Hirosaki Theater Players

Got booked on the "Hirosaki Theater Players". I got this booking through Amy Gossels casting which proves even casting agencies that normally specialize in Principal roles are hurting in this crestfallen economy. The pay rate was something that is not appealing to announce, though I am doing it for comparison sake. Our rate was $35 dollars USD, not Japanese Yen.

Too bad it wasn't in Euros, it would be worth a lot more. Doing the judge shows back in the days, we would get $50.00, Dunkin Donuts coffee for breakfast, and pizza for lunch. Plus great entertainment factor especially how more twisted and "Ghetto" the plaintiffs/defendants were.

Though for the "love of art", or more like "love of money in my wallet", you make sacrifices and surrender your pride for culture and some "yen" to get through the next day.

Our location was at the Harry De Jur Playhouse at the Abrons Arts Center 466 Grand Street @ Pitt Street. The closest subway stop is the F train (Essex/Delancey stop). Getting to the location was a huge trek from the Essex/Delancey St. considering I was coming from Astoria Queens. Not a bad location if you live in the Lower East side.

After about an hour and a half commute, I got to the lobby of the building and was told to sit down where there were only two chairs. Actually I was "gestured" to sit down as they all spoke Japanese and the only guy who knew any English , or "broken English" , had a thick Russian accent and we needed an interpreter just to understand him.

I was the only one there at the time, or so I thought. I saw the craft table which had two urns, one with coffee, the other tea. On the table beside they had three paper plates. One had crappy butter popcorn, the other were filled with pretzels and restaurant tortilla chips, plain and without the dip. I was thinking "great, they did say there would be a meal, I guess this constitutes as a meal for a rat!"

When I was directed to the actual holding area, there were already a few friendly faces sitting at tables:

There was a spread of spaghetti and meatball dishes on the side that smelled real good, though we were not aloud to touch it until it got cold and all the crew members had their fill.

Of course we were directed to sit in the theater and drag all our stuff with us where they were to perform so the crew and cast could eat without our presence. Later on as the day into evening progressed, they did give us some "Asian sandwiches" with Surprise meat. By the time the sandwiches came, I was SO hungry and didn't care if it was made with "Dog" meat. I didn't care if it was an Asian , I was so hungry at that point. LOL. It was pretty good considering their budget. We spent most of our time indoors

The play itself is some kind of a Japanese theme play with lots of monologues. It wasn't that bad, long though. I think it’s about a troupe of Japanese actors who come to this country. What I found out later was that the director’s father is in the troupe, or something like of that nature. I didn’t get the whole story but that’s what I heard.

We finally got to see the act and it was interesting, especially if you knew Japanese, as there were no subtitles. The stage was very simple set with a wooden cabinet with wooden bowls where a beautiful Japanese Woman dressed in a fancy white dress, could have been her wedding dress, was fixing the dishes. On the side there was a Japanese school girl what appeared to be making or cleaning a bowl.

A Japanese nurse stood by the entrance/doorway to what was believed to be the home of these people.

The two main characters, another beautiful Japanese Woman though more despondent and serious in demeanour, gave a monologue. You did not have to be Japanese to understand that she was in despair and you got the impression that she was woman with purpose and fought to keep her family together through the war or something like that.

Cut to...the old man doing the monologue. As she finished, he continues with another monologue of hope for mankind. We really did not get it at this point. Though the old man did remind us of the actor Pat Morito playing Mr. Miyaggi as the mentor to the actor Ralph Macchio in the movie "The Karate Kid", as the character, Daniel Larusso. "Wax on; Wax off".

Then we were hearing the soundtrack to Karate Kid, "The Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera in our heads. Thankfully after the initial rehearsal, they did only a couple of takes.

After that we were sent back to the holding area to literally hold ourselves up from boredom. There was word that there was a "second location" which we were not informed of, and did sit well with some people because it was NOT indicated in the e-mail that we would all be in another location.

This meant that if you lived in the LES area, you got a raw deal. The second location was in Chelsea over by 23rd and 8th ave. The word was "they" would not go back to the first location.

In the "second" location is where the only exterior was shot and that was 20 minutes of being outside and over 4 hours of waiting inside for something to happen.

