Month: February 2011

It’s About Time

Posted on by acsahlst

Hi all,

I’ve been busy as usual (okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration).  I got in touch with one of the local contacts my buddy Sokrates gave me.  This gentleman’s name is Bob Altizer and he is very nice.  I e-mailed him and he responded back.  He acts and also sings opera in the chorus of Arizona Opera Company and Phoenix Opera Company.  He suggested that I audition for them so I got in touch with the Executive Director of the Phoenix Opera and he gave me an audition!  I auditioned for him yesterday and it was great.  I sang Deh Vieni Non Tardar from The Marriage of Figaro and Plaisir d’Amour.  He was very nice and said that they’d find a place for me so hopefully I’ll get to sing with them.  Both the opera companies pay an actual salary.  Many of the theatres around here only pay a stipend if that.  We both agreed that I’m at the level where I need to get paid.  It was pretty encouraging to know that I’m a pretty good singer.  The only critique he had was that I work on my foreign language pronunciation for my arias.

I just joined Meetup.com and I joined a group called Infuse Open Mic, which hosts a monthly open mic event for poets and musicians at the Phoenix Art Museum.  I decided to go to the one on February 4 and I read a poem and decided to sing Deh Vieni Non Tardar too.  (I actually know three opera arias.)  That was actually the first time I sang an opera piece in public.  The crowd was really impressed because people don’t usually sing opera at an open mic.  The head of the group is a guy who goes by Lalli.  I’m so happy he founded the group because it gives me and others an outlet for our creativity.  He videotapes highlights of the open mics and puts the videos on Youtube.  And I made the video!  So here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oJ9oCblruk   I appear at 2:22 on the video.  You can also click the link in the blogroll to the left.

Oh, and the footage from The Rite… should be available soon, but I don’t know when.

And I attended a general agent meeting and met with the head director and this time I did not get a change-your-haircolor-you-look-35 speech.  He just didn’t like my headshot but was willing to use it until I could get new ones.  So, it looks like they’ll be my agency but things aren’t set in stone yet.  So when that happens, you’ll get the name of the agency.  He told me I have a wide age range, which is great.  I need money now so I hope to get auditions and lucrative bookings soon.

I’ve been begging God for a breakthrough.  I’ve had it with being broke.  I’ve been putting up fliers at community colleges and universities for tutoring services.  And I plan to get certified to teach, which was never the plan.  I’m babbling again; it must be that demon…

The Anna Brand

Posted on by acsahlst

Hi all,

I meant to get to blogging but it took me a while.  I re-dubbed some audio for my scene in the documentary.  They should have the film ready in three weeks.  I had fun looking at myself on film.  I looked really nuts, but I didn’t look cold or weak.  The building where Veritas Pictures is has an audio company upstairs, which is where the re-dubbing took place.  That’s really awesome having everything you need for productions in one place.

I had put an ad on Durantcom.com here about filming “Pick Me!” two months ago and I finally got a response.  It was from a guy with some solid skills and experience.  Sadly, I couldn’t provide compensation so he was not able to do the project.  I believe in working for money and I would have offered money, but I don’t know anything about funding projects.  I figured it was a two-minute film so it would be okay.

I auditioned for Broadway Palm, a professional but non-union dinner theatre company with theatres in Florida and Pennsylvania, this past Friday.  I’m not sure that I was amazing enough as I didn’t start when I should have on the first song and the accompanist had to start over again.  And the auditions were videotaped.  That left me wondering if I really have the talent to call myself a pro.

I also submitted to the agents in town but most of them have no room for me.  I haven’t heard from two of them and I’m debating whether or not to call them since this isn’t LA with thousands of agencies so that one would have to remind them.

I did get to meet with one of the agencies in a general call.  However, it was really a humiliating waste of time.  I walked in the door and received a bit of commercial copy to read on-camera when I met with the agents.  When it was my turn, I went in and was told to slate and then read the copy.  I had to slate my age as well as my height, which is actually majorly against professional protocol.  Upon hearing my age, the head agent proclaimed she couldn’t believe I was 28 since she thought I was much older.  That’s preposterous.  Most everyone thinks I’m still in college.  She interrupted me again before I could read the copy with a compliment on my sweater.  Well, I didn’t read very well and I’m actually trained to be good at it.  Then she told me to sit down and proceeded to tell me what I needed to do before she would take me on.  I was to cut my hair in a certain way and put highlights and lowlights in it because my hair color (au natural, thank you) washed me out.  I was to majorly get into improv as she thought of me as the same type as Rachel Dresch.  And I was to get a new headshot as it didn’t do me justice.  I politely said thank you and was excused.  I cannot ever go with that agency as I do not look older than 25, I am not altering my beautiful, natural hair color and cutting it the way someone told me to, and I am not Rachel Dresch nor am I SNL material.  It’s wrong to call in someone you want to be something else before you take them on.

In the good news bin, I convinced a new buddy of mine that the scam casting company I previously mentioned was bad news.

I submitted a short play to the Beowulf Alley Theatre in Tucson for their Valentine’s Day lunch play series.  It’s called Sarah, Don’t Be Mad.  It wasn’t chosen, but they will have future calls for submissions soon.  The play is about a couple that are feuding in a bar because the guy forgot the girl’s birthday, which is Valentine’s Day.  They are saved from breaking up by a mouthy waitress.  It’s pretty funny.