A Moon for the Misbegotten

NYC, Brooks Atkinson Theatre by way of the Old Vic, UK

May 30, 2007

I will be honest…my first choice for seeing a show on my day in the City was Spring Awakening. Every year, my wife and I (plus now, our little one) make a family visit to Farmingdale, NY. It’s on Long Island for those that don’t know and little more than a forty minute train ride to Penn Station. Consequentially, we take a trek into the city to see a show and I pay my respects to the Drama Book Shop which usually consists of me leaving with a very large bag of plays and a huge tax write off.

With the Tony’s coming up, the entire town was buzzing about Spring Awakening that I was really stoked to see it. But as fates would have it, there was no matinee and with a little one being looked after on Long Island…a matinee was the only option. My wife and I went down our list of shows that we wanted to see with each of us adding our two cents to a growing mound of pros and cons. One front runner was Curtains but what if David Hyde Pierce has the day off. Another was Inherit the Wind…it has a powerhouse cast but my wife and I currently hail from Tennessee which automatically filled me with dread at hearing bad southern accents for two hours. Plus, let’s be honest…it’s still Inherit the Wind…still a courtroom drama about evolution…still a snooze fest.

But wait! Isn’t there an O’Neill play being performed. A Moon for the Misbegotten. I love O’Neill and I feel that his plays are vastly under-represented in the American theatre cannon. To add insult to injury, there was a marker on the building of his birth denoting him as the “greatest American playwright”, this building now houses a Starbucks! I wonder if he was a Venti or Grande guy…soy, skim, or whole milk. Ah, modern conveniences!

Oddly enough this production from the “greatest American Playwright” got its start in England by an ex-patriot American. The Old Vic was the birthplace of the newest production of this O’Neill play. Success there led to it being brought over with Kevin Spacey in the forefront…the prodigal son returns home again. He brought along with him: Eve Best and Colm Meaney. A dreamcast if ever I heard of one.

This production takes place on a fantastic set. A lean-to shanty set against a brilliant electric blue sky which leads to a clear understanding of the dichotomy between the rich and the poor. A recurring theme that permeates the entire script. The sky symbolizes unattainable ideal life versus the shanty as the unabridged reality of life as it is and not what we wish it to be. Heaven and hell if you will, clearly displayed for us by the set design by Bob Crowley.

The costumes were greatly appropriate to the time frame and the economic level of the characters. I thought the neutral color pallet was a great counter-point to the amazingly rich colored sky back drop. The costumes were really a part of the character as opposed to simply clothes to wear. Nicely done by Lynette Mauro.

The acting was spot on in most parts but would wander into the realm of the overblown. This is due to the fact that the actors and director would not trust the audiences’ level of intelligence to comprehend the nuances of O’Neill’s play. They seemed to overplay moments to the level of beating us over the head with the point of the scene. O’Neill plays are not easy. He writes what is his version of his regional dialect. This tends to lead actors to adopt overblown accents and overblown emotional wailing and gnashing of teeth. This seems to be a common problem with producing O’Neill plays even with very seasoned performers as is the case in this production. Sometimes the play seemed to perform the actors rather than the actors performing the play.

That being said, the strongest performance was not by Spacey, not by Best but by Colm Meaney. His performance seemed stagy in the first scene but he seemed to find his stride and maintained that level of performance throughout the afternoon. He was a joy to watch. His relationship with his daughter played by Eve Best was very touching in the second act. The relationship between Meaney and Spacey at times bordered on being a special moment in theatrical history. Colm Meaney seemed the most comfortable in his character’s shoes than the others. For me, he stole the show.

Eve Best seemed to think that great acting comes at the cost of a great physical exertion. She seemed to be fretting about the stage with great fury but not great substance. I understand the desired affect this was to create for her character as an awkward and hard loved woman. But again this seemed to be a case of the play performing the actor rather than the actor performing the play. She is Tony nominated and I do not wish to take that away from her; however, I was a little baffled that a nomination would be granted for the performance that I saw. It was not poor, just not an award winning or nomination worthy performance in my opinion. When she would relax into the character, then she gave a masterful performance. These moments came as highlights to her performance but not a major portion of it. She had believable chemistry with Spacey.

