Strive to be Irreplaceable

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Kevin

I think one of the the greatest sources of anxiety people have of dying is that nobody will know that they’re gone.  Everything they did, everyone they loved, everywhere they left a mark that they existed– will be quietly replaced and life will go on without a hitch.  After all, that’s what Life on This Earth does.  It adapts.  It evolves.  It survives. 

One of the most important lessons I learned early on in my performing career was this:

Strive to be irreplaceable; never let them discover that they can do it without you.;

Now, we all know that nobody is irreplaceable.  Particularly in Theatre, everyone can be replaced.  That’s the nature of Show Biz.  What I learned was to be talented, fun to be around, thoughtful, conscientious, responsible, energetic….  Be the performer that has the director saying “Where can we put Kevin.”

I’ve gotten roles in my career for a myriad of reasons– many having little to do with my talent:  I was over 6 feet tall, I didn’t “swish” when I walked, I was a bass/baritone, I could grow a mustache in a week, I wasn’t timid about a kissing scene….  But more times than not, the reason was that the director just couldn’t imagine NOT having me in the show.  I was fun to work with, I had an appropriate sense of humor, I knew my lines and blocking, I had performing chops, I got along great with techies and staff without coming across as a brown-noser….

I am now in semi-retirement from performing.  By “semi-” I mean that have stopped in order to be a stay-at-home Dad, but I plan to return to performing after our kids are all off to college.  I’ve done three professional roles in the last 15 years– all as a favor to buddies in a jam.  I don’t audition anymore and I don’t look forward to EVER going through that dog and pony trick again. 

After we moved back to the Wichita area in 2006, my family and I started appearing in a yearly local production of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” put on by Wichita Children’s Theatre.  They’re been doing it ever year for almost 30 years now.  I play the Dad, Janelle plays the Mom, and our kids have played a variety of the kids’ roles.  It’s a great family tradition.  Now, Nicholas is too old for BCPE, so he and I have begun appearing in WCT’s annual production of my adaptation of “A Christmas Carol.”  I’ve played Fezziwig and Ghost of Christmas Present, Nichols was Marley last year and this year he is Nephew Fred.

I sit back during rehearsals and just observe the kids.  It’s amazing what you can learn just by being quiet and watching.  I’ve kept notes over the years and plan to develop them into a video project about auditioning and basic acting:  How to find your light, how to walk quietly backstage, how to check sightlines, that sort of thing.

I’ve also become aware of a phenomenon that is very unique to my situation.  Let me start out by telling you that I am rather shy.  I don’t like attention drawn to me unless I’m onstage and playing a character.  When I sit in the audience of one of my shows I make it a point to NOT have the theatre announce that the playwright is in the audience.  I just want to enjoy the event like everyone else.  But that’s not always possible.

During the course of rehearsals of A Christmas Carol, the cast gradually becomes aware that I am the “Kevin Reese” that wrote the script they are reading from.  Adults will usually come right out and ask if I’m the playwright and then comment on the adaptation (there’s really very little “me” in the script– it’s 99% Dickens.  Most of my work was in streamlining the story for an hour on the stage.).  The kids are far more entertaining!  Their reaction usually varies from distant glued stares from across the room to coming up and telling me all of their favorite parts of the show.  There’s an amiable young fellow in this year’s cast that reminds me of the Chris Farley character on SNL that would interview various celebrities and get all tongue-tied.  Very cute!

I’m rambling, but the point I set out to make is that no matter what career you find yourself in– strive to make yourself irreplaceable.  Develop the whole package and whoever gets you will want to keep you around forever.

 

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Happy Birthday to me!

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Kevin

I talked KMR Scripts into celebrating my birthday by losing some money.  (See– this is why I only let KMR Scripts handle all my plays and musicals:  they aren’t in this business only for the money!)

I don’t advertise my birthday.  It’s not displayed on Facebook, I try not to have it listed in the “December Birthdays” notice at church.  It’s not that I don’t like birthdays– I do– I am just uncomfortable with all the attention.  Yes, it’s a paradox:  I spent a good portion of my adult life as an actor, performing before crowds of up to 2,000 people– yet I don’t like attention.

