Spoon River class this morning and more torture served up in verse form! I really am enjoying the classes though and I feel so much more 'equipped' for the job with each successive class. This has got to be the best technique available, no question.
Remember I mentioned that this work starts to weed out the people who are just playing at this. Well, there's at least four people who haven't shown up for a couple of weeks (which is an eternity with this work) and T even mentioned one guy who would be kicked out of the class should he show up in the future! Not willing to do the work, you see! Yes, it's tough but it's getting to be enjoyable as you work out what the hell you are doing! I'm loving it!
Had a rehearsal with Y and we also chatted thru a short that we're formulating to shoot before she's too preggers! More info later on that...
Had a phone call from one of the managers I had left a message for - yes they do 'phone back, asking for my headshot and resume. That's got to be a good sign hasn't it!
Wrote a cover letter and popped the stuff in the mail.
Off to the park with littl'un and he had a wild time with a bunch of his friends who were there.
Well folks, the big callback is tomorrow and I can't tell you how much is riding on it. I have prepared the three scenes as much as I can and I'm very happy with them as they stand. Hopefully, I will shine tomorrow as we add that all important element - I have no idea what that is, I just know it has to be there!
Not sure about the song I've chosen as it's very focused on the part I'm going for and doesn't show off any of the other elements of my voice which they may want to see if they are thinking of me for another part.
Hey ho, we'll go with what we have and I'll do the best I can.

Wednesday...
R to school and in the absence of a Spoon River surrogate to rehearse with, I went to 'audit' one of the other advanced class and took loads of notes. Very good class but these guys aren't onto Spoon Rivers just yet so they all have it ahead of them. Nice! Incidentally, not sure if I mentioned this before but apparently, 75% of PHW students who get thru their training to reach the advanced level and start the Spoon River exercises don't make it past them. Three-quarters of the people just fade away! That's how tough it is to do this thing - properly! You have to work to be any good. You don't have to work to be mediocre. If that's what you want then don't do any work, just come to LA and call yourself an actor. Almost everyone else does. You'll be in good company...
Took monkey to Under The Sea for a couple of hours. It's funny but a lot of the parents (mostly mums) who I see there almost never smile. Not once. Yes, it's they right to be miserable but these people, supposedly loving parents, can't even find a smile to give to someone. I mean, how much does it cost? Oh, and then there are the Mums who go along with the kids... and also take their nanny too! That's real quality time with your kids isn't it. My god, it's no wonder lots of kids grow up screwed up.
L & L came over to play with munchkin and I went off to a screening of Pirates Of the Caribbean, DMC in Hollywood. Great film, superb cinematography, amazing special effects and pretty good acting too! Two and a half hours but every minute was needed for th story IMHO. Very entertaining Q&A with the two writers who were very interesting. Loads of tips culled from their varied careers in Hollywood Great. Podcast of the Q&A is available here.

Tuesday...
Went and dropped off the car to have the rear bumper looked at. It was damaged in the rear-ender a few weeks back with M & R in the car. Quite a thump by all accounts. Anyway, I drove it to the garage and parked it next to an Audi that was in very poor shape. Most of the left side was pretty much caved in. The windows were smashed and the side air curtain and the driver / passenger airbags were just sort of, well there, fluttering in the wind. Erie really. Actually looking at this very bashed car gives you a sense of incredibly energy for a split second and then silence. Maybe that's how the crash was. Who knows... Anyway, picked up the hire car - a Ford Taurus! I guess it's easy to bash Fords but it's not a bad car to drive, it's spacious and it goes like a nice, family sized rocket. Great acceleration on kick-down!
Came home and carried on making calls to potential managers. As I worked through them, the patter developed again and I managed another couple of people saying 'Yes, send in your stuff'. Did get my first 'No', from a Brit actually! Never mind, her loss really. If you're wondering... NO you can't play the Brit card in LA and expect doors just to swing open. Doesn't happen. The Brits I'm seeing everywhere have had decent (in some cases, very long) careers back home in Blighty before they made it here so no sour grapes there. It does help to be known by a London Agent and that's definitely my next step once everything's cooking here and I have some money coming in to pay the rent and feed the family - priorities!
Finally saw Brokeback Mountain tonight on DVD. Superb. A truly amkaing story showing how life and convention can get in the way of true love. Tour de force perfomances all around.

Off to class and had an activity with R. Went really well and T was a happy bunny. KC was pretty upset about something but I decided not to ask. I thought she would tell us if she wanted to. For pity's sake, I cannot believe that it's almost 100 degrees again. Good god - please give us a break.
Came home, prepped my manager packages (culled from Friday's ringaround) and sent them off to the post office. Be quick, my beauties. Bring Daddy good luck (and a bloody manager)! 'Phoned some more from the book and spoke to a really nice guy who was very open and friendly and asked for a headshot and resume. Googled him and the only client I can find for him is a pretty stunning blonde actress who has done a ton of stuff and has a list of credits as long as yer arm! Fingers crossed.
Watched 'Soapdish', Kevin Kline, Sally Field, Robert Downey Jr. and the very lovely Elisabeth Shue. Bloody hil-aiiir-ious. A true classic from the early 90's!

