Workshop report--

• April 12, 1992
  

• Super Power Blowout Intensive Weekend
  
• One-on-One Studios
  
• Ken Schwarz

Day 2 brought a little more introspection. I don't know if everyone felt comfortable with each other, or what, but words and tears flowed forth as people confessed their true concerns and found somewhere in their souls at least the surface of answers to their biggest problems.

As we settled in, Ken wanted to find out what we got out of Day 1. This simple question occupied the first few hours of Day 2:

• Jon - [absent]
  

• Bill - I want to organize
  
• B.K. - I take pills to help my brain cells grow.
  
• Gavin - I need to straighten out my personal life.
  
• Vince - We've all got tremendous courage. There's so much love here.
  
• Paul - I need to take action
  
• John - Don't be the employee, be the employer.
  
• Wendy - Broke-up with fiancé - manic depressive, self-destructive, very bitter
  
• Julie - Created momentum from action; know I'm a high-powered salesperson; be charismatic
  
• Rebecca - I wanted a drink. I know what to do. I'm afraid to do it.
  
• Sonya - I needed a kick in the butt, I know there's things to do.
  
• Pamela - I found the cause of my problem, bankruptcy - "you'll never make it"
  
• Tessa - I need to free myself form my parent's pressures
  
• Cynthia - I'm not as organized as I thought I was.
  
• Lindy - I took action, wrote poems
  
• Jule - I feel bad about what I lost, what I gave up

Time for a recap of the major concepts:

• Always know why you're in the business.
  

• Your expectations have to be reasonable.
  
• What do you want your career to encompass?
  
• The more detail you apply to your career, the better.
  
• Don't give power away.
  
• Negative forces are tough to identify; you must determine if the things surrounding you are nurturing.

OK, the rest of the day was spent on individual attack-strategy analysis. A relatively comprehensive list of possible actions is what follows:

• Pursue (new) representation
  

• Pursue (new) manager
  
• New headshots
  
• Figure out self-promotion & do it.
  
• Mailing to C.D.s
  
• Mailing to agents / managers
  
• Get into a good play.
  
• Read trades daily (Variety, H.R.) Keep track of working C.D.s
  
• Get a desk
  
• Meditate / quiet time alone.
  
• Get into a class
  
• Get into therapy
  
• Start making lists
  
• Start a journal
  
• Start a 3 x 5 file
  
• Get a part-time job
  
• Get copy (Get copies of copy.)
  
• Take some college classes
  
• Work out
  
• Re-edit tape
  
• Get "Actor's Weekly"
  
• Find good comedy monologue
  
• Do showcases
  
• Contact old connections
  
• Do improv comedy workshops
  
• SAG showcase
  
• Re-do resume
  
• Do voice-over work
  
• Get hands on breakdowns
  
• Order reprints
  
• Create postcard for show

The bold-faced items are the ones that I am supposed to pursue myself over the next three weeks. When we reconvene on May 2, we will all have to face the shame if we do not accomplish our goals.

This is how the group sees me being cast: college student, rich, all-American, football player, trustable, repressed, innocently caught up, subtle, dry humor, nice guy who turns psychotic, reporter, med. Student, baseball player, prom queen beater, quiet dissenter, a little rebellious, the innocent rookie cop, too much heart, serious / skeptical - but a young skeptic. I was also compared to Matthew Modine, Jon Curr, Jimmy Olson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Anthony Michael Hall, James Spader, both True Colors stars.

CASTING PEOPLE CAN GET A BETTER HANDLE ON WHO WE ARE IF WE PRESENT OURSELVES OPENLY

Other random stuff -

• For an agent to sign you, you have to overcome the reasons to object to signing you.
  

• * Take away their ability to say no.*
  
• How do you let them know what you got?
  
• Prepare an appropriate monologue.
  
• Tape
  
• Showcase
  
• Play
  
• Headshot - show them what they're selling, so they can effectively sell it.
  
• Personal Phone Calls - say things that spark interest; talk about the work; talk about the plays.

• CLEVER COMMUNICATION IS CERTAINLY PART OF SELF-PROMOTION.

• Tape - 5 or 6 minutes, tops "Jan's Video"

• Agents - They do indeed work for you. Deal sensitively with them, though. Work them without them knowing it. Communicate to your agent what you should be cast as.

Go on to May 2

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