I will forego my usual “I’m okay with people’s attention when I’m playing a character, it’s when I’m playing myself that my shyness comes into play…”

Suffice it to say, I’m changing a paradigm this year.  If you are a customer of KMR Scripts, print out the coupon, below.  You can use it whenever your next production of one of my shows takes place in 2011/2012.  You can only use it once and the coupon can only be applied to performance royalty, not script sales or Performance Packet rentals.  We’ll only be displaying this during the month of December, so print it now before it’s gone.
(Do you think Sam French would ever do this?)
 

We LOVE our Customers!
 (clip and mail in with your royalty payment)
NOT APPLICABLE FOR “BENEATH THE UPPER ROOM”
(that already has a HUGE discount)

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Proud Papa

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Kevin

My Dad passed away over 10 years ago (2000), my Mom died in 1990.  They got to see quite a few of my shows as a performer.  Usually, once a summer, they would travel to wherever I was performing and spend a long weekend with me, seeing shows and visiting the area.  I have great comfort knowing they were very proud of me and my work onstage.  Mom never knew me as a playwright (I didn’t write my first show until after she was gone), but Dad did.  I know he was very proud of my work there, too.

Last night I sat through a production of Oklahoma! with my son, Nicholas, playing Will Parker.  He was very good, I am very proud of his work and of him as a young man (a work in progress).  As I sat watching him sing and dance in the song “Kansas City,” I was overwealmed with emotion and had to fight to keep from sobbing out loud.  So many things were going through my mind:  he was doing a REALLY nice job, he was conscious of the fact that he was entertaining the audience and they were enjoying it, the audience was thoroughly enjoying his work on the stage, and I was marvelling at the thought that I had created a living being that was capable of providing that much joy in people’s lives– even if for a couple hours in an evening.

As the crowd applauded him after his song, I couldn’t help wonder if the same thoughts ever went through my Dad’s mind when he was watching one of my shows way back when.  And I have to wonder how in the world he kept from bawling like a baby as he sat and listend to 2000 (at Music Theatre of Wichita) people applaud his son (me).

I remember that Dad used to get emotional whenever I left home to head back to school.  He’d give me a hug and I could see his eyes water and his lip tremble a bit.  After a few years and more than a few such goodbyes, it wasn’t as hard on him.  Now, as I find myself getting older, I’m showing the same sentimentality.  Tears come easily and, so far, so does my composure.  But I find that the older I get the less I care about displaying my emotions.  Very soon Arthur wille be heading off to college, then Nicholas, then our girls.  I’m gonna be a soggy mess.

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Les Anderson – RIP

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Kevin

 A local college journalism professor passed away suddenly this week.  He was much-loved by his students, colleagues, and friends.  I didn’t really know him well, but we went to the same church.  He always had a quick smile at the ready and he was a good steward to that church.  I know his wife (Nancy), son (Ben), and daughter (Maggie) pretty well, Nancy and Ben performed in my “Beneath the Upper Room” a couple years ago that I directed at our church.  Also, Ben and Maggie, sit beside me most every Sunday during worship service as they operate the slideshows during the service and I sit at the audio console.

His sudden death got me thinking about the fragility of Life and prompted this posting on my personal FaceBook page on November 14:

* Downer Alert *
This is a bit of a “downer,” but it’s something we don’t normally think about– and I think we should be prepared. A friend of mine just died rather suddenly. It is a reminder to me that when our time comes, there is no bargaining for time. Some people have months to prepare, some are taken instantly in their sleep, and some have a matter of minutes– but due to circumstances (EMTs, unconsciousness, etc) a final goodbye or even holding hands is not possible. PLEASE let those you love know it. Every time you can, in any way you can. The saddest words are “I never got to say goodbye.” 
###

I didn’t mean any disrespect to Les’ family that it was a “downer” that he passed away.  Of course it WAS– but my audience was my regular list of FB friends, most of whom didn’t know Les.  I was just warning them that my subject wasn’t the usual “look at what my kids did” type of post.  One of my pet peeves about how FB is set-up is that I can be having a wonderful day, then log-on to FB and one of my friends’ will have posted a grizzly photo or a anti-abortion item that ruins my day.  It’s hard to get those images out of your head when they just sideswipe you like that.  (I’ve un-friended more people that way)

Though I really didn’t know Les very well, I was sitting in rehearsal for “A Christmas Carol” and began thinking of the impact of his passing.  He was a college professor and had influenced a lot of journalism students over the years.  He was such a beloved figure in our little town of Valley Center– and Wichita– that they can’t even have his funeral in our church.  They’re having it at a big arena in Wichita.  He was a “big deal.”