Kevin Spacey was interesting to watch. He is definitely a crowd favorite as well as one of mine; however, he again seemed to have moments of disconnection and tended to overplay moments for a desired affect. He was funny in act 1 and a dramatic tortured soul in act 2. His performance had a very calculated feel to it. This left his performance a little flat which seemed to fuel his need to manipulate the audience by over the top gesticulations and vocal dexterity.

All in all, I am really glad to have seen this production with these actors. These stars. I am thoroughly appreciative of being able to see a top level production of an O’Neill play even though my wife and I lowered the average age in the audience by thirty years. Just next time trust the script and trust that the audience can handle the material without it being pre-chewed and spoon fed to us.

Title: Hamlet: A User’s Guide

Author: Michael Pennington

Publisher: Limelight Editions

ISBN: 0879100834

In the introduction to this most readable and charming book, Michael Pennington playfully confesses his awareness to inflicting the world with yet another book on an over-analyzed subject.  There are more scholarly writings on Hamlet, he admits, and perhaps more artistically investigational too, but Pennington assures us, in his witty and self-deprecating style, that what he offers is an insider’s view into the Danish Prince.  Who better to bestow this insight than a gifted actor/director who’s performed every principal male role in the play, including several incarnations as the title character?   His most notable turn in the title role was with the Royal Shakespeare Company, under the esteemed John Barton in 1980.

The author smartly separates the book into two sections: The Action and The Characters.  With the first, he introduces each of the play’s five acts as a single day.  Why he should do this he can’t explain even to himself.  He declares outright that there is a significant passage of time between acts Four and Five and then proceeds with his conceit, blithely ignoring its flaw.  In his defense, the evidence offered is that, in this compression of time, the drama is better served. Anyway, each individual Day is given its own chapter, and, within each chapter, every scene is gone over with a fine-toothed comb.  Pennington asserts his interpretations of the text with droll humor and perception, staking his claims boldly.  Sometimes he treads on the toes of other analysts and artists before him, but not without allowing his reader the opportunity to form their own conclusions.

The Character section is split into families and factions, allowing Pennington the opportunity to dissect the various dysfunctions of both kin and court.  This is especially revealing when he is deconstructing Polonius and his children.  The sins of a distant father’s domineering cruelty weigh heavily on the heads of Laertes and Ophelia.  While he admits to the delicate comic-balancing act an actor must perform in portraying the play’s “Prime Minister”, the author brushes aside the traditional buffoonery associated with Polonius and focuses instead on the inept parenting and social gracelessness inherent in the character.  The careless use of his children, Pennington contends,  – spying on his son and exploiting his daughter – contributes to his and their downfalls.  This “emotional suppression” is what leads directly to Polonius’ inability to succeed as a politician too – “the pawns that he is playing with are his own.”  In these pages, the author, once and for all, kills the idea of Polonius as a simpering old boob and leaves him dead and buried.  How fortunate for us.

But what of Hamlet, you ask?  How does Pennington handle the penultimate role, both dreaded and desired by actor and director alike?  The answer is with all the depth, complexity, and contradiction the Prince of Denmark demands.  In this particular area, the author and his book shine.  He shifts skillfully from memoir to manual and back again.  Comparing and contrasting previous Hamlets – Olivier, Gielgud, Burton, etc. – with his own, Pennington speaks without preciousness or pretension.  He is concise and verbose and that is how it should be, considering his source and subject.

