Casting Workshop at ACT Now!

This weekend I finished up my two week Casting Workshop with Melanie Crescenz from CFB Casting and they work on a bunch of shows while her main focus is "New Girl", a couple shows on Adult Swim, and she's finishing up a movie with Cameron Diaz that's filming in Boston.

Fun & Quirky Lyndsey

The first week we brought in our own scenes and after a Q&A we each got a few minutes with her while we performed our scene with a Reader.  I performed a scene from "Sex & The City" as Carrie called 'The Good Fight' which Carrie and Aidan argue about his stuff being all over the apartment after Pete (Aidan's Dog) chews up one of Carrie's fancy shoes.  It's a fun scene that has comedic undertones but is honest and real.  Melanie laughed throughout the scene and said it was a very real fight that most couples have at some point and if I hadn't talked about Carrie and Aidan she wouldn't have known it was from "Sex & The City" which I think is good because I don't want it to be recognizable or be compared to Sarah Jessica Parker, because she is the perfect Carrie.

This past week was Cold Reading so after chatting about the shows and answering a couple questions from people in the room we were given our scenes with 15 minutes to prepare and then read in front of the other actors.  My scene was from "Newsreaders," in fact, the entire episode, so I picked a few different scenes that I felt flowed together well and although the script was a little daunting, I felt like I was making good and honest choices.  Joseph Pearlman gave me some great advice when I had taken an Intensive with him; make choices that excite and motivate you, find the danger, and then let the words come off the page, but really listen to your Reader.  I made sure to put all those techniques into my Read and was pleasantly surprised when Melanie said that I was more prepared in my Cold Reading than some of the actors who had 2-3 days to prepare this when they auditioned with it.  She said I chose the meatiest parts of the script and that brought out my best side.  YAY!

Each Workshop I take is a learning experience and an opportunity for me to perfect and hone my craft.  It's another time to perform a Cold Read in front of a Casting Director as well as a room full of actors (whom are all talented, Act Now does a great job with that) and also see what you would be cast as.  My character was carrying the show, a beautiful but annoyingly quirky girl, a Host type, that was fun and just a tad bit strange.  I like that Melanie challenged me with something interesting!  Now if "New Girl" would give me a chance to meet with them, you'd see an even happier girl ;)