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PAHKING CAHS IN HAHVAHD YAHD: There's lots to write about, but I haven't freed up time to do so. Stay tuned. And remember, we are opening this Friday.

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I did make some specific choices for both Russell and Jensen. Though I would never vote for him in a presidential election, I had a younger, not-southern version of Fred Thompson as the D.A. on Law & Order in mind, with a little more of a sense of humor, since the text calls for such character. I don't believe I came off as anything close to Mr. Thompson; it was just a way to effect a character. For Jensen it was Bradley Whitford, again, mostly in an internal sense and not in a manner where someone could say, "Oh, he's doing Josh Lyman." I didn't play him as spastic as Whitford played Josh, for one thing.

Just trying to pull something out of myself or the air or wherever to use to make a character worth attending to.

I did not find a take on Russell that felt real and natural. I know I will if cast, but I am afraid I didn't get to a real performance for the eyes of the director as she was in her casting mode. No, with Russell I was "acting" far more than "being." Unfortunately and fortunately I was much more authentic as Jensen. Unfortunate because it puts the odds, if my estimations are based in reality, on me being cast as Jensen rather than Russell, which is the role I want. Fortunate because it gives me a chance to get cast in a role that is not a bad one to be cast in. Jensen is a good part. It's just that I want Russell, damnit!

What I don't like at all is that I cannot make the second night of auditions tonight. I like making both nights. It is just that much more of a chance to do a better reading of the character(s) I am targeting, and it gives the director a practical view of me paired with other actors being seriously considered for other roles. Sometimes what makes the difference in being or not being cast is what the make-up of the whole cast will be: who has chemistry as an ensemble; who looks good together; that sort of Big-Picture stuff. And I believe that sometimes if an actor is not present, the directors may undervalue that actor's fit into the picture being drawn.

PAHKING CAHS IN HAHVAHD YAHD

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ANOTHER "AH, CRAP!"?: No, not exactly another "Ah, crap!" but almost one. Got an email last night from my agent about a SAG deferred short-subject narrative film audition. The principle photography is slated for the same weekend that The Best Man opens; and, it is filming in West Virginia. I'd go for it were I not already committed. I am not, however, going to walk away from a new commitment to a good role (even if not the one I was after) for a dice role toward another project. This, even though Jensen is for a non-paying amateur theatre company and the movie would be paying professional work -- and I am very much indeed interested in professional film work. One might go back to the start of this blog, or read my essay from that period, "The Knowing In Me: the artist becomes himself," and note that acting on screen professionally was the first big goal when I came back to acting.

Now, don't get me wrong, it is early enough in the process for The Best Man that were I to get a fabulous opportunity that might never come around again, I would bow out of the play and not feel I was letting the show down. There hasn't even been a read through, yet. In this current situation I can't do that. The Guild, for one thing, is, in most all cases, "amateur community theatre" as strictly a technicality. There is an overwhelming approach to professionalism that makes it a grand stage to work on and a great theatre to be associated with. Playing a good role on that stage is valuable to me as an actor. If I am going to leave a Guild show there's going to have to be a very good reason that hardly anyone could blame me for seeing as such. Not that I would carelessly and irresponsibly abandon a show at any other theatre, either. Point is, if I commit myself to a project, I had better have a good reason to un-commit myself. This time, I don't believe I do. But it is nice to know that had I not been cast at all in the play, another great opportunity was on the heels of the play audition.

PAHKING REVIEWS IN HAHVAHD YAHD: We have good reviews for Park Your Car in Harvard Yard.

• First, Terry Morris gave us a nice write up in the Life section of this last Tuesday's Dayton Daily News (Jan 15). He wrote, in part, "What was clearest Saturday night in a production directed by Sarah Gomes was how the material has inspired Richard Young and Debra Kent....They earned an ovation, which is never a given at the Guild."
• In Wednesday's Dayton City Paper (Jan 16 issue) Russell Florence Jr. says the production "comes forth seamlessly under Sarah Gomes' tender direction with excellent performances by Richard Young and Debra Kent." He further calls the production "terrifically grounded in [Israel] Horovitz's poignant dramedy." Of Richard's work, Florence writes that he "is a full-throttled curmudgeon throughout, but [that] his interpretation becomes a moving character study of loss and loneliness along the way." Debra, Florence then praises as "[Fighting] back with substantial bite as earthy widower Kathleen Hogan." He also gives kudos to Ralph Dennler for his work as the voice of radio announcer Byron Weld. Russell closes his review with:

  Young and Kent are undoubtedly making beautiful music together on the Guild stage. Come witness their eloquent symphony.

• As of this posting, the Oakwood Register had not yet put its Jan 15 issue on-line, so I have not seen yet whether there is a review from Burt Saidel or what his response is. My impression last Sunday was that he enjoyed the show, however.

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A few roles are not cast just yet. I know there are plans to bring in some high school theatre students to play the roles of the press, with those youngins doubling as run crew for set changes. We also have the "commentator," i.e.: the television network news anchor, (whom in the text identifies himself as Walter Cronkite), to cast. Director Barb Coriell had mentioned to me, a while back, the need to shoot some tape of the TV broadcast, or perhaps broadcasts. I have heard nothing of it as of late, but it may be brought up tonight. Though I would have no resistance to producing the video myself, I do believe I have a better suggestion for her. One can rent TV studio time relatively cheap in the studios at Wright State University. The major reason for me thinking down this road is that we would get a true TV studio feel to the shoots. Not that we could not otherwise create a convincing newsroom set, but this would be ready-made. The cart, however, is a bit before the horse here, because I do not know if she is going to again approach me on this matter.

