Andrew Wade acting, living, politics, writing

Life as Seasons of Television

The old season is ending. Long live the new season.

***************

English: Icon of television that is off
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I often consider my life in the metaphor of a television series. (I like structure.)

Lately I’ve been looking at each year as a season. And since I’m not yet too far removed from 20 years of education, each year begins in September. Now, with any good episodic television show, there are individual stories and arcs that last over a few episodes, two-parters and the like, but there are also season arcs, overarching stories and themes that have their feet in every minor story that year. An arc could be a career path, a relationship status, a focus, a series of coincidences, health, friendships, projects… anything, really. What makes a season arc what it is is that pervasive nature with which they are progressed (or obviously stagnate) throughout the whole season. It’s these arcs I’d like to pontificate over.

THIS SEASON’S ARCS

This past year (September 2011 to September 2012), significant arcs I can identify that have made their way into almost every day of my life are (A) my career goal to connect with the Vancouver theatre scene and find paying work doing theatre, (B) reconnecting with my family (as last September included a move close to home), and (C) Being single without letting myself be single. (Like I said, stagnation can be an arc as well.)

English: TV icon
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As for (A), as with good TV, it started with a BANG (four days to write and learn and build a Fringe show for Vancouver Fringe?), then fell into a rhythm of better paced growth experiences throughout (A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Great American Trailerpark Musical, The Boys In The Band, IGNITE!  and The You Show with The Romantics, Shpadoinkle Day, and the National Voice Intensive), and showed a strong arc build, with my recent paid work at the Kelowna Summer Theatre Festival. This arc emerged from last year’s season finale (Stage manage, direct, and write/act in three different shows for Victoria Fringe?), and this year’s finale features an echo of last season with a return to Henry V with KeepItSimple, and an unexpected call from Bard on the Beach, asking if I could audition for them – a call I did not receive last year. The finale of this month also helpfully points toward plotpoints for next year, with auditions for paid work and opening hints of Dracula: The Musical.

For (B), seeing my parents and siblings every few days has been a blessing, giving me a sense of roots and the resolve to stay on the mainland and follow my path, rather than find somewhere to hide. An anchor.

television
(Photo credit: Walt Jabsco)

And with (C), well… all I’ll say is I went on a total of three dates all year, and that while this year’s season finale won’t be what I’d hoped for, it might be what I need. As with many real television shows, this season will end with a meeting at a party. (Part of the reason I think in arcs is an act of hope and will that there will indeed be a great shift ahead.)

NEXT YEAR’S ARCS?

While I’m no clairevoyant, here are my predictions for possible arcs:

(A) Film and TV. I want to make a big career push in film and TV. I expect a slow build-up with student films, extra-work and the like, but I’ll happily accept a break if it comes. 🙂

(B) The Move Into The City, Proper. Not only does my family look like they may finally move out of Richmond after many years of pondering doing so, but the building I am currently living in is due to be demolished at some undetermined point – most likely in a year’s time. Just in time for the big finale. 😛

Television
(Photo credit: davydubbit)

(C) Breaking The Social Isolation. Tied to the former arc, perhaps living with other people again, but more importantly, cultivating strong friendships and accepting new beginnings on the relationship front. More evenings spent with people, and not just for the purpose of rehearsing.

(D) Income Boost. Be it a successful passive income project, a lucky opportunity to act in a commercial, or something else, I expect growth from last season’s 10k income figure.

Other possible arcs include: Writing regularly / getting published (though I’m not sure I have the discipline for this in me, quite yet – through perhaps writing/running a D20 game could be a step), bouts of depression, a brilliant romance (apparently there’s still a hopeful romantic in me), connecting to political spheres, and connecting to nature (a highly rare experience throughout all of my life).

NOW.

Now I head off to Victoria for the season finale – a step into my old world to see what experiences, which people, I’ll get to take from it into next season’s arcs, and what will get left behind.

I don’t know what will happen, but I plan on following the metaphor through. I want a big finale, with this season’s arcs resolved or transformed into something new. Next year’s arcs set-up. Surprises. A cliff-hanger. When I return to the mainland, I want my life to have been inexorably changed.

So if you want to help write the next season of me, or become a regular, now’s the best time to make a guest-starring appearance.

I need something big to happen so I can begin next year feeling renewed.


(yes, I ended this on a pun.)

Cheers,
Andrew Wade

Andrew Wade acting, writing

State of the Person Address – December 2011

Well, then!

Life has a way of quickly coming to a head. After the madcap rush that was Vancouver Fringe, my life held to a quieter pace afterwards. Working extremely sporadically, the only large project on my plate for a while was A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. And to be honest, in that timespan… I felt sluggish. Like I wasn’t pressing forward adequately, wasn’t being productive enough to meet my own standards. After that came to a close, I quickly stepped into rehearsals for The Metro’s Christmas Panto (Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves – with our preview on Thursday), but still, my plate was somewhat insubstantial.

Then in the past two weeks… how about a week of full-time training for my new part-time job at Science World, two bike flats, three auditions, two exciting job interviews (including one for voicework on a game), four Fringe Festival draws (none of which chose me, sadly), a ladyfriend event, a trip to Victoria, applications to other auditions, several job shifts after the end of training, and final Panto rehearsals.

Whew.

This has meant that other enterprises (such as signing up as an extra, finding a film/tv/commercials agent, learning how to drive) have fallen by the wayside for yet longer, at least temporarily, but I have also been pulled through a furious bout of productive and exciting living. So I’m relatively content.

If you know me, you know I prefer a busy, full, active life. 🙂

Here are a few of the projects coming up for me:

Yes, I wear one. Yes, that makes me tickled pink happy.
  • Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves – A Christmas Pantomime! – I play Wakey Faker in this silly, funny, family-friendly funtimes pantomime, complete with Dame, singalongs, Oh-No-You-Don’ts, much musical choreography, and an audience encouraged to heckle the actors. Plus, with British parents, I needed to be in at least ONE Panto. Just had to happen. And I get to play a romantic lead! Sort of.

