lindsay's exiled vox

"I love acting. It is so much more real than life."

“I love acting. It is so much more real than life.”

- Oscar Wilde

a Daggordale sneak peek!

As I mentioned before, I'm in this little film called The Wizards of Daggordale. While the wizards themselves still have a lot of footage to shoot, we in the supporting cast had our turn last month, and they've put together a little behind the scenes peek. Check it out!

Behind the Scenes Sneak Peek at the new Wizards of Daggordale movie

And remember to check out www.Daggordale.com for more good stuff about wizards Berandar and Eloilder, their music, and the film.

i am the Harpy Queen

p.s. Here's the quickie photo I got of my purple makeup while still in the makeup room. They may have some better ones, so I'll post them if I get them.

love-love. Lindsay

Diary of a Superfluous Man

Now available at an iTunes store near you: My first audio play! Woo-Hoo! Presented by The McCroskey Memorial Internet Playhouse, here's the blurb:

An anti-romantic comedy in two acts, Diary of A Superfluous Man concerns the misadventures of Chulkaturin, a tax official of late Imperial Russia, who, in chasing an improbable romance with a young lady of good family, battles against both a Russian prince and a fate that decreed him at birth to be “an extraneous bolt in the machinery of eternity.”

You can also listen online or download directly at www.theinternetplayhouse.com.

Sorry not to blab about it when I got cast or did the recording, but after my experience with Marry Me, in never knowing what's going on or when to expect anything (it may be another year now), I decided it would save on a lot of questions to just wait until it came out. So, really, I've saved you any suspense and given you instant gratification instead!

And is it weird that my first important role was in The Elephant Man, my first equity play was Man and Superman, and now my first radio play is Diary of a Superfluous Man? Does this mean I can expect my first feature length movie role to be a "man" of some kind? As in a superhero flick or something? Hm. That'd be cool.

Hope you enjoy the play. I've yet to hear it in its entirety, as it was only released today. For any of my low-tech relatives out there still living on dial-up, let me know if are unable to download it. I may not have been able to buy you copies of the calendar I made, but I'm sure I can scrounge up the postage to mail you a CD... eventually.

love-love. Lindsay

note to my actor self

Dear Self (and any other actors who may also need this reminder),

     You've worked long and in depth on your monologue for that audition. You've studied it. You know it. You are even feeling quite good about it. And you make sure to arrive extra early at the audition site so that you have time to settle in, warm up, and fully prepare. So far, so good. Now, Lindsay, I know that it is an incredibly rare thing for any auditions to run ahead of schedule. Almost unheard of, in fact, which may be why this *very important thing* has slipped your mind tonight. Your audition slot is theirs, but any time before it belongs to you. You don't have to be your cooperative self and help them speed through auditions by going 10 minutes early. You are allowed to say, "No, sorry, I'd like to take these 10 minutes I planned out so that I may focus before going on." I know it's hard to say no. But you really must do it. For your sake and theirs. If it is indeed before your scheduled slot, going on before you're ready will not show them what you can really do. Sure, they may get to go home early, but they won't have all the cards. And you won't have any. Because if you're not focused on that wonderful piece you've been running all day, and all week, you're going to rush it, be shallow, and cheapen that beautiful thing. And all your hard work and time management will be for nothing.

     I'm sorry, dear self, to be so hard on you, but you know I'm not criticising your talent, just your in-the-moment decision-making. If I don't spell out this reminder for you you may do it again. So remember: Your time belongs to you. So take that time and FOCUS.

love-love. Lindsay

understanding theatre

I was cleaning through my desk and came across a couple of papers I've held on to since the mid '90s. I thought some of you might enjoy them, and maybe they'll give you a glimpse into the theatre world (or something entertaining to share with your theatre buddies if you're already familiar with it. ^__^ )

Theatrical Logic

In is down, down is front.
Out is up, up is back.
Off is out, on is in.
Left is right, and right is left.
A drop shouldn't, and a block and fall does neither.
A prop doesn't, and a cove has no water.
A running crew rarely gets anywhere, but tripping is O.K.
A gridiron has nothing to do with football.
A purchase line will buy you nothing, and a trap will not catch anything.
Strike is work (a LOT of work).
And a green room usually isn't.