The book benefits greatly from Pennington’s far-reaching experience and his ability to view his subject clearly and intuitively.  It bubbles over with personal anecdotes and sidebars, lending an almost dishy quality to the text.  Imagine chumming up the chatty rogue Pennington in a cozy London pub and, in exchange for a few pints, being privy to him spilling his guts on some of England’s greatest (and not so great) performances, many of whom are/were close friends.  Approachable in language and tone, yet illuminating in content and text,  “HAMLET: A User’s Guide” is chocked full of valuable tidbits and treasures, pleasing the most avid Shakespeare scholar as well as the tenderfoot freshman.

Title: On the Line: The Creation of A Chorus Line

Authors: Robert Viagas, Baayork Lee, Thommie Walsh With the entire original Cast

IBSN: 978-0-87910-336-1

Advice: For the True fans of Musical Theatre

On the Line is a book about the landmark musical, A Chorus Line. The book relays the details of the idea behind, the development, and eventual success of a musical based on the lives of dancers auditioning for a show. It is written by those people directly involved in the process which gives the book a great sense of authenticity. Vaigas, Lee, and Walsh share alot of personal insight into the creation, rehearsal and pains of success that causes the book to read like an episode of VH1 ’s Behind the Music.

This book was orginally published in 1990 but has been updated to take into a slight account of the re-mounting of the 2006 production currently running on Broadway. I enjoyed this aspect because it caused the book to feel “current” and not like a history book. I found the appendix on the original cast very interesting. The fact that some eventual left the theatre all together and for some like Baayork Lee, A Chorus Line, has become almost a large portion of their career. Lee who created the role of Connie; for example, has directed more than thirty-five productions of A Chorus Line world wide and was directly involved in the 2006 Broadway revival as choreographer. Walsh who orignated the role of Bobby went on to a very successful career as a director and choreographer, collaborating with Tommy Tune which garnered him two Tony and Drama Desk Awards (A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine , 1980 and My One and Only, 1983). Every orginal cast member is updated and what I found fascinating was how a group of artists could be involved in such an intense experience that directly or indirectly continued to shape their lives after the last curtain call.

The book is a must read for the fans of A Chorus Line which I admit might be the understatement of the year; however, fans of Broadway and theatre will learn a lot from this tale. I was impressed by how much dedication and passion have to go into getting a show to broadway. It is easy to get lost in the “numbers” and “profit margin” of a show bound for Broadway that you lose sight of the human connection to the material which is ultimately required for the project to be successful. On the Line reminds me of this “human” element by relaying all the triumphs, losses, and hard work that this particular group of people experienced. This 376 page book (complete with photos from various stages in the evolution of this musical) demonstrates how “powerful” theatre is made by passionate people striving to tell a deeply “human” story.

Title:  So You Want to Be in Show Business

Author:  Steve Stevens Sr. with John D. Cady

ISBN:  1-58182-453-X

My Advice:  You’ve got to check this one out…

“I’ve always wanted to be an actor.”

How many times have we heard that in our lives?  Of course, where I’m from, that sentence is usually followed by looks of consternation and dismay from whoever happened to hear it.  And after that, it’s usually followed by advice for that person to stay in school and get good grades and to become a[n]  [doctor/lawyer/nurse/auto mechanic/salesman].

This book makes the case that it doesn’t always have to be this way!  Mr. Stevens has put together a book that is filled with the simple tasks and information that anyone can do to have a successful career in the entertainment business.  Everything from getting an agent, auditioning, meeting with casting directors, getting headshots, and getting into and working with the unions.

His advice is well founded.  Mr. Stevens has had a long career in The Business since he was thirteen.  He’s been an actor, producer, casting director, and finally, an agent.  He’s worked with pretty much every Hollywood “name” that you can think of and has “discovered” and represented a great deal of them along the way.

I must admit, I was skeptical about this book when I looked at the title.  There are so many of these books on the shelf of your local bookstore that it seems that everyone has the knowledge of how to make it in this business.  There’s only one little problem:  If they know how to do it, why aren’t they out there doing it, right?  Why do they need to write a book talking about it rather than actually doing it? 