This was the exterior scene depicting us coming in to the theater and barely getting in to the sold-out "Hirosaki players theater" show.

I got home around 2 am taking the "E" train back to Queens, which really reeks at that time with the designated homeless marking their territory for the night.

All in all, it was a fun night. Probably would have been better if we were paid more, though still better than sitting at home watching the time go by.

Tell you though, after working for peanuts, a nice shot of "Hiro-SAKE" would have been a nice night-cap.

Sigh :(
A.

The LAST AIRBENDER OPEN CALL for ASIANS only!

The entire Month of February has been a complete write-off in terms of background work. Actually...it's been a VERY bad month for getting other job/income as well. What a huge struggle. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

So when you see Craig's List postings such as:

**BE IN A MOVIE!!** a MAJOR MOTION PICTURE filming in Philadelphia “THE LAST AIRBENDER” Based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon animated TV series, “Avatar”, the PARAMOUNT PICTURES & NICKELODEON MOVIES live-action feature film, THE LAST AIRBENDER, directed, written, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan, is set in a world where human civilization is divided into four nations: Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. NOW CASTING… MARTIAL ARTISTS, CRAFTSMAN, ARTISTS, DANCERS, GYMNASTS, FAMILIES, & GRANDPARENTS**

The part that I omitted from the original posting is this :Searching for… ASIAN-AMERICANS MEN & WOMEN, BOYS & GIRLS AGES 5-85

...yes not CAUC-Asian..JUST ASIANS!!!!

Though being the determined and resourceful person that I am, I went anyways. Actually it was my friend Steve who is now SAG, that mentioned this to me. So I figured, "I got nothing better to do on a Sunday, why not!"

I headed out to Roosevelt avenue subway stop and I picked up the "7" train. It was a nice and pleasant trip. I got a seat on the train and it was not jam-packed with ASIANS, as it is on the weekday. I got to Main Street in Flushing and I was in absolute shock. This area is literally Canal Street times a thousand!!!

WOW! I have never seen SO many Asians and Asian stores than on Main Street. I think they may have more Chinese than in China! Well okay maybe not, but close!

Part of the intrigue to going to this casting call was this posting on the Internet of a protest being held there: last airbender casting call protest in flushing.

The protest was because this "Avatar"/animated series consists of ONLY Asian characters. There is not one single white person in the series. However, when Hollywood produces a movie, they are the big money shakers and in order to sell tickets, have to make it as marketable as possible.

So in this case, they, "Hollywood People with 'deep pockets' to produce such a big budget film", decided to cast a female and male lead that are of "Caucasian persuasion", not ASIAN... NOT going to make the ASIANS happy , considering the original animation was cast as all Asians and gave the Asians a brand name. Now this "brand name" is being tainted all for the 'almighty buck', so to speak. Mess with the Asian product, you mess with the Asians.

Mind you it turned out to be a very mild protest with a turnout of only two brave souls and die hard fans of the avatar to stand out there in the cold and hand out fliers. Still these two young individuals stood their ground and maintained their space and proved they had a purpose. This was of course until they got booted off the premises and had to go across to the gas station sidewalk to continue their brigade.

As for this cattle call, I guess it was funny in a way that My friend and I were the only Cauc-Asians in that room on the 2nd floor of the Flushing Town hall where we had to fill out the forms. For once I was the minority and not just another thirties blond/white soccer "mom" type. When they called out "SAG" my friend was the only one out of about 100 Asians in the room that raised their hand. Still there is no way me or my friend will get cast on this movie.

We explained this to the casting person. As sad as things have got, you have to try everything in terms of the economy in crisis and lack of film and TV productions, you have to try everything.

Desperate Times indeed...

Sigh :(

Grant Wilfley Cattle Call for two feature films

I swore to myself that I would not waste my time going to one of these cattle calls. Last time I went to one of these, I had to stand outside for hours in a huge line of people just to fill out some forms and get a quick digital snap-shot taken. So it was no surprise to head out into the city and see hundreds of people with headshots and resumes in their hands, shivering in the cold waiting to get inside to the doors of the church where they were holding the "auditions".