    • Venue: The Metro Theatre.
      The Metro’s Website.
    • Show Dates:
      Evening shows at 7.00 p.m. – Dec 16,17 ,22 ,23 ,26, 27 , 29 , 30 January 2,5,6,7
      Matinee shows at 2.00 p.m. – Dec 17, 18, 26, 27. January 1, 2, 7
Original poster.
  • The Mystery of Edwin Drood – My second foray as an actor with Fighting Chance Productions, and my first chance to work under director Ryan Mooney. Working in the ensemble, I’m sure I’ll grow my choreography skills with this Tony-Award-winning (Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Performance of a Leading Actor in a Musical – 1985) that comes complete with multiple endings determined by audience vote.

Geodesiceriffic!
  • Science World part-timery – An incredibly flexible part-time job encouraging curiosity in children and adults in a great working environment. True, it’s minimum wage, but there are far worse ways to earn rent to allow for more theatrical endeavors. So happy to be back. 🙂

    • Venue: Telus World of Science.
      http://www.scienceworld.ca/
    • Show Dates:
      Whenever I’m scheduled!

      I made a graphic for the show! Like it?
  • The Romantics @ The You Show! – The month of May will be a busy one for my script, The Romantics, a winner of the 2011 Vancouver Young Playwrights Award. On May 12th, in Victoria as part of The You Show!, a full-length, two act version will be performed/workshopped, script-in-hand (so, a staged reading, with two or three rehearsals having taken place beforehand).

  • The Romantics @ IGNITE! Youth Festival 2012 – As part of the prize for winning the 2011 Vancouver Young Playwrights’ Award, I get to see the first act performed as a one act play at IGNITE!, full costume, with mentored young actors and director. But before that, I get to be mentored on script edits by Vancouver playwright Amiel Gladstone

  • Sin City Improv – While I’m not in Victoria anymore, I’m hoping to come back and guest-act for an episode or two, if I can, because the show is fantastic, the show is challenging, the show is hilarious, and the people are simply… family.

  • 4villains.org

    4Villains.org – I’ve been recast after they decided to move their Master Malevolent scene to a better location. But no worries! They are writing me a larger, recurring role that I should do some filming for relatively soon into the new year. The dedication this crew has for this project is nothing short of inspiring. Marvelous people. The website is up now! First episode airing later this month! Check’em out!

  • Clown Doctoring? –  Next month I have an interview to potentially become a clown doctor? Another part-time job, and it’s unlikely I’ll get it (strong competition for limited spots), but too amazing an opportunity not to want to share with you. 🙂
  • Auditions ahoy! – Aaaaand hopefully one of my recent auditions will pan out and become a paying acting opportunity – my first since graduating, outside of Fringe. Thus far, the shows I’ve been doing have been out of the kindness of my hear, for training, and just because while paid opportunities take priority, I would rather act and not be paid than not act at all. 🙂

    • Venue: Vancouver? Victoria? Vancouver Island? Alberta? Toronto? Anywhere!
    • Show Dates:
      Hopefully soon!

My summer is looking rather nebulous, with a string of Fringe Festival rejections (Okay, I just wasn’t picked out of their hats, but they still sting like rejections, a bit). Thus far, I’ve only been accepted into London, Ontario’s and Regina’s Fringe Festivals. Not enough for a tour. Winnipeg chooses next.  Hopefully, one of those paying acting opportunities panning out will make this decision for me, but if not… I need to realistically look at whether or not I would be able to break even on this Fringey endeavor, this year.
I hope to see you at the Panto! Be loud! Be grand! Stay awesome.

Cheers,
Andrew Wade

Enhanced by Zemanta
Andrew Wade acting

State of the Person Address – August 2011

Life keeps rolling forward!

With a future move to Vancouver on the horizon (without a job or a place to stay yet in place), my needing to leave the house I’m currently living in right in the middle of Victoria Fringe, my pushing to spend valuable time with people in Victoria before my soft exit, and all my many theatrical ventures, life is full and busy and excellent.

Here’s what I have on my plate:

BFA: The Musical!
    • BFA: The Musical! – I am directing this show as part of the Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival. It is a fun, silly musical surrounding graduates with shiny new Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees coming to terms with the fact that having a degree does not make you immediately a ‘local celebrity’. The show comes complete with a brilliant seven person cast, a fine tech crew, original and local music, dancing, large props, and much silliness. It is a blast to work on.
William vs. The World

William vs. The World – A few new venues opened up, which has let me sneak in my one man show into The Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival!

  • William vs. The World is a hilarious, geeky adventure surrounding that narcissistic guy at the hobbies store who knows the world revolves around him. With Chuck, his trusty cactus, at his side, William is happy… until – to his horror – a woman falls for him, the All-Spark fails him, his life falls apart, and William loses himself in Bat Country. Through it all, he may become a better person. Maybe.
  • Previously work-shopped through UVic‘s Festival for Innovative and New Drama (FIND) and performed at this year’s UFV Director’s Festival, William vs. The World layers references to He-Man, Transformers, Spider-man, Serenity, The Ghost-busters, and pop culture with a frantic, manic character study of a man desperately clinging on to a life that may not be as grand as he suggests it is.
  • Venue:Venue 12 – Canadian College of Performing Arts (CCPA) – 1701 Elgin Road, Victoria, BC
  • Show times:
    Thu, Aug 25 – 8:30pm
    Fri, Aug 26 – 7:45pm
    Sat, Aug 27 – 6:00pm
    Thu, Sept 1 – 5:30pm
    Sat, Sept 3 – Noon
    Sun, Sept 4 – 5:30pm
  • Event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=249348868426429
Sonnets for an Old Century

Sonnets for an Old Century – Completing my triumvirate of Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival shows, as of a few days ago, I am Stage Managing this show, written by José Rivera, a two-time Obie Award-winning playwright and Academy Award-nominated screenplay writer. Which is pretty darn sweet.