Mr. Stevens is the exception.  He has done it!  He provides information from pretty much every angle you can imagine.  And he transitions from giving advice as an actor seemlessly into giving you advice as an agent.  In fact, some of his best advice is on how to work with your agent once you get one.  His advice is most worthy because he has experienced both sides of this relationship.

If you are just getting into the business and really want to know what type of work you will really be doing, you should pick this book up. 

Title: Sanford Meisner Master Class
Producer: The Sanford Meisner Center with Open Road Films
ISBN: 80074-07152

Copyright: 2006, Sanford Meisner Estate
My Advice: Go buy it right now.

“Acting is the ability to live truthfully under the given imaginary circumstances.” - Sanford Meisner

The name Sanford Meisner has become iconic in the world of Acting. He co-founded the Group Theatre in 1931 along with other theatrical heavyweights as Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg. The Group Theatre was established, in part, to bring the teachings of Stanislavsky’s “Method” of Acting Training to America. Not long after the Group was founded, Meisner branched off and began work on his own acting technique and history was made. His list of celebrity alumni reads like a Who’s Who of Hollywood. Thankfully, in 1980, a group of his alumni got together to record his teachings for posterity. They simply could not allow Mr. Meisner to pass away without capturing his method and teaching style on video.

This DVD represents the first time this video recording has been made available to the general public. It consists of nearly 8 hours of training with Meisner and a small group of students in one of his classes across two DVDs and it is nothing short of magic. The viewer should be aware however, that the audio and video quality is not up to today’s standards. To make matters worse, Mr. Meisner himself is shown here after having gone through three surgeries to circumvent cancer and after having to re-teach himself how to speak. The beauty of this is that he becomes a living representation of one of his own maxims: “An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words.” Still, without the provided subtitles, he would be nearly unintelligible on this recording. Adapting your ears to Mr. Meisner does not take long and you quickly understand that it’s well worth the effort. In order to facilitate this training for the viewer, the original recording of 1980 contains commentary with Martin Barter (Artistic Director of the Meisner Center and acting instructor). Anywhere its needed, Mr. Barter interjects his comments and explanations of Mr. Meisner’s theories and exercises. This commentary is invaluable.

There are no “special features” on this two disc set. Normally, that would be a huge sticking point for me. I’m a sucker for good bonus material on DVDs. However, on this set, not one ounce of the space of the DVDs is wasted. The primary content is all that matters in this set. The mere fact that these lessons have been captured are paramount to any other material that could have been added. Really, what bonus material would be worthy of this DVD? Interviews with some of his alumni would be pointless (and just cost money) because the video of the training literally speaks for itself. Any other information about the Sanford Meisner Center can be found by visiting the website which is listed on the outside of the DVD case. All it takes is a bit of effort to type the address into your web browser. They didn’t even waste time providing you with a scene access menu. There is one item on the main menu page of each disc and that’s to start the video. You do have the ability to track through the chapters of the disc, which is good given that most people probably won’t have time to sit down and watch all 8 hours (or even in two 4 hour chunks) at once!

Anyone pursuing acting training should own this DVD and watch it often. The DVD will never replace acting training in a studio with an instructor and scene partners, but by observing, a serious actor will be able to see these “traps” that are always lurking in their path towards mastery of their craft. After all, one can not overcome those traps without first being aware of them.

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Title: How to Stage a Play, Make a Fortune, Win a Tony, and become a Theatrical Icon

Author: Charles Marowitz

ISBN: 0-87910-322-1

My advice: Don’t break your neck to buy it.

Mr. Marowitz is an internationally known director, author, and critic. His backlog of books tips the scales at over 30 published works. He has worked closely with Peter Brook at the Royal Shakespeare Company Experimental Group. His credits include Joe Orton’s Loot, Sam Shepard’s The Tooth of Crime, Saul Bellow’s The Bellow Plays, David Pinner’s Fangborn, and Crawling Arnold by Jules Feiffer. So needless to say, he has the credentials to pen a fantastic book on the directing craft. However, this was not one. As he acknowledeges himself, this book was written as an “…unconscionable act of self-promotion.”

