Can you fill this out without lying?
I think so.

Where is the person who has your heart at this moment?
My heart is in my chest. I'm glad where it is thank you very much. If it was anywhere else right now I'd be very, very worried.

Are you waiting for something?
I feel like I am, but nothing is probably coming.

On the opposite sex where do you like them to have piercings?
The ears are just fine thank you, but if there's more I'm fine with it... unless it's on the genitals... then there are definite questions to be asked.

Have you ever kissed someone and hated it?
I've kissed people who had incredibly bad breath, and that wasn't pleasant.

Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?
My mother? Maybe... but just goodnight.

Would you date someone who smokes?
I have, maybe I will again, but I'd prefer not to do that.

Would you date someone who was addicted to drugs?
Did that once, wouldn't recommend it for anyone else, or myself again...

Would you date someone who lived in another state?
I've done that. Whatever. I don't know. Maybe. I don't have a good track record with that sort of thing.

What's the biggest turn off?
Most of the time, LIES. Other times, the TRUTH.

What's your biggest turn on, physically?
Intelligence, however that manifests itself.

Would you have sex w/ someone you just met?
Probably not. I don't think that's an option with me.

Most hurtful relationship?
Next question.

Have you ever regretted breaking up with someone?
Yes... but it's probably been for the best despite my childish attempts to either hold on or have remorse.

Have you ever dated someone more than once?
Yeah.

Could you handle a long distance relationship?
I think I answered this question previously. I've done state to state, and continent to continent (across an ocean) and, once again, I don't have a good track record.

If you could go on ONE DATE with any celebrity, who would it be?
I don't know. Don't care. Just because a million flashbulbs pop for you doesn't make you worthwhile to date.

What's your relationship status?
Single.

Last time you got flowers from a guy?
Um.... hmmm... I see... this survey is... for girls...?

Are you ready to get into a serious relationship right now?
Next question.

Do you like cuddling?
I guess so, yeah.

Do you hold grudges?
Yeah. I'm childish... but I'm getting better.

Do you regret dating anyone?
Yeah. There's one or two in the past that I really regret, but even those awful experiences taught me something.

Hugger or kisser?
Why not both?

Are you happier single or in a relationship?
I don't know.

Whats the most important thing in a relationship?
I'm really the wrong person to be answering this question.

What would make you break up w/ someone?
Depends on the situation.

Have you ever loved someone who didn't love you back?
Yes.... but then again... maybe NO... because for it to be love it has to be reciprocated, right?

Would you date someone who was broke all the time?
I am broke all the time. Great. I'm fucked.

How important are looks?
Who knows? I've dated people who aren't "lookers" and who are. I don't care so much as I am smitten with someone for whatever reason.

How do you know when you are in love?
I have absolutely no idea how to give a good answer to this question.

Do you consider yourself shy?
Yes. However, I've been told I can be the life of the party. I'm made up of many dualities and complexities. Aren't we all?

Would you rather date someone who was SUPER-SEXY or someone who was SUPER-NICE?
I would like both, thank you.

Have you ever been turned down or turned someone down?
For what? Um.... both... I guess....

Have you ever been ashamed of anyone you were dating?
Only after one girl got up on a table and danced naked in that bar. That and when she... eh... let's not go there.

Thing that made you the happiest today?
Surviving to the end of Bikram Yoga class.

Would you ever date anyone your parents disapproved of?
Boy I've done that a bunch of times... at least girls my mom disapproved of. I'm not aware if my father always knows who I'm dating.

Do you stay friends w/ the people you date?
Depends on the situation.

Would you fight over someone you wanted to be with?
If it came to blows I'm sure that's a signal it's an unhealthy relationship waiting to happen.

Do you kiss on the 1st date?
Sometimes.

Would you date someone A LOT older or younger than you?
How the hell would I know? I have, but it's not something I'm itching to do.

Do you think the word 'love' is overused?
Next question.

Ever been called a whore?
Maybe. I don't know.

Favorite memory with an ex?
I'm not going there.

Do you currently have a hickey?
No, just some possibly cancerous growths.

Do you know anyone who's pregnant?
Yeah. Now if only I knew where babies came from...

Do you talk to the person you like?
Next question.

Have you ever made out with someone you weren't dating?
Yeah.

Would you kiss an ugly person for $1,000?
What? Are you kidding? For $1,000?! Hell yes. I need the money!

Do you usually tell people when they hurt your feelings?
I've gotten better at doing that... and now the HOW is questionable...