  • I am delighted to get to work again with so many great people in Victoria’s acting community, from Holly Jonson, to Mily Mumford, to Shaan Rahman, to Bill Nance, to Alan Penty (who also features in BFA: The Musical!).
  • Venue:Venue 8 – Langham Court Theatre – 805 Langham Crt, Victoria, BC
  • Show times:
    Fri., Aug 26, 5:45
    Sat., Aug 27, 7:45
    Sun., Aug 28, 9:45
    Wed., Aug 31, 9:00
    Fri., Sept 2, 5:30
    Sun., Sept 4, 12:45 pm
  • Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139905722760543
Photo by Sarah Koury

The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party – Come drink tea with the Mad Hatter!

  • Share his journey into Wonderland – and his descent into madness – in an overly, underly, and aroundly eager show full of storytelling, songs, audience participation, improv, silliness, gravitas, and grins. Whether it’s your unbirthday or your actual one, this is one show it would be mad to miss!
    Tea is provided, but if you can, please bring your own cup.
  • Venue: Studio 1398 on Granville Island!
  • Show times:
    Fri Sep 09 = 22:15 to 23:05
    Sat Sep 10 = 16:30 to 17:20
    Sun Sep 11 = 13:00 to 13:50
    Mon Sep 12 = 18:45 to 19:35
    Thu Sep 15 = 20:30 to 21:20
    Sat Sep 17 = 20:00 to 20:50
  • Good Night Harold! – A night of long-form improv from some of the cast of Sin City Improv!
  • Theatreshorts – Possibly my last Victoria Theatreshorts!
  • 4Villains.org – Acting in roles for the 4Villains webseries/organization. Thus far, I have played Master Malevolent and The Green Gear for them.

    • Venue: www.4villains.org
    • Show Dates: The first episode should go up by the end of the year.
  • PirateAdventures.ca – Acting and improvising as a pirate, leading children and adults on a pirate adventure based out of Fisherman’s Wharf. Currently only for one or two days per week.
    • Venue: Fisherman’s Wharf
    • Show Dates: Intermittent shifts until I leave town in early September.
  • Unsound Innocence – Acting as a lawyer in a shortish film by HTVBC– excellent and crazy Hungarians who run a non-profit film company in their spare time. We wrap shooting on Saturday, hopefully.
    • Venue: Film Festivals
    • Show Dates: Unknown!
  • Steinway Grand – Also with HTVBC, this one will be a huge and exciting acting challenge for me – acting in a two-hander film.
    • Venue: Film Festivals
    • Show Dates: Should start filming whenever I can jump back to Victoria in Sept/October, I assume!
  • Vancouver Young Playwrights Competiton / IGNITE! 2012, for The Romantics – I won 1st prize with my play, The Romantics. The prize comes with mentorship by a Vancouver playwright from November through March, and a performance in the festival come May.

    • Venue: Probably The Cultch.
    • Show Dates: Performs in May of 2012.
  • Auditions, auditions, auditions! – Auditioning throughout Vancouver and Victoria. Many ferry rides, trying to secure something, acting-wise, for beyond September. No luck thus far. Which is to be expected. I need to work more on my auditioning prowess.

    • Venue: Mostly Vancouver.
    • Show Dates: Never ends. NEVER, EVER, EVER.

The future beyond September is a blank slate, but the next month and a half will be a wild, exciting adventure! Writing, acting, directing, and stage managing for Victoria Fringe (spread over three shows)! Performing a DIFFERENT show for Vancouver Fringe (why, Andrew, why?)! Looking for work and a place to live in Vancouver!

Life is joyous, hectic fun.

Cheers,
Andrew Wade

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Andrew Wade acting, living, writing

Predicting Future Careers

Arabic Question mark
Image via Wikipedia

Predicting Future Careers

It is said that people of my generation will have more careers than ever before – the world moves too quickly, too insecurely, too excitingly, for many of us latch on to one profession and hold it for 40 years before retiring. That in mind, I thought it might be a good thought exercise to try some long term planning/predicting on my own career threads as they weave through my life.

Essentially, I have just highlighted certain areas that excite me, and am extrapolating somewhat from there to guess at when each thread might assume some degree of prominence.

Note: The year I designate as the year the career starts suggests that it becomes more of a focus in that year – not that the new career eliminates prior careers (I take them as cumulative). For example, I plan on acting all my life – the subsequent careers don’t exclude doing so.

This is far from an exhaustive list.

PAST:

1986 – Born in Lansing, Michigan, USA
1987 (eight months old?) – Moved to Richmond, BC, Canada
1990 (age 4) – FIRST CAREER – STUDENT – entered kindergarten.
1993 (age 8) – First acting role as the title character in The Littlest Christmas Tree.
1996 (age 10) – Entered Late French Immersion.
1998 (age 12) – Entered Hugh McRoberts Secondary School. Performed in over a dozen theatrical productions while in high school.
2004 (age 17) – Directed Opening Night.
2004 (age 17) – Awarded the Outstanding Theatre Performance Award from Hugh McRoberts Secondary.
2004 (age 17) – My first venture as a playwright – Teenspeak performed Pinecone Wars, an exaggerated, autobiographical story from my elementary school days. Brilliant to experience.
2004 (age 17) – Entered the University of Victoria, in the Writing program.
2006 (age 19) – Missed acting too much. Joined the theatre department as well.
2006 (age 19) – Auditioned for the acting stream. Did not get in.
2007 (age 19) – Assistant stage managed (props) for Wind In The Willows. 31 actors and almost 400 props in the show.
2007 (age 20) – Auditioned for the acting stream. Got in.
2007 (age 20) – SECOND CAREER – SCIENCE FACILITATOR – Second summer co-op work term, as a Science Facilitator at the Telus World of Science. Included designing a puppet show book.

