I had done a lot in my first year in the acting world, 3 plays and the end of my job with Prudential. The plays plus acting classes took most of my time and my sales production dropped way off. The district manager called me into his office to find out why and give me a pep talk. Why was I not making appointments at night when people were home, he asked. I reassured him I would do better and went to my desk and pulled out all my leads that I had not called yet. I sat at my desk starring at the leads with the phone to my ear, ready to make my first call. I couldn't do it.This was the worst part of a sales job, prospecting for new clients. If I could get an appointment, my closing ratio was very high. But the cold calling was like begging and I hated it. I don't want to do this anymore, I thought and quit that day. A week later, walking out on the street after collecting my last paycheck, I felt free of the pressure to produce, to make a lot of money.I also felt scared, I had burned my last bridge to a normal life. With no college education and no skills, I had just put my life on the line for acting.
Got a call from that theater on 14th Street. They had been rehearsing Tennessee Williams "A Glass Menagerie". Some guy dropped out and the director and producer Tanden Didn't like to have auditions, so he knew I would show up and work hard so he asked me to do Tom Wingfield, a major character in the play. I will have to admit that my acting technique was not evolved fully enough to bring this character to life. First of all Tom has these beautiful poetic monologues to the audience. The director asked to me to have it memorized as best I can before my first rehearsal which was just in a few days. This was a mistake. For a play like" A Glass Menagerie" , you have to study the play and know what your talking about before memorization otherwise you will miss subtleties and transitions. While I had a sense of the poetry and doing it with a southern accent, being around those "good ole boys" in the navy, the director said it sounded like I was reciting lines
And it was, pure instinct which had carried me this far, was not enough. I think I did pretty good in the scenes with the other characters. Not many people showed up and that was a good thing. I would have been severely criticised for my in and out accent and lack of understanding for the character. By the end of the run I was getting a handle on the monologues. Stuff that I heard at HB now made more sense. I took the monologues one line at a time with a thought process and I do believe by the last performance, I almost made them work.
Got a call from that theater on 14th Street. They had been rehearsing Tennessee Williams "A Glass Menagerie". Some guy dropped out and the director and producer Tanden Didn't like to have auditions, so he knew I would show up and work hard so he asked me to do Tom Wingfield, a major character in the play. I will have to admit that my acting technique was not evolved fully enough to bring this character to life. First of all Tom has these beautiful poetic monologues to the audience. The director asked to me to have it memorized as best I can before my first rehearsal which was just in a few days. This was a mistake. For a play like" A Glass Menagerie" , you have to study the play and know what your talking about before memorization otherwise you will miss subtleties and transitions. While I had a sense of the poetry and doing it with a southern accent, being around those "good ole boys" in the navy, the director said it sounded like I was reciting lines
And it was, pure instinct which had carried me this far, was not enough. I think I did pretty good in the scenes with the other characters. Not many people showed up and that was a good thing. I would have been severely criticised for my in and out accent and lack of understanding for the character. By the end of the run I was getting a handle on the monologues. Stuff that I heard at HB now made more sense. I took the monologues one line at a time with a thought process and I do believe by the last performance, I almost made them work.
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