Hamlet in the schools

My touring production of Hamlet has been making the rounds through Philly and the surrounding counties for about two weeks now. We have two more weeks on the tour, and most of those days are booked with performances. We even have a day next week where we get to do the show twice. Which suits me fine, since we'll only have to set up and get ready once. The show itself is pretty easy for me.

I've been on enough educational tours to know that the tempers and moods of the audience will change drastically from school to school. It's part of the deal when you sign up for a tour like this, and I've never really let it bother me. When I was in a touring company with Romeo and Juliet, our Juliet was always annoyed when the students would laugh during her dramatic scenes at the end of the play. But for me, I knew it was par for the course - after all, we were performing for kids aged 14-18.

So far on this tour, we've been lucky with some good groups of students. The first audience was really into it, even cheering for Hamlet during the swordfight. The second crowd was a little more subdued at first, but we won them over eventually. The third crowd was with us right from the first moment of the play, and we were getting cheers of encouragement throughout the play. The show has enough flash to attract even the most hostile of audiences, and we have a show that really connects with the young crowds we are playing to.

We are coming up to the end of our third week, with only one more week to go. This week has been booked pretty solid, and next week we do 6 shows over 5 days. I'll post some more updates as we go along through the next week and I try to squeeze auditions and other projects around the touring schedule.

"Courage Too Late" now online!

And now... the short film I've been writing about for the last few days, "Courage Too Late," is now available online. The video is embedded below, and I'd encourage you to visit the filmmaker's website at www.JKiltsFilms.com to find out more information about them, and to see some of their other projects. Backtrack through the last few posts on this blog and you can read some of the backstage stories and see a photo gallery.

But now.... the film itself... "Courage Too Late"

I'm pretty happy with the way it all turned out. The first time I watched the film, I was pretty impressed with the work I did in the very first scene where I'm eating bread. Tom and Eugene had written a very simple scene with a lot of subtext churning away underneath, and I'm actually pretty pleased with the work that Amanda and I did to bring that subtext out. I talked in the previous post about how pleased the filmmakers were about our work, and I'm glad to see the finished product.

When I watched the film, I kept remembering how much fun it was to work on the film. I remembered freezing my toes almost off in the leather boots, trying to struggle through the deep snow wearing all of that extra equipment, chipping away at the ice covering the set, trying to make Ted laugh every time he had to be serious on camera, having the director of photography march us all over our little corner of the woods... In short, I was remembering the joy that I found while making the film. It's been so long since an acting job offered me that real sense of joy, it's great to watch this film and remember how much fun I had making it.

Photo Gallery from "Courage Too Late"

After the last two (intermittent) posts regarding filming the short film "Courage Too Late," I wanted to finish it off with a photo gallery of the film. So let's get this (peep) show on the road.

(The opening image of the film, shot at the very end of the first day.)

(The Russians, posing for our period-photo.)

(As Gregory, ready for action. Note the leather pouch holding maps and papers.)

(Amanda and I wait in the trees for the camera crew to arrive. So we can shoot them.)

(Between takes, we also killed a lot of time having thumb wars. This scene does not appear in the final film.)

(Donuts provide energy. Russian energy. Russian, sprinkle-based energy.)

Russian film shoot, Part II

So, it was almost a month ago, but the second day of shooting CTL started with trekking out to the location that had been built. The most fun part was taking all of the equipment through a foot and a half of tightly-packed snow. And by "most fun part," I mean, of course, I'm joking. When we got the location, we learned that the small layer of snow on the ground had turned into a fine coating of ice. So the first step of the day was to take shovels and hammers to the ice so we could shoot the movie without hurting ourselves.

(Christopher works on the ice a little harder than the rest of us.)

The second day involved shooting the hand-to-hand combat that is the center of the film, as well as a final ambush that involved a lot of pretend gunfire. I was looking forward to shooting some blanks from my gun, but then the production team announced they would be adding the gunfire in during post-production. Bummer. But I still got to knife a few soldiers. Score.

The shoot also involved a lot of filming with the German soldiers, so the Russians had a chance to sit around, smoke, and hang out freezing our toes off before we were called over to the set. At least we had donuts to keep us warm. Well, we weren't actually eating the donuts while freezing, but

(The Russian army, slightly relaxed.)

After filming the fight scene, the German scenes, and some scenes of the Russians sneaking through the trees, it came time to film the major scene of dialogue that opens the movie. My costar/scene partner Amanda and I had been running the scene all day, so we were ready for our close-ups. When the scene was up next, the director asked if we wanted to take a minute to look over the scene. We informed him that it wasn't necessary because we had memorize the scene and had been working it all day. He seemed genuinely impressed (and slightly surprised) that we were off-book for the scene, and we went to shoot.

After the first two takes, the director and the script supervisor were very complimentary on the work we were doing. The writer even commented that he liked actors who could take the "not-so-good" words he had written and make them sound great coming out of our mouths. It was great to have the filmmakers praising our work right there on the set while we were filming. We wrapped the scene up, did a few more coverage shots, and then we had to schlep all the equipment back to the cars so we could get back on the road and back to Kurt's house so we could return all our issued army gear.