LES ANDERSON

His keyboard is silent,
A still darkness has overtaken the qwerty sun.
No more tap-ta-tap-tap of ideas.
No more tap-ta-tap-tap of wit and irony.
No more bringing light to love and achievement,
Nevermore revealing hatred and folly.
There is one less voice with which to disagree or concur.
One less voice to stand alone on principle.
One less voice to add to the throng.
The Almighty Pen is a little weaker today….
But,
Because of his legacy–
His many students and colleagues and loves–
Like a Phoenix it will rise up stronger and with a voice more ferocious,
Picking right up, mid-sentence.
His keyboard is silent–
But I hear tap-ta-tap-taps approach with the sunrise.

 Godspeed, Les.  You did good.
###

 

On a personal note: I’ve written before about the phenomenon of someone you love passing and it not being a big deal to others.  Les’ family is going to KNOW that Les was much loved.  I don’t for a second begrudge them this blessing– he deserved it and they deserve it– but they will know what it’s like to have thousands of others mourn along with them.  It made the evening news the day he died and I’m sure the services will get more airtime.  I may have to visit with Ben, Les’ son, about the whole experience.

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Gifts

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Kevin

I’ve been having the BEST week.

I came across a stack of my old photo albums.  You know, the ones that have the plastic sheet that sticks to each page, holding the photos in place.  After 20 years, some of the pages are coming un-stuck and photos are slipping out.  I opened one of the books to replace one such photo and noticed it was one that I had completely forgotten about.  It showed me with my brothers and Dad and we were all laughing.  Not just laughing– LAUGHING.

Then it dawned on me:  I don’t think anyone but me has a copy of that picture.  I flipped through the album and saw a lot of photos that I had taken myself with my camera.  That means nobody else has a copy of those pictures.  Wouldn’t it be sad if I died and all those photos ended up in a trash can somewhere.  All the long-forgotten memories– not only mine, but also the other people in the photos with me– gone forever without a simple photo as a reminder.

So I started scanning the photos and posting them in an album on my Facebook page.  I titled the album “Gifts to Friends.”  As soon as I started posting the photos, the messages started pouring in.  The reactions ranged from “It made me cry” to “I’d completely forgotten about that!” and lots of laughter. 

What a gift to give!  I have pictures from 40 years ago of friends I’ve long since lost track of.  Years and life choices separate us– but these shared memories briged our lives once again, if even only for a few moments.  It’s like time travel!

It took me 3 days of scanning to go through one scrap book.  I have 12 more to do.

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Bucking the System

Posted on October 18, 2011 by KMR

I’m a playwright. (I almost feel like I’m speaking at a 12-step meeting: “God help me– I’m a playwright…” Ha)

I make my living (and have for the past 20 years) by writing plays and musicals that producers want to present to their audiences. When nobody wants to produce my plays, my royalty payments will stop, and I will do something else to help put food on my family’s table. I don’t write because I NEED to or HAVE to– I write because that is the contribution to society that I feel the most comfortable making and based on my royalty checks, society likes it that way.

I read in The Dramatists Guild (of which I am a member) magazine that the average income for a working (produced) playwright is $4,000-$7,000 annually. Seven thousand dollars a year! And The Guild represents professional playwrights who have shows running on Broadway. Seven grand?? That’s it.  Not to brag (well, maybe a little), but I make a LOT more than that every year. I don’t have an agent, I’ve never been produced by an Equity theatre and I live in the Midwest– and according to various playwrighting workshops I’ve attended over the course of my career– these are all fatal mistakes.  I’ve also never taken a playwrighting course or even a creative writing class after high school. 