At any rate, the cast, at the moment, is as follows --

David Shough		Sec. William Russell
Patrick Hayes		Sen. Joseph Cantwell
Bert Staub		Pres. Arthur Hockstader
Debra Strauss		Alice Russell
Ame Clase		Mabel Cantwell
K.L.Storer		Dick Jensen
Steve Strawser		Don Blades
Cheryl Mellen		Sue-Ellen Gamadge
Rick Flynn		Sheldon Marcus
Harold Fox		Dr. Robert Artinian
Dave Nickel		Sen. Clyde Carlin
Jeri Williams		Catherine

Our AD/Stage manager is Duante Beddingfield, whom Richard Young and I shared the stage with last summer in Playing God at FutureFest 2007.

PAHKING CAHS IN HAHVAHD YAHD: Another stellar weekend of great work from Richard, Debra and the crew. We still had gremlin problems with the sound. Friday night the mixer we were using blew a stereo bus channel so we had no storm, no fog horns, nor sizzling water. Bob Mills did run the back-up of the tea pot whistling, off of the thumb drive, since it was a cue for an entrance by Debra -- but the tea had to come out of the stereo console speaker rather than the speaker hidden behind the kitchen. Fortunately it was the SFX (the sound effects, the Foley sound) that went awry. Had we lost the stereo console there could not have been a show. The radio and the record player are practically another character in the show -- and in fact, that is where Byron, who IS another character in the show, comes from. So much of the action is predicated on what comes from that console. After the show, Bob trouble-shot the problem, switched out the mixers, and now we are back to our intended sound design. It helps to have a Ph.D. in electrical engineering running your sound.

Yet, Bob was not finished saving the day. Sunday our light operator could not be there so Bob was alone in the booth. I had a seasoned host on Sunday and was to be an audience member on my season ticket. I offered to run sound while Bob ran lights, but he went ahead, like the one night during tech week, and ran both. Did another excellent job, too. I'm tellin' ya, the guy is Superman.

Friday also saw Deirdre Bray-Root come in as Acting Stage Manager in Steve Strawser's absence, and do a bang up job. And we all thank her for her great work!

By the way, Burt Saidel's review will be in tomorrow's Oakwood Register. As I wrote before, he seemed to like the show, so his review should at the very least not be a pan.

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON SCHOOL OF LAW: I have some more of the freelance guided improv gigs with U.D. law students. Got one this Wednesday after work, and probably before Best Man rehearsals; have another of the same case as a gig I did January 8. I am also doing the Midwest Regional Mock Trials next month.

CHORUS PEOPLE UPDATES: There's an update for every bio on The Chorus for Candice home page. Kim's has no recent activity, but I did revise hers to reflect her body of Dayton work a little better. All the rest of us have new things afloat -- www.thewritegallery.com/chorusforcandice.

MY MYSPACE SPACE AND THE SPACE BETWEEN MY EARS: Okay, so here's the deal. Yesterday, some dork who needs glasses(*) more than he seems to be willing to admit, was trying to rearrange his MySpace friends list. He selected all, but that didn't work. So he then clicked what he thought was "de-select all." He even got a warning that he thought said, "Do you really want to 'de-select' all your friends?"

Of course, what Einstein did was DELETE all his friends.

He spent a bit of late morning rebuilding his network. He also ran across a few people he knows (mostly theatre/film people), which he did not have as friends before, while he trolled other people's friends lists. So now he has a few pending friends-list add requests out there.

And the cool thing is, he now has Todd Rundgren on his list -- he and 385 other people. If you don't know who Todd is, you are, like most people, unaware of the more obscure names who have done more to frame all that is good about modern pop music than pretty much anyone you would guess is responsible. The best bet to spark your memory on him would be to invoke the title of the Top-40 pop hit, "Hello, It's Me," That, mostly for those born before, say, 1965, and that, by-the-way, a song which gives you practically no idea of who Todd is musically, but only a very small glimpse into the brilliant musician, progressive pop/rock artist, jazz fusion artist, (and yes, pop artist), song writer and modern-music record producer that Mr. Rundgren is and has been. And, for the youngins who may for some reason be reading this blog, Todd is the stepfather of, and the man who reared, Liv Tyler.

(*) TRUTH IS THIS IDIOT NEEDS ACTUAL PRESCRIPTION GLASSES INSTEAD OF THE GENERIC READING GLASSES HE CURRENTLY EMPLOYS.

NOISES OFF AT THE DAYTON PLAYHOUSE: I saw this "theatre person's theatre play" Saturday evening after Park's performance, and I have to say I enjoyed it. I appreciate those who can successfully bring off intricately choreographed physical comedy and this cast did just that. Act II is essentially one long, physical-comedy slapstick schtick, and I was impressed with the execution. I guess, put in the situation, I would be able to collaborate with a team of fellow cast members and bring such off, but as I watched I was a little intimidated by the work they were doing. It was fun to watch, though. And I don't care what anybody says, what you just read here is NOT a "review" -- ! That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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I did not, I must admit, get to the recording of my lines yesterday. Other things came up and before I knew it, it was too late to be productive at it. So, this coming weekend, probably Saturday morning, will see me with mic and tape recorder then computer.

