I've started blogging over at BIRTE the Blog of the Improvisational Repertory Theatre Ensemble.

How do you vote for best actor?

Okay, it's Oscar (tm) night. Since I'm an actor, I should pontificate. I'm not making any predictions, but I started wondering how people vote for the best actor categories. Actors talk about "having an intention", "performing an action", and "emotional life". Does anyone examine acting roles in this way, and create value judgments from them? People do sense the emotional life of the character and decide whether it rings true or false. Have I ever heard anyone say "his action seemed unmotivated", or "he's not pursuing an intention"? If I have, the person tends to blame the screenwriter for that absence.

People place a great deal of weight on external changes when they vote for best actor. This isn't news. This year, Colin Firth is favored. Why? Because he has a clear through-line of action? Because he conveys a truthful emotional life for the character? His performance does exhibit these qualities, but I get the distinct feeling people are in love with him because his character stutters, and Mr. Firth does a good job stuttering. People were impressed when Meryl Streep personified Julia Child. Here, external changes to posture, voice, and movement are given great weight. Natalie Portman lost weight. It must be a good performance.

As an actor, I'll credit these performances with the ability to reach those core acting values of intention, action, and emotion despite having to fight through this extra layer of mimicry or mask work or fat or what-you-will. However, weight gain/loss performances are more impressive if done through make-up. Weight is a part of the actual person, but latex on your face and bags of bird seed around your midsection are alien objects that must be incorporated as part of the self in order to make the performance convincing.

One of the most difficult "extra layers" for a film actor nowadays is the green screen performance required for films laden with CGI. We should begin considering how difficult these movies are for actors. More and more of the world around them has to be created in their imaginations.

2011 New Play Festival

I'm acting for the League of Professional Theatre Women in their benefit on March, 7. More information about the event is here.

The Acting Bio

I'm going to be in a show in March. The director asked us for bios to put in the program. She said they should be 150 to 200 words. I did as complied. A week later I received a message from someone working for the production company. My bio far exceeded the 75 word limit. They probably think I'm pretty full of myself, now.

So, I did cut down the bio.

I get very uncomfortable writing bios about myself for theatre programs. I am missing the self-promotion gene. A near fatal ailment for an actor. Unfortunately for me, any form of promotion becomes a chore. How do actors tackle this chore? What should be the approach? How general or specific should they be? How jokey or serious? I went with serious this time. Let's look at the elements of a serious bio:

Always speak of yourself in the third person. Ingratiate yourself to people you're working with by writing "...is thrilled to be working with...and..." List roles, plays, and theatres you've actually performed in. Do the same with TV and film. If you haven't been in anything you write "favorite roles include..." (there is a danger of becoming jokey with this: "favorite roles include Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman.") Some people at the end of the bio give thanks to a family member, or Jesus. Nowadays, I just as often see a website address or twitter feed.

I skipped the last step. There's not a whole lot you can do with 75 words.

Atlas Shrugs...I Shrug

I read on babble that they've made a movie of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". It's part one. Evidently they plan this to be Narnia for the Objectivists. I pity the screenwriter who has had to deal with this boring tome. She won't be able to use any dialog from the book. Natural feeling dialog was never one of Rand's strong points as a writer. I remember reading this book in high school and being such a believer in her ideas, but I remember this scene at a cocktail party that simply turns into our hero droning on like a Bill Clinton inauguration speech. Nobody stops him, rolls their eyes, or leaves. Totally unrealistic. It turned the whole book into a chore.