It reminds me of my acting days in the 80s when Actors Equity was reporting that the average income for a professional (member of the Actors Union) to be $2,400 and that the average number of weeks those actors worked under an Equity contract was  a little over two.  BTW, back in my acting days, I was never a member of Equity and I worked a lot more than 2 weeks made a lot more than $2400 a year. 

I say all this just  to make the point that there are no hard and fast rules to success in playwrighting (or anything).  There are tips and hints to help your odds at success, but for every “successful” playwright who went through Juliard’s playwrighting track, I can show you hundreds more who did not.  For just about every playwright who followed all the rules for good playwrighting, I can show you another who bucked the rules and still had success.  The proof in the pudding is in the tasting!

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Be Polite

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Kevin
About this series: 
These entries are taken from my article “Don’t Call Us — We’ll Call You.”  It is a tongue-in-cheek survey of actors’ silly mistakes that should never have been made.  Your comments are welcome, but PLEASE don’t comment “that’s dumb” or “everybody knows that” because I have personally seen these mistakes cost actors (sometimes even professional actors) roles.

###

YOU WERE RUDE TO AN ASSISTANT. You were impatient with the person handing out the audition forms when you first arrived, or you snapped at the accompanist. Don’t you realize that your audition begins the moment you enter the building? You are being observed. The walls have eyes and ears. Everything you do and say, everything you don’t do and say is taken into consideration during casting. The people helping me run my auditions are my friends–and when you’re rude to my friends, you’re rude to me.

###

I’ve never understood how actors can think ANYBODY is beneath them.  I don’t mean to say that actors are  the bottom of the barrel of the evolutionary chain (I was an actor at one time) but you would think that with all the crap they  have to go through to get a job– the endless classes, the hard work, the rejection, the mind games, the fleeting successes– it would make them more appreciative of members of a support staff.  How can an actor treat an accompanist or stage manager without respect?

Granted, this hardly ever happens with experienced actors.  They KNOW the value of accompanists and assistants.  But still, younger actors have surely worked with a support staff sometime:  School choir accompanists, community theatre stage managers, front office assistants.  It makes me wonder about their parents, for a person to be so discourteous to another person.

Now, I’m sure there is a reason for this behavior.  It may be that they are focused on the task at hand and just forget to say please and thank you.  It may be that they forgot their music and have been scurrying around for a replacement.  It may be they forgot to take their medicine.  It really doesn’t matter the reason– the fact is that someone whom a director or producer has asked to help conduct auditions has been treated with disrespect.

You should go OUT OF YOUR WAY to make sure the accompanist knows how much you appreciate the help they gave you during your audition time.  Not only by making sure you greet them warmly when you meet them and thanking them when you’re done, but by having your sheet music well marked and in the correct key.  I knew a friend who always gave the accompanist a little box of four or five hard candies when she thanked them.  How many people do that do you think??

And aside from the basic common courtesy of politeness, you have to remember that directors ask their assistants’ opinions of the auditionees.  When they ask if anybody stands out in their minds– they don’t just mean talent-wise.  If they hear some was rude or disrespectful– it may mean the difference between a call-back and a job offer.

Remember, people like to work with nice people.

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Awards?

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Kevin

Our local Arts Council just had their community theatre awards.  Best Actor in a Drama, Best Musical, Best Original Play….  nothing about best experience for child audiences.  Children’s Theatre has long had the reputation of being the bastard cousin of theatre (I am conditioned to cringe at the phrase “bastard cousin”– but I am claiming artistic license to keep it because it describes EXACTLY the meaning I am trying to put forth).

I’ve found that usually the only people who “poo-poo” awards are those who don’t win them.  That’s me.  I never get awards and I usually poo-poo them.  It’s usually a group of people getting together and patting each other on the back.  Academy Awards, Tony Awards, Emmy Awards– only members can vote.  And who are the members…?  Playwrighting awards are similar.

You show me a playwrighting award based on applause or ticket sales or audience word-of-mouth as they leave a theatre — THAT’s the one I’ll get in line to apply for.

