23 June 2004
The Reel World Showcase
Laura Buckles invited me to see her work at The Reel World: A Showcase of Professional Actors at The Court Theatre, 722 N. La Cienega. This production, produced by Becky Meister and directed by Christine Brent, ran for four non-consecutive nights and is quite possibly the strongest independently produced showcase I've seen. I think the investment is well worth it, for working actors trying to get seen. I attended with Keith Johnson and Subhash Mandal, running into and hanging out with Bob Clendenin a bit as well. Good industry crowd. Didn't try the sushi or booze, but both were plentiful.
On to the talent!
Laura Buckles and Chris Cause did a scene together. It was so great to FINALLY meet Chris after all these years of knowing each other online. I observed that he plays a great "every man" and does a "bad attitude" very well. Laura is just so cute and has such a wonderful personality and physical build. She's really fun to watch!
Got to see Lissa Paalo work. It was good to see her again. I had brought her in on two feature film auditions last year. She's just so great. It's good to see her in more than a cold read situation. Anna Campbell showed good emotional control in her monologue, but I wasn't so sure I loved the material. It was a harsh adaptation of "Medea." The scene between Becky Meister (I really liked her) and Tom W. Chick was very well-played. He does "good-natured loser" really well and his choices were really committed. Great stuff.
Jonathan Brent did his "power monologue." You're sure he's done this a hundred times, and it still feels new. Great instincts and timing. I generally did not like the monologues as much as I liked the scenes in this showcase, but this guy could change my mind. Really great. Physically, he's Christopher Walken meets Ryan Seacrest, if you can imagine such a thing.
Cristina Cimellaro was quite good. I'd received her headshot in a kit for another show (one for which she was CREW... and I couldn't figure out why crew was including headshots in the packet, but whatever, right?) and it took me awhile to place her. Now I know why. As for her work, I wanted her to go quirkier with her choices. She's someone who could really benefit from a 15 Minutes of FEM performance. Yuri Lowenthal has great instincts and looks a little bit like Emelio Estevez. Pianist David H. Bickford was fun. He reminds me of Bill Murray and he's got great style. Very funny.
Overall, a great night of scenes (and a few monologues). This group was by far the most evenly-matched, in terms of talent. I'm so used to seeing a few really great people, a few non-great people, and a bunch of "only okay" or "just fine" actors. This night, we saw mostly really wonderful actors. Well done!
On to the talent!
Laura Buckles and Chris Cause did a scene together. It was so great to FINALLY meet Chris after all these years of knowing each other online. I observed that he plays a great "every man" and does a "bad attitude" very well. Laura is just so cute and has such a wonderful personality and physical build. She's really fun to watch!
Got to see Lissa Paalo work. It was good to see her again. I had brought her in on two feature film auditions last year. She's just so great. It's good to see her in more than a cold read situation. Anna Campbell showed good emotional control in her monologue, but I wasn't so sure I loved the material. It was a harsh adaptation of "Medea." The scene between Becky Meister (I really liked her) and Tom W. Chick was very well-played. He does "good-natured loser" really well and his choices were really committed. Great stuff.
Jonathan Brent did his "power monologue." You're sure he's done this a hundred times, and it still feels new. Great instincts and timing. I generally did not like the monologues as much as I liked the scenes in this showcase, but this guy could change my mind. Really great. Physically, he's Christopher Walken meets Ryan Seacrest, if you can imagine such a thing.
Cristina Cimellaro was quite good. I'd received her headshot in a kit for another show (one for which she was CREW... and I couldn't figure out why crew was including headshots in the packet, but whatever, right?) and it took me awhile to place her. Now I know why. As for her work, I wanted her to go quirkier with her choices. She's someone who could really benefit from a 15 Minutes of FEM performance. Yuri Lowenthal has great instincts and looks a little bit like Emelio Estevez. Pianist David H. Bickford was fun. He reminds me of Bill Murray and he's got great style. Very funny.
Overall, a great night of scenes (and a few monologues). This group was by far the most evenly-matched, in terms of talent. I'm so used to seeing a few really great people, a few non-great people, and a bunch of "only okay" or "just fine" actors. This night, we saw mostly really wonderful actors. Well done!
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