Barb, Duante and I did talk a little about some video work for the production. No real specifics have been decided on, yet. This is actual production material, video to be used during the performances -- essentially the news coverage of the Democratic Convention to be on the TV sets in the two candidates hotel rooms.

OTHER PEOPLE'S STUFF: This is not going to be anything at all like comprehensive, but here are a few projects involving those whom I have worked with in stage productions. I currently don't know about anything any one from any film work is doing.

****LET ME MAKE THIS ABSOLUTELY CLEAR -- I am, without a question in my mind, going to leave some people out. This will be for two reasons: 1) I am not aware of their projects; 2) I WAS aware, at some point, but I have allowed it to slip my mind.

• John Bukowski (who shared the stage with me in American Buffalo as Don as well as being Ferris in The Diviners) just finished a run as Danforth in Crucible at X*Act: Xenia Area Community Theatre.
• Megan Cooper (with whom I was in Fake) finishes her run as Dotty Ottley in Noises Off at The Dayton Playhouse next weekend.
• Ron Weber (Nagg in Endgame) is Selsdon Mowbray in the same production of Noises Off.
• Charity Farrell (Elizabeth in The Chorus for Candice as well as sharing the stage with me as Maria in Nutcracker: the Musical) will be Aninku in the Victoria Theatre Association production of Brundibar in March.
• Waylan Reid (Richard Burbage in The Beard of Avon and Victor in The Dice House -- the second, which I wasn't in, but did produce) will be in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) at X*Act Feb 29, Mar 1, 7 & 8.
• Matt Beisner (Henry Wriothesley in The Beard of Avon) will be Nick in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at The Dayton Playhouse, running the same weekends as The Best Man.
• Chuck Lakowski (Jim the blind man in Playing God) will be George in Woolf at DPH.
• Reneé Franck-Reed (Queen Elizabeth in The Beard of Avon) will be in Funny Girl, again at The Dayton Playhouse, running May 2-18. I cannot remember what role she told me she has, though. Well, at least I remembered she was in it!
• Lisa M. Sadai (Rosanne Johnson in Belles, which I produced) is appearing as a witch in Verdi's Macbeth at The Dayton Opera. She will also be Anna in Boston Marriage at The Guild Apr 18-May 4.
• Benjamin T. Sadai (Lisa's son in real life and William in The Chorus for Candice) is also a witch, as well as one of the MacDuff children in Verdi's Macbeth at The Dayton Opera.
• Elena Monigold (Polly in The Dice House) will be Claire in Boston Marriage next Apr/May.
• Sarah Caplan (PA for Playing God) will be Catherine in the same mounting of Boston Marriage as Lisa and Elena.
  DOH! I ORIGINALLY WROTE HERE THAT SARAH WAS OUR AD. ACTUALLY, ALEX CARMICHAL WAS AD

And I don't know of and/OR remember any other people's projects, except for the people I have worked with before who are in The Best Man.

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As the three or four of you who have read this before may know, I am always impatient to get to the depths of the character as quickly as I can. The sooner I am there, the sooner I can fine-tune him. The actors and directors out there know that, on a stage at least, those first "blocking rehearsals" are far more about where to put the bodies on the stage and the gross overview of main stage business -- such as whether there should be a hug, a hand shake, or a turn of the bodies at a specific moment, as an example.

Still, I am conscious of when I am delivering a line in a way that is not working at all. And it's never too soon to start thinking about what my character's mission is in the scene (or in a part of the scene). Nor, is it too soon to analyze my character's role in telling the story. As a writer I know that any character that does not actively participate in telling the story, even if that character's job is simply to help set the mood of a scene, then that character needs to be cut.

In between just getting a better understanding of Jensen's role in the story from further reading of text as we worked, as well some thought I had given prior to rehearsal and some dialogue director Barb Coriell and I had last night, I am getting a keener idea of who Dick Jensen is and what he is about.

I knew, coming into rehearsal last night that Jensen sees himself as having been born to be the White House Chief of Staff. The notion I was already getting of him fits exactly with Barbara's statement that "Jensen is a political animal through and through." Jensen, unlike K.L., can most assuredly recite some good portion of the Constitution, if not pretty damned all of it. He certainly knows the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence verbatim.

I have not yet began to detail his backstory but I already know he is married and has children, some if not all of them probably at least young adults. I haven't picked his schools but they will be Ivy League; I may even make him a Rhodes Scholar. And I think he is a Hoosier by birth.

Jensen is already becoming a little cooler; I don't mean in the "hip" sense, rather in the demeanor sense. He is becoming, not more reserved than I had originally seen him, but more cautious, deliberately and calculatedly cautious. He knows how to get William Russell elected and though he has more respect for Russell than to "handle" him, he does want to guide Russell through the many corridors of the political labyrinth that Russell is less than wise about how to trod.

As for that early sense that a line was not delivered as Jensen would deliver it, the were a few, but there was one that really smacked me last night. Sue-Ellen Gamadge, a politically powerful woman, (played by Cheryl Mellen) has just "let slip" some disturbing news. There is then a bit of musing on the potential problem that seem to be threatening, then Jensen says, based on a note an aide had given him prior to the dropping of the bad-news bomb:

Well, Alice, word has come from on high. We're about to get a visit from our distinguished ex-president.

