Our next workshop will be held Saturday, July 18th in McMinnville, OR. Click here for more info and to sign up. Remember to do it quickly so I can get script ready for you.

Date: June 20, 2009
Time: 9 am-4 pm
Where:
328 NE Davis St. #2
McMinnville, OR 97128

That’s right, this one is being held down in McMinnville. So make sure you are prepared to make the trek an hour or so southwest of Portland BEFORE you email me.

If you are an experienced actor, all the better. I’ll get a chance to get to know you and we can prepare to move you right into the Advanced course.

This offer expires tomorrow at 9 am, or as soon as I get 7 people’s emails. Looking forward to it.

My portion starts at about the 12:15 mark.

As usual, I thought of plenty of things to add once I was done with the show, so I’m going to go ahead and use the blog to fill in the cracks. Here we go:

1. Responding to GetJackson’s question about special marketing insights for actors here is what I would add: Everything you do to market yourself MUST be rooted in yourself and who you are. That is the core of what I would tell you. You can get all the materials in order, be professional, come up with catchphrases, slogans, respond promptly to e-mails, create a brand and hammer it home, but if the brand isn’t rooted deeply in you, it will come off as inauthentic. Take Mercedes as an example, she markets herself as “high performance drama”. That comes from her personality, who she is. She takes her outgoing, peppy style and lets that shape her marketing efforts. She knows who she is.

This goes along with what I was saying about being comfortable in your own skin. I didn’t mean that you have to be dripping with confidence or be at ease in stressful situations (who is, after all? Besides Don Draper? And he’s falling apart inside, too), just that you need to know who you are and build your image from that. Being an individual who has personality, quirks, and a unique perspective is something that I find valuable in an actor. Find this in yourself and work with it.

Second, don’t overdo it. Restraint is essential when branding one’s self, and getting the impression across subtly can lead to success down the road. Even if you don’t get every project you audition for, an understated impression can last long. Both Harold and Mercedes auditioned for me before I cast them. Often I’ll draw from talent I’ve been impressed with in the past to write or create characters for upcoming projects. In a small market it is always a challenge to create characters that can be performed by local talent. You can be the solution to that challenge. Which leads me to…

2. The acting workshops. I don’t know if I’ve been able to fully explain what I envision for these workshops, so I’m going to take a crack at it here. The workshops are meant to bring together actors of all backgrounds and skill levels, to allow the actors to collaborate, push each other, and grow. I see a serious progression by those who work from the beginners workshop up to the advanced and those from the advanced spawning small ensemble groups. All along the way, I envision writing original work for these actors and developing natural actor-director relationships that culminate in small creative projects that can be produced simply and beautifully. I also envision drawing from this pool of ever increasing talent over and over, not just for personal projects but for tv commercials and other, bigger paid creative work. I want to collaborate and surround myself with dedicated, creative, talented actors. These workshops are how I plan on doing that.

Those are the two biggest things I felt I whiffed on, but I’m pretty happy with the rest. Thanks again to Mercedes Rose and Harold Phillips for having me on their show. I’m excited to see this stuff get out there. And here’s to the next time we do it.