Last month, I spoke to a group of actors down at UC Irvine. (Have I mentioned that this most recent graduating MFA class blew me away at the April showcase they put on with Harvard/ART?…
Feedback on Jingle Singing
I am a longtime studio singer — spent 25 years singing jingles — and because I live and work in Dallas where the jingle scene sort of dried up with the closing of three major…
The Strike
I wasn’t going to write about the strike. I really wanted to write about anything else. So much so that I had scribbled a list of a half-dozen perfectly good topics (and another dozen decent…
That Casting Associate Has a Bad Attitude
I love it when I get feedback on The Actors Voice: POV. Sometimes I worry that regular readers of The Actors Voice forget it even exists. (Psst! Did you see the amazing four-part series from…
Jingle Singing
Once again we’re going to turn The Actors Voice over to a chapter from the now out-of-print Casting Qs: A Collection of Casting Director Interviews. This time up, the topic is jingle singing. Yeah, that’s…
Analyzing vs. Bulldozing
You may recall that last week’s Your Turn from Peggy Lane O’Rourke was a response to my column called “The Let-Down.” Well, her contribution has gone on to inspire feedback from another reader, Jay Prichard….
Toughen Up
Seems to be going around. There’s an outbreak of bad manners intersecting with a heightened level of sensitivity. And it has caused my inbox to become filled with emails from actors wondering why casting directors…
Community, Creativity, and Cheers
I arrived early. Way early. So early that for the first time I actually found a parking spot on the street when I did my “lap before committing to the parking deck” and then sat…
Not Meant to Be
After posting my “teaser” for the column entitled “The Let-Down,” I received this comment from a busy working actor friend of mine: Oh my God. I actually just said “Oh my God” out loud when…
I’d Like to Thank the Academy
Last month, I tuned in for some fraction of the Emmy Awards. Truth be told, I’m a bit of an award show junkie, so it was really bizarre that I had absolutely zero interest in…