Question mark in Armenian
Image via Wikipedia

2008 (age 21) – THIRD CAREER – WRITER – Won second place and honourable mention in the Vancouver Young Playwrights Competition – Hullaboo and High School Noir were performed the next summer at IGNITE! 2009. Had script chosen for the CineVic Film Slam – “The Just The Facts Ma’am Show”; the subsequent (really well done) video can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN0ZEJmpIJM .
2008 (age 21) – Acclaimed to UVic Senate as the Fine Arts Student Senator.
2008 (age 21) – Third summer co-op work term, as an Outreach / Tour Assistant at TRIUMF, Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics. Included designing tour signs.
2008 (age 21) – Awarded the Keith Provost Memorial Scholarship in Theatre for possessing Keith’s special qualities such as dedication, a love for acting and playwriting, a humble gratefulness for opportunities, a positive and upbeat nature, a free−spirited and somewhat rebellious side, and an unselfish and modest attitude.
2008 (age 22) – Joined the Impromaniacs.
2009 (age 22) – Elected to UVic Senate as the Fine Arts Student Senator (had to defeat someone else in the election this time).
2009 (age 22) – Fourth summer co-op work term, as an Astronomy Interpreter at the Centre of the Universe / Herzberg Institute for Astrophysics (HIA-NRC). Included making posters.
2010 (age 23) – Acclaimed to UVic Senate as Fine Arts Student Senator.
2010 (age 23) – Fifth summer co-op work term, again as an Astronomy Interpreter at the Centre of the Universe / Herzberg Institute for Astrophysics (HIA-NRC). Included making posters for guest speaker events.
2010 (age 23) – Won the Martlet Short Fiction Competition for A Journey of Barren Landscapes.
2010 (age 23) – Won the Keith and Shirley Wagner Prize for Writing – Most outstanding achievement in the field of dramatic writing, stage play, radio play, or script.
2011 (age 24) – Won 1st Prize in the Vancouver Young Playwright’s Competition for The Romantics, to be workshopped, then performed in May 2012.
2011 (age 24) – Performed with Sin City Improv. Huge highlight.
2011 (age 24) – Won UVic’s Humanities, Fine Arts, and Professional Writing Co-op Student of the Year award.
2011 (age 24) – Graduation from the University of Victoria with a BA in Writing.
2011 (age 24) – Graduation from the University of Victoria with a BFA in Acting.
2011 (age 24) – Performed self-written William vs. The World (then William Fights The World) at the UFV Director’s Festival in Chilliwack. First time ever performing a longer piece of my own writing.
2011 (age 24) – Act in the film Unsound Innocence with Hungarian Television – my second project with them.

 

The Question Is What Is the Question?
Image via Wikipedia

POSSIBLE FUTURE:

2011 (age 24) – FOURTH CAREER – ACTOR
2011 (age 24) – Audition for Bard on the Beach.
2011 (age 24) – Directing BFA: The Musical! for the Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival.
2011 (age 24) – Performing self-written William vs. The World at the Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival.
2011 (age 24) – Learn how to drive.
2011 (age 24) – Move to Vancouver area.
2011 (age 24) – Performing self-written The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party at the Vancouver International Fringe Festival.
2011 (age 24) – Return to the Telus World of Science? (Hopefully? I need to contact them this week about seeing if that’s a possibility).
2011 (age 24) – Otherwise, work to pay my rent partly through extra / background performer work.
2011 (age 25) – I make my plays easily accessible online for cheaply licensing performances.
2011 (age 25) – Act in film Steinway Grand with Hungarian Television, in Victoria.
2011 (age 25) – Physically strengthen myself, so I can better remind people somewhat of a young Marlon Brando. 🙂
2012 (age 25) – Find a film and TV agent.
2012 (age 25) – Audition for Stratford.
2012 (age 25) – Take singing lessons.
2012 (age 25) – Perform at additional Fringe Festivals. Perhaps for several years.
2012 (age 25) – The Romantics is performed as part of IGNITE! 2012.
2012 (age 25) – National Voice Intensive in Vancouver
2012 (age 25) – Perform with Bard on the Beach (Hey, I can dream! And I have performed in six productions of Shakepeare’s plays in the past three years).
2013 (age 26) – Either joins a long-form improv group, or creates one.
2013 (age 26) – Get a short story printed in a well-respected literary journal.
2014 (age 27) – Go down to the States for the TV pilot season.

Opening (inverted) and closing question marks ...
Image via Wikipedia

2014 (age 27) – FIFTH CAREER – STAGE MANAGEMENT – I would love to do more of this. So long as I can act and write elsewhere as well. 🙂
2015 (age 28) – become financially self-sustaining off theatre, film, TV,internet, and writing work.
2017 (age 30) – either get my masters (in acting? Playwriting? Directing?), or enter a conservatory?
2018 (age 31) – First published novel.
2025 (age 38) – If unmarried, may choose to adopt.
2029 (age 42) – SIXTH CAREER – DIRECTOR
2035 (age 48) – SEVENTH CAREER – POLITICIAN – Run for some form of elected office.
2048 (age 61) – EIGHTH CAREER – VISUAL ARTIST
2052 (age 65) – I defeat cancer in hand-to-hand combat.
2063 (age 76) – Canada secedes from Quebec. I have little to do with this.
2084 (age 97) – Final stage appearance.
2085 (age 98) – Witty and wise, die a serene death.

 

Any thoughts? Do you think this is a valuable exercise?

Question mark
Image via Wikipedia
Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Andrew Wade acting, writing

State of the Person Address – May 2011

Ah, post graduation life.

For the past seven years (aside from the first summer), I have leaped straight from classes (Septembers through Aprils) to full-time jobs (Aprils through Septembers), with very little in the way of breaks. This time, however… well… there’s no co-op job to hold my summertime, and no school year hiding along the horizon. For the first time in 20 years (including kindergarten), I don’t have school coming up in a few months, and I haven’t even been working a full-time job.

