Monday, August 3, 2009

GKN Weekly Update 8/3/09

Good evening!

I hope everyone stayed as dry as they could this weekend. We had some serious thunderstorms!

First I want to welcome our newest Good Karma Network members: Meghan Donathan, Veronica Alsina, Monica Delgado, Ydaiber Orozco, and Ken Weingart. We're glad to have you!

Last week was quite an adventure! I was tasked with casting four roles for three different voiceover projects. One of the roles was scrapped by the client, one was cast by a non-GKN member, and one has yet to be cast. The great news is that the fourth role was filled by our own Trish Basanyi! Congratulations on being selected.

I had a rather interesting on-camera audition last week for CNN. It was part scripted and part improvised. The first take went extremely well and was pretty funny. The second take was even funnier but my acting partner decided to use profanity. Even though it was used to great effect, I wasn't sure if it was appropriate. I had to run with it regardless, using the Golden Rule of Improvisation: "Yes, and...". For those of you who don't know, "Yes, and..." means that if you are performing an improvised scene and a fellow performer asks you or presents you with something, you are supposed to agree with it and build upon it.

TIP OF THE WEEK: Improvisation is a very tricky thing. Part of the magic is that nobody knows what will happen next. That means is has the potential to get out of control. Was the profanity too much? If it was onstage and it was a general audience i.e. there could be children out there it would be inappropriate. For a closed door on-camera audition? I guess it depends on the attitude of the viewer. My advice would be to avoid profanity, politics, religion, sex, etc. whenever possible. That is, unless you strike comedy gold. See the problem here...?

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money. James Monroe

DISCUSS!: Have you ever been in an improv situation that got out of hand? How did you handle it?

Have a great week!

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