Judging by the introduction, I was prepared for this to have a sense of tongue in cheek, wink wink, nudge, nudge know what I mean…know what I mean…to it. Afterall, the book’s appeal was meant for those “who desperately crave fame and fortune and pursue theatre as a means of self-glorification rather than artistic mastery.” Instead, he paints a picture of a somewhat degrading and demoralizing experience for those interested in being directors. Perhaps this is Marowitz’s attempt to disuade his target audience from ever entering into the theatre in the first place… which I can appreciate and I agree with completely.
In this 152 page book, Marowitz starts the director’s trials and tribulations with how to choose a script and carries on through to surviving the reviews. The chapters are short and to the point which is greatly apreciated by this reviewer. Each chapter has an illustration by Cliff Mott which are superbly done. It is quite apparent that Marowitz has a decidely European feel for directing which is reflected in his tone towards dealing with the playwright, the designers and more specifically lighting designers. He even takes a swipe at American actors when discussing line prompts:

In European rehearsals, the prompter frequently whispers the text along with the actor mouthing it. This practice would drive American actors out of their squeaking little minds, as they are accustomed merely for calling for cues as they need them, but continental actors seem to rely on the custom and are inured to it.

Perhaps one of the most sage pieces of advice Marowitz offers concerns the director’s bullshit detector. He states that it “…must always be turned on and scouring the work of the company. When it finds crap, it must bleep loudly.” I found this to be solid and useful guidance.

How to Stage a Play…does for directors what “Waiting for Guffman” does for actors. If you have been through the process before then you will appreciate most of the antidotes Marowitz proffers. It is a “How to” book written in a sardonic manner and where this book falters a lttle bit is that it seems to blend the fine line between irony and instruction. Marowitz wants to mentor but loses sight of his intended audience of fame craving self-absorbed egotists which causes his book to split its focus and struggle against itself.

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Title: Tools and Techniques for Character Interpretation: A Handbook of Psychology for Actors, Writers, and Directors

Author: Robert Blumenfeld

ISBN: 0-87910-326-4

Copyright: 2006

My Advice: Take an acting class instead

There are tons and tons of books on acting techniques and methods, and a lot of these how-to books tend to tout themselves as sure-fire manuals for making you, if not the best possible, a much better actor. To his credit, Robert Blumenfeld does not posit that his book will suddenly make you a star. He offers it as a handbook of useful tools to aid you in building a character. And while fascinating from a purely intellectual standpoint, Tools and Techniques reads too much like a textbook and offers the same sterile, academic look at what is largely an intuitive profession.

In his introduction, Blumenfeld speaks of his decision to pursue a PhD. in psychology, and I have a feeling that this book is his dissertation. It sure reads like one. The book is chock full of the scientific terminology of psychology and psychoanalysis. Blumenfeld devotes his entire first to Freud and his invention of psychoanalysis; the reader is given a brief but fairly in-depth history of Freud’s life and the evolution of his method of analysis. It’s interesting stuff, especially if you only know a little about the man and the practice. However, the information is so academic in tone that I found myself struggling to read it. And the problem isn’t one of understanding, intelligence or focus – it’s just boring. As brief as his recap of Freud’s highlights is, it’s still waaaay too long and dull.

But that isn’t the real problem. Blumenfeld goes on, chapter after chapter, to synopsize the major players in the field of psychiatry and psychology – bio, introduction to the science, and eventual application, as well as a pretty thorough list of terms and examples from well-known (for the most part) plays and films to illustrate the terms and methods at work. But the problem is that all of it, from an actor’s standpoint, is useless. What Blumenfeld’s book essentially seems to purport is that it can teach you the basics of psychoanalysis and all of its schools of thought so that you can in turn psychoanalyze the character you are about to play. To me, this is an alienating and emotionally sterile approach to answering the question “Why?”

