The Audition Game

I recently upgraded my audition prowess by going to see the warm, kind, funny and friendly Jacob Saxton, over at Happy Self-Tape Studios in Greenpoint. 

His studio is beautiful. His recording equipment is top-notch and he's an excellent coach, who worked with me to get me the best take possible. 

And, I would be painfully remiss not to say just how much fun I had. Jacob is easy-going and supportive and truly wants to achieve the best take. He also does this awesome thing where he takes funny photos of you and posts them on Instagram. AND!!! He made me a hilarious gag reel. I'll share just one of the clips here. ***Expletive warning. :) To see the whole thing, you should check out the Heppy Self-Tape webpage, and check out the Instagram. 

Life casting!

Guys! Exciting news! I get to die gruesomely and disgustingly on film! In preparation, today, I trekked out to Jersey City to get my face molded by the fabulous Chelsea Paige. Here she is, getting ready to put goop all over my face:

She slicked my hair back, put me in a bald cap and got things under way. I have to admit, I'm psyched for every part of this process, but Chelsea's skills are on point. She let me know everything she was doing to set me at ease, she kept my nasal passages clear and hilariously, she asked me lots of questions I couldn't answer with my kisser frozen in alginate. 

Goop stage achieved! Do you think I can use this as a headshot when auditioning for the next Guillermo Del Toro film? Or Batman!!!!! I could be Clayface! A diminutive, not-at-all terrifying, Clayface... okay, fine, one of Clayface's purple poops.  

She followed up with some plaster and gauze strips, just like what you get when you break your arm. At this point, my face felt like it weighed twenty pounds, but honestly, the rest of it felt great; like nice face massage and a mud mask. 

Just a couple minutes later and here's my inverted punum! I can't wait to follow up on this post when the SFX begins! 

Casanova's Europe

UPDATE *** The exhibit opened on July 9th, 2018 at the MFA Boston! Go check it out! If you can't make it, you can still hear me and Nael and read about the exhibition here: 

Back on May 14th, I had the great pleasure of recording some voice-over work for the MFA Boston, at Cybersound Studios. It was a great, easy, laid-back but artistically energizing experience. 

Having spent two years in France, first as an au pair and then as a principal dancer with Terpsichora, I am fluent in French. I'll admit, there are subtleties that still elude me, and I have no sense of humor in French yet, but I speak it with an accent that fooled the natives. That said, it's been a couple years! When I was offered the opportunity to do the voice-over work for a French Lady in Casanova's era, I leapt at the chance! 

I was very excited to finally get to work with the phenomenal and prolific Boston actor, Nael Nacer, who was very kind about correcting a few of my pronunciations and excessive liaisons. (French is hard.) 

The picture below is of the tableau from the current exhibit in San Francisco, and the Boston installation will go up in July of this year. 

Outside, after the recording session, Nael and I laughed about how different voice-over work is from work on stage. Acting in a theater, you have all of your own physicality to work with to convey meaning, which allows you to be far more subtle. With voice-over, all you have is your voice. With excellent coaching from the sound-booth, Nael and I inflected and varied tone, we laughed and gasped scandalously, we varied pitch and octave to the point where we were practically singing. 

I honestly can't wait to see (and hear) the exhibit once it is ready! 

The Industrial Grind

The perks of working on industrials are rarely artistic, but perks there are! I should preface the following by saying that industrials are short films made for corporations looking to educate their staff on various topics like insider trading, sexual harassment, or appropriate office dress and behavior. You have to sign a non-disclosure agreement and you can't use these little films or show them to anyone, but they pay well, and sometimes, as in the case with my latest shoot with Casual Films, they're a blast. 

We shot at this amazing Tudor Mansion out in Jersey, complete with pool, pool-house, and tennis court. 

Here's the sweet make-up room, with make-up artist extraordinaire, Melanie Licata, and my costar Clint Weldon.

I didn't have time to hang out in this bathtub, which, frankly, is a crying shame...