Acting

Happy Sunday Creative Army! First of all, congratulations to all of you who have already participated in our monthly Introduce Yourself Weekend! Thousands of connections have been made between entertainment creatives and professionals from every corner of the globe. Whether you are a long-time member, or brand new to Stage 32, take a moment to pop over to the Introduce Yourself Lounge and say hello before the end of the weekend. Now, grab some fresh coffee and let's dive in to this week's fres...

Happy Saturday Stage 32 Community! On behalf of everyone here at Stage 32, I am thrilled to announce another free virtual event to help you stay up-to-date about the state of the TV comedy industry featuring some of the top writers, producers, and agents of the genre. We invite you to virtually join us on Monday, October 19th 1pm PST for our Top Television Comedy Professionals Discuss The Current State of the TV Comedy Industry During COVID-19. Register here. Seven months into COVID, comedy...

It’s the tedious but oh-so-necessary maintenance of being in this industry: online presentation. Just as we once toiled over the formatting and tone of a resume and cover letter, so now must we polish our profiles. Selling ourselves can be exhausting, but look at it this way - your Stage 32 profile is your invitation to play! We all love what we do, and we love meeting people that make the experience magical. Here’s your chance to set the tone for your fantasy-project-made-real! So, pour your fa...

THE POWER OF A SIZZLE REEL So many of us here on Stage 32 have a dream; a dream of either writing or producing or starring in a project. That project could be a movie, a television show, a musical, a short film, and so on. It all starts with an idea, which could be an AMAZING idea, however unless that idea is translated into something tangible like a script or treatment, that amazing idea will never be realized. Let’s take that a step further. An idea, on paper, can only go so far. The writte...

When one is starting out on the journey in acting, the conventional wisdom for decades has been to choose between New York or Los Angeles. East Coast or West Coast. Broadway or Hollywood. In the last 20 years, other cities have competed for films as a production hub: Vancouver, Toronto, New Orleans, Chicago. In the last 3 years alone, Atlanta has become the busiest production center in the country. There are pros and cons of living in each one of these locations; and one might feel forced to...

ACT ONE: PANDEMIC, YOU SAY? Things were going great. We had just finished shooting our first horror feature film. I had spent the last four months working with the editor and now it was in the hands of our sound and colour experts when… calamity struck, in the shape of our old friend Covid-19. Allow me to explain. Under the banner of Vamoose Productions, our newly formed production company based in Manchester, England, we had just finished our first feature film, the realistic urban vampire...

Did anyone else sing “Network While You Work” to the tune of “Whistle While You Work”? Only film geeks, amiright? Or maybe it’s only Disney geeks? With less than three months left in 2020, it is so gratifying to hear so many projects are moving into production (utilizing COVID compliance safety precautions, of course). Major films and shows, local businesses, and of course the intrepid independent sets as well, all finding a way to move steadily forward. With more jobs, it also means it is tim...

Auditioning is stressful. There’s no getting around it. But that doesn’t mean auditioning is bad! Auditioning presents us actors with the type of stress that’s actually kind of good for us - it’s an invitation to think about the copy we’re presented more deeply to deliver a product that’s more effective. While it would be wonderful to be hired for every single project we audition for, that’s just not realistic. So when auditioning, we each call upon our unique strengths, coaching, training, an...

Through the struggle on the way towards the goal. Why some plans could end broken but “the Dream” must keep pulsating. I’m actually really happy to be asked from Stage 32 to write another article, trying to share something good and offering the opportunity to recognize, together, our common humanity and vulnerability as filmmakers. And maybe as human beings. Rather than pretending to be an expert in anything, or introducing myself in a way that doesn’t interest anybody in here, it’s importan...

“I say luck is when an opportunity comes along and you’re prepared for it.”  - Denzel Washington I knew an actor once who liked to utter that famous phrase by the Roman philosopher Seneca, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Such a well-known phrase that I titled my last Stage 32 blog after it. Funny thing was, when that actor got their opportunity, they were not prepared. And, they could have used a lot of luck. They were nervous and had a hard time following directi...