The one thing that I keep coming back to as I study different acting methods and how to use them is this: the actor must always DO something. Objectives, motivations, goals – call it what you will, you should be active onstage. That’s where the job gets its name” ACTING. When you’re writing your character analysis (if you still do those after you get out of college), you should put your objectives, your super objectives, etc., into active terms. VERBS. “I want to pull the truth out of him,” “I must shield myself from her attack,” and so on. Give yourself something to DO onstage, both physically and mentally. If you’ve got a goal, you’re actively trying to pursue it, not just standing there and reciting words. Blumenfeld’s psychoanalytical approach makes it all too clinical, and tries to define everything in terms of a “disorder,” or a “complex.” Granted, most characters in plays have a problem, many of them are not well adjusted, and some are downright disturbed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they have some debilitating complex or are “suffering from” some disorder. “Have” and “to suffer” are not very active verbs, and that makes them ineffective in most acting techniques. Just knowing your character is crazy doesn’t necessarily help an actor connect emotionally, physically or intellectually to that character. We all know Blanche is crazy, but that doesn’t really help an actor playing her in the scene with Stanley. You still have to know what she wants, how she intends to get it, and what’s in her way, and each of those things are easier to access if they are laid out in simple terms. By putting everything in clinical terms and assuming that something is WRONG with the character, it seems as though the actor puts an even larger distance between him/herself and the character, essentially putting a fourth wall between the two of them so that the actor can observe from a distance instead of actively participating in the rise and fall of the character. By deciding early on to approach it clinically instead of in the present tense every time the show runs, an actor runs the risk of presenting a caricature instead of a real human being, and that’s just not as interesting or as good.

Blumenfeld goes further to describe several complexes that have accompanying physical traits, or tics, and how knowing these conditions and how to replicate the physical tic can help you as an actor. Well, maybe, but once again, it seems to inhibit actual discovery of how a character behaves in favor of imposing, as an omnipotent actor/creator, a set of predefined physical characteristics to portray a specific neurosis. For my own part, the discovery process in rehearsal is usually the most enjoyable part of the entire process. I like finding out the why, and, while a director may give a specific characteristic now and then, it tends to result in a better (and more satisfying) character when the director and I work together to discover it within the process. And while Blumenfeld, at his best, is essentially recommending this book as a reference volume, the clinical distance that the book implies is off-putting and cold, at least from an actor’s point of view.

That isn’t to say that the information in the book is useless of completely without interest. As an overview of psychology and psychoanalysis, it’s a pretty informative and well-laid-out book. You can learn a lot about the subject itself in a brief period of time. As a playwright or a director, it might be useful in the context of reference. Surely a director could use it during script analysis to help understand why characters behave the way they do. Playwrights as well could possibly build a script around a particular complex, neurosis or disorder. However, the book essentially characterizes itself as a handbook to assist in self-analysis, something that any doctor will tell you is a bad idea for those who might possibly be “suffering” from a psychological condition. And while it may help a director or a playwright understand why a character does what s/he does, the director still needs to translate any relevant condition into terms that any actor can understand. The playwright can layer it in there, but s/he still needs to show events happening within the lives of the characters and let the director, the actors and the audience draw their own conclusions about what’s going on.

Generally, it just seems limiting and contradictory to the creative process to predispose a psychological condition as the only answer for why a character behaves as s/he does. As any actor, director, and playwright should know, every character and every play needs an arc, a journey to undertake through the course of the play, and the discovery is what makes it all interesting.

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Title:  An Actor Prepares to Work in New York City (How to Master the Business of “The Business”)

Author: Craig Wroe

ISBN: 087910306

Copyright:  2004

Advice: Own it.