As I spoke it during the blocking work, I knew I was not saying it correctly. Point is, this woman-in-the-know has just said that something bad for our campaign is just about to happen. Jensen, Russell (David Shough) and his wife, Alice (Debra Strauss) are all going to be focused on that. Then Jensen goes off topic as if he had not been privy to the bomb just dropped. My actor's reaction was, How the hell am I supposed to say this? I am going to be as keyed in on this problem we've just been told about as Russell is. A little while later, while I was off stage, I got it: Jensen is purposefully going off topic, changing the subject to pull Russell away from it. He may be directing his words to Alice, but his target audience is her husband. So, now the line makes sense and has purpose for me.

And so the process continues.....

Plus, I told Barb I want to find some of those thick-rimmed, awful, early-sixties eye glasses for Dick. I want to use them as a physical manifestation of his reactions. And it just seems like a good look for him.

MEANWHILE...: I am stealing every spare moment I find today, as I did yesterday, to get the vital facts of the character and the case I am doing dramatic improv, as a client for law students, this afternoon at the University of Dayton Law School. I don't have a great flood of spare moments, but I think I will be prepared when I arrive there.

Then my evening ends with more Best Man rehearsal.

IT IS NICE...: to be an actor who is currently getting to act. Now if an ad agency would only cast me, so that I won't continue to be a client my talent agent hasn't gotten work for, yet.

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Rehearsal went well again last night. We have done a good bit of work, especially since we were on the Park set. Next week that'll be stricken. Some progress on Jensen characterization last night, mostly in terms of line delivery, with many spots where I need to work more -- but, at this point that's a given, anyway. I have to get back into the habit of attending to the italicized directions in the script. Since I have been back to acting, the overwhelming norm has been to ignore their existence. This cast and the director are giving such more credence this time. In part, it is because such directions seem to have more necessity than is often the case. Well, I was out of the habit of even noticing their existence, much less reading them.

PAHK YOHWAH CAH IN THE DTG PAHKIN' LAHT THIS WEEKEND!

3 More Chances To See This Critically Successful Show

Friday, Jan 25 8:00 pm
Saturday. Jan 26 5:00 pm
Sunday, Jan 27 3:00 pm

Dayton Theatre Guild
2330 Salem Ave., Dayton, OH, 45406
for tickets/reservations: www.daytontheatreguild.org
or 937-298-5993

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At the first session, a few weeks back, some of the students (the attorneys) asked about medical procedures and some of the indicators of an epileptic seizure. Well, I had not prepared for that so I just made crap up. I did a lot of research this time -- it turns out several key things I said the first time were the opposite of correct.

The first time, I said you should try to gently hold seizing victims down and you should try to get into their mouths to secure their tongues. HAANK! Wrong on both counts. You actually let seizing people seize without touching them unless they are in jeopardy from an outside source. That notion of people swallowing their tongues during seizure turns out to be a myth, too. I also said, at the start of the month, that you should make sure to get them on their backs. HAANK! You want to get them on their sides, because that greatly reduces the odds of their airways closing up. So, the first time, though it ultimately did not matter for the particular classroom exercise, I gave a lot of bad expert testimony.

This time, however, with a little research on my side, I gave sound testimony on procedure.

THE BEST MAN: I have not yet recorded Jensen's lines, that will likely happen tomorrow morning. I have not decided whether I will do them dead pan for the recording, or not. Flat delivery can facilitate an easy analysis of how the character should say any particular line. It may not be as necessary for Jensen since I am getting a feel for where he is going. I also plan to work on his backstory soon; if not tomorrow, then early in the week, while I am not scheduled for rehearsal.

AN AUDITION FOR ONE SHOW MAY GET YOU CAST IN ANOTHER: It has occurred to me that the Jensen Barb Coriell has indicated she wants is extremely close to the Bill Coles I played when I auditioned for Barb for Other People's Money. That was a role I was sure I would get, but did not. I suspect, and heavily, that Barb had my interpretation of Coles in mind as the auditions for Best Man unfurled. She had asked me several times before the auditions if I would be there. I take that to mean that she knew, because of the previous audition (and perhaps also my reading of John Honeyman at the audition for A Walk in the Woods), that I can give her the Jensen she sees when she reads the play. I still stand fast to the notion that just because she had me in mind it did not mean that someone else could have won her over at auditions, so I was not a lock-in for the role. And of course, MY first goal was William Russell.

Regardless of the veracity or the precariousness of a "guarantee," the big lesson is that tenacity can pay off. I often go into an audition believing with every fiber of my bald head that a particular director will never cast me. But my attitude is that the director is going to have to say no to me. If I don't get cast it will not be because I did not show up. By-the-way, I have no doubt that I almost always, if not absolutely always, am wrong that the given director would never cast me. That thought in me is motivated by previous disappointment and the reckless insecurity that often plagues me.

One of my local actor friends had an occasion to run into Bradley Whitford, quite a few years back, perhaps just before or just as The West Wing was starting its run on TV. It was one of those brief meetings where she said, aren't you a screen actor? and he said, yeah, I'm Brad Whitford. Well, she told me she asked him what it was like being a professional actor and his response was that it's a lot of pounding the pavement. I.E.: you audition a lot.

There is no question in my mind that showing up for one more audition will eventually put the actor in front of a person who is casting the project -- whether she is a director for a community theatre production or he is the casting director for a major motion picture -- and she or he will think: Oh, I remember him/her from other auditions, I think we have found our (INSERT CHARACTER NAME HERE:__________)!