Theatre Structure

Producer
Leaps tall buildings with a single bound
More powerful than a locomotive
Faster than a speeding bullet
Walks on water
Gives policy to God

Director
Leaps short buildings with a single bound
More powerful than a switch engine
Just as fast as a bullet
Walks on water if the sea is calm
Talks to God

Playwright
Leaps short buildings with a running start and a tailwind
Almost as powerful as a switch engine
Faster than a speeding BB
Walks on water in an indoor pool
Talks to God if a special request is approved

Designer
Can just clear a Quonset hut
Loses tug of war with locomotive
Can fire a speeding bullet
Swims well
Is occasionally addressed by God

Actor
Makes high marks on the wall when trying to leap buildings
Is run over by a locomotive
Can sometimes handle a gun without inflicting self injury
Dog paddles
Talks to animals

Technician
Runs into buildings
Recognizes locomotive two out of three times
Is not issued ammunition
Can float with a life preserver
Talks to walls

Chorus (or perhaps extras)
Falls over doorstep when trying to enter building
Says, "Look at the choo-choo"
Wets himself with a water pistol
Plays in mud puddle
Mumbles to himself

Stage Manager
Lifts buildings and walks under them
Kicks locomotive off the track
Catches speeding bullet in his teeth and eats 'em
Freezes water with a single glance
Is God

I would give credit if I knew where they came from (other than my high school acting teacher). And yes, I added the bit about extras. But it just seemed appropriate.

And... uh... yes.... I do talk to animals. ... I've talked to walls, too, when working as a scenic carpenter.... ~__^

love-love. Lindsay

on screen

It's not much, but I've finally got a couple videos of myself in acting mode posted on youtube.

The first is a monologue from the play "Seascape with Sharks and Dancer" that I did last spring. I may add another later, but this is what I have at the moment. It probably wasn't my best performance, as it was a straggler. We tagged this performance on a week after we were supposed to have closed.

Seascape with Sharks and Dancer - squashed animals

The next was for the other actor's demo reel, done early in this past summer.

Shrink to Fit

Feel free to critique my performances. I've done so, and could point out some things I'd have changed had I watched these at the time (like keeping my hands and voice still in 'Seascape.' Good grief they were all over the place!). But that's my own opinion. The only way an actor can grow is if they know what differs between what they think they are doing and what the audience perceives.  I only ever ask that criticism be kind and constructive. 'You suck' doesn't exactly tell a person what they've done wrong.

Feedback aside, I hope you enjoy the clips.

love-love. Lindsay

dialects!

Now this should come in handy someday!

IDEA - International Dialects of English Archive

Tons of downloadable mp3s of native speakers from tons of different areas. It's got over 60 English accent samples, 9 Russian, 14 Scottish, 17 Austrailian, African, Caribbean, hell there's even 11 just from Michigan (where I grew up - I wonder if I sound like these people), well you get the idea.

This seems like a pretty good place to start the next time you need an accent. And unlike the library (as happened the last time I needed to study an Irish brogue) the materials are always available.

(The ironic thing is finding this now, when I used to live just 45 minutes away from KU, where this archive was created.)

love-love. Lindsay

and shake it

Of all the skills an actor must maintain, one of the most vital can also be the most difficult to remember: forgetting. When you botch an audition or performance the only way to recover is to shake it off and move on. Take what lessons you can from it first: like "I need to warm up more so my voice doesn't crack like that," or "I need to breathe when I do that piece so I don't lose focus and forget my lines," or "I did sound angry, didn't I? I'll figure out why and decide what I really want to do with that line" or even, "don't be so chatty with the director, you know they don't want to hear about your real life." Then throw the rest of the day out the window and move on. Forget it. When you hold on to embarrassing or sub-par experiences they only distract you from the moment you are in right now.

This morning I had an audition I didn't feel too good about. Every other actress had a song but me (they only wanted good singers and no a cappella, which is all I have.) So I was already feeling inferior, then - perhaps because of that - I started on the wrong line of my monologue; one that I have been using for the past 2 years. But I stayed in the moment, shaking it off as best I could, while trying to focus on the rest of the monologue. I still didn't do it to the best of my ability, but this is not about that audition.

