Me and Marshall-he'smy double cast
I am currently in a production of Shrek the Musical at the Coterie Theatre in Kansas City MO. I love being in the show. I love working amongst professional actors. I love dancing and singing and playing three different characters. It's nice getting paid to do what I love and it doesn't even feel like work at all; it feels like fun. I perform on Tuesdays and Thursdays and split weekends with my double (seen left). Marshall performs Wednesdays and Fridays. They double cast the young performers so we don't miss more than two days of school a week since the show runs 2 months. I get to wear this same sparkly costume and yellow wig that Marshall is wearing for one of my performances too. :)
But as glamorous as it is, (ha-ha) this didn't come without hard work, heartache, fatigue, and the director being completely blunt with me.
All of the professional theatre I have done up until now-I was a kid. Now that I'm 16 people treat me like an adult in the professional theatre world. With this new treatment comes responsibility and sometimes a blow to my self-esteem.
two weeks into a three week rehearsal period I was told by the music director that I still wasn't singing loud enough. I thought I was singing as loud as I can (we don't use personal microphones. It's a smaller intimate studio performance with about 250 people or so per performance) but apparently I as wrong. I even thought I was singing TOO loud in one song so I told him. That was the wrong thing to say. The director overheard me and came over to join in the conversation. He said 7 words that knocked me from cloud 9 down to the ground in 5 seconds flat. He said: "I heard you talking to Jeremy and saying you thought you were too loud at one point and I thought to myself;
'WHAT PLANET IS THIS KID LIVING ON?'"
He proceeded to tell me I never give him what he needs unless he drags it out of me. Wow. This was a shocker. All of my life theatrically I have had nothing but compliments on my performances. I have had the lead in several plays and musicals, I do commercials, film and voice-overs. I even signed with one of the top agencies in Los Angeles based on an audition. I had call backs in LA. How could I suck this badly? I was even in the Master's Classes at the same theatre; chosen for the classes by this same director! How could he love me then and hate my performance now? What is it I had lost?
The answer is that I hadn't been challenged as I had grown older. I got by being cute and talented as a kid, but now I am up against people who are attractive AND are just as talented as me and more. No one is going to talk harshly to a kid, but at 16, it's fair game. At my school, my drama teacher is happy with my performances because it's a small school and only a few of us are can sing, act, AND dance. I think I'm the only guy in our school that takes dance. In community theatre I have the same luck. But other than a role I took at a community theatre at the beginning of 7th grade (and I struggled, but pulled it together by opening night) no one has ever been disappointed in me as an actor and if they were , they certainly didn't say so.
But the thing is-it's good for me! I need that critique. I need to be reminded that I'm not amazing. I need to be challenged. I need the honest critique and I can respect honesty more than placation.
The thing is, I could have made excuses, but I didn't. I was in two plays the entire time I was in rehearsal. I was in rehearsal for the lead male part in my school musical and was literally leaving my house at 6:50 every morning and not getting home till 10:45 every night because I had school all day, then school musical rehearsal right after, then I left there to head straight to Shrek rehearsal from 5-10 p.m. I was eating on the run and not getting enough sleep. It was a rough three weeks. Even on weekends I had rehearsal for at least 8 hours both days.
But it was worth every moment!
One Saturday I had two Shrek performances and my school musical that night. three performances in one day and I woke up pumped at the thought of it!
20 performances in I'm fine. The director even came up to me opening night and was reminiscing with me about the day they first discovered me at an open call when he invited me to Master's class. He said;
"Isn't it amazing how far you've come?"
^^THESE 7 words were all I needed to forget the 7 before. The director is invested in me and needs me to give him what he needs to pull off a great performance.It's easy to beat yourself up over a director's harsh critique, but it made me work harder. It made me step up my game and in the big picture that's what I need to do if I want to be successful. I once heard someone say "You're only as good as your last performance." If that's the case, then this is probably the best I've ever been.
So I guess my advice to people who want to act is that you need to continually challenge yourself and can't let these things get you down. Learn from the experiences. prove them wrong. Give them what they want. A director is probably only as good as his last production, so he/she wants to be brilliant. Their credibility as a professional director depends on you. Directors don't need excuses. They need professional performances.