I know as a person who has begun to direct for the camera and plans to direct for the stage, I already am making a mental catalogue of actors I see, on stage and in auditions, and what they seem to be able to do. When I cast The Chorus for Candice, time was of such an essence that I did not want to go through an audition and screentest process. So, I offered the roles to Kim Reiter and Charity Farrell, because I knew from seeing their work that they both would give me what I wanted. I gambled on Ben Sadai, I must admit, but it was calculated on the theory that the acorn does not fall far from the tree -- his mother being Lisa sadai, a gifted actor in her own right. I also, have a particular actor (actress) in mind for a role in that 40 minute screenplay that is on the shelf. Further, as I delve into the auditions for it, certain actors I know might walk in and I will immediately have an idea of whether they fit my vision for the characters they are reading for or not.

I will owe it to myself and them to read them, even if my mind gives an immediate no. I believe I need to be willing to be persuaded I was wrong, or to be shown an interesting other take on the role. But that's another issue. Hmmm. Maybe it's not another issue. It can be the reason that any actor is not necessarily guaranteed a role even when the director or producer has pointedly solicited the actor's presence at audition to read for the role. I think Barb saw me, months back, as a good candidate (pardon the pun) for Jensen. Someone could have shown her something in audition that she found an interesting interpretation she hadn't envisioned but discovered as a better way to go.

One thing is for sure: I would not have been cast had I not auditioned -- and it would have likely devalued, to some extent, my previous auditions for this director, if we are going with the concept that they were groundwork for my casting as Jensen.

PAHKING CAHS IN HAHVAHD YAHD: The house was pretty small last night (about half) but the audience was responsive to the show. We were also gremlin free. Sound, lights, and all else seemed to go quite well.

Cast party tonight. Yahoo!

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The cast of Park Your Car in Harvard Yard Richard Young            Jacob Brackish Debra Kent            Kathleen Hogan

Yep, a nice run of a show I am happy to have been a part of closes today. And we have a wicked awful set strike to look forward to at 5:30 or thereabouts.

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A LITTLE MOAH PAHKING

• Burt Saidel moved the review of Park Your Car in Harvard Yard until tomorrow due to his want to fully cover Macbeth at The Dayton Opera. He writes in last week's Oakwood Register:

  My loyal readers will have to wait until next week to read about the Muse Machine's spectacular Peter Pan and the latest plays at Dayton Theatre Guild and Dayton Playhouse. I apologize but my mind and heart are still in ancient Scotland.

• Set strike ended about 9:00 last night. The last folk to leave? The director, the producer and the stage manager. But we had a decent sized crew for a good portion of the strike. I brought my camera to take pictures, as I often have for other shows. However, I never brought it out.
• Speaking of pictures, there will be a few more here, sometime soon.
• The producer guy has a few loose ends to tie up -- mostly because people did not follow the simple instructions about getting receipts to me asap and to not do it through others but to give them directly to me, in my hand, or to put them in my mail box -- the one with my name on it -- at the Guild!!!!!

  Not that I'm bitching or anything.

OVERDUE ART-WORK: I have had pictures from the production of 'Art' I was in for Springfield StageWorks, Springfield Civic Theatre, and The Springfield Art Museum that have been ready to post for more than a year now. So, perhaps sometime soon.

THE MOTION IN MOTIVE: Still looking for prose, poetry, and illustrations (artwork or photographs) for the virtual chapbook The Motion in Motive for my site proper.

Consider making a submission -- tell your friends who write, draw, paint, or snap.

Click here for details and guidelines.

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And of course, I am suffering from some anxiety at this point. As I posted, earlier today, as my status on my MySpace page: I "always seems to feel a little behind in [my] work on [my] character in a play/movie." But, that's just me.

*MAYBE* ANOTHER STUDENT FILM: The lovely Melissa Young of Miss Lissa and Co. passed on a post she saw at Craig's List, placed there by a Wright State Film School student looking for a male actor "35+." I sent a query -- my résumé and headshot were too large for the CL mail server limits. The post is two weeks old, so the role may already be cast. I also may not have the schedule to fit it in. But, might as well query.

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NO STUDENT MOVIE: The director of the student movie I was made aware of got back to me. He is already in the editing phase of production. He did ask me to send him my résumé for future projects. And I did just that.

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I now have the recordings of my lines all over the friggin' place (am listening to the mp3 of Act II: Scene 3: page 61-62 as I type this. Not to mention that I have the flash cards (index cards I wrote of in the Jan 30 blog entry). In fact, I used last night to finish the cards up.

That back story is yet to come, but I suspect much will happen on that tonight, if it's not started and completed all tonight. In some ways it's already started since I have some ideas. As I have already written here, Dick Jensen is an Ivy League alumnus and I will definitely make him a Rhodes scholar. And I am placing his birth and childhood in Indiana, possibly Indianapolis -- why Indianapolis, Indiana? Why not? Actually, it's mostly caprice but also I wanted Jensen to be an intellectual not of the East coast; and Indy is mid-west I am familiar with but not where I am from. Given that he's in his forties in 1960, I will most certainly put him in the service during WWII.

HAD TO TURN DOWN AN AUDITION: Received another email yesterday from my agent about what looked like a good opportunity for a series of commercials -- unfortunately I was not able to commit to the time called for, for both the audition and the shoots.

Really sucks! It looked like, had I been cast, I might have been in a series of spots. And it did pay pretty well, up front. So-oh-well.