So this month has been the closest I’ve had to a vacation in a long, long time. So of course I have done my darndest to fill it to the brim. Thought I’d write out a few of the projects I’m currently engaged with:

BFA Logo Mk1
    • BFA: The Musical! – Directing the show, complete with a brilliant seven person cast, music, dancing, large props, and much silliness, for the Victoria Fringe Festival.
      • Pays: Profit Share. So, perhaps 20$.
      • Timing: From now until the run, August 25th to September 3rd.
  • The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party – Writing, producing, and performing for the Vancouver International Fringe Festival. Just found out my show will be performing in Studio 1398 on Granville Island!
    • Pays: Hopefully I’ll make my money back, with a bit of spare change? Also, to positively expose myself to the Vancouver theatre community would be invaluable. I plan on offering a lot of comp tickets to do this.
    • Timing: Fri Sep 09 = 22:15 to 23:05. Sat Sep 10 = 16:30 to 17:20. Sun Sep 11 = 13:00 to 13:50. Mon Sep 12 = 18:45 to 19:35. Thu Sep 15 = 20:30 to 21:20. Sat Sep 17 = 20:00 to 20:50.

    Photo by Sarah Koury
  • Sin City Improv – a weekly, live, improvised soap opera every Tuesday night at the Victoria Event Centre (with only 3 episodes left in the season!)
    • Pays: with Booze and Pizza
    • Timing: Season finale on June 21st!
  • Theatreshorts – One Sunday night each month, performing Improv, and (as a gift from Dave Morris) directing an improvised scene in the second half.
    • Pays: with a drink and much laughter.
    • Timing: Every 4th Sunday of every month, until I leave town or until the show folds.
  • Henry V – Acting as the Duke of Canterbury and the King of France, in a KeepItSimple production.
    • Pays: with a challenge
    • Timing: Performances: July 21st, 22nd, and 24th, in the Phillip T. Young recital hall at UVic.
  • 4Villains.org – Acting secret roles for the 4Villains webseries/organization.

    •  Pays: Dude, I get to be a supervillain. Oh, and I had a burger at a BBQ.
    • Timing: I honestly hope to be coming back to work with these fine people for years to come.
  • PirateAdventures.ca – Being a pirate, leading children and adults on a pirate adventure based out of Fisherman’s Wharf. Currently only for one or two days per week.

    • Pays: ~12.00$ per hour, plus tips. Also pays in sunburns wherever I neglect to apply sunscreen. Though the sun-bleached hair highlights are cool.
    • Timing: Ends in early September.

      Sin City Improv
  • Victoria Walking Tours – leading tours around downtown Victoria.
    • Pays: Around 12.00$ per hour. Pay may depend on whether or not it’s a successful venture. Minimal hours per week.
    • Timing: Hasn’t started yet, should end in early September.
  • How Socrates Bought The Farm – Student film, I’m acting in it.
    • Pays: wih gratitude and a clip for my film reel. And experience.
    • Timing: Filming should begin, and wrap, over this upcoming week.
  • Unsound Innocence – Acting as a lawyer in a shortish film by HTVBC– excellent and crazy Hungarians who run a non-profit film company in their spare time.
    • Pays: They feed me, and there is a potential for royalties if it wins cash awards. Clips for my film reel.
    • Timing: Filming should wrap in July.
Henry V

Vancouver Young Playwrights Competiton / IGNITE! 2012, for The Romantics – I won 1st prize with my play, The Romantics. The prize comes with mentorship by a Vancouver playwright from November through March, and a performance in the festival come May.

    • Pays: a 600$ prize plus the above mentioned mentorship.
    • Timing: Performs in May of 2012.
  • Auditions, auditions, auditions! – Auditioning throughout Vancouver and Victoria. Many ferry rides, trying to secure something, acting-wise, for beyond September. No luck thus far. Which is to be expected. I need to work more on my auditioning prowess.
    • Pays: Pretty, pretty please?
    • Timing: Never ends. NEVER, EVER, EVER.

As you can see, outside of IGNITE!, my schedule beyond September (with the Vancouver International Fringe Festival) is still an inky void, and I’m not earning quite as much as I’m spending right now, but I have had a string of opportunities I’ve reached for, say yes to me in turn, so I am currently a happy, busy artist. Until September, at least, and more specifically, until my birthday, September 18th, the day the Vancouver International Fringe Festival ends. I’m content with being a working actor, writer, improviser, and performer as much as possible for now, with the hopes that the ‘paid actor’ part will come along in time. We’ll see.

Cheers,
Andrew Wade

Andrew Wade acting, living, writing

Graduation.

Wow.

Today was my graduation day at the Phoenix Theatre at UVic. For 4th year students, that means a whole lot of performing, a ceremony, and a celebration. For me, this meant:

  • performed a ~30 minute karaoke musical play (including singing ‘Grace Kelly’ by Mika);
  • performed in a collaboratively-written group movement piece with kerosened chickens, magical pills with potential side-effects that include kermit-the-frog-arms and the plague, and the Child Liberation Program (where, as an emaciated, liberated child, I got to be a lawnmower and a kite, before getting shot down);
  • performed a self-written/choreographed solo movement piece where I did a blindfolded roll, grew wings, and stepped off a tower to my death;
  • performed ‘I Don’t Care Much’ from Cabaret’
  • performed a monologue from Lovers, by Brian Friel, where I spoke of my love for my fiancee and hatred for my father, in an Irish accent;
  • performed a triumphant monologue as Mozart in Peter Shaeffer’s Amadeus;
  • and performed my self-written masque – a trek through my non-relationship misadventures, portraying 10 characters in eight minutes, including a riff off The Phantom of The Opera that went something like this:

It is true that, you’re a swearing smoker,
but there’s, something, there that makes me wonder,
your boyfriend’s not too smart,
though you deal drugs, you stir my heart…
is there any chance that you two may just part?
No, nothing between us will ever start…”

All that followed by a celebration ceremony with balloons falling from the catwalk and many, many hugs.

I deal with endings by launching headfirst into new beginnings, new projects, new works. This week, I also performed Theatreshorts and my second week as part of Sin City Improv, and applied for a couple of jobs, confirmed my involvement in a small theatre festival at the end of April… I’m doing that. Heck, after the graduation ceremony, I went to a rehearsal for an orchestra/choir performance I’m dancing for, tomorrow. I’ll keep moving, keep trying to get involved.