Do you prefer a call or a text?
Depends on the situation.

Did you enjoy your last kiss?
Next question...

Would you take your ex back?
Next question...

Is there anyone that calls you 'babe'?
John Manlove does... in my dreams... but really it's "baby" that he calls me. "Teaching's a part of the gig, baby!"

Night out or night in?
In with good friends and wine.

Last hug?
My mom the other night.

Last high-five?
Probably a fist bump onstage during last night's performance of Shrew, so that might not count.

Do you like anyone right now?
Next question...

Will you have a valentine this year?
That's a long way off, but not planning on it.

How's your heart?
Next question.

Is there a boy/girl you cant get out of your head?
Next question.

Is the person you like worth it?
Next question.

Did you ever date the last person you kissed?
Well, considering the last person I kissed was my mom when I said "goodnight," I'd have to say No.

Have you ever liked someone that treated you badly?
Yes. I've tried to stop doing that.

Ever kissed someone with a name starting with J?
Um... yes. That's random.

So... my laptop officially died today. It flashed a message stating that it did not recognize Windows XP anymore, nor did it wish to reinstall it. No. Instead, my laptop has decided to live out the rest of its days very much like an Alzheimer's patient in his or her final days on that quick descent into perpetual madness.

It has chosen to forget Windows, how to read CD's to help reboot it, and it has decided to forget all of the useless WordPerfect files I had saved on it over the past 5 years... which is probably for the best considering WordPerfect never really translated that well into Word (which is what everyone else has) even when I sent files in "Rich Text Format."

So goodbye my poor deluded laptop. You will be missed.

Actually... you won't. I had grown to hate you toward the end because you had become more of a burden to me with your dithering problems and it became an epic effort just to maintain you. And let's face it - those efforts didn't work. You've left me to figure things out by myself, while you and your vegetable-like memory sit withering and melting on my desktop like so many stewed prunes.

And then there's the issue of my car... who's air conditioner decides only to work either on full-blast (setting 5) or not at all. And considering the temperature outside is 100 degrees I'm ready to literally burst like a well lanced boil.

And still... there are no additional job offers and the money from the commercials is a couple of months away.

Sigh, sigh, sigh...

Dominion Virginia Power.

The United States Army.

Tire Van.

Charlestown Races and Slots.

I have shot commercials or industrials for the preceding companies in the past few months, and some people would consider that "working as an actor." I consider it "whoring out my abilities for a price." I have learned a lot just by doing these gigs, like "hitting my mark," learning the resolve to stay away from the snack table, and maintaining patience in between shots.

Still, I want to be acting in the theatre again... and I'll be doing that by the end of this month when I start rehearsals with Baltimore Shakespeare Festival at the end of June. However, BSF will pay me weekly only a fraction of what I made from these gigs in one day (even though these company's take 60 to 90 days to pay me).

So...

This is acting.

This is really acting.

Sigh...

Hopefully the job interview I have this Friday for the Education Director at Chesapeake Arts Center comes through for some stability... or the semblance of it.

Sigh...

A good friend of mine just finished graduate school, and is worried about where to go...

With her stuff...

With her career...

With her life.

I finished two years ago and I'm still worried about the same things. I can't say I've gotten beyond the initial steps. I haven't gone where I "wanted" to go. Well, there was that brief sojourn to Scotland, but several factors (my own mental stability at the time, and lack of work permits or an EU Passport) prevented me from staying to build a life there. So I've kind of ended up where I began - in Baltimore (Timonium to be more precise).  Well...where I began in college...

I'm here, teaching at my undergrad alma mater, trying to lose weight and get in shape, and build a respectable resume of some kind by hustling the theatre scene in the Baltimore / DC area. It's been humbling to say the least.

I've worked as a Swing understudy twice at The Shakespeare Theatre in DC when I first came back to the area. First was for their production of Titus Andronicus and the second time was for their production of Hamlet. Neither job led to anything more except more understudy offers of the Swinging variety. Well, they did offer me an understudy position for the role of Hercules in Argonautika, but, for the time being, I think any significant offers from that theatre are not going to happen... at least not for the time being.

Later I booked a small role in a local Equity theatre's (Everyman Theatre) production of Much Ado About Nothing. That was a good experience, even though I spent most of my time sitting back stage listening to everyone else on stage and gaining weight from all the cakes everyone kept bringing. And considering I had a lack of funds at the time, I took Marie Antoinette's advice to heart... too much so.

