Well, hello there!

Um...hi...sorry to have been neglecting you.

I have no good excuse. I've been busy, sure, but that's pretty much status quo.

Do you forgive me? Pretty please?

Okay, so now that I've crawled back onto this blog, what shall I write about?

How about my latest acting venture? Sound good? All-righty then!

I had the great privilege to play the role of Catherine in The Foreigner. A fun role in a hilarious comedy! But the best part is I got to be part of the centennial season of my home theater, The Players Club of Swarthmore! Actually, to call it my home theater implies that I work at others, which I don't. But that's because PCS is a convenient 5 minutes from my house and is one of the most well-respected community theaters in the region - so I don't have cause to wander.

Anyway...the premise of The Foreigner is that this guy, Charlie, is depressed, so his friend takes him to a backwoods fishing lodge to get away for a few days. But he's also painfully shy and doesn't want to talk to anyone - so his friend tells the innkeeper that Charlie doesn't speak English. The comedy comes from him understanding everything everyone is saying, when they think he can't.

As always when I work at PCS, it was a great bunch of people. All super talented and fun to work with. I get to flex my creative muscles and make new friends at the same time - what could be better?

And the role of Catherine was especially fun because, well...she's a bitch. Most actors will tell you that it's more fun to play bad than good. Well, to call Catherine bad is not quite accurate - she's basically someone who hasn't found her place in the world and takes it out on everyone around her. Still, as much fun as it is to yell and stomp and pout, I had a hard time doing it. I kept getting direction to be meaner. I felt like I was really pushing it, but I guess my idea of nasty doesn't come across on stage. Thankfully, the Director and AD didn't give up on me and I finally got Catherine where she needed to be. Even got a decent review! So, that was tons of fun.

Now I have to read scripts to try to find a show I'd like to direct next year. Any suggestions?

The day that wasn't

So, a couple of entries ago, I told about an open call I went to. They were looking for background talent for a movie that's shooting in town, as well as an NBC pilot. Well, less than a week later, I get a call. They catch me in the middle of grocery shopping and ask if I can be on set of the pilot the next day. Much as I want to, I can't just immediately say, "yes." Why? Well, there's that pesky child care thing to arrange. So, I tell them I'll make a few calls and get back to them as soon as I can.

First call is to my across-the-street neighbor and good friend, P. You may remember P from my power-outage entry - they're one of two families that let us bunk with them when our house got too cold to be habitable. Anyway...P was available to watch the kids - which is fantastic on a number of levels. She knows them almost as well as she knows her own son, since our two boys have been playing together since they were less than two-years-old and before my daughter, N, was born. Plus, since she lives right across the street, the whole school bus thing is a no-brainer. And we have given each other keys in case we lock ourselves out (which we have), so she has easy access to all of our Feingold-friendly food for A. Brilliant!

Call the casting people back, yes, I'm available. Cool, get the info on how to retrieve all of my call information for the next day from their web site and I'm good to go. Mind you, all of this is happening while I'm racing around Trader Joe's grabbing groceries so I can be done in time to Pick N up from preschool.

Finish shopping. Check. Pick N up from school. Check. Oh crap! There's a dentist appointment and a parent-teacher conference the next day. Okay, these acting opportunities don't come along very often, so the dentist and teacher will have to wait. Reschedule the dentist appointment for THREE MONTHS LATER, sheesh! Luckily, teacher (Mr. H - the BEST!) was much easier. Simply rescheduled for the next day, perfect.

Hubby comes home and announces that he's decided to work from home while I'm off earning money as human set-dressing. So, wonderful P is off the hook. Still, I'm awfully grateful to her for being available. The kids are excited to get to hang with Daddy on a school day, although I remind them he still has work to do, so he won't be able to play much.

Now, it's just a matter of waiting until 9pm, when I'm supposed to log on to the casting site to find out when I'm called, where I'm supposed to go and what I'm supposed to wear. Wait, wait, wait... 9pm - site says come back at 10. When I spoke to them that morning, they said call could be as early as 5:45am. Don't they know I don't work well without much sleep? *sigh* Wait, wait, wait...10pm - site says come back at 10:30. AAArrgh! Wait, wait, wait... Finally, info! Luckily, I'm not called until 9. Still, with getting the kids ready, getting myself camera-ready and driving in during rush hour, I gotta get up pretty early.

The next morning goes a lot smoother than I expect. Although I'm asked to wear a suit. My suits are pretty old. Not worn-looking, but definitely a bit dated. Still, they're suits, so I wear the one that fits me a bit better and keep my fingers crossed. Mental note: should probably have a more up-to-date suit in the wardrobe for just such an occasion.

The place we're told to park is about 18 blocks from where we're to sign in, but I arrive in plenty of time. I decide to walk. But as I'm leaving the parking lot, one of the PAs tells me there's a shuttle, but it won't be here for another 20 minutes or so. Okay, I'll wait. The weather's not bad, but it is breezy, and after standing there for 10 minutes I'm starting to feel cold. I'm regretting not walking (or taking the subway) just to keep warm. But eventually, I get on a shuttle and am on my way!

