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The Voices Inside
New Mercury Theatre Company’s
Monthly Newsletter
February 2008

WELCOME

If you are reading this inaugural newsletter of the New Mercury Theatre Company, you are either a company member or may be planning on joining our theatrical family real soon. Either way, welcome to what I hope will be a haven for actors and artists. I have spent most of my adult life creating supportive environments, (classes, theatre companies, comedy night club) where actors, writers and performers can thrive – a place to study you craft, explore your art, and learn the business of show business. I believe this newest venture will be that, and so much more. Our focus will be exploring new works and giving voice to material we love, live on stage once a month, for the sole purpose of raising money and awareness for local charities. That, and of course, feeding our need to create and communicate. The website and company dues will allow us to produce these events, while giving actors a bottomless resource for information they will need in their craft and careers for years to come.

HOW THIS WILL WORK

As a member, you’ll get weekly company updates and a monthly, members only newsletter (just like this one) that also will be available with a secure password on our website. Each month, the newsletter will have industry news, audition tips and advice, and loads of actor internet resources. This community of actors will be dedicated to sharing information and knowledge about the industry with each other and for each other. I will maintain many (most/all?) of these columns myself, but encourage you to participate as much as you desire. This entire venture is about furthering the conversation of creativity with passionate, equally insane, dedicated dreamers. This community will benefit each of us, all of us, beyond our careers. If we let our art “out”, give back rather than hoard and isolate, a common cause becomes a virtual community, that will better us as people. Share the knowledge, share the information, we all benefit. Build what we need. Give the rest away.

SO WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?

You get to perform great and varied material that the “industry” may or may not cast you in. You get the opportunity to give back to our community. You get a website that will become an invaluable resource guide for actors to the best of what the Internet has to offer – not entertainment websites with celebrity gossip, but sites on acting, voice-overs, comedy, film history, dialects – whatever tools you need to help you with your career and craft as an actor/writer/entertainer. You get a place to share you acting knowledge, experience, audition joys and disappointments with your peers who not only understand but just may be eager for the information. You get a chance to make a difference instead of a splash. You get what you give. You get it?

CAN I CONTRIBUTE TO THE NEWSLETTER?

I’m counting on it. This vision of the NMT will only grow and thrive on the imagination and knowledge of its members. Got an idea? Let’s make it happen, on the stage, on the website or in the community. With your contribution and contributions, you make this a better project for all who take part.

ARE YOU GOING TO ALWAYS GOING TO ASK LOTS OF QUESTIONS?

Why do you ask? (sorry, comedy law). I’d rather do than tell, so on to this month’s information and resources!

YES AND….

…will be my monthly improv column, featuring improv games and tips to help sharpen your auditions. The focus here will first be some basic improv “guidelines” for you to follow when at an audition and you’ve been thrown a curveball by the CD. First tip on improvising a scene, there’s only three things you need to know about the scene: Who are you, where are you, why are you there. If you can build that in two sentences (and you can) you have the foundation for a great scene. I will elaborate more on this concept in next month’s column.

THE PLAY’S THE THING

Here is a list of the short plays I’m considering for our first few events. Until we get a plethora of good, original, unpublished material, we will choose our plays from some of the top one-act plays and ten minute plays from around the country the past deacde. We’ve already read some of the ones I like these past few Tuesday nights. I will continue to list what is under consideration. They are all mostly available at Sam French, or you can come by make a copy if it’s an unpublished original submission. Check out: The Blonde and Other Slight Distractions, collection by David L. Paterson; Laugh Lines, edited by Eric Lane & Nina Shengold; All in the Timing, David Ives.

READ ON, MACDUFF

So you like to read, eh? So just like we’ll do with the links, here are some of what I feel are the best theatre books to have in your own actor’s library. Whether you use them for research, technique tips or just a quest for knowledge, they will enrich your creative self. They have done the same for me. I start with what has brought me the most joy and the most success. Improvisation. These two books are basis for all improv you see done today. Their respective insights are timeless and they give you the structure and tools to create a world from a suggestion. These text books are for the actor, and not a compilation of photos and SNL bits. There are no better books on improv than these two. Add them to your library asap: Improvisation for the Theatre by Viola Spolin; Impro by Keith Johnstone

KNOWLEDGE IS GOOD

So said Emil Faber. I concur. And although this is our last item for this month’s newsletter, we begin one of the mainstays of this theatrical endeavor for our acting community. Here begins the list. The Actor Link Genome Project. We will create a library of links for all our members to share, on whatever topics can aid you and your craft, your career, your auditions. Real resources for the actors, with new links/categories added monthly, are just a click away. There are no advertisers here, so no lists of cheap photographers, bad classes/workshops or other ways to spend (waste) our hard earned money, just sites any actor can use for research, information or relaxation, with a nod to some personal faves and friends, naturally. Ergo, here’s an additional great 25+ websites every actor needs to know about, to go along with the 40+ on the home page of our website. You will have hundreds of great internet resources for your career in months. Starting next month, I will feature three of these sites in detail in each newsletter. Please drop me a line if you know of website that would be of interest to your peers. For now, here is your starter set of sites. Surf’s up! Love, The Big Kahuna……

NMT Link Library – February 2008

ACCENTS/DIALECTS

accent.gmu.edu/index.php
dictionary.reference.com/translate/

ALL THINGS SPELLOS

fabulousspellosbrothers.typepad.com
meeting-u.com
newmercurytheatre.com
peterspellos.com

ANIME

animenewsnetwork.com

BLOGS

cinematical.com
tvsquad.com
unitedhollywood.com

HISTORY/TV & FILM

oscars.org
paleycenter.org

HUMOR