But these other engagements aren’t replacements. They’re new, but they’re not the way of life that being a student is, going to classes with the same people, day in, day out.

I’ve been at UVic for seven years. Both of my degrees end this month. SEVEN YEARS. I’m only 24. That’s almost a third of my life. That I’m letting go of.

This is going to take some time.

 

The Class, featuring Linda Hardy.

Cheers,
Andrew Wade

Enhanced by Zemanta
Andrew Wade acting

My First Play.

Me, in grade three.

My first word was ‘no’.

As a toddler, I wouldn’t let me mother hug me – I would squirm and squeal and try to get away, to the point where she could use a hug as a sort of ridiculous form of punishment. I was a difficult child.

Come elementary school, not too much had changed. I was miserable, with a childhood belief that everyone was out to get me, everyone a potential threat. I would wander around the school at recess, dreaming up scenarios of ‘if that person picks a fight with me, I can do this, and run there.’ Not that I was actually bullied much, but I believed I was, and imagined a grand social ladder with me and a couple of other people right at the bottom of it. And I felt it was better for people to know me and dislike me, than not to know me at all (my ‘rep’, as I would say).

Well, one innocent day in grade three, the opportunity came up to audition for the school play, The Littlest Christmas Tree. To this day, I still don’t know why, but I felt an urge to go audition. So I did. The audition consisted of going into a classroom where music was playing, and to dance to the music.

Apparently I had quite the moves (which I don’t), or the teachers just liked me (which they did), or I was the shortest kid there (which I was), but regardless of their reasoning, I got cast as the lead, title character. I became The Littlest Christmas Tree.

In the play, the older, larger trees taunt and tease The Littlest Christmas Tree, tell him how worthless he is, how he can’t do anything for anyone. Then, of course, the Littlest Christmas Tree gets picked. It wasn’t much of a stretch to act as though I felt persecuted. My only memory of actually performing the piece is the older trees walking in a ring around me, singing an insulting song about how mediocre I am, with me sitting in the centre of the stage, looking up at them with a mixture of grief, fear, and dejection.

What came at the end of the show was the biggest surprise of my young life. See, I hadn’t even thought about it – about how the play might be received. So I was taken aback when it ended… and the whole school, hundreds of students cramped into a small gymnasium, applauded. And cheered. All the way up to the grade sevens in my elementary school, WHO GOT TO SIT ON BENCHES AND CHAIRS. Yes, those ancient gods.

And as I stepped off the stage, they held out their hands, these BIG KIDS, like a row of welcome branches to either side of me, lining the walkway to the gym’s exit. So as I jogged out of that gym, I high-fived dozens of strangers, all so much cooler and more notable than I was. For that one moment, I was known, I was liked, I was… better than I thought I was.

Reflection? This means my theatrical ambitions grew partly from a desire for fame and recognition, which is not an ideal reason to be an actor. That said, it also came from that inexplicable urge to audition, to act.

And I am grateful.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Andrew Wade acting

What I learned: Acting this term

Snapshots on a few things I learned this past term, outside of class time…

Cover of "This Property Is Condemned"
Cover of This Property Is Condemned

What I learned from acting in This Property Is Condemned:

  • To always play my characters as being intelligent – as having intelligence behind their eyes. By doing so, I immediately become more observant, and look for new tactics and ‘ins’ in order to achieve my objectives. And eyes are the windows to the soul, after all. Gotta open up the curtains.
  • Playing objectives strongly (which means knowing them really well, first), creates better, stronger listening.
  • You’re listening for what you want to get.
  • Sometimes, it works to, before a performance, embody all the pain another character feels in order to get them in the right place – to interrogate them, mock them, demand of them, belittle them. This was hard for me.
  • Directly resulting from the prior thought, sometimes you’ve just got to let the gal REALLY HIT YOU before a show for her to really get into the emotional truth of her character. Thankfully, TPiC wasn’t a long run. 😛
  • When the audience reacts/distracts, listen even more intently to your scene partner.
  • React. Even if that means the blocking changes. If this feels too uncomfortable, you may not really know your character well enough, or be listening strongly enough.
  • When you listen for ways, avenues, possibilities to pursue your objectives, the show will work.

 

 

Picnic
Image by Mark Sardella via Flickr

What I learned from acting in a scene from Picnic:

  • My instinct is to shy away from the sleaziness of a character, to not play it, even when it’s there in the text. There’s a difference between being an advocate for your character and ignoring what’s on the page. Learn to revel in the sleaze. 🙂
  • I realize I am now perfectly comfortable kissing someone while in character. Back in high school, I wished I would get cast in certain roles so that I could do a stage kiss, because I didn’t have nearly the courage to kiss someone in the real world. Would have been nerve-wracking, back then. But I am older, wiser, more experienced now. I’ve even occasionally kissed in real life! 😛

 

 

Mike Novick
Image via Wikipedia

What I learned from acting in Titus Andronicus:

  • Audiences are less likely to laugh than usual, after just witnessing a 15-year-old girl be raped and have her tongue cut out and thrown at a tree.
  • Don’t try push the comedy. Didn’t work.
  • Running on several nights of 5 hours of sleep makes it difficult for me to pay attention to everything happening onstage and get my lines out with decent pacing.
  • For certan roles, it’s fine to start finding them by using characteristics from a pre-set template. In my case, I modeled the minor character Aemilius, a government bureaucrat who crowns Lucius as emperor, after Mike Novick from The Jack Bauer Power Hour (aka, 24). Piercing eyes, stern disposition, primary desire is the stability of the administration.
  • Fellow collaborators muchly appreciate personalized thank you cards. 🙂

 

 

What I learned from acting in a scene from A Doll’s House:

Alla Nazimova and Alan Hale, Sr. in a photo fr...
Image via Wikipedia
  • (note: last year, I had performed the exact same scene, but as the woman, Kristine Linde (in a corset, no less), whereas this time, I was playing it as Krogstad.)
  • I have a better recollection of the lines my scene partners say than I thought I did! Didn’t take long at all to get back into the words of the scene.
  • It is A-OK to experiment with different blocking options each time you run the scene, so long as the director knows that’s what you’re doing, and so long as you’re keeping aware in the moment of each decision and feeling which one works best.
  • Sometimes you need to give your scene partner permission to touch you.
  • I’m getting better at seeing when I, or my scene partners, aren’t following through on our impulses. Figuring out why that is, requires communication.