Sunday and up with lark, of course! My god almighty, it's hot again!
Basically, it was playday with the munchkin today! It's great to be able to play with the littl'un and not be crazy busy, ah yes.
Went and picked up the little lady from 'Get off your horse and drink your milk' Airport and came home again. We were very pleased to see the missus (and the mommy) back again! Ahhhh.
Watched 'What the bleep' and was completely mind boggled. If you really take the contents of this movie on board, it will totally change your perception of life and reality. The water thing and super positioning - oh my god - amazing stuff.
I was totally bowled over by this movie.

I shall quote Sir Elton here... #Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday...# and so on.
Another weekend and the missus is in the middle of the country somewhere. So it's Daddy daycare and we're off to a place called 'Fit for Kids' for a birthday party this morning. It was close enough to walk to although walking anywhere more than 200 yards in 100 degree heat is not, unlike brown paper parcels tied up with string, one of my favourite things. I digress. Fit for Kids is basically a gym for 36" people and I observed a very slick process for moving the little cherubs through various games and activities in what is, in effect, a large room filled with molded crash mats, a trampoline, a wall ladder and a couple of climbing frames. After that came a game focused on the birthday boy and the session ended with all the kids marching out to the food area to have cake and juice. This, of course, was the area most of the parents had been hanging out in talking about their various stuff away from the kids. Yes, this is yet another operation entirely geared to separating kids from their parents for a couple of hours - probably the largest business growth area in Southern California. That said, the host parents and the birthday boy were very sweet and littl'un had a great time, which is what we're after, innit?
Back home and I penned (typed) my letters to the various management companies I had had some success with on the phone on Friday...I said I was going to let you know what had happened during the calls, didn't I?
Well, my text for the operation was "Personal Managers and the World of Personal Management", available, as you are no doubt aware, from good old Sam Frenchs, the dealer for all things thesp for all actors on both Coasts. Through my own special technique, perfected over, well, several minutes, I choose the managers I thought may be a good fit or who were listed as accepting phone calls as first point of contact for new clientele. Yes, this superb technique normally met with one of a predictable set of responses..."Not taking new submissions at this time" or "What credits do you have", "we only take a certain type of person" or "send in your stuff and someone may get back to you"... that kind of thing. Some of the less formulaic responses were "Oh, she died last year... where did you see our listing", "I don't do personal management any more" or "we're more on the production side"...again, reasonable if not obvious. How did I do with my 'phone around you ask? Probably the best way to answer that is to let you know the attitude I was taking... You have to have a certain air and confidence about you...not arrogance but a sense of 'I have the cookie and do you want it? If not someone else will grab it'. Most passed on the cookie but by being fairly direct and concise, honest and polite I'm happy to say I made it past a few receptionists/gatekeepers to speak to assistants (who will be managers or agents themselves one day remember - treat them nice!) and in three cases, the actual manager themselves. The end tally, 3 took a formatted email and 5 asked me to write in with headshots, resume and cover letter. Not a bad total. A very productive day in moving the career forward I think! Back to my Saturday...
Today just happened to fall on the day where I could drop off munchkin for a few hours and take myself off to the cinema. So I did. Went to see 'A Scanner Darkly' which was very interesting indeed. Aside from the rotoscoping which was, of course, pretty unique and afforded the filmmakers a huge scope of effects, enhancements, characterisations etc., the story was pretty good. The acting was great - yes you could tell the acting was good even with the effects and it's well worth a look.
Hit a coffee bar close to monkey's pickup and waited out the rest of the babysitting period reading a play called 'Lobby Hero' which I'll probably do a scene from in class.

Give me a break. Is this person for real? I normally can spot a wind-up from 300 yards in the dark but this one I'm not sure about. I think they may be being serious...
If so, this could be one of the shallowest people on the planet. Actually, I take that back - the person who replied to the blog entry proclaiming their support and heralding the post as a work of insightful social comment is at the bottom of the pool.

Friday and up really friggin early to take my lovely lady to the airport to fly off to a BOT meeting for... well, what she does - none of your beeswax, dear reader. Littl'un obviously had a wonderful time watching the 'planes taking off. An amusing irony did present itself in that one of the many signs at the airport was a warning about jokes about bombs or terrorism being taken very seriously. The irony being that this was Bob Hope airport, named after a comedian. Well, I thought it was funny.
Anyhoo, munchkin off to school and me off to meet up for a rehearsal which ended up not happening. Reason? The person I was due to rehearse scenes from a particular movie script they had taken the lead role in (and was due to start filming in two weeks) was being ripped apart by a script doctor from PHW. Basically it was a good idea but very poorly written, poorly constructed, weak characters... the list goes on. Never having read it, I had no idea it was such a dud. Cut a long story short, the actor I was to rehearse with took the script assassination very badly, they understood the SD's points and advice (to not touch it with a 10 foot pole) but had geared themselves up so much for the movie that, pretty destroyed, they went home to formulate a plan to remove themselves from the project.
Going home earlier than planned, I took this a sign to start ringing personal managers in an effort to secure someone who would take the helm of my career ship and navigate me away from the brick wall I am currently banging my head off of in frustration of the fact that I cannot get any theatrical auditions AT ALL!
In all honesty, it isn't me. I know it isn't me! I'm primed and ready. 2 years at PHW, some good credits, SAG and AEA (Equity), Brit accent, cheeky, talented, committed, focused - holy shit - give me a break!
Of the 10 I called up... actually, you know... I'll let you know about them in a later post... need to sleep.