Off to class. Spoon River work.
Did my verse, Paul McNeeley. Went really well. I was very happy with it and so was T. Nice! On to the next one.
L called me to see how the callback with Mr N. went and I told her that I couldn't have been happier with it and that it's all down to if I fit in the cast or not. She wished me well and said she'd like first night tickets! I told her that if I'm in it, I would love to get them for her.
As you can probably guess, I didn't hear anything today although it's probably far too soon for them to say yes or no. I'm trying to put it as far back in my mind as possible.
Went off to the park with the monkey in the afternoon and we played a lot!
Beautifully overcast skies today - a welcome relief.
Put a little folder pack together for my manager meeting tomorrow as I want her to be pleasantly surprised when I present her with a folder rather than a dozen scraps of paper and an armful of photos!!

Well folks, it was Paramount's famous Screening Stage today for callback no.3 in front of none other than Mr. Mike Nichols! Yep, that's right, the man himself. Everything seemed to go well and everyone including Mr Nichols was very very complimentary. He was so nice and the atmosphere was unbelievable relaxed and friendly. The song and scene went well and he asked me to read for another role and I took the sides out and had five minutes before I went back in and read (and sang) the new role. That went well too. What can I say other than I did as well as I could, I don't think it could have gone any better. I suppose it's in the lap of the gods now and there's nothing I can do to sway the outcome. If I don't fit for whatever reason, then so be it. It could be for a ton of reasons such as matching up parts or them wanting to see other people from Vegas or NYC so there it is. We'll sit and wait. I'll let you know. Whatever the outcome, nothing can alter the fact that Mike Nichols has seen me audition and that's a good thing whichever was you look at it! I'm happy with that.

Unbelieveably excited! Had callback no.2 today and I'm going in for callback no.3 tomorrow. This, apparently, will be the final one and I'll get a yes or no. You won't believe who's on the panel tomorrow... I'll tell you tomorrow. Thanks for wishing me luck today, dear reader. An extra helping for tomorrow please! Thank you.