After that I worked on a children's play called Lost and Foundling at Imagination Stage in Bethesda, Maryland. This one was lots of fun... and almost broke me financially. You see, I'm not yet in that magical thing called The Union and this theatre wasn't offering any points, or gas money. I needed the work, the exposure, and, quite frankly, the practice, so I took the work. It was a great little show, and one of the best reviewed shows the theatre had done. Unfortunately, it was also one of the lowest attended shows they had ever done. Still, it was worth it to travel almost everyday 40 plus miles in one direction to get to work.

And...

That was the last show I worked on.

Recently I've been doing some readings of plays at Towson University for a friend of mine, as well as in the Baltimore area for various groups.  I'm teaching, but it barely pays the bills.  Actually... it doesn't at all.  I'm booking industrials and commercials, but any of the money I get won't be seen for at least 90 days after the shoot.  Sometimes places misspell my last name and getting the check cashed on the first time out is a problem.  Banks sometimes just don't want to trust you if the names don't exactly match.  (Why can't employers look closer at names?!  Not everyone has a WASPish name!). 

Well, at least I'm finally booking more gigs.

I'll be performing Biondello in Taming of the Shrew this summer with Baltimore Shakespeare Festival for a pittance of a paycheck.  I think they're actually going to pay something... 

I'll be playing the roles of Douglas and Gadshill in Henry IV Part I this Fall at Folger Shakespeare Theatre in DC. 

And this Tuesday I have an audition with Everyman Theatre for The Cherry Orchard to play Yepikhodov.  So if I get that role, I'll be booked through March. 

At least that will be done.  And what beyond that?  I don't know.  There's the occassional musing about starting a theatre company, and that's always a struggle.  There are the thoughts of moving to Europe, New York, Chicago, LA, anywhere that is not Baltimore/DC.  There's... well... a lot on my mind.

All I know is that I am at my happiest when I'm not thinking of the future, when I'm not thinking, "What should I do next?" 

I take solace in a belief in God. 

I believe He / She / It / Whatever is there handing stuff down to me from the cosmos, and it's my job to jump on an opportunity or not.   And the solace comes from knowing that opportunity is always knocking and being sent in many forms.  I have friends who are always shocked when I say I believe in such things.

Well, all I can say is two years down the line after escaping from academia, and jumping into the big, wide world, a man has to find hope in something.  I find it in knowing something is always coming.  Whether it be bad or good is another thing, but I have to prepared when whatever it is comes. 

The stars, God, fate, karma, whatever you want to call it, may point part of the direction out, but it's up to me to draw up the rest of the map.  I guess it's more like cartography and charting new found land, rather than trying to navigate toward a destination.

Yeah...

Two years out and that's what I'm doing...


Charting new found land!

That's the only thing I should be doing.

There is no X marks the spot. 

I'm here.  I'm traveling.  I'm charting. 

I'll just keep on going.

I hope my friend just decides to do the same for herself.

I’ve just been reviewed on ratemyprofessors.com!

Correction - I just found out I’ve been rated on ratemyprofessors.com.

Apparently the lone comment says, "Young, experienced actor. Demanding yet helpful. Fun class. Highly recommend."  How about that?

Oh, and I’ve also got an average score of 4 for Easiness, 4 for Helpfulness, 5 for Clarity, and an Overall Quality rating of 4.5.  Of course...that’s from one student. 

Oh, and apparently I’ve got a Hotness ranking of 2. 

So apparently that means that two students, at least, thought that I was Hot, and not - well - NOT.

How nice...and strange.

For each word you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger
- from the website www.freerice.com


The world is an absolutely aggravating place right now. There are a lot of awful things and atrocities happening around the globe, and in the environment right now, and it’s getting absolutely impossible to keep track of all the anxiety-inducing mess.

A never ending war in Iraq...

The melting of the polar ice caps...

The disappearance of all the honey bees...

World hunger...

And so much more...

What’s more aggravating than a stalemated war with local insurgents, the catastrophic changes to our environment, the disappearance of a vital member of our ecosystem in North America, and people STILL not being able to get food is HOW people have decided to cope with it all.

I turn on the radio (yes... some people still listen to that thing) and hear how the world is taking the lemons it’s been given, and how it turns them into lemonade. The result could be documented on a tv show that I would have called "HOLIDAYS IN THE DANGER ZONE" if that title hadn’t already been taken by some forward thinking chaps at the BBC.

