Inside TVI Actors Studio

Acting School Student is Cast in NYC Theatre

Matthew Wechsler, TVI Actors Studio youth member, was just cast by J Max Sullivan in The Time of Your Life at The Storm Theatre. Matthew recently participated in the Young Actors Professional Camp in New York, and was called in by agents from Abrams Artists Agency and About Face Talent.

Remote Possibilities

Fake Reality Hits Comedy Central

I love reality shows (and also hate them).

And I love comedy.

Check out Comedy Central’s Reality Bites Back, a funny improvised/scripted attempt to skewer everything we both love and hate about reality shows. A company of very talented, likable, comics portray the contestants in a weekly battle. One weeks it’s a parody of American Gladiators and another weeks it’s The Biggest Loser they are making fun of.

But just like any reality show, each week someone bites the dust and talks about it in the confessional with sad music playing while we watch ‘their journey’.

Hosted by Michael Ian Black (Stella, Ed) this one is worth catching.

Inside TVI Actors Studio

TVI Los Angeles Actor John Hanlin Has The Force on His Side

TVI Los Angeles member John Hanlin got to fill what I am guessing is a life-long fan boy dream of acting with a Star Wars cast member when he recently worked on General Hospital’s Night Shift.

Look for John opposite Billy Dee Williams aka Lando Calrissian in an upcoming episode.

General Hospital Night Shift airs Tuesdays at 11pm ET/PT on Soapnet.

Australian Acting News

Australian actor Eric Bana’s directorial debut

Eric Bana, Hollywood hotshot actor and now to follow in Clint Eastwood and Warren Beatty’s steps by directing his first film which stars…Eric Bana - really!

Love the Beast is an emotional journey derived from 2 years of filming the star and showcases everything from homegrown delights, friendships, LA & NY, even Dr Phil and the title namesake - his 1974 Falcon Coupe.

“I am terribly excited about this project. It has been both fun and incredibly exhausting at the same time and has enabled me to combine two of the things that I love; cars and filmmaking. It started out as a simple project, but events along the way conspired to turn it into something I could never have envisioned.”

Love the Beast is due to hit cinema’s early 2009.

Actor-Preneur

E! News Host sues William Morris Talent agency

Hollywood Life web site has a comical post about co-host Giuliana Rancic suing her talent agent . The post asks the question, “Can talent sue their agents for not getting them work?“. I truly doubt it.

E! News Host Giuliana Rancic Suing Agent: “”

(Via .)

Remote Possibilities

Secret Diary

I love Tivo.

You can record and store episodes of a show you’ve never watched and then on a night when there is nothing on except Big Brother and America’s Funniest Home Videos, you can hit the play button and hope for the best.

I mention this because I had stored episodes of the the Showtime British import, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, for a while now and just this weekend sampled it.

I highly recommend it. I found it to be very smart, sexy and totally likable. Both the title character, played by Billie Piper and the actor who plays her best friend (Iddo Goldberg) establish a really compelling, complex relationship. The world of high priced call girls has never been explored on TV on a series and it proves to be a rich canvas.

Here’s another one you should look at while you search for the remote possilities.

Actor-Preneur

Casting Director Francine Maisler

In today’s Daily Variety, the special section, “Women’s Impact Report: Specialists” they interview prominent casting director Francine Maisler, who was one of the first teachers at TVI Actors Studio in NY back in the late ’80s.

“I’ve had the great fortune to work with directors who make me look good,” says casting director Francine Maisler, uncommonly humble for someone who’s had such a stellar year.

…After honing her skills at NBC, she was provided a springboard by Ben Stiller, who admired her work on HBO’s “The Larry Sanders Show” and recruited her to cast his first feature film, “Reality Bites,” leading to breakout indie hit “The Usual Suspects.”

…Brooks and Cameron Crowe’s next feature films, admits that while financial pressures have made “every level of filmmaking, including casting” more difficult, they haven’t lessened her enthusiasm for the job. “

Read the entire article on Variety.com.

Francine Maisler - Entertainment News, Los Angeles, Media - Variety: “”

(Via .)