My school musical is over but I have 28 more Shrek performances between now and December 30th. I'm still excited and I still love coming in for every performance. I am missing 2 days of school a week which leaves me with a lot of homework and on top of that I went back to work at my regular job bagging groceries with a smile :)
What can I say-I love being busy!
But as glamorous as it is, (ha-ha) this didn't come without hard work, heartache, fatigue, and the director being completely blunt with me.
All of the professional theatre I have done up until now-I was a kid. Now that I'm 16 people treat me like an adult in the professional theatre world. With this new treatment comes responsibility and sometimes a blow to my self-esteem.
two weeks into a three week rehearsal period I was told by the music director that I still wasn't singing loud enough. I thought I was singing as loud as I can (we don't use personal microphones. It's a smaller intimate studio performance with about 250 people or so per performance) but apparently I as wrong. I even thought I was singing TOO loud in one song so I told him. That was the wrong thing to say. The director overheard me and came over to join in the conversation. He said 7 words that knocked me from cloud 9 down to the ground in 5 seconds flat. He said: "I heard you talking to Jeremy and saying you thought you were too loud at one point and I thought to myself;
'WHAT PLANET IS THIS KID LIVING ON?'"
He proceeded to tell me I never give him what he needs unless he drags it out of me. Wow. This was a shocker. All of my life theatrically I have had nothing but compliments on my performances. I have had the lead in several plays and musicals, I do commercials, film and voice-overs. I even signed with one of the top agencies in Los Angeles based on an audition. I had call backs in LA. How could I suck this badly? I was even in the Master's Classes at the same theatre; chosen for the classes by this same director! How could he love me then and hate my performance now? What is it I had lost?
The answer is that I hadn't been challenged as I had grown older. I got by being cute and talented as a kid, but now I am up against people who are attractive AND are just as talented as me and more. No one is going to talk harshly to a kid, but at 16, it's fair game. At my school, my drama teacher is happy with my performances because it's a small school and only a few of us are can sing, act, AND dance. I think I'm the only guy in our school that takes dance. In community theatre I have the same luck. But other than a role I took at a community theatre at the beginning of 7th grade (and I struggled, but pulled it together by opening night) no one has ever been disappointed in me as an actor and if they were , they certainly didn't say so.
But the thing is-it's good for me! I need that critique. I need to be reminded that I'm not amazing. I need to be challenged. I need the honest critique and I can respect honesty more than placation.
The thing is, I could have made excuses, but I didn't. I was in two plays the entire time I was in rehearsal. I was in rehearsal for the lead male part in my school musical and was literally leaving my house at 6:50 every morning and not getting home till 10:45 every night because I had school all day, then school musical rehearsal right after, then I left there to head straight to Shrek rehearsal from 5-10 p.m. I was eating on the run and not getting enough sleep. It was a rough three weeks. Even on weekends I had rehearsal for at least 8 hours both days.
But it was worth every moment!
One Saturday I had two Shrek performances and my school musical that night. three performances in one day and I woke up pumped at the thought of it!
20 performances in I'm fine. The director even came up to me opening night and was reminiscing with me about the day they first discovered me at an open call when he invited me to Master's class. He said;
"Isn't it amazing how far you've come?"
^^THESE 7 words were all I needed to forget the 7 before. The director is invested in me and needs me to give him what he needs to pull off a great performance.It's easy to beat yourself up over a director's harsh critique, but it made me work harder. It made me step up my game and in the big picture that's what I need to do if I want to be successful. I once heard someone say "You're only as good as your last performance." If that's the case, then this is probably the best I've ever been.
So I guess my advice to people who want to act is that you need to continually challenge yourself and can't let these things get you down. Learn from the experiences. prove them wrong. Give them what they want. A director is probably only as good as his last production, so he/she wants to be brilliant. Their credibility as a professional director depends on you. Directors don't need excuses. They need professional performances.
My school musical is over but I have 28 more Shrek performances between now and December 30th. I'm still excited and I still love coming in for every performance. I am missing 2 days of school a week which leaves me with a lot of homework and on top of that I went back to work at my regular job bagging groceries with a smile :)
What can I say-I love being busy!
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