Hello again, everyone. It's been a long time since I last worked on it, but I'm back at it, building my website, DerekVandi.com (hosted by FatCow.) It's not live yet because I want it to be visible to everyone only when it's ready and polished. Even then, as with anything in its maiden form, there will be plenty of things I'll want or need to change about it. I think I have the basics covered, so far - home page, resume, headshots/photos. I also have a page for testimonials about my work and a contact page with links to my Facebook page, Actors Access and Casting Networks profiles, my LinkedIn account, and so on.
My main concern (aside from the fees going up after my first year of service) is the video portion of the website. Having an acting website without a lot of video is kind of a futile enterprise. Don't get me wrong - I do have footage of my work, but a lot of it is from plays I've been in or film student projects. But you know what? I'm just gonna find my best stuff and put it up. You gotta work with what you got. As long as visitors to my site have some sort of idea of what I'm capable of and what roles I can fit, I'm happy. My hope is to one day have union commercial and studio film/TV footage to put on there.
Aside from working on my acting website, I'm staying busy in other acting-related ways. Wednesday night, the 11th, I will be at 5th Annual Alliance Austin Town Hall Meeting at Baby A's (more info here: http://theallianceaustin.com/page3.php) I'm not the best or most willing networker on the planet, truth be told, but everyone is a stranger until you make them a friend. You can't make everyone into a friend or even a colleague, but you don't have to. A wonderful artist, Misty Poe (check out her work here) reminded me that until I auditioned for my friend, Bridget Farias, for the role of Aslan in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," she didn't know me from Adam. Not only did I get the role, but I started a wonderful friendship with Bridget that has given me plenty of wonderful memories and has lead to me being cast in a variety of film and theater roles (the most recent of which are those of Mr. Davis and Professor Bhaer in the EmilyAnn Theatre's production of "Little Women," in case you didn't know.)
Friday night, the 13th (spooooooooky!), I will be in rehearsal for "Little Women." We're getting down to the wire, so it's time that I start incorporating my German accent into rehearsals, however embarassing and mechanical it may be at first. I consider it an honor to be given the challenge of what I consider to be the most technically difficult role in the play, in addition to another role!
Saturday, the 20th, will be my first day of class in Improv 201 at The Institution Theater (http://www.theinstitutiontheater.com/improv_classes.) I'm really looking forward to this. I've known for a long time that improv training is essential to landing commercial roles and I took a commercial audition workshop with Donise Hardy (http://www.acastingplace.net/) and an Improv 101 class with Shana Merlin (http://www.merlin-works.com/) years ago, but I never really sank my teeth into landing a commercial. I'm on the attack, now, though. So far, at The Institution Theater, I've taken Improv 101 and Tom Booker's Commercial Audition Workshop, but Improv 201 will be new territory for me. The 101 class was a lot of fun and really showed me what I have to unleash (and exposed my remaining challenges), so I hope 201 will help me build my revealed strengths and break through my current expressive barriers. Another thing I really like about The Institution Theater is the fact that they always have shows/networking events going on. I really need to go to more of those to mingle and just loosen up and have a good time.
Next Monday, the 16th, I will be at a script reading for a Robin Hood project that my friend and fellow actor, D. Heath Thompson is arranging. It will be interesting to see what this project turns into. I know the reading will be a somewhat familiar experience because I played the role of Robin Hood in a children's production of the same name that was written and directed by Heath for the Scottish Rite Children's Theatre (http://www.scottishritechildrenstheatre.org/) a couple of years ago.
The next night and Friday will be filled with more rehearsal. Saturday, the 20th, will be another afternoon of Improv 201.
In the meantime, I am proud to announce that I have "Germanized" and rewritten all of my Professor Bhaer lines, accordingly. I am going to contact a real German professor at UT Austin in hopes of them helping me finetune my accent. I really want to sound authentic up there and know in my heart that I've done my best to give the EmilyAnn's audience a quality performance. Aside from that, as I mentioned in my last blog, I need to develop backstories for Mr. Davis and Professor Bhaer, dissect beats and so on, but I think the most fundamental thing I need to do is figure out: why am I saying what I'm saying to other characters? If I don't know that, I'm just opening my mouth and making noise, being an "actor" just to be on stage and get attention. Nuts to that!
Goodbye, for now. Back to work!
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