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As for Dick's back story, I did have to fabricate the elementary through high school names for his childhood, but I based them on Indianapolis history. The "The Lucky Scotchman" is also fabricated, but the 67th Fighter Squadron was real and did moved from base to base in South Korea. All the politicians Jensen has worked for are fictitious, too. Kenyon College, Oxford University, Princeton University, University of Virginia, Columbia University, and Georgetown University are all real -- in case you don't know that. Lincoln Elementary in Charlottesville is, however, made up (though that's such a popular name for schools that there is some chance there is one in Charlottesville).

That being said, Dick is, once again, more real to me now....

DICK JENSEN BIO, VITA AND BACK STORY

Born:	Richard Wendell Jensen April 17, 1915 Wishard Memorial Hospital, Indianapolis, Indiana
Parents:	Father - Elmer Joshua Jensen (b 1895) Mother - Louise Beatrice Davenport Jensen (b 1899) Still residing in Indianapolis and having just celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary on May 16, 1960
Siblings:	Brother - Randall Isaac (b 1917) now a Dep. Chief of Police in Cleveland, Ohio Father of three Brother - Marvin David (b 1918) now owner of Jensen's Appliances in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Father of two Sister - Marian Elizabeth (Marybeth) (b 1921) now a school teacher for the L.A. public school system Mother of five Sister - Eubea Jeanine (b 1923) now a housewife in Gary, Indiana Mother of three Brother - Frederick Samuel (b 1924; d 1944) killed in action in WWII
Education:	Fall Creek Elementary, Indianapolis (1921-1928) - 3.7 GPA McCormick Junior High, Indianapolis (1928-1931) - 4.0 GPA Marion High School, Indianapolis (1931-1934) - 4.0 GPA Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio (1934-1938) - BA in Philosophy - Magnum Cum Laude Oxford University (1938-1941) - MA in World History - Suma Cum Laude "Dominus Illuminatio Mea": The Lord is my Light Princeton University (1941-1942; [*] 1946-1947) - PhD. in Political Science - Suma Cum Laude
[*] Dick left Princeton to enlist in the Army Air Corps in January 1942. Dick was a gunner in the belly turret of the B-17 "The Lucky Scotchman," which flew in the South Pacific as part of the 67th Fighter Squadron, and moved from base to base in South Korea. He received one field promotion to Sergeant and was then promoted to Second Lieutenant just prior to his honorable discharge in November 1945. Dick's three brothers also served, all in the Army, and his oldest sister, Marybeth, served as a stateside secretary in the Navy. His youngest brother, Freddy, was killed on the beach at Normandy on D Day, June 6, 1944.
Married:	Janice Grayson on June 28, 1947. Janice (born Janice June Williamson, June 1, 1920, Franklin Park, New Jersey) was a war widow tending bar at the VFW Post 125 in Princeton, where Dick had been a member since arriving back in town to finish his doctorate. She had one daughter, Lynn Patricia (b March 18, 1940) and one son, David Mark (b June 20, 1942). Dick adopted them both as his children in Oct, 1949.
Children:	Daughter - Lynn Patricia Grayson-Jensen (Patsy) [adopted] (b Mar 18, 1940) Son - David Mark Grayson-Jensen [adopted] (b June 20, 1942) *The hyphenated last names was Dick's gesture to honor the children's fallen father Son - Frederick Gregory Jensen (b Sep 17, 1949) *(named after Dick's fallen brother and Janice's fallen first husband -- Patsy and Dave's father) Daughter - Margaret Katherine Jensen (Maggie) (b May 8, 1952). As our story unfolds in Philadelphia, in July, 1960: Patsy is a Junior at Columbia University Dave is a Freshman at Georgetown Freddy will be a 6th grader and Maggie will be a 3rd grader at Lincoln Elementary in Charlottesville, Virginia, where the Jensen home is.

HOW DICK JENSEN BECOMES BILL RUSSELL'S CAMPAIGN MANAGER

• is head speechwriter for Donald Cramden, Mayor of Princeton, NJ
• is deputy campaign manager for the Committee to Re-elect Arthur Hockstader
• serves as a deputy communications officer in Hockstader's second administration
  • writes many speeches for and works closely with Secretary of State William Russell; takes several international junkets with Russell on official state business
  • comes to admire and greatly respect Russell as a man of great honor, wisdom and leadership; and becomes convinced Bill has the makings of a great president
• after the Hockstader administration is completed, Dick accepts the faculty position teaching History and Political Science at the University of Virginia
• takes two sabbaticals to be campaign manager -- for the Committee to Elect Thomas Peterson as Governor of Maryland (loss); and for the Committee to Elect John Holmes-Wilderson to be the U.S. Senator from Virginia (won)

Dick takes the lead in pushing Bill over the hump to decide he should indeed throw his hat into the ring for the 1960 Presidential Election.

With the prospect that he may become the White House Chief of Staff as of January, 1961, Dick takes an extended leave of absence from U.V., and serves notice that pending the outcome of the election he may resign his position.

Dick on being Bill's campaign manager:

I believe with real conviction that Bill Russell should be our next President of the United States. He is a man of overpowering understanding of the sacred freedoms our country should always protect, champion, and better.

My job as his campaign manager is to temper the esoteric Russell, to keep him from inadvertently and unintentionally "talking down" to the people. I also need to run interference with his sense of humor, which often is perceived by many as sarcastic and elitist -- when in fact, it is not.