If anyone has been watching the diminishing coverage of the Iraq War then you would notice things have gotten somewhat better there. It’s tough to say if things will actually stay better, or get any better at all, because the only reason the so-called SURGE has worked is because we’ve bribed (yes... bribed) all the local milita leaders there to stop fighting us. Essentially the fighting is down ONLY because US tax dollars flow through the hands of Iraq’s militia leaders like gasoline flows in and out of my car’s tank. And because of this brief respite from violence, our leaders have been able to take some strange forms of "Diplomatic Pleasure Trips" through Iraq.

John McCain, or clips of him, can be seen daily in Iraq chatting people up in the fabled Green Zone, and even out on the outskirts of Baghdad talking about how Iran funds and trains Al Qaeda...I mean...extremists. The main focus of these trips isn’t always what he’s saying (except for that latest gaff about extremists), it’s the fact that he can walk around Baghdad without a bulletproof vest on.

Go surge! Soon we’ll all be able to visit Baghdad for press conferences in the sun! (Let’s just not stop bribing local warlords...)

Speaking of fun in the sun, I heard on NPR yesterday about pleasure cruises to Arctic Circle so people can view the end of the world as we know it - as it’s happening! Apparently a luxury cruise liner can take people who can afford the trip (usually people who are in the autumn of their lives) to see our world go through the autumn of it’s lifespan.

"Look honey... another glacier just broke away unexpectedly -- just like your hip did last year!"

A whole generation -- literally just ONE generation -- of old people can sit back and enjoy watching the sun set on a whole continent.

Speaking of doomed continents, the North American one is doomed because all the honey bees have mysteriously disappeared. This means most of our flowers won’t get pollinated, and most of our food supply will be diminished, and the prices for produce will be ungodly high in super markets across the country.

I don’t really have a silver lining for this one. No one knows where the honey bees went, if they died, if they left, or, if they just happened to say, "Fuck all of you! We’re going to GREENLAND to watch the glaciers thaw!" The only thing I can say is that there WILL BE a silver lining coming, if one can make a judgment call from how we advocate for people to help with world hunger right now.

And it’s pretty damn insulting how we do that...

Take, for example, www.freerice.com. If you want to, right now you can go to this website and take a vocabulary test, and for every word you get right the United Nations World Food Program will donate 20 GRAINS of rice.

20 Grains?

Really?

20?

Grains?

Son of a bitch...

Not 20kg?

Not 20g?

You mean some fucker with a pair of tweezers will sit there counting out 20 long grain bits of rice (or short...they don’t specify) every time I get a word correct?

What if I never get a word right? I’ll feel as if I deprived the world of food! And that poor bean counter - I mean - grain counter... What about him? He’ll lose his job. I mean, granted it would be a better job if he/she could buy a cheap electronic scale and measure out 20g or so of rice, but I guess they don’t allow Union organizers into the rice counting stalls.

I mean, Jesus Christ!

This is the world we live in, isn’t it?! We can’t just give people food, so instead we have to think up personalized carny-type games for people to play before we give someone 20 grains of rice to suck on as they’re dying and the flies are eating at their eyes, which our bees have decided to pollenate because they don’t live here anymore, but it doesn’t matter because the waters from the oceans will all rise up and wash all the poor people away and we can all move to desert and be happy tribalists!

Son of a --

I know I’m overreacting, but think of it this way...

Why do we need strange pleasure cruises, and screwed up websites, and smiling politicians on hush-hush tours to tell us there is shit in this world that isn’t right or needs to be done about this world?

People can tell me that I’m being way out there, or too angry for my own good, but this is what I think when I look at the world.

It’s a screwed up place where people come up with screwed up ways of "helping out."

Sure the rice web page seems nice, but would it seem "nice" to make a similar webpage for New Orleans.

"For each word you get right, New Orleans residents get 20 more grains of sand for a sandbag to prevent flooding."

Or how about we start scheduling expeditions for people in "pleasure busses" to the great back gardens of the United States where most of the bees have disappeared.

Sigh...

There has to be a better way.

I’m penciled in to teach two courses at Towson in the Fall of ’08.  I’m debating whether or not to resurrect an old theatre company I used to be in at Towson so I can make more money, AND exercise some under used creative muscles.  For any who don’t know, I was in a company called Catalyst, and it, for now, doesn’t exist, or is in a temporary exile -- unless I come in and resurrect it.

