Review of 2012

Remember when this was a thing I did?  It is once again.  I'd quit posting to my own site since I was ostensibly a blogger for Backstage's "Unscripted" column, but first my acting career more or less fell by the wayside, then the column did as well after Backstage's redesign.  So here we are.

Every article I've read lately is a reflection on 2012, so here's my two cents.  I thought it might be interesting to look at my acting year through some cold, hard numbers:

24 auditions
2 callbacks (within five days of each other, in October)
0 Bookings
9 were for paying gigs
14 pre-merger

And for what it's worth, I had 35 auditions in 2011 with three callbacks and one booking.  The last time I auditioned for something and got cast was 10/18/11 (the webseries Shadow Free).

The merger only affected me in that I no longer audition for commercials, since the commercial agent with whom I freelanced for several years only does non-union gigs.  I'm not sure why that would be the case.  To my knowledge an agency being SAG-franchised means little to nothing, so if it's not that, why wouldn't you want your actors to pursue union work?  The money is much higher, especially in commercials.  Anyway, the film and TV agent with whom I freelance (read: hear from every six months) has always only sent me out for union gigs, so the merger didn't affect that.  I feel I should note that I was and am very pro-merger; I knew it would mean a decrease in opportunities.  It's worth the benefits.

Those numbers don't reflect all my activity last year.  I did some things.  I co-directed & had a small role in a short film for the AV Club's Parameters film contest.  I participated in National Sketch Writing Month for the second time, this time managing to write all 30 sketches.  The sketch I submitted to the showcase was selected, and I performed in it with Joel Repman.  That was probably the highlight of the year.  I was also in a reading of my old classmate Jennie Berman Eng's ten minute play for a series based on the election, and it was a great script.  I've always enjoyed working on her stuff.  Then based on that reading, I did another one for a New School playwright, Aurin Squire.  Pretty much everything in this paragraph happened in the last three months.  Needless to say it was a looong year from that perspective.  This is of course not to say that good things didn't happen in 2012, but this is about acting.

Now, for 2013!  My amazing wife got me a great camera for Christmas so I'm looking forward to shooting more of my own work.  I have some ideas for a second season of Agoraphobes, and I'm starting to get excited about that.  Now I just need about $350 of audio equipment and a computer that can process and edit full HD video :)  And I'll be writing more.  I'm already here doing this, and I have an idea for a new comedy blog that I'm finally committing to.  I had two auditions this week, so at least I'm starting from somewhere.  Here's to making it an interesting year.