I had a performance of my play tonight - the first performance in four days. I was feeling rusty, and was actively trying to remember that this morning's audition is irrelevant (which it probably is, since it was for an equity theatre and I'd likely only be eligible to understudy). With that on my mind I felt very off in my performance - not as connected. But because of that I decided to remember to turn it into a character choice if I botched any lines or in some way wasn't all there. The end result, according to my fellow cast and crew, was a very natural performance. They told me it was perhaps my best yet. Even though I felt out of it.

So what's the point? Well, I guess there are two:

1.) If you really mess up, it is still not worth remembering, because it will only make you mess up more.
2.) Sometimes when you feel you've messed up you've really done something great, and it only felt like a screw up because it was not the way you were accustomed to doing it. But when this is the case, we don't often know it.

Having experienced both types in one day, I'll hopefully be better equipped next time I mess up. Because actors do mess up. It's just a fact of life. Embrace it. Then shake it.

love-love. Lindsay

indie sci-fi killer strikes again

This is not the tale of a killer in a sci-fi flick, but rather it is about a killer OF sci-fi flicks.

Within a month of finishing college, a young woman, inexplicably drawn to the realm of science fiction, was given roles in not one, but two science fiction films. One was feature-length about witches where she would have played crony to the bad guy, the other a short in which she would have materialised out of light and then beat the crap out of some guy in a blaze of sword fighting glory. But alas neither was ever made. She began to wonder if it was mere coincidence, but two is hardly a pattern.

When she was called back for another sci-fi flick, this time auditioning for the role of a green scaly alien girl with a penchant for bombs, she thought "Well, now we'll see if it is really me. If I am cast and the project is abandoned... then maybe I'm the jinx." After waiting nearly two months between the first audition and the callback she was intrigued to find that only one other girl was there for the role. It looked like good odds for getting cast. Would the film be made?

Uhh...no. Three days after the callbacks, the director/producer emailed everyone to say that he would not now cast it because he was postponing the project. It would certainly not be made this year.

Frustrating not only because the man had two months to make this decision before wasting everyone's time with a callback, but also because the young woman has no way of knowing for sure if she jinxed it. But if he would have cast her, she is three for three. Three independent sci-fi films shelved because she walked through the door.

Is there never to be a sci-fi credit on this poor woman's resume?

love-love. Lindsay

Del.icio.us Digg

my first low-budget indie SAG callback audition

In my first post I mentioned that I was going through my blank books for fodder. After some thought I have decided to post the following entry from my book devoted to acting things. These events were exceptions to the way normal callbacks would be managed, but now that time has gone by I find it funny and worth sharing for those who wonder about what it might be like to always have to put yourself out there. By the way, I did get a part in this film, though not the one they called me back for - but the film was never made. Still, I leave out any specifics.

    1 May 2005
    Yesterday was crazy - and by crazy I mean clinically insane. We all discovered what the casting director was really like. We knew she was bold and brash... but she's so much worse than that. She is one of the most UNprofessional people I've ever met. She seemed to be running the show - which should be up to the creative team by now - talking about actors in front of other actors, saying to her assistant, "get that actor, you know - the one that I want." Tearing actors apart in front of everyone else (we had to do our group auditions in front of the competition).

    They were very impressed with me, and she praised me highly after my scene (I went last), then she turned to the other two and said, "See her naturalness," asking them to be more like me - wanting to get copies of my audition tape for them to watch and study for the night so they could try again the next day! And when she realised they could not get copies quickly enough, suggested we all work together, "I think you all could benefit from each other." All of which is tantamount to saying 'This girl was the best, but can one of you just do what she did so we don't have to hire her?'

And this is only the tip of what would be a very LONG list if I had the energy or the memory to record it all.

Ah, yes. Good times.
[I suppose I should note, though, that the other two actresses called back for the same role as I were about 7-10 years older, perhaps they wanted an older actress for the role, even at the expense of talent. But this was also a three day affair in which we all flew into town and were all staying in the same hotel, which was within walking distance of NOTHING. So we couldn't escape it.]