I respect and admire Bill Russell tremendously. Never would I attempt to "handle" him; but, I do need to vigilantly "guide" him and help him stay out of the faux-pas neighborhood, where he is adept at placing himself with uncanny and frustrating regularity. This, not due to any lack of intelligence -- we are talking about William Russell, after all -- but due to his unbridled love of intellectual references and his intemperate dry sense of humor.

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10:20 am:		After having dealt with some miscellaneous business, I pour myself a cup of coffee, then sit down with the script and a sheet of cardboard that is cut to the width and length of the script pages. Running the board down the pages of the Jensen scenes, uncovering the other characters' lines as I go, then stopping short before mine, I see how many lines I can get, either verbatim, or at least relatively close.
11:25 am:		For this stage of the rehearsal-process game I have a pretty decent familiarity with my lines. Some of them I am dead-cold straight on with. Others, I have a vague idea of what the point is. Some, I just have to look, having no clue at all.
11:32 am		Time to start the rote memorization phase in heavy dose. I will start it as I do my dishes -- a chore of which is badly needed since I have hardly one clean dish in my entire abode
2:35 pm		Relatively on top of Act I. It occurs to me that I might think about eating something.
6:50 pm		Starting on my last scene and the last scene of the play, Act II, Scene 4.
9:30 pm		I have drilled the whole play! I am not off-book, but man am I a lot closer than I was at the start of the day. So I keep the drills up and maybe I won't have to report going up during a performance. I am about to sit down and run all my scenes, from start to finish, and only look at the line for prompting if I absolutely cannot recall it. I will check them each for accuracy, however. Spot-on is better than paraphrasing. Spot-on is always my target.
10:31 pm		Not bad. There were a couple places where I was totally clueless, but all in all, for this stage of the process I am satisfied. I will have that CD of my scenes on repeat play all night. The idea being that I hear it over and over in my sleep -- that whole "subliminal learning" idea. I am not absolutely sure this practice is terribly effective, but I have no proof that it is not. So......

SORDID LIVES, THE TV SERIES: I happened to stumble across the MySpace page that screenwriter and playwright Del Shores has set up for a forthcoming television series version of his play and movie, Sordid Lives. You may recall that I was stage manager -- and the corpse of Peggy Sue Ingram -- in two separate mountings of SL during the Guild's 2004/2005 season.

Check out the MySpace page: www.myspace.com/sordid_lives.

GAME?: I guess there was some kind of big game of some sort on TV today?

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So I didn't delve too deep into performing a full character, either. Something did come up in terms of characterization last night. Our director Barb Coriell wants a bigger reaction from Jensen at one moment than is correct for the reserved Jensen I have started to build. That Jensen would never show the level of excitement that she seems to want in one particular moment. A conversation is in order and then I will try to adjust Jensen to someone to suit both Barb's and my visions.

There's also a scene where Dick and his counterpart Don Blades (Steve Strawser) essentially enter together to break the tension which has just played for several minutes prior to our entrance. I am strongly resisting allowing this to get too deep into "comedy relief." I do believe it needs to be lighter, but just the change in direction for the scene serves the purpose of breaking the tension. I don't think I was told to camp it up, and I certainly would find that to be a big mistake and betrayal of the play in general. I do, however, believe there was a consensus in the air that Jensen and Blades have a sense of camaraderie that I absolutely resist as dead wrong wrong wrong. Jensen finds Blades and those who think like him (like his boss, Joe Cantwell) to be a major detriment to the Democratic Party. Jensen is a colleague of Blades purely by the happenstance of belonging to the same party. If they are seen having beers together in the hotel bar it will be because there were no other seats open or because they are in a meeting.

The only reason that Jensen has been with Blades in the time prior to their entrance (which is a re-entrance into the scene) is because ex-President Hockstader (Bert Staub) sent them away earlier, specifically to get Blades out of the room so Hockstader could have a talk with Bill Russell (David Shough). It is a talk that Dick very much wanted to see happen and so the little mission they were sent on, though useful and practical, was subterfuge that Jensen was in on. Bottom line, I absolutely disagree with the idea that Jensen is anything like chummy with Blades. They are barely colleagues and only so in the technical sense. And certainly, in the current situation any camaraderie these two might have would be strained greatly, anyway. They both vehemently want the other guy's boss to lose the nomination, both convinced his own boss is the right candidate and that the other guy's is a bad choice.

Back to general things, overall last night, I was in that weird, uncomfortable, unsure place I am usually in during the blocking phase, and generally during this point in rehearsals. I do have a stronger sense of the character but haven't put that guy on his feet much yet. So I went home feeling less accomplished than probably reflects the truth.

And I haven't mentioned the fact that the heater at the Guild broke down over the weekend so we rehearsed in our coats last night. In fact it was colder in the building than it was outside. We actually propped the doors open for a bit to warm it up inside.

I also slept badly last night -- knotty crick in my neck -- consequently, thus far today I haven't felt like listening to the recordings of Jensen's scenes: the tape on the way to work or the mp3's whilst I have been at work. I didn't play the CD overnight, either; that, mostly because I was in the mental state of "less accomplished." Today, so far, I have had one of those nagging I-didn't-get-enough-sleep headaches; plus, my neck still bugs me. My enthusiasm is ebbed. I know that presently my mood will change.

