Friday, August 26, 2011

Fingers Crossed

Boys and girls, it has been an eventful week. I got my hair cut at the Aveda institute, only to end up talking Gilbert and Sullivan with my hairstylist. Long story short, he wants me to sing for him, and to get me in touch with his agent. Nice!

Saturday I had callbacks for Dusty Cartridges, the gaming webseries. I was very pleased with how it went, and yesterday I sent a follow-up email to the writer/director.

I went home to Boston for a few days. While there I sang for Legally Blonde and A Christmas Carol at North Shore Music Theater, and Pirates of Penzance at Fiddlehead. A friend has already heard about Fiddlehead, so I am not optimistic on that front, but my audition for A Christmas Carol went very well-- the pianist/music director remembered me, and the director was dancing along to my song in his chair! Fingers most definitely crossed for that one.

I did have a vocal scare-- after singing for my audition tuesday, my throat felt muscularly sore, and I was worried I had been forcing or doing something terribly wrong. (No! I want to keep my audition song with a high A!). Turns out I just caught my dad's cold. So I am taking advil and drinking tea and hoping I will cease feeling like a mute in the near future.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Chipping Away

I blame my recent bout of productivity on a book lent to me by a friend--'Getting Stuff Done' is rocking my world.

I sent out gorgeous mailers to two Boston-based CDs (RIPD is rumored to be the biggest movie shot in MA ever), and one NY based manager. More mailers will be sent after I get my new headshots from reproductions.

My Snowball microphone arrived, and I love it. The quality is far better than I thought I could afford, and I've already sent a first take of the Kickstarter cartoon. If I go SAG, I can bother my connections at Turbine for work. In the meantime, I should really take a VO demo class. Slash do research on what other people's demos sound like/feature/etc.

I've started revamping my audition book. Tearing pages got fixed, beautiful new dividers were installed, and songs I haven't sung in years were removed. I want to add a few things before I print out a song list to go in the front. I'm still searching for a contemporary belty uptempo---and the things that sit best in my voice are from Lippa. Really? Lippa? I need to find something better.

A couple setbacks-- apparently the footage I have from A Remarkable Appratus won't load on a PC, so I have to wait until I sit down to make my demo reel on someone else's Mac to pick and choose what I want. Sexually Frank, though it will play in Zune, will not edit in Windows Live Movie Maker (I wanted to slim it down to 45 seconds for Actors Access).

Also: I found someone on model mayhem who will take my swimsuit photos! Yay!

I really should clean my room. That's an idea.


Monday, August 8, 2011

$200 To sing on your stage? No thank you.

Yes, really.

I applied on Backstage.com for a showcase called 'Bound for Broadway'. An accompanist fee doesn't seem so outlandish, and being expected to sell tickets sounds pretty normal, right? Except when I received instructions, they read that I can pay for the tickets I sell with a money order written out to a person, not a company or group. So unless I can guarantee 10 friends will fork over money, and then buy two overpriced drinks to hear me sing one song, I am out $200. Yes, I want good video of me singing. I think I can do better than that, however.

I drafted a cover letter to send to CP Casting back in Boston today. They're in charge of principal casting for R.I.P.D., which looks to be the biggest movie to ever shoot in the state. I doubt that many MA actors are sending fancy mailers. We can only hope they need some blonde day-players.

I found a USB microphone with fantastic reviews online. I'm going to transfer some funds from my savings for the mic, and my new batch of Reproductions head shots. Frankie (of Sexually Frank fame) wants me to do VO work for some cartoons he's written, so I'll immediately have VO material to work with. Woo!

There's a possibly equity production of Pirates of Penzance going up in Dedham, MA. I'll be returning for that audition to sing for Edith. One day I'll be old enough for Ruth...

I've resolved to stop stressing myself out about bartending applications until the end of the month, when I hear what is going on with the Kinect program. Trying to handle two jobs and my acting stuff is too much.

I've kept up running 3x a week, as well as doing an ab-focused video that kicks my ass. My body composition has been changing, and as such I'm on the hunt for new full body pictures. I spent a good half hour submitting to photogs on Model Mayhem today, hopefully one will pull through, and I will have proof that I am skinny/toned enough to get more work.