Casting Workshops in July: Part 1.

This past month I've been kept busy with Acting stuff and that makes me so happy.  As an Actor you go through spurts, or really slow times in your career, and sometimes when it rains it pours.  I love those moments and that's how I've felt this month.

I had three weeks of Casting Workshops that I took this month at Act Now.  My first was with Erica Silverman (Bream) who most recently was working on Revolution and has also cast for Criminal Minds, Workaholics, House of Lies, and Law & Order.  This workshop was an all day intensive with her and the class had received our scenes on Friday for our Sunday workshop.  Mine was from Revolution and I was nervous and excited to perform in class.  After meeting her and answering some questions about the casting process, what she's looking for in a headshot, and on a resume, we got started with One-Liners and then had a Mock Producer Session for each group that was performing.  Basically, there were a couple of us assigned to decide who the role would go to after they had performed the one line they were given.  It was interesting to see each actor make a completely different choice than the other and what was more difficult was deciding who would get the role.  The few of us that were deciding made choices based on certain parts of their performance while other times it was easier and one actor stood out or just fit the role perfectly.  

Erica looks for a headshot that looks like you
(makes sense) and is natural!

Next up, we did Jargon Roles where each of us got cast as a Doctor, Paramedic, Lawyer, or in my case, Pharmacist.  This was also a great opportunity to practice this type of role, even if in typical casting, I might be a little too young-looking to play this type of role.  I had a lot of fun doing these Mock Producer Sessions and thought it was a great addition to the Workshop experience.  Although, it would have been really beneficial to find out why we didn't get cast over someone else so we could improve on something, if that was the case.  

Our last part of the afternoon was performing our assigned scenes, which we did on camera, and then Erica gave each of us a re-direct and we got to perform again.  I really like when we get assigned a scene because then you see what a Casting Director sees when they look at you, and the types of roles you could play.  I played my scene like a typical reporter:  Excited, asking questions, being a little bit of a know it all, but at the end of the day, searching for answers.  She re-directed me saying I was over my job, burnt out, and it was definitely more work than it was fun.  I loved the differences in playing each side, made strong choices for both, and was happy with my re-direct!

I was really happy to meet Erica and spend the day learning about different roles that come up in nearly every Television show and get to perform them in front of such an encouraging CD.  Not only did I have a fun day at this Workshop but I felt like I learned a lot too!