Acting

The college party scene extras shuffled onto the set, dodging lighting standards and avoiding electrical cables, a twenty year old blonde stood beside me, she was to be my dancing partner for the shoot. This was my first feature film and I would not be acknowledged in any of the credits. Dancing with my partner among a group of twenty other students, without the aid of music felt awkward and exhilarating. Two rules of life on the set came out that day—‘Don’t look at the camera’ and ‘Big eyes,...

How many times have people asked you what you do for a ‘living’ at a party, on a train, plane, automobile (isn’t that a movie?) It must be one of the most commonly asked questions, certainly a way of moving on from the ‘name’ part of the opening discourse, which is generally always forgotten! I’ve found that in the eight years or so I’ve been acting, I am met with generally two very opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of reaction to the statement “I’m an actor”. Without exception, it’s gene...

Many commercials and some re-enactment parts come to you with one simple instruction: 'No sides, all improvised'. For all those trained comedians, this is a huge relief and they can walk in excited to play with new scene partners. For the actors who are more comfortable with scripts…panic will start to set in. "Improv?! Do I have to be funny, what if my scene partner stinks at improv?" Here are five things you can focus on that will make your auditions memorable.  1: Focus on your partner. One...

"We're going to have to let you go..." were the first words that prompted my acting journey. I had been working in IT for nearly 22 years when my company down-sized and, after a testing time personally, with a difficult divorce, I made a decision. They say that as one door closes another opens, well, the door to regular and comfortable salary-earning did slam firmly shut and like any redundancy, fills you with that initial fear and trepidation. What has happened since then has seen me expand m...

Now this is a fun watch! Stage 32 Founder & CEO, Richard Botto and Indie Film Hustle podcast host, Alex Ferrari, got together last week to broadcast a LIVE 2-hour Oscars and Film Industry webcast breaking down and analyzing the upcoming awards! Now, it's available for you to watch on-demand! From diversity to the industry standards to snubs to shoe-ins and possible upsets, this is one fun and exciting webcast. Click below to see who the gents are picking to rule Oscar night!     P...

It's that time again! The 4th Annual Stage 32 Oscars Contest is now live! This is your opportunity to vote for who you think will win each Oscar this year. All you have to do is go down the list, point, click, and submit. It's that simple! The top 3 Stage 32 members with the most correct will win the following prizes:     1st place - Grand Prize Winner – A Stage 32 Prize Pack from the Stage 32 Store (bag o' swag!) and 1 free Next Level Webinar of your choice     2nd place –...

For those of you that have been in the community for a while, you will know that Stage 32 encourages gender equality in the creative industry. When Stage 32 exec, member, actress and producer Alysia Reiner (Orange Is The New Black, Sideways) formed her own production company Broad Street Pictures last year we were in full support. Together with her producing partner Sarah Megan Thomas, they sought out to "find wildly entertaining and thought provoking tales about brilliant women doing rad thin...

The Only Rule is Success. Sounds easy, right? Not always, but it is something you can trust.   I was taught three things growing up:   1) You can be anything you want to be if you are willing to work for it. 2) You have a gift and talent, learn your skills. 3) The questions are what is interesting, the answers are all around you.   My life began on a beach in South Texas, with a family from a farm and a college town in Arkansas.  I always knew what I wanted - to get to LA, and...

One of the biggest challenges we face as artists is how to balance the creative and business demands that are required to have a successful career. Oftentimes, it is these difficulties that lead us down a path of 'getting a real job' or 'settling down' – and giving up on our dream, but, if you’re in this industry, you’re in it for a reason – because you HAVE to be. Living a life of comfort and stability is nice, but not if the cost is your dream. Speaking as one of you and having faced this chal...

Many of us feel panic and dread when we sit down to write our bios, cracking under the self-imposed pressure to paint a perfect portrait of who we are in this point in time.   But what if I told you that a great bio simply started the conversation of what you can bring to a project and then motivated your reader to to keep that conversation going with you – through a meeting, an audition, a Twitter follow, or a viewing of your reel? Most of us make the mistake of writing a bio that looks bac...