So, I'm finally starting to recover from my ACTF trip , which saw me on the road 26 hours in a 72 hour period (and that's NOT counting all the damned driving around Jacksonville I had to do- for some odd reason our hotels we're all about 20 minutes away from each other). It was a splendid trip, though, and my students had a blast. At least one was so inspired by the festival that it helped her to decide that she did want to go to Grad school for theatre. I got to see a few former DIVAS (Darren M. and Dori G.) as well as getting to chat with all my "February friends" as Jim Wren of UNCG calls us...Our hotel was also very nice, as it was right on the beach. I actually got to catch a few minutes of zen outby the water one morning, so that, too, was pleasant. So for all the hoopla surrounding these festivals, and all the bitching and moaning that most of the "bigger" schools in our state do regarding the legitamacy of said events, I still love em! It does recharge my batteries as a Theatre instructor, and it's nice to see good work and catch up with everyone. That's ot even to BEGIN to mention all the opportunities for the students...
In that vein- if you ever went to an ACTF, SETC, URTA, UPTA, or even a high school Thespian tourney, tell me about your best experience doing so...spare no details...bide no denay...post no bills...whatever, I'm still tired!
10 points for the fine southern reference...and an EXTRA ten if you can tell me WHO was 'pickin down in J-ville"...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
32 comments:
My first professional gig came out of attending auditions at SETC in Pensacola, Fla. where I got a few offers and went with the one from The Globe of the Great Southwest in Odessa, Texas, doing Shakespeare to cowboys, armadillos, and the tumbling tumbleweed in a supposed replica of Shakespeare Globe (of course, since no one knows for sure what the Globe looked like, its authenticity was a bit suspect...also considering we had a roof and cushiony seats in our Globe).
It was a great stage though...you could whisper and be heard in every seat in the house, except when a hailstorm pounded the wooden roof.
About the convention itself, I remember very little. I remember one night I had free time and went to see a really bad Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor movie called HAMMERSMITH IS OUT...I used to do a pretty good nasal Burton imitation from it, quoting that immortal line: "Let me out, I'll make you rich and strong, strong and rich!" As I recall, it was supposed to be a comedy based on Faustus.
I do remember hearing about auditioners who tried to liven up the auditions with some outrageous turns.
There was the guy who came out, said his name and number (do they still do that?), said "Et Tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar?" whereupon he fell to the floor and lay there "dead" for the rest of his minute. (Do they still give you a only minute?) Rumour had it he got called back to almost every company there.
Another guy came out in a skin-tight jump suit, said his name and number, unzipped the jump suit down to his navel, and just stood there for the rest of his audition. Don't know how that one came out.
Another friend of mine told me a trick of his that he pulled at the auditions. He did some letter reading scene from Moliere or something, where by the end of the scene he crumpled the letter into a ball, and flung it to the floor in a rage. "That wad of paper stayed on the floor all afternoon, reminding them of me." He grinned. It worked. He got called back to a lot of places; but he was also a pretty good actor.
Yep- still say name and number, and still only 60 seconds, or 90 if they add a song.
My friend Anthony Shank once did a dramatic rendering of Gloria Gaynor's disco classic I WILL SURVIVE as his monologue- he,too, was called back by tons of companies...
"Another guy came out in a skin-tight jump suit, said his name and number, unzipped the jump suit down to his navel, and just stood there for the rest of his audition. Don't know how that one came out."
Actually, I unzipped it to the top of my hoo-hah, and I had sheared my shrubbery so it looked like Woody Allen. Got lots of callbacks...
Oh God...what have I wrought???
And I seem to remember some piece of Euro crap at ACTF 95 in Greensboro based on some fable or something...it was theatrical Nyquil!
Orlando???Somebody say AMEN to that!
Wow- you were that guys partner? That's just TOO damned weird!!!!!
My prayers are with all of you
Wait one hell of a minute.....Rick-u were guy w/ ax's partner???? I will never forget that...cuz I think I said "What?" outloud whan it began (the hacking) I was there...my partner won best partner for the dealio...I was in top 10....but alas lost..but had a fairly good showing. RICK have we figured this out before? Maybe we have...I just can't remember...
It may be the drugs.
Catfish Moon was good...x and I know each other from that year...cuz I was in LEND ME A TENOR from UK. But he and his crew whooped are asses.
We had a killer set and a fine cast..but it was all about the beauty of that moon...
X- I will never forget our Rosebud moment..."I thought that was you!"