Class first thing and I worked with S. We had worked out a relationship yesterday so we were able to think about it overnight, the point being that the relationship had time to work on us and give us more 'pinches' in the exercise. It went fine although T did give us the latitude to work even more on what is truthful in such a relationship and let whatever comes out, come out, as long it isn't playing any story but rather is truthful, in the moment. He then went on to give examples of some exercises in which the relationship was so 'filled out', the partners actually surprised each other by using other members of the class or appearing at the door with different clothes on or clutching items which would be truthful to a given circumstance (and the realtionship worked out with the partner) but its presence really changing any preconceived notions the partner may have had - one example being that a couple had had a fight and were maybe going to divorce and had not seen each other for three days before the start of the exercise but the door person turning up with chocolates and flowers and totally flattening any preconceived thoughts that the activity person may have had about playing out an enormous fight or a slammed door - either of which may have happened, of course, but allowing more scope for interesting pinches. Nothing that the door person had done was playing a story - rather they had added a totally different angle to the exercise.
Basically, we are learning to make our door/activity exercise more scenic and REALLY going for broke in the setting up of the relationship and the establishmen of the imaginary circumstances. Great stuff. Finally - this class work is really getting to be fun!
OK, tomorrow is my 2nd callback for SaL. Yes, folks, tomorrow is probably going to be the day which reroutes not only my next couple of years but those of my missus and munchkin. If I get the job, we going to be moving. Not too far but probably out of State. Yep! it's that big of a contract. I am listening to the soundtrack of the show as I have been for the last month and a half, several times a day, every single day. I've also assembled several alternate songs should one be called for (including my original audition song which I think is ideal and my callback song, both F&S ditties) although I'm probably going to be asked to perform the song from the show. I believe the producers of the show will be there tomorrow so it's really going to be a full audition panel, rather than the CD and her assistant. Not that there's anything wrong with just the CD and her assistant it's just that with the full panel, I really am going to be in the final few people going for the role.
Bolstered by the good news about callback No.2, I thought I'd follow up the packages I had sent out to some managers. Cut a long story short, I had 7 outrught 'No's', one guy even went as far as saying, "I have a ton of guys like you and with you age and lack of credits I wouldn't be able to give you away". Well, I guess he knows his business but I doubt he has anyone 'like me', in fact, it would be nice to go head to head with the people who are 'like me' and we'll see who walks away from an 'Act Off', shall we =). His loss. I'll send him a flyer for the show when I get it.
N.E.way, back to the tally... 7 Nos, 6 callback tomorrow/next week/next month, 3 we'll call you if we're interested when we've looked and... wait for it... 1 YES to a meeting! Quite funny actually, I called this lady and told her I was following up on an email I had sent her and she told me that she had just returned from Europe and she had a ton of stuff to go through. I said to her that maybe she'd like to skip that whole 'checking my material out' and go straight for the 'live' experience... I waited and she said 'sure'. Phew, here's a lady willing to take a risk on me because of how I am on the 'phone and the way I chatted to her without being swayed by resume or 'looks', rather she will meet me and make up her own opinion. Meeting's set for Friday. Hoorah! I hope we like each other because I'm already seriously going off this whole search for a manager thing.
Spoke to MB of MBA and although he actually returned an earlier 'phone call and he was extremely nice, he also said that the lack of credits was a block to him taking me on. BUT, he did say that he wanted to keep in touch (which I believe) and he said to look him up in February next year for a meeting to see how I was progressing.
ALso spoke to my director friend, MS who has almost finished his movie and is trying to get it colour-timed and have a rough cut ready for the Sundance subs date.
My friend Gaz is also going to submit a streamlined UC (let's hope he's cut out all the scenes that I sucked in) for Sundance and we're going to add some VO lines to accommodate a reworked script. Excellent! Can't wait!
Hum.. back to the script and dots for tomorrow. Wish me luck, dear reader.

Sunday was filled with fun and games with young'un, shopping for an outfit for the missus for a job interview next week, cleaning and song preparation for the upcoming 2nd callback. Can't wait! Oh, bathed the dog too! Nice. Don'tcha just love the smell of wet doggie!

Saturday and we had a peaceful day before heading off to the Huntington for an evening of music in the rose garden. Very nice. Slightly overcast which was a rather nice relief to the oven-like temperatures we've been sweltering in recently. Us and most of the rest of the world!

Callback day! Yes, it's finally here and I'm ready!
Decided to follow up on a few of the manager packs I sent out but after two 'No's I thought it might be a better idea to wait until Monday so as not to have too much neggie energy pervade my day!
Anyhoo, picked up the munchkin from school and headed home, changed and went to the callback for SaL (have you worked out the show yet?).
It was at the Hollywood Dance Centre on Highland and when I got there, there were a couple of chaps waiting. Other than that, the place was deserted save for the dulcit tones of the current auditionee warbling in an adjacent hall.
I had a seat and started chatting to the other boys and found two of them were there for my part and the other one was going in for a different part.
After a while, in I went, ready for anything! The casting director was there, her assistant and the pianist from the first audition. We had a friendly chat and I sang my F&S song, F&S being a rather obscure Brit comedy duo from the 50s but who proved to be a good choice for my first audition so I wasn't going to break the spell! T remembered the first one too! Anyway, the song went really well and they seemed to really love it, chuckling all the way through.
Onto the scenes and I performed one scene with T's assistant (who was great, by the way - really gave his all to help with the dialogue) and the other scene was pretty much just me.
How did it go? Well, at the end of the callback, T asked me if I was free early next week and that she would call when she had decided on the schedule so....
I took that as pretty positive!! Hoorah!
Pretty happy going home, I can tell you. Picked up the car from repair and headed home to see that my missus and littl'un had put some piccys in the window saying 'Great job, Daddy'. Ahhhh