For two days of moviemaking, it was a lot of fun. I know I've recently come out and said that I'm not interested in continuing my career as an actor - (all the details can be found right here) - but I am all about the short-term, single-day, projects that excite me as a performer. It's not that I'm not interested in acting anymore, it's just that I'm only interested in acting when it is on my terms.

I Vill Crush You

Two weekends ago, just after I found out this news (for those of you keeping score at home), I headed up to Bucks County for two days to play a young Russian soldier in a short film set on the Russian front during WWII. I had been looking forward to it as a little project on the side, but when the shoot days finally arrived, I was ready for some fun to take my mind off other things.

The first hour of the first day was spent collecting our gear and our uniforms from the weapons master/production manager, who I'd previously worked with on both The Chrononauts and Rendezvous. His basement is full of all sorts of WWII uniforms, and he can tell the difference between Nazi uniforms from 1941 and 1945. And he also has them both. As well as everything in between. It's quite extraordinary. After we were all geared up, we were given our weapons, and the entire look was finally starting to come together. Here's a picture of me as the Russian soldier Gregory:

When we all headed out to the location, knee-deep in snow, we started shooting. I had never worked with the filmmaker before, but we fell into a nice rhythm. I liked how fast he tried to shoot things, and I liked that he was letting us be very relaxed and very conversational with our lines. He even encouraged us to improvise some of the lines, but I stuck pretty much to what I had already memorized. It's just easier that way.

On this first day of the two-day shoot, we did a lot of the middle of the film, and then the final pieces as well. We worked straight up until sunset, and I literally watched the sun set while I was on camera. It's going to be a very cool shot to end the film. The day was a lot of fun, even if it was freezing cold by the time we were done. My leather boots (while really cool!) didn't provide a whole lot of insulation against the cold, but they were also the only part of my body that was cold. This is a picture of me trying to keep my toes warm, through willpower alone.

Also, please note that I did not get to fire my weapon. I had to pretend. But my costar Amanda got to fire off several rounds with her sniper rifle. I was pretty jealous of that, and she wanted to keep doing take after take of that scene. She was a little disappointed when they told her they had the shot, so she celebrated by firing off a few more rounds. Okay, maybe she didn't, but that's certainly something that I would have done. It's the easiest way to empty the clip!

Our shoot day ended at dusk, we got out of costume, and we got ready to come back for another day on Sunday. I'll post again about the next day of filming, the day that involved the hand-to-hand combat, lots of slipping on the ice, and actually acting an entire page and a half of dialogue as we raced to beat the setting sun yet again.

Okay, well, that's a lot of the stories in fact. But in more detail... NEXT TIME!

More fun that I remembered

I am going to be busy for the next few days - rehearsals, travel, film-making. So in order to hit my deadline for the next episode of The Stray Dogs Project, I sat down last night and tried to do as much as I could. I wasn't sure how much I was going to do, or how much I really felt like doing, but the focused effort and the amazing vocal tracks inspired me to push forward. I ended up finishing the entire vocal track, and I was just about to start layering in some sound effects before a friend called on the phone and I lost my momentum entirely.

But until that happened, I was really grooving on the project, and I was really enjoying the editing work I was doing. In another blog post not long ago, I talked about how I wasn't feeling the work for RHP anymore, about how it felt like just another job and my heart wasn't in it. Well, now I'd like to recant that position almost entirely. It just took the first episode to get the energy and momentum building again, but with that one online and behind us, I'm feeling the fun again.

It might be a passing thing, as I'm already feeling a little overwhelmed again on this Thursday afternoon, and tomorrow will be a challenging day at work. But for last night, everything was going great. I'll hold onto that feeling, and take it with me through the darker times. Which are sure to return. But I feel like I might have a torch now, which can make all the difference in the darkness.

Disappointment(s)

Since the end of December, I have been in the running for a position in Philadelphia that would have suited me very well. The position was for a science-based non-profit organization, and I would have been working with their magazine and their podcast. It would have combined my long-time interest in writing and editing, and my newly-discovered interest in producing and creative directing. Salary, benefits, and the sort of job that I would have loved going to every day.

By now, you've probably noticed I am using the past perfect tense. "Would have.." So it's no surprise for me to tell you now that I wasn't offered the job. I found out on the Friday before the Valentine's day weekend, when I was booked to shoot a short film with a young filmmaker. (More information on that movie will be coming to this blog soon. Stay tuned...) So I did have something to take my mind off the bad news at first, when I headed out to Bucks county and had a great time shooting a short film. But when that film was over, I went right back to my somewhat exhausting, temp-jobbing life.

On one hand, nothing has changed. But on the other hand, the only change is that a possible "yes" has now become a definitive "no." I have to go out again and find a new job opening, apply, interview, etc, and hope to make it far enough to be considered for the position. And that's a daunting task, especially when I have to return to my temp-jobbing weeks. I am applying for some summer courses as well to help me realize my goals, so there is a long-term plan in place that I'm running toward. But that still doesn't make the day-to-day any easier.