Ahhhhh...memories.
Steve, did you see the Peabody Marching Ducks?
I remember getting hit on by one of the professors from USM at ACTF in Richmond, Va in either 1999 or 2000. Man, that guy REALLY wanted me to attend USM.
I also remember that I was a part of my second threesome at the same ACTF. No, the professor wasn't a part of it. But one of his students was.
Ah, theatre, the profession of champions.
Jal666
That was you???????
Man, thought I met you before...
Yep. That was me! I was the one wearing the silver unitard with the jar of dill pickles and the boom box that was blasting "I Wanna Sex You Up" by Color Me Badd.
And regarding that night Laurie, I've never seen a girl "eat pickles" so fast.
*Whew!*
now i need a cigarette.
God help us...we've ALREADY digressed!
BTW- dateline ACTF 06:
Just got word that USM's production of Bill Irwin's SCAPIN was held over for Kennedy Center consideration! If they make it that's THREE TIMES in an 11 year period for USM...take that haters!
That is because the professors at USM do nothing but try to seduce. They really shouldn't toy with a young actors emotions like that.
To try to stay within the same theme...I never felt UK was very committed to the whole ACTF thing....In fact, back in the day...the reason Roundtable started (which is now a requirement for majors) was because of the lack of prof support for ACTF...Roundtable used to be called ACTS (association of concerned theatre students...no joke) So I pose the question...
How has the importance (or lack thereof) of ACTF changed in the University setting of the past years?
And do you think ACTF is more important to the students or the program...and don't say "both"....make a choice.
Lastly- what do you think of "contest" art?
Oh yeah the pickles!!!
I for one am completely opposed to arts competition. I know that Tim may come down on me for this one, but I do not like the idea of ACTF, or the competative shows at SETC, artists have to compete for so many things, parts, jobs, mere survival, that to then have our finished prodects put up against each other frankly offends me a little.
Indiana had nothing to do with ACTF in my time there, I have no idea if that is still true or not, and that was fine with most of us there.
Now I need to also say that the fact that three people on this blog were at ACTF back in '95 from three different schools is the good side of these competitions. It is a chance for all kinds of different peopl to converge on one place and see lots of theatre, network with lots of other theatre people in the same boat as you are, and to have a good time, hence all the references to drinking and other activities, (jal666 I will go to my grave trying to purge the picture of you in a silver unitard out of my sub-conscience),and that is wonderful. I just really do not like the competative aspect. Theatre companies should not see themselves as competators in a market, but as supporters, hence the beginings of the League of Bluegrass Theatres that is currently getting going here in Lexington.
Okay, now Tim may purge me from his board forever, but I have had my say, I hate competition in the arts, not to open this can of worms again but that is one of the minor reasons I hate the Smittys, the rest have to do with the self congratulatory natre that rick and pogue spoke of so elequently.
Just to add to Steve's reply. Most of these college competitions don't mean squat in the big, wide, cruel world of professional Theatre (and when I use a capital "T", I'm talking about all the performing dramatic arts...theatre, film, TV.) Certainly on the West Coast, most people haven't even heard of these competitions and awards. I don't even know what ACTF means.
Nor do I remember any competitions at SETC in my time. Maybe they had 'em, but my going to SETC was not encouraged or discouraged or sanctioned by the University. I went on my own speed for one reason...to audition to get a job. That was it. That was the only competition I was interested in...that I was good enough to beat out the other 600 people I was auditioning with and end up one of the coveted...and far too few...slots of employment...not merely employment, but good employment...I wanted worthwile roles, not spear-carrying stuff. (Yeah, yeah...we've all heard the adage "There are no small roles, only small actors." Don't you believe it; there ARE small roles!)
I'll take any award anyone wants to give me, but I'm very discriminatory about which ones I list on my resume or in my bio...because unless they have national recognition or stand out as something really distinct, no one cares. Nor should they.
Some professional employing you has no idea of what kind of competition you were in when you were a junior in college. You could have been up against mediocre crap. You could have just been the best of the mediocre crap and so won by default.
That very thing happened to me once. The WGA roped me into reading scripts for some horror film contest. I had to read three scripts. All were underwhelming. None were ever going to be filmed. But I had to pick one and say something nice about it. Boy, was that hard, conjuring up something vaguely complimentary that wasn't an outright lie. Those ridiculous comments still actually float around online and haunt me. (I'm terrible lying about work...If I have to come backstage and have to say nice things about something I didn't like, it's usually a cheery, noncommittal, "Hey!! What can I say?" or "My! That's some play!")
