Acting class starting

UPDATE:
This Saturday, I am launching the "beta" version of my on-camera "Auditioning" acting class.   This initial class is by invitation only, so if you would like to attend, email me, and I'll let you know if there are any spots left. 


The class will focus strictly upon auditioning, which I believe to be a little bit of a black art, no matter what anybody tells you.  Many folks who read this blog are veteran actors, some are newbs, and some are not actors at all.  A few of each have signed up for the initial class, so you'll be in good company.

We'll cover some of the following items. The rest we'll cover during the full-length course:

• The kind of auditions you should be focusing on for your "type."
• 7 things you should ALWAYS do during an audition.
• Differences between auditions and on-set performances.
• 3 things you should NEVER do during an audition.
• Owning the room.
• How to handle improvised, no-line, and 1-, 2-, or 3-line auditions.
• Group auditions vs. solo auditions vs. "firing line" auditions.
• Role reversal tips.
• Taking direction and making adjustments.
• Making use of the full frame.
• Sit, stand, or lie down?  How to handle stage directions.
• Hot choices and when to make them.
• What to wear, and what to NEVER wear!
• Off-book or on-book?  Should you memorize your lines?
• Live auditions vs. taped auditions.
• Regional casting directors' likes and dislikes.
• How to make story-accurate choices.
• Bait & Switch- what to do when you are asked to read for a DIFFERENT part.
• Using your voice to best advantage.
• Cold Readings – Sides are given to each actor in the audition class and they have between five and fifteen minutes to prepare for the audition.
• Warm Readings – sides are e-mailed to the actors several days in advance and they bring in their prepared auditions.
• Text Analysis – Method that teaches how to efficiently break down a scene to create certainty while auditioning.
• Improvised auditions.
• How to use your nerves to your advantage.
• Transitioning your auditioning skills into a real world audition. Many actors perform fabulously when going over sides on their own, in acting class or with a coach only to have a less than par audition in a real world situation.
• How to kick off your audition with "guns blazing."
• Keeping records of your auditions.
• Keys for product commercials.
• Reading for "non-actor / real people" roles.
• other fun stuff.

In the course of each audition class, actors will work, and see their work on-screen.

Happy auditioning, everyone!  

P.S. - A shout-out to our friend Karl Anderson, who booked a role on the new TV series Chase.  Way to go, Karl!

Curtis Wayne Demo Reel

Drawing inspiration from my fellow Texas Film Scene member Tommy Kendrick's excellent short-form demo reel, I decided to re-edit mine. I took a little different approach, since I don't have the pedigree that Tommy brings. Instead of a dozen short scenes, I used just a few scenes (still short, about 90 seconds for the whole reel), but long enough to show different looks and some acting "chops," I hope. Please let me know what you think. I would love some feedback!

NOTE: HD version is available on YouTube.

UPDATE: I have heard and obeyed! Newly-updated reel now includes clip titles, as you guys suggested. To keep it short and focused, I left out other clips from comedy roles and such. Thanks for all the great feedback, folks!

Tweeting during auditions

I'm not sure if this is bad form or not.

Daryl Eisenberg of DE Casting in New York, NY, has been using the popular insta-blog service Twitter during her casting sessions, though not during the actual auditions, she claims. As an actor, I feel empathy for the people who feel slighted by her actions, and am maybe a bit icnredulous that she was not doing it during actual auditions, though I give her the benefit of the doubt, since I wasn't there.

However, it's instructive to read what she was actually tweeting. The feedback is honest and blunt, which is what most actors need. I don't think reading the tea leaves of a casting director's musings will make us better actors per se, but it can certainly help identify and eliminate behaviors these CDs feel is "unprofessional" or even just plain old annoying.

Different CDs have different likes and disklikes, and being able to listen in on their thoughts, especially during a live casting session, seems to me like invaluable acting intelligence.

What do you think?

ATX is jumpin'

Winter is a traditionally slow time for acting work here in Austin, but I have had about 5 auditions in the last couple of weeks! Three were commercials, true, but it is nice to get the calls.