This cattle call was at least at a decent location over by W.59th St and 9th avenue at the church of Saint Peter the Apostle. it's definitely a huge area to hold a throng of people, though there were just TOO many people to bring in at once.


I recall being in this church before when I was on that movie "Don't Mess with the Zohan" starring Adam Sandler and ended up being a horrible experience. I knew that the location of the church sounded all too familiar and when I got to W 59th and started walking across Columbus Circle,the flashbacks of the horror became all too clear. I will never forget the 3 days/nights on that shoot with NO food and No respect at all. Oh did I mention NO waivers for being out in the cold miserable rains...The list goes on, though I will stop here on that "Zohan Mess"!



I really know how things work too well and how to work the system. Why in the world I still don't have my SAG Waivers...Ask the "GOD of SAG Waivers" I wish I knew why I am still a non-union loser after all this time.



Moving on...So I got there and luckily I saw my friend "D" in line as soon as I crossed the street. Talk about luck b/c this means I avoided having to wait in the line wrapping around the end of the block. Eventually after standing outside for about a half of an hour, which wasn't too bad, we got inside to the church where there were rows of chairs for our next step to sit down and fill out a form which consisted of everything from your name to your bra size. Oh yeah don't forget color and make of your car, if you have one. Very Important information...



The two movies that they were "auditioning" for was an untitled "Nancy Meyers Project" and oh yeah...the movie that I auditioned for on a callback which I didn't get and would have meant a feature role and instant SAG..Named "The Sorcerers Apprentice" . Yes, I auditioned for the role of a Russian Woman and was really close to getting it, though it didn't happen.

Here is the original blog of my devastating failure and how I blew an opportunity of a life time:

http://annietalentsearch.blogspot.com/2009/01/call-backs-for-sorcerers-apprentice.html

So you can imagine how I felt even going to this cattle call. It's humiliating and embarrassing at this point. There I was offered a "Golden Opportunity" and it was stripped from me in an instant.

I'm sure the entire New York Actors Roster will be called for the one thousand people scene that they plan to shoot in April of this year. I'm sure I'll get a waiver for being in a crowd scene. Lord knows I was right beside Julia Roberts in "Duplicity" which is showing on Movie Trailers right now and I got NOTHING out of that.

Life is a long lesson in humility by --- J.M. Barrie --- I think I have humiliated myself enough and need to move on..

Sigh ;(

Taping of the "NEW" Newlywed game

Work has been really slow and you know times are bad when you accept game show tapings from Actor's Reps for income. The only way you can look at something like this is that it's money coming to you as it takes over 2 months to get paid the BIG $30.00/taping. Let's not forget the 10% commission. Times like this I really wish I continued higher education and got a masters degree in something.


On the other hand these days everything lacks originality anymore and ALL these supposed NEW shows are trying to capture the essence of the original success it had back in the 70's. They figure it's a safe bet and guaranteed recipe for ratings. In order to make it appear like it was an original thought, they put a twist to it and try to sell it off as a brilliant idea, when it is nothing more than a copy of a safe blueprint.


The "twist" in this 2009 version of the Newlywed game, they have only 3 couples as opposed to 4 as in the original one. Also the new host is a Woman now. In fact she has been a celebrity for decades and became famous back in the 80's with her hit song "Hold on to one more day!" Yes it's Carnie Wilson from Wilson/Philips. She was a great hostess and very friendly. She was also as big as a house being 5 months pregnant and all.

The segment that I thought was ridiculous was this segment at the end for a bonus round. The Newlyweds who win end up playing a bonus round with the "Goldyweds". Yes that's right, original Newlyweds back from that were on the show back in 1974. This is however not going to be on CBS, it will be aired on the GSN Or "Game Network" now.

Now the concept sounds great, though I was thinking as I'm sure many people were and that is how many couple from the 1970's could they possibly find that are still together after 34 years, still look good, and are still alive??

Not only that but it is really confusing as the Newlywed couple wins but then they have to play one more round and answer 5 questions to win a coffee maker or digital camera. The original ABC version was such success because of it's outlandish replies to the questions and catch phrases such as " Making Whoopee" referring to sexual intercourse.