I’ve also applied for two teaching jobs at other institutions.  The first one is an Assistant Professor position at Anne Arundel Community College here in Maryland.  If I get it, it offers somewhere between 35,000 to 50,000 dollars a year.  I’ve also recently dropped an application to Hood College in Frederick, Maryland to be the head of theatre (it’s just a minor’s program) and a professor/director there throughout the year.  I have no idea how much that position offers.  Odds are, even with the job there I would need a second job teaching somewhere just to -- well -- just to get up on my own two feet.

I’m also excited about one audition in particular coming up in the next few weeks.  Everyman Theatre in Baltimore is going to be doing Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, and I would love to play Lopahkin.  If not not him, then Petya ("the eternal student").  However, that’s a possibility for the future.

What am I doing now? 

I’m still teaching one class at Towson, twice a week.  I’ve got an audition at Baltimore Shakespeare Festival this coming Monday.  It’s my SECOND callback for Twelfth Night, and they tell me that I’m apparently in the running for their other summer show, Taming of the Shrew.  What roles?  God knows...

I’ve also had callbacks at Folger’s Shakespeare and...well...some other places that I can’t quite remember right now. 

What else?

I spoke as part of a symposium hosted by a group of American artists and teachers for a delegation of Ukranian artists, teachers, and business people.  My topic of expertise was to discuss the Private and Public Arts Funding situation in the United States and to compare it to Eastern European models of arts funding in order to draw comparisons, flesh out the differences, and build a bridge (of sorts) for the symposium to discuss ways to help out former Soviet satellite nations to develop their private arts funding.  This is important considering their models are moving more and more toward looking like Western models of arts funding (i.e. less government help, and more need from private donors).  The symposium seemed to be a success, and I may be in Ukraine next year in May to speak about this again for a larger symposium. 

And uh...

Yeah...

There’s another job I saw posted online that’s tickled my fancy. 

It was describe simply with the following heading.

 

BALTIMORE THEATER SEEKS PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

 

The Baltimore Shakespeare Festival is looking for an artistic director and I’ve decided to throw my hat into that race (as political pundits would say).  The description seems like something I’m suited for, I think.

 

The Baltimore Shakespeare Festival seeks a full-time Producing Artistic Director to collaborate with a five-person leadership team producing outdoor classical productions and year-round education programs in the Charm City and throughout Maryland.
The Producing Artistic Director is responsible for defining and pursuing an artistic vision that furthers the theater’s mission, connects with our audiences, and promotes excellence at all levels (production, education, communication, service, and administration). In addition to providing creative oversight of the theater’s education and Equity SPT performance programs, the Producing Artistic Director leads the Festival’s audience development efforts and serves as a link between our artists and our audiences.
Candidates must have a B.F.A. or equivalent plus demonstrated professional experience in theater direction, management, or dramaturgy. In addition to an interest and background in Shakespeare and the classics, the Producing Artistic Director should have outstanding communication skills, and a commitment to balanced budget.  Good salary and generous benefits program offered.  Employment will begin in the spring or summer 2008. 

 

However, it’s one of the following requests that’s kind of got me stumped.

 

Please send confidential letter, resume, three references and a 1-2 page writing sample to Search Committee, Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, 3900 Roland Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21211.  No phone calls please.  Deadline for applications is April 20, 2008.   

 

What’s a confidential letter?  Is that a regular letter, just with CONFIDENTIAL stamped on it in big red letters like in spy movies?  And what type of writing sample could they be referring to when they don’t specify what type of writing sample?  Hmm...

Intriguing...

Any thoughts?

My laptop has decided to commit slow, methodical, ritualistic suicide.  It first decided to process things slowly, and then it just decided to not open any programs, and now I think it’s in the final stages of dementia before fully dying because it refuses acknowledge that Windows is a part of its memory - if it has a memory left.

My car is slowly dying as well.  Two weeks ago the alternator burnt out, and then I found out the breaks were worn out, and the windshiled washing fluid pump needed to be replaced.  So, essentially I’ve been driving around a weakly powered car that couldn’t clean its own windshield, or stop itself properly from getting into a car wreck.  Also, now I have to take the car back into the shop because whenever I turn on the fan (which doesn’t turn on) the headlights of my car turn off, and since the fan doesn’t actually turn on I’m left cold, in the dark, looking for other cars that I may or may not hit - but at least the brakes have been replaced so I can stop before I hit them - if I guess well.

Then, the final insult...