Remember the days just after you graduated school and were prepared to rule the world? You had a clear grasp of scansion for the very first and quite possible the last time in your life.  Ibsen…no sweat.  You and Chekhov were spiritual brothers.  You were an acting god.  You had determination just flowing from your pores.  Broadway better watch out because there you were trained as an artist and ready to create the crap out of the first “real” role that you land.  One nagging little question kept popping up: 

What do I do now?

How do you enter into the business of show BUSINESS?  If I may hazard a little guess, not much time in your training was spent on being a professional actor.  The majority of actor training seems to be spent on developing your acting chops and it seems that the business stuff will be learned through the school of trial and error. If this is the case for you, then don’t hang your head in shame because help is on the way in the form of Craig Wroe’s book.

An Actor Prepares to Work in New York City (How to Master the business of “The Business”) is just the book for you.  It covers all aspects of your career from the early days till you are established.  As you probably deduced from the title, it does center on the large market of New York City. Don’t let this deter you from reading this book; it is pertinent to your career no matter which market you call home.

Mr. Wroe starts his book off in a logical fashion.  The headshot is the actor’s business card and this is one of the first chapters followed by resumes.  He offers advice on what to look for in a photographer, how to prepare for you session, the shoot itself and finally the difficult task of picking the “one” headshot.  All of these suggestions are very useful and can be applied by a baby actor as well as one long in the tooth.

His discussion on resumes is very interesting and concisely stated.  I really enjoyed his answer to that old catch 22 that most actors have faced at one time or another, “How to get experience when you need experience to gain experience”. The words “fuzzy math” should come to mind to give you a little hint as to his answer.  Such things as renaming your high school auditorium with your mother’s maiden name, listing every thing you have done, using larger font, double spacing, etc.

Wroe states:

What the industry doesn’t know about (nor do they care to know for that matter) is every little, out-of-the-way, non-professional or community theater you’ve worked in.  All they want to know is if you’ve had any experience in front of an audience, if you can say your lines without bumping into the furniture and if you can create a character. Minor fibs such as these give them some assurance that you have, you won’t and you can.

He also gives a working format for your resume. To be fair, Wroe strongly urges you to purge any white lies as soon as possible with “legitimate acting work”.

The book goes on to discuss mailings, agents, casting directors, auditions, interviews, personal presentation.  Each topic is addressed from viewpoint of here’s what you need to know to be successful.  It is clear from his writing style that Wroe is on your side and wants you to be successful.  He even goes so far as to discuss possible pitfalls, scams and con artists that you should be aware of in your career.  I found this to be very informative.  There is some discussions of the various unions and small section on demo reels for film work.

Where the book goes off the mark a little bit is in the chapters entitled “Respect” and “Take Control”.  I don’t disagree with his sentiments but his writing style got a little too “self-help book” for me.  His discussion on not buying pirated CD’s, DVD’s, or films along with his call for actors to volunteer in the community and to recycle; well, came across a little preachy.  Again, I am not against recycling, community service, or other artists getting paid for their art; however, these issues seem to be very loosely connected to the rest of the subject matter of this book

Wroe redeems himself with the “Index of Actor Resources”.  There is a lot of information on the various aspects covered in the entire book.  He covers Acting Unions to lawyers to tax write-offs to training institutions in the index.  Again, this is geared towards the aspiring New York actor but is still valuable to the rest of us.

Craig Wroe has lived and worked in New York City since 1984 and fills this 257 page book with a lot of his personal experience which gives this book credence.  His personal stories make this read a little faster and definitely more enjoyable than a textbook.  I would like to close by suggesting that acting programs add this book to the “Must” read lists for their students.

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Author: Denny Martin Flinn

Publisher: Limelight Editions

Copyright: 2006

ISBN: 0879103213

My advice: A must have for producers of shows in small theatres!

Okay, so you’ve got a smaller theatre with a limited budget and you want to do something to help raise your revenues at the box office.  Signups or club membership are currently closed.  Please check back later.