The huge difference between now and the 70's is that we didn't have so much media and Internet at our exposure. Things have changed significantly and times are not as innocent as they were back then. Sure you had the "Watergate scandal" with Richard Nixon while he was in office, but still the times were simpler.

Now with all the new infrastructure and Internet, cell phones, texting, Facebook, My space, and of course the biggest change ever, a Black President. Who would have ever imagined a black man would get elected to office?? Well it happened.

As for this show, it may be a "neat" idea to bring it back, though not a great idea. You just can't bring something back 34 years later and expect the same results. It's a totally new era and it's a shame that there is lack of originality in these interesting times.

A.

On the set of "Nurse Jackie"

(Jan 30, 2009)

Late night on Thursday I get a call out of nowhere from Todd at Central to see if I wanted to work on "Nurse Jackie" starring Edie Falco. This was actually great because they shoot this show over at the Kaufman Astoria studios which is walking distance for me.

That was fine and all though when I got there the wardrobe people were SO picky about wardrobe. They made me change into over 10 completely different outfits. You would think that I would have a line for "project Runway"!

They had me in Business outfit to Business casual to "Mother Type" to Upper east sider to regular person walking down the street. It was absurd how many changes I had to go through. Normally I bring black pants, a grey jacket and other mute colors which I have never had any problems with and NEVER had to exchange my voucher in for wardrobe.

This time I had no choice and really couldn't debate as the "Gay" wardrobe guys were adamant that I had to wear grey striped pants which barely fit me. In fact when they asked for my size, I nearly cringed and had to whisper my size to him to avoid embarrassment. The only thing I wasn't shy of was my shoe size. Yes they also gave me a pair of shoes to wear which turned out to be a hindrance later on.

So the final outfit I got was such a pain in the ass to walk and breathe in. I barely made it up to the holding are up those flights of stairs with those shoes on and then I sat in those "theater" type seats and had to "lean into it" with fear that I was going to split the seams of those pants for barely fitting into them. My crotch was aching and I had a case of Camel toe. It was gross but I could not get out of it this time.

Of course all that detailed wardrobe for absolutely no point at all. Ended up sitting in the "make-shift" holding area for 5 hours until the PA from Porto Rico, announced it was Lunch. She is actually really cool and she sat beside me and offered me gossip magazines like People, US, and Star. Trashy but entertaining. that managed to kill 2 hours out of the five siting there.

When Lunch was announced, she, the PA, was actually surprised as well that it was a walkaway lunch at Astoria Kaufman studios. For one thing they have a cafe downstairs and plenty of food at all times. Well NOT this time. Since I knew the area well and my watering hole is just around the corner, I went to the Swick and got an order of Mozzarella Sticks and had two light pints of beer. Yes, my pants were barely holding on at this point.

I got back to holding after the hour long walkaway and of course they were still far from shooting the next scene. A couple more hours went by and they took all of us to set. Basically we were led from one holding area to another holding are. This one was in a "make-shift" corridor of the Hospital setting which was around the corner from the main set, so we had to be quiet like mice!


After about twenty minutes of speaking like "Church mice", the third AD named Angie, who is someone I don't like, and acts very sarcastic and condescending, comes around to pick people for the scene. I of course don't really care about being a "walk-through" for this scene. In a way I lucked out b/c the shoes that wardrobe gave me, were "too loud" and I couldn't be used at all! Gee what a shame. I tried to explain to Angie that wardrobe gave me these "noisy" shoes, though she didn't want a part of it, bypassed me and picked other people instead.

Since she couldn't use me because of the "noisy shoes", I was on the sidelines and sitting on a hospital gurney waiting for this dreadful day to end. Finally near the end at the very last scene, the PA called me to go into the waiting room and sit down as if I'm waiting and pretend that I'm helping out a friend who banged up his head. That last for about a minute, and then the Non-union were wrapped.

It is just SO depressing how it's bad enough that I'm not SAG, but to not even be AFTRA, is even more embarrassing considering how easy it is to get into AFTRA.

