Singing samples online

Woo hoo! My a cappella group is starting to get some samples of our singing online! Our group is called VERVE Collective, and as of this morning we have 3 samples on our website. Check it out at vervecollective.ca. I'm the soprano in the group. :)

Real "Men in Trees" audition today

I did it. I went and did the real audition for Men in Trees this morning. After a weekend of movies galore, I figured out the Chinese accent thing, and went in today and did my best. Sean Cossey was running today's auditions, and I have to say I am quite impressed with his style. He's very relaxed, friendly, and gives you a lot to work with during the read. I even found him doing a bit of an accent here and there. I have no idea how things will go from here, but again I know he enjoyed my read, and I left knowing that I did my best, and that I left a good impression. I don't know when the callbacks are, but it starts shooting on Feb 19th. I am SO crossing my fingers for this one. But if it doesn't happen, I can still feel good that my first audition for them was a good one.

"Men in Trees" audition today

What a whirlwind. I did a coaching session this morning for my audition, went back to my *ugh* day job for 2 hours, then went downtown to do my first audition with Stuart Aikins! I went up to the casting office, signed in, then waited. It was very formal - no forms to be filled out, just sign in and leave your headshot/resume for the casting assistant. She came out every once in a while to gather them.

I was up first. She called out my name from her desk, I went in, and she directed me to the casting room. There was only one guy there, sitting behind a table. He was super friendly and he did the read with me. But it threw me a little that there was no camera rolling, and that he was much younger than I had imagined Stuart to be. I quickly figured out it must be Sean Cossey, Stuart's partner, and that this was a pre-screen, not an actual audition. But I was prepared, so I did the read with him, and he seemed to like what I did. He even liked the small change I made when he gave me direction for a line. I left feeling good, but a little phased, as I had gone in thinking it was for an audition. After going back (again!) to my day job, I contacted my agent, and even she was confused as there had been no mention that this was a pre-screen. We're usually told.

Anyway, a couple hours later, my agent called me - it was Sean in the room, and he did like what he saw, and now I'm going in on Monday for the real audition! The only note they had for me was that they wanted me to now do the read with a heavy Chinese accent. Thank goodness I get the weekend to figure that out! I'm so happy that my first time in front of them left a good impression. :D

2 auditions for Feb already

It's only Feb 1st, and today I've got 2 commercial auditions. What a great way to start the month. AND I just got news from my agent of another audition tomorrow - for a guest star spot in an episode of Men in Trees. I'm so stoked - the audition is with Stuart Aikins, and he's never seen me before. I've been wondering what I have to do to get in front of him, and now here's my chance. WOO HOO! So now tonight I have 3 pages of sides to learn. So excited!

I'm in The Georgia Straight!

This is really cool... late last week my agent called to tell me that a woman from the Georgia Straight would be calling to do a telephone interview with me. I was really nervous, as I haven't done a whole heck of a lot of actor interviews. I spoke with her on Sunday afternoon, and we spent about half an hour on the phone. I was so relieved - she was really easy to talk to, and I enjoyed speaking with her. It helped that she opened the conversation by telling me how much she loved seeing my production of Miss Saigon last year.

The article is called "Hopefuls Fight Sterotypes for Pepper-like Success", written by Pieta Woolley. It shares the same page as the paper's cover story, "The Art of War", a story on actor Barry Pepper. Ms. Woolley's article talks about the struggles that non-white actors in Vancouver have. Check it out here. I had no idea how much of my interview would be included, what would be quoted, etc... but my agent called me this morning to let me know he had just finished reading the article, and that my nerves were for naught. I hadn't had a chance to read it yet when he called, but he was extremely positive on how the article read, and how I was featured. I picked up a Georgia Straight on my lunch break today and I am so happy with the article and my involvement. This one is going in my scrapbook for sure.

Auditioned for "The Best Years"

Oooh, I just finished taping an audition for "The Best Years", a new TV show filming in Toronto. I am super excited about this one - the producer is the same one from Plague City! I got the breakdown yesterday and when I saw her name on the list I was giddy! I'm really happy with my audition tape (and my agents are too!), so all we can do now is cross our fingers and hope I'm what they're looking for. I feel great for having done a solid audition, so I'm happy at that, but this sounds like such a great project! Agh, nerves.

MAMM '06 - 2nd Place!

Alright!!!! The Mighty Asian Moviemaking Marathon (MAMM) had a screening of all the submitted film entries at Tinseltown last night. After the screenings, they announced the winners, and then we had a big party afterwards. It was so cool seeing our film up on the big screen. Actually, that was the first time most of us had seen it in its finished, 10-minute form. Alfie (our director and producer) did an amazing editing job. And all the parts that we were moaning and laughing at during filming made the audience moan and laugh too. The feedback was awesome! And we ended up placing 2nd! Our film was called, "Rise of the Kitara".

Unfortunately I couldn't stay too long at the gala - I had to get up super early the next morning because I had to go out to Cultis Lake to shoot a commercial. Bittersweet, you might say - sweet because we placed 2nd, bitter because I couldn't stay to celebrate, but sweet again, because the reason was that I was filming!

Oh yeah! Placing 2nd means our film will be shown during the Vancouver Asian Film Festival (VAFF) in the first week of November. Cool!