...And these competitions are college or high school or whatever. They're going to hire you on the basis of the kind of work you're doing now. Not then...when you were green and callow.
That means you're going to have to get up and audition for them. That's about it.
Also they are hiring you as an individual, not as a team. So whatever some production of which you were a part won is pretty much irrelevant.
Personally, I think students should be worried about honing their craft, not worried about competiting against other people honing their craft. As an actor, I'm concerned about my production being the best it can be; not how it stacks up against some other production.
And believe me, no one outside of the Lexington Theatre community(...and probably only a few inside it...)even knows what that Smitty is on your resume (And I adored Ray Smith, Beloved Theatrical Eccentric).
The bit of advice I adhere to and quote frequently to aspiring writers also applies to actors. It comes from the famous fantasy illustrator, Frank Frazetta. He and a group of other well-known illustrators and artists in their younger days would chip in to hire a model to do some life drawing. "And pretty soon there were all these guys standing behind me watching me sketch. 'How'd you do that, Frank? How'd you get so fast? How'd you get so much detail in a couple of minutes?' The answer was obvious and is maybe one of the reasons for my success: I didn't CARE what THEY were doing, I was concentrating on MY art."
"artists have to compete for so many things, parts, jobs, mere survival"
Hence, I feel that getting them acclimated to this early on might just be a good thing...
The competitive nature is something that can be a little troublesome with the organization. It's kind of like the 800 lb gorilla in the room (or as Bill Black from UT used to say so eleuently "Now remember, this ISN'T a competition...but the WINNER is...")
For all that and the MANY other bones I have to pick with ACTF (and they are way more than I care to elaborate on this blog) I STILL believe in this organization.The connections and friends I made through that organization , and ACTF, have been invaluable to me in my career. I also had a hell of alot of fun, saw some really good shows, and attended some great workshops. I also just saw FIRST HAND how inspired my students were when we got back from Jacksonville, and we only stayed two days! For them, and many students like them, it's the chance to see close to 100 people with many of the same goals and aspirations they have. For them, and many like them, this is a big jolt of reassurance that the field they love so much, one which gets little or no attention at their own school, is legitamate. To me, that's a good thing...
And no, I certainly won't kick you off the board for having that opinion...perhaps for cheering for IU, but NEVER for that!
Chuck,
I think the difference here is that ACTF and certainly SETC ARE organizations and festivals you can use to hone your craft. ACTF now has a component to train dramaturgs, student critiques, people interested in movement/ combat ,Classical acting, playwriting, Improv (Dad's garage in Atlanta gives out an internship) and of course, all the design competitions. A few years back, they even brought in Ming Cho Lee to critique the designs. This isn;t just a little competition to hand out plastic trophies to kids. It's nationwide (over 1000 schools participate, and yes Lots form out west too) and lots of well known names involved. This year Mark Medoff, Susan Tsu and Rebecca Hillaker in Region IV , just to name a few. There were also four days worth of wonderful workshops for the students as well. And that's not even to remotely begin to comment on all the opportunities SETC offers,including thousands in scholarships for high school, undergrad and graduate students alike and too many big names (Anne Bogart, for instance, this year in Orlando) and workshops to mention.
What I , and any good professor, tell our stuedents is to hell with the "sontest", go and enjoy the week, and get as much out of it as you can. Why waste that resource and cheat your students out of all that the events potentially have to offer?
I suggest that some of you go to the KC/ACTF and setc websites to see all these organizations REALLY have to offer...
"to hell with the CONTEST," no sontest...obviously, I never took advantage of ACTF's typist training...
Tim, well, I think you've hit on it.
The value is in enjoying the camaraderie and connection of being immersed in your love with hundreds of other like souls. Sitting at the feet of seasoned professionals and soaking up whatever their sage wisdom has to offer you. And seeing lots of theatre...even when it's bad, you can learn a lot from it.
I was not knocking either the organizations or their conferences. Those are good things.
Nor do I care whether students or schools enter their competitions. I'm utterly ambivalent about that. I just don't think awards won from those competitions carry any real weight in the professional arena (and I assure you the Smittys don't!). Which, I guess, was my...as usual...longwinded point.
(And no one has yet to inform me what the Hell ACTF stands for!)
"And seeing lots of theatre...even when it's bad, you can learn a lot from it."
Amen to that, Charles...I tell my students this all the time...