I did do the flash-card drill of all my lines at lunch and scored probably in the high 90's as per accuracy. It's a bit easier when your not on your feet walking the scene on stage. Still, being reasonably close to off book just shy of two weeks before I have to be helps dilute this dumb-assed feeling of lesser accomplishment.

A LITTLE MOWAH PAHKING: Burt Saidel finally got his review of Park Your Car in Harvard Yard out in the Oakwood Register (January 29, 2008; v.17:no.5). His last line sums up his response: "It is a pretty good play performed by very good actors."

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SPEAKING OF GEORGE(*) AND MARTHA AND NICK AND HONEY: I have one opportunity to see Charles Lakowski (Jim the blind man in Playing God) and Matt Beisner (Henry Wriothesley in The Beard of Avon) in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at The Dayton Playhouse, since it runs exactly parallel with Best Man. I can zip over to the Playhouse from the Guild after our 5:00 show on the second Saturday to catch the 8:00 Woolf. We have a special 8:30 pm out-reach performance of The Best Man after our other 5:00 Saturday show, so I either see Woolf on March 8, or I don't see it at all. That cast is Charles as George, Pam McGinnis as Martha, Matt as Nick, and Amy Brooks as Honey.

AND NO BRIDGE TO THE ABRIDGED: I can't make it to see Wayland Reid in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) at X*Act. The run also conflicts with Best Man and the only night I could have possibly made it was March 8. But X*Act is in Xenia, a good twenty minutes or more from the Guild and Complete's curtain is at 7:30, just about, or only a little after we take our curtain call at DTG. And since Woolf at DPH is a five minute drive away and an 8:00 curtain, well, the decision is simple. But, I am sorry I will miss Waylan in Complete; I know he will be hilarious.

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This is the scene where I want Jensen to be his most animated and emotive, practically discarding the more closed, more reserved stance from the rest of the play. As I've already said, it's not that I am aiming for a stoic Dick Jensen, but he is the consummate professional with the air of authority and taking charge about him. In that scene, as last scenes have a habit, the rubber is hitting the road, so he loses a bit of his poise. I did try to play to that last night, especially as we ran the scene again. I am in the neighborhood of where I want to be with this but I have a lot of honing to do. Believe it or not, I don't say this with a flavor of impatience with where I am at, but simply as an acknowledgment of where I am at, and an actual recognition that this is a pretty good place for me to be with Jensen at this stage.

Last night I did realize that I have to figure how Dick Jensen moves. Right now he moves quite exactly like K.L., which is not suitable -- the walk, mostly -- for Prof. Jensen. One element will be to start working in rehearsal in Jensen's shoes. Last night I was in gym shoes; Jensen will be in dress shoes, wing tips if I can find some. I do have a pair of dress shoes, but they have very modern, softer rubber soles and though they don't look entirely foreign to 1960, they truly can not be called "period."

I also always want to be able to discover or invent new facial expressions that would be normal and natural, of course. It's debatable that I have ever executed any that are really easily separated from K.L., but I have allowed myself the delusion that I have just so I could feel like I had shed myself a little for the role. Actually, I think Dean Schultz in Ghostbusters: Spook University has some affectation that is not really mine. Dick Jensen will, too, if I can muster any that are right for him. Again, I will probably only think I have succeeded.

The bigger priority is that he have his own walk without it looking like an actor trying to not walk like himself.

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON SCHOOL OF LAW AND THE REGIONAL MOCK TRIAL TOURNAMENT: The good thing about being pretty on top of learning my lines for The Best Man is that I also have another dramatic improv gig through the U.D. School of Law. Next weekend, I and many other Dayton actors will all play witnesses for the Regional Mock Trial Tournament that UDSL is hosting. And I have the case details and the character study to learn for that. Since my main need for Best Man lines is solidifying them in my memory, rather than still needing to learn them, I am in much better shape to set some time aside for the U.D. gig study. The only point of anxiety about all of this is that I work the U.D. gig Friday through Sunday (Feb 15-17) then on Monday, the 18th, we are expected to be off-book for Act I of Best Man -- and Act II the next night. I am only slightly anxious, however.

Had I been cast as Bill Russell in Best Man, I may have bowed out of this UD gig, since Russell has at least twice as many lines as Jensen, if not more.

Here's an article about us actors being used for the mock trials: "UDSL Hosts Regional Mock Trial Tournament; Employs Actors as Witnesses." I can't guarantee that the URL will be hot indefinitely, but it's good right now. Dennis Turner, by-the-way, who is mentioned in the article, is the man who saw me as Stefen in 'Art' and then contacted Fran Pesch about using me as a witness for U.D. Law Clinic and for the School of Law. So he's kind of the first person to have ever "DISCOVERED" me. So, where's Mr. Demille?

ADDENDUM added about an hour after original post:

I forgot the fact that I also am doing the U.D. Law Clinic Intrasessions, two days during the Final Dress week for Best Man. So there is another set of case background and character info to know while finishing up Dick Jensen to get him ready for stage. But, I believe this is not a problem, and I ought to be making myself able to split the acting skills out like this. If I can't do it, I'd better be learning how to do it.

ANOTHER ADDITION -- YIKES! ANOTHER DOH!!! MOMENT -- AND A BIG OL' CORRECTION TO MAKE:

I, as is often the case, made another error in attribution here. I gave the wrong actress credit as Martha in the upcoming production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at The Dayton Playhouse.

And, I have just been corrected -- that would be PAM M