

While this did deplete my savings for the improv class that I want to take, it went to something that I feel is worthwhile and can almost hold me over until I have the money saved for the improv class. With having 2 regular jobs now (and hopefully getting some occasional babysitting work), I’m hoping to have the $400 saved before my birthday. And if not, I will be using birthday money to pay for the class.

I like that I have a plan and a new class in my life. It really makes me feel like I’m taking steps to better my acting career and not just waiting around for things to happen. Even though I wasn’t waiting around, now it feels like there is action and progress being made. And that alone is motivating me to do more and more.

Comments Off on MasterClass (or Another Online Community)

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, class, community, Skype

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