Wait, you’re also looking for a smaller-scale, lower budget musical to help with that?  Once memberships reopen, you will also have the option to buy a club jacket.

Seriously, that’s the one common denominator for all small theatres throughout the country.  They are all looking for the perfect show to help them make a lot of money without having to spend a lot of money in the process.  Mr. Flinn has written a great book that will help some theatres widen their search for “new” musicals to produce.  And, it’s the best under $20, tax-deductible purchase you will make. 

After a brief prologue, Mr. Flinn doesn’t waste any time getting into the list of shows, which he divides into three categories:  Book Musicals, Themed Revues and Composer/Lyricist Revues.  Each listing for a show contains all of the surface information that you will need to help you narrow your search for the perfect show for your company: 

• Author, Composer and Lyricist information
• Background info for the show
• Setting
• Brief summary of the plot
• Original Production information (including the original director and cast)
• Musical Numbers (broken down by Act)
• Licensing information

Then, Mr. Flinn provides his editorial comments about the show in the form of a short discussion of the difficulties and advantages of producing this show.  The book is as elegant as it is efficient.

After the list of the shows, there is a contact list of the Licensing companies and Writer’s Guilds to allow you to get in touch with the creators of the show. 

This book should be on the shelf of any Artistic Director of any small theatre company (or educational theatre) in the country.  It’s a great resource to help make season selections a little bit easier.

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Buy it from Limelight Editions!

Author: Ginger Howard Friedman

Publisher: Limelight Editions

Copyright: 1996

ISBN: 087910077

My advice: Read it at least once

I tell my acting students that the purpose of an audition is to get a callback, not to land the role.  The role is secured by a well organized and executed callback.  I this book, Ms. Friedman attempts to provide actors with a process to help with making that callback process as painless and as successful as possible.  However, I have to admit, her Creative Visualisation process just would not work for me.  In fact, I feel that it would get in my way of focusing on the task at hand.

In her book, she outlines several techniques for the entire callback process, which begins at the moment you answer the phone call announcing you’ve gotten the callback all the way through the moment where you leave the audition space.  She suggests that you only read the actual script only a small handful of times and spend the rest of your time using her Creative Visualization process.  Without going into too much detail, she suggests that you visualize the character and the world they inhabit in a quick overview form to have a basis for your character in the callback.  She further suggests that you don’t take too many notes, but keep the information planted firmly in your head as you continue to prepare. 

The main problem with putting this idea down in her book is that she attempts to use examples and exercises from Ibsen’s A Doll’s House to help make her point.  The only problem with this is that unless you have read the play, her brief recap of the plot line does not begin to provide the reader with enough background information to fully appreciate what she’s trying to do with her exercises.  I understand her intention, but the examples she used actually left me more confused than enlightened.  Perhaps the exercises are best kept in a workshop format rather than trying to put them down into writing.

However, after the initial couple of chapters about the audition and the callback (and wading through her examples), the book settles down a little bit and begins to provide some real helpful tips about how to prepare for various types of callbacks. 

To my mind, there is just not enough time spent on auditions and callbacks from a business standpoint for the actor.  After all, it is impossible to separate the fact that auditions and callbacks are one of the actor’s forms of marketing themselves in the marketplace.  There are a number of techniques that can (and should) be employed to help an actor land not just one specific role, but to ensure that they remain on the top of every casting director’s and director’s lists!  There are countless examples of actors using mailouts of headshots and resumes, setting up appointments to meet with casting directors, networking at parties, etc.  And now, it continues to become easier and easier to use the internet as a means of marketing one’s self in this business!

Still, Ms. Friedman makes some interesting points and this book is worth at least one read to add some of her ideas to your arsenal.  If her description of Creative Visualization appeals to you, you might want to seek out a workshop on this process to help understand it more because, unfortunately, her book just doesn’t make it very clear.

Buy it from Amazon 

Buy it from Limelight Editions