What's even more humiliating is that Greg was there, this guy who I started out doing this kind of work and now he is in both unions and I got nothing.

I was just happy that the day ended and barely held up my head and left the building and walked home. The was the only good part about the entire day,was the location.

Sigh :(

On the set of "CUPID" as Homeless patron (day 2)

(from Monday, January 19th)

I got my second day out of Cupid playing a homeless person. Either I'm really good at my role, or my picture up on casting networks is really that bad! The only good thing about playing the role of a homeless is that you don't have to get up too early to "pretty " yourself up.

Only a handful of people from Friday were selected to return on Monday. Still the message on Central Casting was even longer than Friday's. It was exactly 17 minutes long explaining how they wanted colors that "popped"!

The message went on and on how "Disney Homeless" are "Classy Homeless" and as should not have any holes in their wardrobe. Also they wanted colors that "POP". I can't stress this enough as it was SO ridiculous how many times she mentioned the word "Pop" on the hot line message line. I counted how many times she said the word "POP" in the 17 minute span. The count was 34 times!

So while we were in holding we had some fun and went through a list of things that POP! We toiled with everything from "Pop tarts to getting your Cherry Popped!" This game went on for a while and as we were amusing ourselves in our little circle of friends at our able, others were also mildly amused at our game.

You need something to pass time, and when it involves a good laugh, it's even better. In fact we did have a great time in holding that we couldn't stop laughing and took many silly pictures.

The few kids that were on set took it upon themselves to entertain and these three 10 year old girls spent over and hour doing charades with TV and movies as the topic. Those kids were really talented! As usual with all this stuff going on, I barely got through one page of my book and didn't even really listen to my ipod.

When things finally settled down, I talked to one of my favorite Pa's, Ellen. She is training to become first AD. She said HI to me immediately when I arrived that day. She knows me by name which is impressive b/c Anne is not a really unique name to remember.

She asked me how many waivers I still needed? I replied that I was embarrassed that I only have one. I really was and still am embarrassed. Truly. Some people do way less and get the SAG waivers for just breathing. I have done everything possible to get one to no avail. It's really depressing at this point. I am ready to give it all up.

So the way she asked me about the waiver felt as if she may help me out and give me a waiver. I have never asked her for one and I know how she hates people asking her for one. I was humble and didn't anticipate a thing, though I really thought I would have a breakthrough.

After already being in holding for over 8 hours, finally we were called up to set. It was the same soup kitchen we were in on Friday. This time we sat at different tables. I was directed by the AD to walk into the scene behind the main actress, who by the way kept flubbing up her lines. All I was thinking to myself was "And this is who gets the BIG bucks, amazing!"

Finally after she got her lines right, we got wrapped. I went downstairs and took my time returning wardrobe to make sure I was the last non-SAG person on line to sign out. I really thought I was going to get a waiver......I watched her write down the time and the lunch period, and then she signed it off for No -Union.. I WAS SO F'kin devastated, I have to tell you.

The way she asked me earlier about how many waivers I needed, I thought for sure that was leading to something. Obviously I was wrong. Even up on set my SAG friend Andi said I may get a waiver for where they placed me close to the principals.

Apparently not! If I was 20 years old and a size 2 barbie doll, I would have got that waiver NO questions asked. It really can be a cruel business, especially when you don't get ANY rewards for your efforts. It really blows. Times like this I wonder if I will EVER get into SAG.

Sigh ;(

On set of Ridgewood Bank Commercial

(from Sunday, January 18th 2009)

After a very slow week, I figured I would just chill at home and catch up on some of my administrative work on the weekend. I have tons of papers to sort through. It is true when they say that things come into your experience when you least expect it. This reigns true as I was not planning on anything and then all of a sudden I get a call from my friend, Steph, who I have not heard from since last year or seen on any background sets.

She was going down her list and gave me a call to see if I wanted to do this Bank commercial. At first I was hesitant because I really hate working on Sundays. It sounded on the message that they (production) really needed people, and since it was a paid gig, and being financially crippled right now,I sure won't /can't turn down money!