 

 

Credit: Dave Morris?

What I learned from assorted Improvised Theatre shows and events and whatnot:

  • It is really satisfying to jump back into a previously created and established role, and to continue on with that person’s story and arc. Pretty much why I enjoy collaborative storytelling (often with D20s). (Die-Nasty auditions.)
  • If an opportunity seems too good to be true, take it! It may just be silly-awesome-unbelievable. (The butler gig.)
  • Some shows are doomed from the start, but if that’s the case, take a moment to assess the situation, and figure out how you can put your best effort in to make what you can of it, because the original plan just ain’t going to work. (An Impromaniacs gig where the audience had been sitting around, listening to award speeches for over two hours, and then… well, as Chris Gabel so accurately captured:

Thank you ladies and gentlemen… that concludes tonight’s awards presentation. The bar is now open and there’s cake at the back of the room. Feel free to help yourself. Oh… and now… the Impromaniacs.

  • Some nights, everything goes right. (Theatresports/Theatreshorts.)
  • Some risks pay off so much better than you ever hoped. (Improvising a song to the title of “Stars on the Horizon” at the Phoenix Coffeehouse.)
  • Theatre is ephemeral. (not having any recordings of said song. I was certainly too much in the moment to remember it. So it remains just an experience for the people in the room, as theatre, especially improvised theatre, so often is.)
Enhanced by Zemanta
Andrew Wade acting, living, writing

Confidence and the 2011 Vancouver International Fringe Festival

Vancouver Fringe Festival
Image by Raul P via Flickr

Found out tonight from my Vancouverite friend Jullian Kolstee that I have been picked by lottery to perform in this upcoming year’s Vancouver International Fringe Festival.

Oh yeah.

My immediate reaction? Practical. Okay, now I need a script, I need to actively look for costume pieces – to make costume choices – and set pieces. And to decide whether I am using a second actor, or trying to pull off this show on my own. I’ve never performed by myself for more than five minutes – to do so for an entire Fringe show…

In a reaction that startles me, I’m oddly confident. No dread, no fear, but rather, a strange mix of eagerness, apprehensiveness, ambition, power, and hope. I believe, I FIRMLY believe, in my ability to pull this off and put on a good show people will talk about with their friends. Maybe even make them really feel. I believe.

What is the show, you ask? Well, I submitted an idea I’ve had for a while, but never put to paper in my concentration on acting over the past couple of years – The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. The Hatter, chronicling his life, from a regular person to his getting stuck in Wonderland, to his decision to turn to madness as a way of coping, or possibly as a way of finally finding happiness. I seem to have a preoccupation with people who choose the imaginary over the real, the absurd over the concrete. Perhaps because I have been doing so much of that in my own life.

I could have been a mildly successful, highly rational scientist. But I’ve chosen something different. I’m an actor. And a writer. And an improviser. And a man who hopes. Who believes.

And while I’ve been working on this aspect of myself for the past five years at least, it’s only in the past little while that I’ve felt the confidence, the assuredness, that what I hope for, what I believe in, I can achieve.

I recently stood up before the majority of the theatre department at UVic and did something I’d never done for an audience before – I improvised a song. Asked for a song title, then belted it, lived in the moment, came up with each line as I went. And I may have been quivering a little beforehand, but when the song started, I just went for it, because I knew I could hit the right mark.

This school term, I acted in a SATCo (Three Angry Pigs), in a directing scene (Picnic), in a directed study (This Property is Condemned), in classwork, in Theatresports, in improv shows with the Impromaniacs, and in Titus Andronicus. I chose to do EVERYTHING because I knew I could.

It's... Madness Too
Image via Wikipedia

I recently auditioned for a weekly improv show. In the audition, I performed alongside nine others, including many with decades more experience than I have. But I knew I could get the callback, and I did. We’ll see how that goes on Monday.

I signed up for the Vancouver Fringe Festival because, for whatever reason, I believed I could pull it off on the unlikely chance I was chosen. And I can.

Reflecting back on all this, I feel like one of Dorothy’s friends at the end of the film, finally getting my confidence not through a magic bestowal from a phony wizard, but from years of personal growth, from hard work and positive thinking. That’s not to say I’ve not got a long ways to go… the great challenge of this Fringe show aside, I’m still not confident enough when it comes to my own physical body (thinking of doing a handstand makes me squirm for some reason, and I know I can be in better shape) or when it comes to relationships (though that area in my life is just sparkling right now). But when it comes to the act of creation… I’ve never felt so able.

Possible one-man-show, in the big city, built from scratch? Bring it on. From now until my birthday at the end of Fringe, September 18th, there’ll be a spark of Madness in my eye. Can hardly wait. 🙂

Enhanced by Zemanta
Andrew Wade acting, living, writing

The letter it took me four years to send.

Confidence.

Confidence is a concept I have grappled with, my whole life long. That ability to believe that yes, gosh darnit, I am good enough for the task, able to slay that dragon, to win that audition, to write that story. To know that, if I don’t currently have the knowledge set, that I can learn it, train it, become it.

The first time I auditioned for UVic’s acting stream, in my interview they asked me what my biggest weakness was. I told them, confidence. That I had been out of the theatre world for a couple of years and I wasn’t certain I would cut the mustard.

I didn’t get in. That time. Fortunately, a trait I did have at the time was the stubborn persistence to try again.

But that failure made me question how I approached life. My former outlook was to look at each possible interaction (auditioning for a show, submitting to a contest, applying for a job), to examine my current abilities, and to see if I matched what was needed for the task. I was confident in my decisions, but shied away from the larger challenges.