...and I ALWAYS put my SMITTYS on my resu....uhh...wait a minute...I DON'T HAVE ONE!!!!!! Oh well...
Smittys are just things to dust in your living room. Or they can prop a door open, like mine does. I can see someone putting that on their resume?
"Um, excuse me Mr. Luckey, but what the FUCK is a Smitty?"
And to steal a Tenacious D's song title, I can also do cock pushups with my Smitty.
One is all you need.........
Never, since 1969 when I first met him until his death, did I ever hear Ray Smith, Beloved Theatrical Eccentric, referred to as "Smitty". When and where did he acquire this nickname? Is there an amusing anecdote about it? Or is it only the award that has been dubbed with that moniker? Is there an amusing anecdote about that? Is there anything amusing about the Smittys?
Scott, as you've probably gleaned, the SMITTYS in question are a year end award for AGL productions, named after the late Raymond Smith, a former UK theatre prof.
...I'm not sure what the hell D$ is talking about...
I feel mildly ignored...
but you are so far away............and anyway i'd never ignore you.
I have to go along with D$ on the issue. Even though he once made a crack about me in Spandex.
Laurie,
To answer your question, ACTF is FAR more important to the students than to the program. Sure, a school like USM can use the fact that they've been to the Kennedy Center twice (hopefully 3 times this april!) to lure students into the program, but the benefit the students get (from all the multitude of things we've already mentioned on the boards) far outweigh those of the institution.
And I think I speak from a place of knowledge here, as someone who, like my pal D$ , has seen both sides of the fence.
Also, with all due respect to my boy SK, I really feel that , like it or not, competition is a part of the equation in any art form. I got used to that fact long ago...I don't necessarily like it, but it's a part of what we do. We compete ro jobs (educational and professional), we compete for roles, we compete with ourselves to be the "best we can be"... To me, negating the competitive aspect of art is the same type of BS as people who say they "don't read reviews"...suuurrrrrreeee you don't...and while you're at it, I'm sure you don't ever get jealous, have unclean thoughts, cheat on your taxes or masterbate! Whatever...(hmmm...lets see if that take gets a response!)
I may be "chicken shit" (thanks, pogue), but I never called anyone an "ass" (thanks, rick8) or any other name in my posts about the Smittys. Is it any wonder that I'm remaining anonymous, after rick8's venom-loaded post on this blog? If anyone cares to go to the AGL blog and read my entire post, they'd see that it was not an "attack" on any individual, nor was it rude, crude, or anything of the kind. In fact, it elicited a polite and reasoned response from Kim Dixon. Here's part of what I wrote: "It was Lexington's Oscar Night, and although it was silly and maybe frivolous, it was damn fun. And it brought everyone in the theatre community out to have a night of celebration before the hard work of the upcoming season began...it was about rewarding the hard-work-for-not-much-compensation of the previous season. We all felt valued for our contributions." Now, if saying something like that makes me the target of rick8 and pogue (who even says he'll "take any award anyone wants to give me"), fine. And skoehler just let us know that he is "honored" to have FIVE Phoebe Awards, whatever those are, so maybe a little bitty local award does have the teensiest meaning? I know of nobody who makes "a big deal" out of their Smittys. They're not a "serious" award, but the original intent behind them, to honor good work at AGL and reward, in some small way, local theatre artists, was--dare I day it?--kinda serious. Not to mention a generous gesture on Ray Smith's part.
Do I list a Smitty on my local resume? Maybe. Would I, if I were auditioning or applying for an out-of-town job? No.
I promise this is my last post on the subject, no matter what.
I said anonymous posts are "chicknshit." A general comment, not a specific one. I think one should own up to one's opinion. The other danger with anonymous posts is they encourage trolling and flame-wars. Nuff said on the subject; I do not feed the trolls.
Sorry it has been so long since I posted her but am again on line and ready to add my view.
I know Rick and Steve's opinion of the Smitty's. I can understand this.
I am all for expanding the Smitty's to include all Lexington (and surrounding) theatre. It truly would help bring the different groups together.
But please be careful! The Smitty's are not about you. They are about the field grunts. Its about a small thanks for good work.
I have a Smitty myself and am VERY proud of it. It is displayed in my house for all to see and I am eager to tell about it and why.
I had the pleasure of knowing Ray. I am proud to have his name on my certificate. This small trinket reminds me of why I put up with the hassles of this our craft.
You don't have to like them. Expand them if you can. But please don't belittle them.
Post a Comment