There's a background PA to report to. This poor woman's job is to literally wrangle all 30-40 background people to make sure we wait where we're supposed to, eat when we're supposed to and don't leave the room (even to go to the bathroom) without letting someone know where we are. Much as waiting around is boring, her job is both stressful and boring at the same time.

We get approved by wardrobe, the makeup lady tells me I look good, but keep my lipstick on me and refresh often, the hair lady fixes me up a little, I fill out my paperwork and I'm good to go. So, then we move from the holding room to a hallway just outside of the stairwell where they're shooting to be ready for when they need us. The stairwell, by the way, is large and ornate - if you've seen the film Law Abiding Citizen, you've seen it. It's part staircase, part atrium.

So, we wait, and wait, and wait. While we wait, I get to see Jimmy Smits, David Ramsey and Jesse Bradford walk by. Cool! After a lot more waiting, we move into one of the nearby unused courtrooms, so that we can at least wait in chairs. At one point, about ten of us get pulled into the aforementioned stairwell and we think we're about to actually get to do something. Oops, sorry, no. False alarm. Back to the empty courtroom. More waiting.

Eventually, we got to stop waiting for a while to have "lunch" which was actually after 4pm, so it was almost dinner. Good food. We finish - go back to the original room where we signed in. And those of us who are non-union (that would include me) are told we're done for the day, we can go. WHAT?!! Seriously, I covered child care (twice, really), rescheduled two appointments, stayed up late and got up early to wait around all day and never step in front of a camera? You've got to be kidding me. No, sadly, they weren't.

Mind you, I got to spend the day talking to some interesting people. Nearly all of them have a lot more experience with TV and film than I do, so I learned a bit. But still, it really wasn't worth it. Especially since, getting the non-union rate - my pay for turning my family's life upside-down for the day and waiting around for ten hours for nothing was, after taxes, a whopping $68.36. No kidding. Of course, if I had gotten into the scene, I wouldn't have cared about the measly check. But as it stands, I'm a trifle disappointed.

Sorry to have this entry be a bit of a downer, but there you have it. If it makes you feel any better, last year, when I got onto the set of Law Abiding Citizen, I got a union waiver for the day, which means I got the union rate (that day's check was over $300 after taxes). Plus, I not only got into the scene, I'm easily seen right behind Girard Butler. Guess you win some, you lose some.

Actually did something for the acting career today!

So, despite my desire to build some kind of part-time acting career for myself out of the local projects that are available - I've been terribly lax about pursuing it. While it's something I want, I'm always terribly nervous about making the child care arrangements work out right. That tends to make me hesitant. And when things get complicated, well...let's just say we become a less-than-happy family for a while.

But if I really want this, the only way to make things go smoother is to get more practice. It's hard to get better at something that only happens once or twice a year. So this morning I went to an open call for background talent for a film that will be shooting locally in April and May. The call said to come either dressed in upscale business attire or trendy nightclub attire and to bring a photo of yourself in business attire. Well, some of the headshots that were taken of me last spring are in a suit jacket, so that covered the business attire. I wanted to show them both looks, in hopes of doubling my chances at getting cast, so I decided that I would show up in nightclub attire.

There was, however, one problem - I haven't been to a nightclub since before I had kids. Since my oldest is 8, not only did I not own any appropriate clothing...I didn't even know what would BE appropriate. Thank goodness for Facebook! I posted my dilemma as my status earlier this week and was informed that all I needed to do was go to Forever 21 and buy a cheap shirt. Good to know.

So yesterday, after picking N up from preschool, she and I took a little trip up to the King of Prussia Mall - where the closest Forever 21 is located. Normally, I hate going to the KoP Mall - the traffic is generally awful and I'm not a fan of crowds. But it turns out neither is very bad in the middle of a weekday (I'll have to remember that for future reference). Score!

Of course, N was hungry, so we hit the food court first. She got herself Chick-Fil-A (a special treat, since we can't go there as a family, with A on the Feingold Program). And I hit Salad Sensations. N finished all of her lunch and I didn't finish mine - I was very proud of both of us.

Then, we were off to Forever 21. Of course, since I'm 37, I felt a little silly. But I valiantly tried on a selection of cheap tops. Now, I've lost some weight recently and am feeling pretty good about my body right now. But many of these shirts were not only tight, they were nearly all the kind of unforgiving knit fabric that shows every little bump and bulge. Definitely not cute (at least on me). But I finally settled on a cute satiny top that had boning in the bottom half that pulled double duty of adding interest to the garment and hiding flaws. To complete the nightclub look, I got some cheap bangles to go with it. All for less than $20 - double score!