Then came the failed audition, and I saw how this mindset made me avoid activities that excited me, but that I wasn’t sure I could do.

“Screw you, confidence.”

So now I take the antagonistic approach and ignore the intellectual conversation of whether or not I think I have the appropriate skillset to do something. Nowadays, I say yes to every opportunity that comes my way that excites me, with two exceptions:

  1. If I am unable to schedule it around all my other awesomeness.
  2. If I have a really, really, REALLY good reason to say no.

As a result? I am a Peer Helping Coordinator, Fine Arts Senator, Impromaniac, finishing up both a BA in Writing and a BFA in Acting, PEAK Study Leader, Astronomy Interpreter, Red Hat Lab Supervisor, ESL Study Centre Volunteer, Children’s Ministry Volunteer, and a number of other titles. I haven’t fit all the requirements for a single job I have landed. And I am learning so much.

The Letter.

Which brings me to The Letter. Ever since my second year in the Writing department, we students have been pushed to submit our works to literary journals. This was seen as something writers did. As a way to get our work known. As a way to motivate us. As a way to get published!

But my own pieces weren’t good enough, surely not.

A couple of years ago when I joined 43Things.com – a site where you list your goals, track your progress, and other people cheer you on – a few of the goals I included were seemingly simple little projects, items to be accomplished in a day. Like submitting already completed works to a literary journal. But my own pieces weren’t good enough, surely not.

Somehow, my just-go-for-it attitude has not carried over to my writing.

Well, today I bundled up three poems, added a contest fee, and sent them off to The Malahat Review. Just like that. And are my poems good enough? Doesn’t matter. The importance is in the doing.

In becoming a confident writer.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Andrew Wade acting, writing

How to choose a Hero – Meeting Daniel MacIvor

Daniel MacIvorThe question always puzzled me back in elementary school.

“Who is your hero and why?”

I could never give a proper answer, despite the demands of classroom projects. Sure, I could think of people who had done things I admired, or who had character traits I wished to emulate, but no one person really distinguished themselves enough in my mind to warrant the title of Hero. When I was in my Civilization 2 craze, I said Sid Meier. Afterwards, I said Terry Pratchett (author of the Discworld series). Had to fill that page of the project somehow. But neither really fit.

In my first year at UVic’s theatre department, I discovered Daniel MacIvor. At the Studio Series auditions (where I was sitting as playwright for Hullaboo, whispering away to my director), I saw my (now) good friend David Perry perform an electric, charged monologue from MacIvor’s House, and I thought, “Gee, I really want to give that monologue a go”. I promptly found a copy of the script and read it; the words jumped right off the page.

I don’t quite know what it is about MacIvor’s work, but his characters take on their personalities so immediately, so arrestingly intriguingly, that they find their three-dimensionality in one page where most playwrights need a dozen.

I read up on what he was doing in the world. The man seemed to honest to goodness be making a living in this industry, and boy howdy was he respected among my theatre community. He had done it all: successful screenplays, television scripts, theatre for large scale casts, and one man shows that he himself performed in. He refused the model that says that a play is completely done the moment it hits opening night – a philosophy I’ve always found ridiculous. After all, how can live theatre really be complete without that crucial performance-altering ingredient that is an audience! And why NOT improve a show as it goes along? Why NOT give the closing audience the best darn show you can?

In short, the career I want for myself.

Then I found that my professor and friend (and celebrated playwright in her own right), Joan MacLeod, knew him well. Then last year, he came to UVic (at her bequest, I gathered) as part of a lecture series, where he performed something from House and spoke to students. I asked him a question on writing female characters. Then this year, I learned that one of our mainstages next Spring would be a play of his, Inside. And that he would be here this term for the auditions. That he would be rewriting the script to fit the cast. His life seemed to be spiralling closer and closer to my own.

I didn’t get in. Didn’t get a callback. In the audition hall, he, for some reason, leaned diagonally in his chair, a few seats to the right of the esteemed director, David Ferry. As us auditioners introduced ourselves, one by one, he leeeeeeeeaned over to Ferry’s table and scribbled little notes on the corners of the audition forms, then unleeeeeeeaned back to his slouched diagonal in his seat. Such a personality.

I even got to meet him. Meet the man who is possibly the closest I’ve had to answering that question of who is your hero. And how did it go?

The short: I bombed it pretty badly.

The long: On the day of callbacks, I was chatting with Joan in her office when she got a phone message from Daniel, who was on a brief break from the 30 called-back auditioners (culled from the nearly a hundred who he saw the day before). Joan and I continued our conversation as we walked just outside the Fine Arts building to where the exhausted Mr. MacIvor was waiting. Joan introduced me. I thanked him for doing this show for our theatre community. Then I added a “even from those of us who weren’t called back”, which was sincere, but sounds like a complaint. He apologized. I apologized. He apologized again. Joan mentioned that hey, I have my playwrighting to fall back on. I then made a crack about gee, how lucrative that industry is, with my zero knowledge, to two of the most successful Canadian playwrights in the country.

Wait, what? Of all the moments I would like to rewind.

Why did I say that? What possible reason had I… I still don’t know. True, I was feeling a bit down about not getting to be in a Daniel MacIvor show. But that’s no excuse. I understand how auditioning for a show works. And I try so hard to be a positive individual. But yes, one of my rare-ish bouts of negativity and pessimism came before Joan MacLeod and Daniel MacIvor.

After that, I left them to catch up, understanding that the last thing MacIvor probably wanted on his break was a jilted auditioner.

Regrets aside, it really was still good to meet him, to see more of his personality, to catch a glimpse at our differences and similarities.  To feel his empathic heart. For that, I am grateful.

So is he my hero? Well, he’s a good, talented man that I admire. I’ll leave it at that.

(Oh, and for the record? The first time I auditioned for… <<insert sound of heralding trumpets>> THE ACTING STREAM, I used another section from House as my monologue. I didn’t get in. For that, I would need the words of another Canadian playwright – Michel Tremblay. )

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]