Monday, March 18, 2013

Houston Day 667 - Union Status?

(Yet More) Thoughts on Actor-hood and Actors' Equity

I, and most other young actors I know, struggle with the question of when you get to call yourself an actor.  No one crosses you with a sword and says "I hereby dub thee a professional/working/good actor" (whatever adjective or benchmark it is you have set in your mind).  On the other side of the coin, no one pulls you aside and says "hey, buddy, you're obviously not going to get enough work, so you should quit now".  So it's all about setting your own goals, and getting good training, and pulling your self-confidence together to chart your own journey.
For me, since moving here, the desire to have some kind of validation has manifested itself into an obsession to join the union, Actors' Equity.  You can check out their website to see all the reasons why that's a good thing, not the least endearing of which is the Cantzen Shoe Fund, a bequest made by the late Conrad Cantzen to help out-of-work actors buy nice shoes to wear to auditions.  I've realised that for me, and for many others, the question on the audition form about union status has really become a status symbol in our minds.  I'm not yet a member of the union, and I haven't even yet earned any points in the Equity Membership Candidate program.  I am getting callbacks for a couple of the companies in Houston where you can earn such points, so I trust it's a matter of time and being ready for the right role turning up until I begin to be able to do that.  But recently I realised that even if I were offered union membership now I wouldn't take it because I'm not consistently getting union work, and it would prevent me from doing my current non-union job at Main Street Theater for Youth.  And Lucas, ever the wonderful, has been encouraging me to enjoy my current jobs (which I certainly do) without feeling like it somehow diminishes my goals.
I do want to be consistently getting union work, and I do want to be a member of Actors' Equity, BUT something cool happened today that let me know in another way that I am progressing.  When I was a teenager I took a master class at NIDA, and the actor teaching that course spoke about learning to love auditions, and knowing that you have developed a good dramatic technique when you can love that impromptu, terrifying, unrehearsed situation.  And this morning, I thought, "Gosh, I'm so busy right now I don't have much time to go to auditions.  Gee, I miss auditions."  (Yes, I was exactly that bizarrely colloquial in my thoughts.) And it reminded me how far I've come since my first auditions in Houston.  I have come to LOVE auditions*.

*Theater auditions.  Screen auditions still turn me into an embarrassed mess.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Houston Day 661 - Sondheim & Sorkin guide you through my life

Two Quotes Indicative of This Week 

"Listen, everybody, I'm afraid you didn't hear - or do you want to see a crazy lady fall apart in front of you?"
Click here to see a nice piece the Houston Chronicle wrote about us!
That's a line from Company, although kind of a line from my life right now.  Last week's heinous schedule (it got even worse since I wrote this post) got me sick, and with my asthma never really under control since we moved here I'm afraid of not getting better for a long time.  Soooo I'm freaking out, a little disproportionately, it must be admitted, about letting down the show (which opens this week, btw!), and about being a liability, other things along that line of reasoning.  Rational Amy is reading The Feeling Good Handbook right now, and learning how not to freak out quite so disproportionately.  Other reasons why that line is a line from my life is that the character's name is Amy, and the guy she's marrying is an awful lot like Lucas.

CJ: "Is the reason you guys didn't get married because her name would have been Lisa Sherborne-Seaborn?"
Sam: "Yes.  That's the reason."
As Lucas says, the sound in our house that indicates that I'm sick is a drum roll, followed by "Previously on The West Wing."  Two days of marathon watching are helping me rest (plus the fact that we're off Magic School Bus this week).  And I can tell I'm getting better, because I have the desire to cook, which only ever happens when I'm recovering from either the post-show blues or a bout of illness.  Plus my throat has stopped hurting and I haven't felt the need to vomit since Sunday.  Hurrah!

So we're all ok, I will be fine, the show will be great, and you will come and see it.  It's a real treat to be working with a brilliant director and brilliant designers and hardworking, fabulous actors on one of Sondheim's most famous pieces.  So, you know, come see it.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Houston Day 650 - Lucas is Wonderful

More Reasons Why My Husband is Awesome

Despite not being in theatre, not only does he know what a stumble-through is, he knows that when it comes at the end of a long and less-than-stellar day, his wife needs a little extra love.  Look what I came home to last night.

P.S.  Readers of Rachel Held Evans' A Year of Biblical Womanhood appreciate how P31 I am being now.