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acting schools, actors, casting directors, TVI Actors Studio

Australian Acting News

Australian Actors, Coffee and Starbucks

Actors love coffee, and now they will have to search a little harder to find a cup in Australia.

Starbucks opened its first Australian store in Sydney’s Hyde Park in July 2000 and the international coffee chain will close 61 Australian stores within days, shedding 685 jobs as part of a strategy to slash underperforming outlets and boost profits.

Twenty-three stores will remain open in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney and surrounding areas after the closures this Sunday, an official statement from the company said.

It currently has 85 outlets nationally, including in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, the Gold Coast, Melbourne, South Australia and Tasmania.

Starbucks operates more than 15,000 coffee shops around the world.

“We are well into the implementation phase of transforming Starbucks and we believe that this difficult, yet necessary, decision to close stores in Australia will help support the continued growth of our international business,” he said in a statement.

“While this decision represents business challenges unique to the Australian market, it in no way reflects the strong state of Starbucks business in countries outside of the United States,” he said.

“There are no other international markets that need to be addressed in this manner.

“We appreciate the exceptional service our partners in Australia have consistently delivered.

“We are thankful and proud of the contributions our partners make every day and we are committed to treating all of our partners with respect and dignity.”

A list of affected stores will be published by July 31, after all the employees are informed.

Entertainment Bleekly

Beyond the horizon

“Marketability” is a word that comes up often in my work as a career coach.  This is due to the two-faced nature of the life of a professional actor.  Yes, we are artists.  But because we seek to ply our craft in other people’s projects, we also have to be business people.  If you’re marketing plan is to shell out a few hundred dollars on a picture and tell anyone that will listen that you’re a really good actor, well, you might as well save your money and your breath.  That’s no more a good marketing strategy than buying lottery tickets is a good investment plan.

Being business savvy is therefore clearly important.  Part of that savvy is recognizing and developing your own potential.  Which actor is more marketable:

Actor A has excellent presence in contemporary work, especially for film and television.

Actor B is a triple-threat.  She can act, sing and dance.  She’s equally at home in Shakespeare or primetime drama, on a stage or in front of a camera.

They’re both really good actors, but Actor B can successfully work in many, many more mediums and formats than Actor A.  She will therefore get more auditions, and if she’s as good as she’s supposed to be, that means she’ll work all the time.

What undeveloped potential resides in you?  Could you book classical work if you just bothered to spend a few months in an outstanding Shakespeare class?  Would musical theatre doors open for you if you invested in a year of vocal coaching?

Working sometimes is great.  Working all the time is even better.  But nobody’s going to hand it to you on a silver platter– if you want it, you have to go out and get it!

Entertainment Bleekly

Yours truly on primetime television

Hello true believers!  I’m exhausted.  Today is my day off from rehearsals on my new show.  To celebrate I got up at 3:45am to make it to a 6:30am call to shoot two groovy scenes for one of New York City’s hit primetime television series.

So much goes into a location primetime television shoot that I could probably fill up several blog posts about it and I have a feeling that’s exactly what’s going to happen.  Right now today, while I can still move my fingers, I want to concentrate on just on the on-set experience.

If you’ve never had the pleasure let me assure you– a shooting set is the absolute furthest thing from an ideal place in which to practice the art of acting.  It’s noisy, crowded, and everything happens at warp speed.  While the makeup professional dabs your face the director is changing your big line and the cinematographer asks you to turn your face into the light and the cameraman nudges your leg over.  The A.D. is ripping up your old spike mark and putting down a new one.  The producer wants to know what’s taking so long and the last two takes were ruined because a helicopter flew over or a Coast Guard boat flew by in the background and ruined the continuity.  The stuntwoman in the water playing the dead body can’t hold her breath any longer and the sun is going to come out from behind that cloud in 30 seconds and ruin the lighting so this is the absolute last take.  If you screw it up, you won’t be back again.

Ready?

Folks, this stuff is really, really hard!  You have to be on your game to succeed in this kind of environment.  I envy the series regulars.  When the environment I just described is your daily workplace I imagine you adjust to it.  For the rest of us, our only hope is to just flat out be the best we can be.  The necessary level of skill and confidence only comes through training– lots and lots of training.

To do less is to not take the profession seriously.