So she gave me the details really quickly as she was on set when she called me. She gave me the info and the call time which was for 7:30 am to be over by the film center on 9th ave. Now that is not a terrible call time, though since I have not got up before 9am for the past month, it was really hard to do so. Also I kept tossing and turning all night long as I was worried that I would miss the alarm.


I got up at 6am and tossed some business casual clothes and headed for the subway. Sunday subways are the worst subways. I waited over 25 minutes before some light appeared through the dark tunnel with the train approaching. Finally I got on the "E" for "Evil" train and surprisingly the regular homeless guy was not on board. Guess I missed his shift!

I got out at Times Square 42nd street and exited out to a very snowy Sunday morning, and vacant streets of Broadway. I felt like I was walking in my own musical as the big fluffy chunk of snow were falling and Times Square was sparse of people. Maybe only one or two people tinkled past, but for the most part it was not the usual chaotic mess it can be in that area. It was peaceful and euphoric. Definitely a rare moment indeed.


I arrived at the "pick up area" on 9th ave right on time. I went into the lobby of the building where my friend Steph was and to my delightful surprise, my very good friend Bill Rapp was there as well. I knew it would be a good day from that point on, and it was.


After about twenty minutes, some of us got into the first van that was to take us to the actual Ridgewood bank in Queens. Through the inclement weather our driver was very cautious and drove extra slow for safety purposes. We arrived to location in about half an hour. We got out of the van, went inside through security to get our badges for the day and then downstairs to a nice array of big fluffy croissants, muffins, danishes, and much needed coffee!

About an hour later, we were led back up stairs to get to set, which was the bank. Our job was to be customers at a bank. Bill Rapp and I were assigned to each other to portray a couple at the bank. We had our deposit slips ready and went from the line to the teller a thousand times over and over. We made SO many deposits and got the same lollipop in return that was given to us by the teller as a thank-you for our patronage.

As we were standing in our second positions waiting for the director to call "Background Action", we stood by our teller friend who turned out to be a really sweet girl. We started talking and I found out that she lives in Astoria too. Not only that she also lives on 49th Street! I live on 49th street! Talk about coincidence. This bit of information really came in handy later on when it was time to leave.

The commercial itself moved relatively slow as many of these productions do. You would think that because they are using the bank itself that it would be easy to shoot this commercial. Not so much. They designed the commercial around a full sized bed that was placed in the middle of the bank.

On the bed they had this black man laying in the bed and pretending to be sleeping. Talk about the best role! All he had to do was lay in that bed while the other bank activity was going on. In the scene his wife gets up form the bed , puts on her housecoat and slippers and interacts with one of the bank managers, while her "husband" is still sleeping and totally oblivious to what is going on because he actually fell asleep for real!

During break, Bill and I thought the concept was great about wanting to take a nap while waiting in line to get banking done. So Bill and I tried out the bed for ourselves and came to the conclusion that the bed was indeed comfy.

The rest of the day was dragging by after that. We had lunch which were platters of sandwiches and cold pasta salad from a local restaurant in the area. Our eating are was in the basement of the bank where the real employees eat during their shift. There was a TV down there and all the guys were swarming around the TV watching their precious football. After Lunch we went back up to set and they were doing close-up shots of the bed and the actors.

Finally as the evening was setting in, they moved on to the next commercial which involved a motorcycle in the middle of the bank. This Woman who looked liked she rode bikes on a regular basis, rolled the Harley to the middle of the bank where they were to shoot the scene. I think she owned the bike b/c after she brought the bike in, the commercial evolved around 2 guys on the bike in the bank.

Bill Rapp and I did a quick walk through and that was about it. Since they used us so much in the first scene, they really didn't need us. That was a relief because it was getting late. The young teller that I was talking to earlier already told the director that she had to leave, so I followed suit and we caught a car service back to Astoria.

Got home around 9pm. I was lucky to meet up with Heather to take the car service home together. The other option would have been going all the way to the "L" train through Manhattan and all the way around back to Queens which would have taken over 2 hours.

This wasn't a terrible expereince, though I must admit that it sure was not worth only getting paid 75 dollars for a commercial like this should have been at least $150.00. Oh well the way things have been as of late, you have to take ANY money that comes in, no matter how bad the wage is.