The heel just came off the boot on my left shoe.  I have to take that to a cobbler.  The cobbler can fix it, I hope -- I like those black boots...a lot.

Somehow I feel like I need someone to "fix me."  There’s this building anger in me.  Can’t find a good supplemental job.  Can’t find enough money not to worry.  Can’t, can’t, can’t...

I just can’t keep my shit together these days.

And the anger builds, and the bitterness grows, and the resent mounts, and it all turns into desperation, and it all just boils and froths into occassional madness and all - too - often irritability.

Fuck, fuck, fuck...

So I went with my friend Taisha (who played was in the Imagination Stage show Lost and Foundling along with myself) all the way up to New York City and back to Baltimore yesterday so she could audition for The New School.

Several good things happened on this trip.

I got to know more about Taisha, and she more about me.

We made incredible time driving from the Timonium area to the foot of The New School in NYC (about 3 hours!).

It only took us about 15 minutes of circling around the blocks to find a good parking spot - and a good parking spot we did find!

Then came the actual audition. 

I've never taken part in any sort of audition where the applicant was asked to perform a scene.  Monologue - yes.  Scene - not since high school...and that was usually just for competitions at theatre festivals where one could win a trophy, or a gift certificate, or bragging rights by performing "the best scene" at the festival. 

Yippee...

Anyway, we performed a scene from The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Stephen Adly Guirgis.  Taisha played the female defender Cunningham who is pleading in a court for Judas, and I played Satan (some of you, dear readers, might say it is the role I was born to play).  The scene went very well, illiciting some chuckles from the audience (a captivated group of 4 people in a very large, very dark theatre).  After the scene was done they asked me to step out to the green room behind the stage so that Taisha could perform a classical monologue (one from Tartuffe). 

Taisha came back to the green room to cool her heels with me while the administators of the audition convened to discuss Taisha's fate, and whether or not they wanted to work the scene we had just done (I assume, anyway).  They called both of us back on stage and the conversation went something like this.

Guy 1:  Great work you two.

Taisha and Me:  Thanks!

Guy 2:  So, let me just say, great work as well, you too...uh...

Me:  Mark.

Guy 2:  Right.

Guy 1:  Yeah.

Guy 2:  So Taisha, why did you choose this scene?

Taisha:  Well, I really like the play --

Guy 1:  Great play.

Taisha:  Yeah -- and I actually wanted to possibly play the part of Satan --

Guy 2:  You could have!

Taisha:  Well -- ok...but I just really loved this play, this scene, and thought Mark would be great in it as Satan.

Guy 1:  You were.

Guy 2:  Yeah.

Me:  Uh...thanks. 

Guy 2:  I mean, the scene was actually more like "Satan's scene," just in the way that it's written.

Taisha & Me:  Oh...

Guy 2:  But that's not bad, it's just that we're wondering if you had another...uh...monologue to show us. 

Taisha:  Yeah.  I've got something from References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot.

Guy 1:  Great.  Still, this leads me to my next question.  Uh, Mark? 

Me:  Yeah?

Guy 1:  Have you already been to grad school?

Me:  Yeah.

Guy2:  Ah!

Guy 1:  Oh...well...yeah.  'Cause we were wondering if you hadn't been to grad school, if you were interested in going here.  We were debating whether or not you had been through training, and we were -- well -- we were trying to figure out whether or not you had.  Your work as Satan was just really good. 

Me:  Thanks.

(They talked for some while longer and then had me set up to LISTEN to Taisha's monologue.  They helped her set up my placement so she, and not I was the focus of the scene.  Essentially, kids, if you're in this kind of situation make sure the LISTENER'S chair is downstage with his/her back to the audience making the speaker the primary focus for the whole 3 minute scene.  That's an acting/auditioning tip of the day for strange scene-type auditions.)

After this conversation Taisha did her monologue, and I think it went exceptionally well.  Actually, I think they would be suckers not to call her back for how well she did that, her scene, and the other monologue.  I offered to go up to NYC to break some legs and fingers if they didn't call her back. 

They better.

They will -- if they're smart!

Anyway, we drove back to Maryland and I spent the rest of my night watching the last episode of The Wire and contemplating my depressed mood, my lack of upcoming work (or the complete void that I'm facing in my life), and other...stuff...

I don't normally post videos here, since they're not my own work and such, but occassionally I find something that speaks for me in ways I could never describe.

So, for anyone wondering what it's like to be an actor please watch the following video.  It describes it pretty accurately.