I’ve been a member of more than a few theatre organizations over the years– most of which deal primarily with theatre for children.  Most of them have playwrighting groups and committees that dole out awards with their name on them.  Usually, it’s a bunch of playwrights choosing winners out of a bunch of plays submitted by a bunch of playwrights (and occasionally publishers, too). 

Having playwrights decide award winning plays is like having a cocain addict choose the best energy drink.  No matter which one is chosen– it’s not as good as cocain.  Likewise, a playwright may choose someone else’s play as a “winner” — but it’s not as good as the one s/he is writing or has just written. 

Then there is the PR factor.  What up and coming playwright does the organization want to be on record as having recognized their talent early on?  Awarding a prize to a play on abuse or tolerance, or social issues makes an organization look in tune with the times.  However, to me, it makes them look OUT of tune with kids.  What kid wants to sit through a story about child abuse or gay bashing or sex trafficking– when they can laugh, be entertained, and forget about their troubles for a while instead?

I blame the 60s.  It seems the same group that decides what kids should be taught in schools decides what they should see on a theatre stage as well.  And we know the state of our USA education….

This is why I write ONLY for KMR Scripts.  They want kids to have FUN in the theatre.  They don’t want to teach them or indoctrinate them, or socialize them– other than what lessons are inherent in Fairy Tales.  They want much more fun and laughter than life lessons.

If I were to come to KMR Scripts with an idea for a social-issue play (and I have a couple times), they’ll try to talk me out of it (I say “try” because they know that if I have thought something out enough to bring it to them, I’m going to write it anyway).  I wrote a non-violence show for high school kids about 15 years ago called “Squash It!”  It should have been called “Yuck!”  It toured for 6 months but I think those actors deserve sainthood! 

Am I saying that there’s no place for serious drama in Children’s Theatre?  Heavens no.  There are lots of wonderful plays being produced out there.  I’d be proud to think that one of my plays got a kid so turned on to theatre that they wanted to see a better, more serious one.  But I won’t write them.

So I stick to what I do best.  I make kids laugh and tap their toes along with their parents.  They are still smiling and talking about the play as they get into their cars to go home. That’s the best award I can think of.

 

 

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Stage Kiss

Posted on September 17, 2011 by Kevin

In my 30+ years in theatre (250+ productions), I have never considered, never done, never seen done, a “stage kiss.”  What a seemingly ridiculous concept:  a fake kiss in a situation where we are trying to be realistic.  That’s what acting is all about:  making the fake seem realistic.  After all, isn’t that the whole kit and caboodle behind “willing suspension of disbelief?” (and after all, isn’t this one of the fringe benefits of all the hard work and long hours– the possibility of kissing pretty girls??  Ahh, but I digress….)

When my younger son, now a sophomore in high school, came home last year and told me his acting class covered Stage Kisses– I told him what I mentioned above.  I gave the teacher the benefit of the doubt (I know him, he’s a very good guy and a VERY good drama teacher) and told him that perhaps they just want him to know about it, kind of like covering Shakespeare– he’ll probably never actually DO a tale from the Bard, but it’s good to know what iambic pentameter is if only for a Trivial Pursuit game.

Then last week, that same son, who just got cast as Will in “Oklahoma!”, came home from a rehearsal and told me (not to “tattle” — I had asked him how rehearsal went) that they blocked the Oklahoma Hello scene, and it is a “stage kiss.”  He paused after he said that because he knew I would have some… interesting… response. 

Thankfully, the Good Dad in me stressed that the director had a reason for directing the scene that way (as opposed to the Bad Old Actor going off on the audacity of the situation).  I told him that I assumed it was to alleviate shyness.  Luckily, Nicholas is experienced enough to know not to ever change a director’s direction.

I ran into the director at our local convenience store one  morning.  We exchanged small talk then I asked him about the stage kiss.  It was as I thought.  The girl playing Ado Annie is very shy.   The director felt he was lucky to get her  to accept the part (she has a wonderful belt voice), he thought having to kiss a boy in front of 500 people might be a deal-killer.

I learned a lesson.  I guess one that I really knew– but forget all too often.  There’s always a reason– and it’s usually a good reason,  we just may not know all the details involved.  This holds true in Theatre, in church, while driving, and at home, too.