In the bigger picture, though, Texas is losing the battle for film incentives to other states. The Texas Motion Picture Alliance is trying to change that, lobbying the state legislature to boost incentives to lure production back to Texas, which once swallowed up runaway Hollywood productions left and right.

Photo: Curtis Wayne hard at work answering fan mail. Keep it coming! :-)

Making money with movies

In a post last week, I discussed the cloudy future of big-budget Hollywood movies. As movies move inevitably towards free, how will filmmakers, and cinemas, make money? Austin's Alamo Drafthouse has one answer: The Team America Sing-Along.

The feature film showing was more than your usual cinema fare. It was a combination movie and comedy club, and drunken frat party. Well, not quite that radical (it was the 7 p.m. showing, after all), but it was value-added interactive entertainment. It was... an event.

My wife Mary and our friends Robert and Sherri Dugan were handed a goodie-bag of American flags, glow sticks, balloons, poppers, and sparklers. After the customized patrio-parody opening trailer collage, a live host laid down the ground rules for the film, which included speaking and singing along to the "Fuck yeah!" choruses, standing and cheering, tossing streamers and balloons, and then following the host down 6th Street after the show, waving our sparklers and singing the Team America theme song acapella, as a group, er, mob.

Did I mention that the Drafthouse serves food and alchohol?

If I wanted to just watch a movie, I can do that quite well in the comfort of my own home, thank you very much. Big screen, hi-def home theater has never been so affordable, and movies were never so cheap and easy to get.

No, what I want is an experience, a reason to get off the couch and go sit in a room with a bunch of like-minded instant friends and have a trascendent experience. In short, I want an event.

And this July 4th weekend at the Alamo's Team America Sing-along, that's what I got.

Fuck, yeah.

P.S. - Thanks to Beth Burroughs for learnin' me 'bout this here event.

Curtain call

The final performance of Shards concluded on Saturday evening, May 29. Several friends came out to the show, and we had a great after-party over the weekend, at the conclusion of Kuka, one of the other plays in The Love Sonatas series of plays by Manuel Zarate.

I had a great time doing the play, and really enjoyed the character of Rololpho. Pictured above are the four actors who played Rodolpho in the various plays. I hope to work with these great folks again sometime.

Many, many hugs and thanks to:
Liz Atherton (for the call), Paula Russell, Beth Burroughs, Jon Boatwright, Christina Childress, Chase Wooldridge, Chris Doubek, Bethany Perkins, Amanda Garfield, Glenda Barnes, and all the other wonderful cast and crew of The Love Sonatas, plus all of my friends who came out to support me, including Vicki, Shirley, Russell Harding, Bob Russell, Cynthia Gonzales, and many others.

Much love, y'all!!! See you on Broadway.

B-Boys gettin' it done

This Wednesday (October 4), I spotted my buddy Frank Brantley doing a cameo spot on ABC TV’s “Ugly Betty”.

Frank played a sidewalk cafe patron who is accosted by America Ferrera (Betty).

Well done, Frank. Keep on representing that Texas talent!

Go to Prison, do not pass "Go"

My wife sent me to prison.

Sort of. Actually, my agent Liz Atherton sent me. But my wife kicked my ass to go, when I was about to wuss out. You know, these auditions are long shots, and it’s hard to get motivated, especially when your life is hectic, work is slamming, and you’re driving 4 hours each way just for the opportunity to be rejected.

Or, in this case, sent to the Big House.

I landed on the set of Fox TV’s hugely popular hit show ‘Prison Break’, and spent two 16-hour days baking in rock-hard clay in the center of a steaming prison set in a former, uh, prison in downtown Dallas, Texas, with 150 of my newest friends and fellow inmates. By night, when the temperature dropped a bit, we were soaked under industrial-strength rain sticks perched about 4 stories above us. It was, I have to say, pretty fucking miserable.

But oh, what a great look for that scene.

As the pic shows, even the sun glaring in my eyes kicks my butt, not to mention the two toughs on either side of me! (Nice guys, though- really.)