Got home and put them on with my black skirt. $#!+ - the skirt in question is definitely too long to look nightclubby. That little detail made it look like I was going for business attire and missing, rather than succeeding at looking like a trendy chick going out for the evening. Now what? It occurred to me that my friend, K, is pretty close to my size. I called in desperation asking if she had a short black skirt I could borrow. Luckily, she did! She would bring it the next morning on her way to work. But since she's thinner than me, I wasn't sure if it would fit - so I decided on a pair of tight jeans as a backup in case the skirt was too small.

A short while later, the doorbell rang. K had kindly sent her hubby over early with the skirt in question, plus an extra one, just in case. Thank goodness, one of them fit and looked perfect for a night on the town!

So this morning, I got myself all dolled up like I was going out dancing. This felt a little silly, since it was about 10:30 am. But I did it, right down to the FMPs. The casting director rounded a bunch of us up in the middle of the room and gave us the low-down about what to expect in terms of when we might be contacted and how we would get all of our info. Then she indicated where we would put our photos and said we could go. For a second I was crestfallen - I had gone through all that effort for nothing. There was no way anyone would notice how I looked in the split second it took me to put my photo on the pile. But as everyone else was moving to leave their photos, one of the other casting directors who works at the agency was pulling a few women off to the side. He took photos of us right then, holding a board with our name. Triple score!

So, I left feeling pretty good. I did everything I could do to get a chance at the gig and someone noticed that I looked nice. Now I guess it's just a matter of keeping my fingers crossed and my cell phone on!

Who knows, perhaps six months from now, I'll be blogging about where to look for me in the background.

Speaking of where to look for me...if you happen to rent Law Abiding Citizen, look for me behind and to the right of Girard Butler in the bail hearing scene, I'm wearing a gray turtleneck.

Getting back to it

So, it occurred to me that I should actually write about acting, or something tangentially related to such - given the title of the blog and all. Of course, that meant I would have to get my @$$ in gear and actually do something to write about. You see, theoretically, I'm pursuing a part-time acting career. This generally translates into me going on a string of three auditions in a week and then not doing anything remotely acting-related for a month or two.

It's not that I'm not motivated, it's that I'm usually at a loss for what to do next. It's not like a regular job where A leads to B which leads to C, etc., etc. I tend to lose focus without structure.

So, yesterday I took a baby step forward. I updated my headshots with Mike Lemon Casting and Diane Heery Casting. Doing so made me realize it had been far too long since I checked my profiles with them - couldn't even remember what login name I had created. But I eventually got it all squared away. Yay for me!

So now what? Now I check various web sites to look for audition opportunities and hope for the best. Wish me luck!

Balance has never been my Forte

Like pretty much every mother I know, I struggle with finding a balance in life. Between kid time and grown up time, between housework and hobbies, between doing too much and not doing enough. But here's the thing...this is not new to me. Ask my mother - she was always telling me I had too much on my plate. Of course, back then it was plays, cheerleading, chorus, dancing...you know, school stuff.

Now I find that I have days when I can't focus on anything for more than five minutes, because there are too many things I want to do. So what happens? I end up accomplishing very little. It's frustrating as all get-out! But does this stop me from wanting to do more? Of course not! That would make way too much sense. I'm on the board of our local community theater, plus I write and distribute press releases for them, am on the show selection committee and directed for them earlier this season. I'm trying to build a part-time acting career by going to local auditions when I can. And along those lines, I've even gone to auditions for some non-paying gigs in hopes of building up the resume to get better offers. I have two kids, one of whom is ADHD and on a special diet (it's called the Feingold Program and allows us to manage his symptoms without meds - feel free to ask me about it) - N (my daughter) takes dance classes, A (son) has weekly basketball. And of course, they each have their parties and play dates to get to. We have a dog and two cats - but I would have more pets if M (the hubby) would let me. I'm a sucker for animals.

Doing all this stuff is mostly fun for me. But the problem is - it's like pulling teeth to make myself keep up with the household chores. And outdoor stuff? Fuggedaboudit. It's not that I don't care how the house looks, inside and out - I just have the hardest time finding the motivation to actually DO it. And all of my other activities don't exactly help.

Although today, my focus was forced for a whole 2.5 hours. I was called in to sub as a teacher's aid at my daughter's preschool. This is always a huge dose of cute! I love being able to see how the little ones spend their mornings and I get exposed to lots of different kidly personalities. Of course, it also usually means that the whole rest of my day gets thrown off track by the change in routine. But today, for once, I actually managed to get some stuff done afterward. I actually ran errands and got the kids' school valentines sooner than the day before their parties, managed to get myself less behind on the laundry (which reminds me, I need to put the sheets in the dryer), loaded and ran the dishwasher and finished clearing the kitchen peninsula (can't call it an island, 'cuz it's attached to the wall on one end) of papers. Who knows...after 37 years of teetering, maybe I'm finding my balance after all.

Nah...today was a fluke. But I can still enjoy it!