If a director tells you to do a stage kiss– do it.  It’s perfectly okay to approach him/her in private and ask why– but realize your job is to follow the director’s instructions.  There may be shyness issues, there may be financial issues, there may be administrative issues– lots of things that you have absolutely no idea are going on.  Respect your director and follow directions– or don’t audition.

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The Audition Game

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Kevin
About this series: 
These entries are taken from my article “Don’t Call Us — We’ll Call You.”  It is a tongue-in-cheek survey of actors’ silly mistakes that should never have been made.  Your comments are welcome, but PLEASE don’t comment “that’s dumb” or “everybody knows that” because I have personally seen these mistakes cost actors (sometimes even professional actors) roles.

###

YOU WEREN’T COOPERATIVE. When we were doing improvisations or other theatre games, you gave me the impression that you didn’t approve of my audition methods or that you thought it was silly. Silly you. I can tell a lot about your personality by the way you cooperate with an audition format. What makes me think that you won’t be uncooperative during my rehearsals as well? You haven’t learned yet that you need to ACT as though you are a team player, someone who can play the “Audition Game” in a cooperative manor.

###

I vividly remember my performing days.  So many things that stand out that I really, really loved about that lifestyle:  the teamwork, the applause, the rush of adrenalin, seeing the audience’s eyes as I was singing to them, the cast parties, making people laugh, dating dancers (ah, but I digress!)– but the one thing that I absolutely HATED was auditions.  I hated it with a passion.  Don’t get me wrong– I was pretty good at it, but I hated every moment of it.  It went against every grain of my being.  I’m such a non-conformist that the thought of standing in front of a group of producers like a trained monkey in a zoo pretty much repulsed me.  But in the thousands of years of Theatre, they haven’t found a better, more reliable way to cast shows, it was either put up– or shut up.

Now, it seems pretty dumb that I was in a profession that relied so heavily on something that I detested.  That’s life!  My love of performing outweighed my destain for auditioning.  The way I got through it was by treating it as a GAME.

The object of The Audition Game was to convince the producer that s/he didn’t want to produce whatever show for which they were holding auditions without me!  I had a pretty good package going:  I had a big voice, my acting was pretty good (for a singer), I could move well (though I’m not a dancer), I had a LOT of backstage tech skills, and I was a nice, polite guy with a good sense of humor.  My job during an audition was to make sure the producer knew all this. 

I would come into the audition full of energy,  convince them that I had talent, then display my ability to use appropriate humor.  The Producers may have been sitting through hours (or days!) of auditions and anything I could do to stand out was usually appreciated.

Now, as far as humor goes, I have to emphasize APPROPRIATE humor.  Actors, directors, and producers work long and hard.  Being able to find appropriate ways to alleviate stress and tension is a big plus– but nobody likes a smart-butt who doesn’t know when to shut up.

And while I’m at it, one of the biggest challenges an actor faces during an audition is when you are asked to do something…. dumb.  I had a producer ask me to improvise an elephant standing on one leg.  I’m serious.  Instead of telegraphing my opinion of this request– I smiled, said “You bet!” in my most agreeable voice and did it.  When my audition was over, I thanked them, exited the space, and kept my mouth shut.

What if that “dumb” request was actually a wily producer’s way of seeing how far I’d go to be a team player? 

When I was directing a show in grad school, I had a buddy of mine attend my auditions to observe how the actors related to me.  I was relatively new  to the directing thing and hadn’t developed my ability to see out of the back of my head yet.  He not only told me where I wasn’t communicating my intentions very well, he also let me know if my personality would clash with that of an actor.  My buddy knew me very well and his input was invaluable to me.  Our rehearsal process was so short, we didn’t have time to mess with personality clashes.

Playing the auditions as a game can help you get through even the most rediculous audition situations with your pride and reputation intact.  Be a trooper, be a great team player, and just do whatever you’re asked to do.  The producer may be new to the audition game– or he may just be trying to find something fresh and new to ward off boredom.  Just do it, thank them for the opportunity, and keep your mouth shut.  They may have a buddy in the green room listening for who complains about the dumb audition.

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