On to the Next One...

A Change Gon' Come has come to a close and I am sad to see it go. I can honestly say that I have never felt more connected to, and proud of a show that I have been a part of. Each of my castmates have so much raw talent to offer and came to rehearsal and each performance ready to work and challenge themselved, to make discoveries in their characters, and dance with such passion. I want to thank everyone who had a hand in making this production what it is and I hope that I get to work with everyone again! However, with the closing of this show, Chicago is on the way so I am on to the next one! Rehearsals are going great so far and I cannot wait to see how things develop! More details will come later. I am also lining up a lot of auditions in the coming months, and may be doing an internship out in California this summer (interview tomorrow!).

In regards to photography... I have been in contact with several local, professional theatres in the DC area with the possibility of doing some work for them. I do not want to disclose which theatres yet, but as soon as I have more information I will share. There is also a possibility for me to take a staff photography gig in Cooperstown, NY this summer for The Glimmerglass Festival photographing their performances which would be basically perfect. They even provide housing!

Anywho, that's my update! Thanks for reading!

sb.imagery

Sunset Boulevard

I will be the first to admit that I am not the biggest fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber and that my bias weighs in heavily on my opinion of the show as a whole, but Signature Theatre's production of Sunset Boulevard just did not quite quench my thirst for excellent entertainment. And with that being said... the cast was filled with a lot of talent and energy. Unfortunately, the cast, set and costumes were the only pieces to the puzzle that seemed to fit. The actual piece itself seemed very contrived and leaves the artists will very little wiggle room to develop their own solid characters. A performer cannot possibly turn in the same performance and character as the originator, or anyone else's performance for that matter, and it is unfair to leave this as a request. I could not connect to a single character until about halfway through the SECOND ACT when Joe and Betty sing the duet, Too Much In Love To Care. Susan Derry turned in the performance as Betty Schaefer and did an excellent job! She was a refreshing burst of energy and was truly a natural in each of her scenes. Betty is romantically interested in Joe, a struggling writer, with whom she is re-writing one of Joe's screenplays where Girl Meets Boy. It was hard to believe that Derry and D.B. Bonds, who plays Joe, were romantically interested in each other until the show was almost over. Both performers are brilliant actors and singers on their own, but when combined simply did not have the right chemistry. Bonds did however portray a convincing chemistry with Florence Lacey, the aged, washed-up film noir actress who thinks she is the Greatest Star of All. Lacey played the role of Norma Desmond wonderfully. She gave the character just the right amount of over-the-top energy and had a magnificent voice! She has a very focused sound and it truly worked for her character and made her shine. However, some of her gestures were a little awkward, while other were so over-the-top that they came across as very cheesy. Perhaps the best performance in the show was given by Ed Dixon, playing the role of Max Von Mayerling. His mannerisms as Norma Desmond's house servant were perfect and his accent hit the nail right on the head. It was hard to direct attention to anyone else during any of his solos thanks to his rich, deep voice and his confident stage presence.
All-in-all, the performance itself was not bad. The problem lies within the actual book. Commendations to each of the performers and the creative staff for trying to breath life into this piece, but it was just too big of a piece to try to swallow. If you'd like to catch the performance, the show runs until February 13th.

You can go to http://www.sig-online.org/ for more information.

In other news... A Change Gon' Come is trucking along nicely. I have finally gotten to the point where I can be comfortable dropping in to my character, although it is still very emotionally demanding and draining. My fellow cast-mates are brilliant and I could not have asked for a better team of actors to work with in developing my character and challenging myself as an actor and dancer. On Saturday there was a dance rehearsal where I got to see all the other numbers that I have not seen yet, and there are a lot of really beautiful, touching dances. I'm not going to lie, I teared up a little! I hope that some of you can make it out to see one of the two performances, I promise it'll be worth it! The performances are as follows:

Friday - Feb. 18 @ 8 p.m.
Saturday - Feb. 19 @ 2 p.m.

F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre
603 Edmonston Dr
Rockville, MD 20851

Tickets are 15$! Let me know if you want to pre-buy your ticket (I need to have your money by Saturday, Feb. 12th).

Cast:
Helen/Harriet - Syriahnne Parker
Nick/Slave/William Still - Edward Byrd
Nia/Nelly - Clarissa Bridges
Ryn/Silas/Townsperson - Randy (Moyston) Henry
Susan/Lacey/Leticia - Bernadette Spriggs
Jack/Jake/Townsperson - Byron Johns Jr.
Beatrice/Bess/Townsperson - Vermonica Thomas
Pastor Griffin - Kelly Smith
Jesse - Antoine Spriggs
Josie/Townsperson - Schuylar Johns
Overseer/Officer Riley - Scotty Beland
Slave/Leonard - Jahred Harris
Sarah - Rachel Steger
Slave/Charles - Issaiah Demus
Mrs. Mendenhall - Lena Choudary
Slave/Townspeople - Amina Alzouma, Khalid Alzouma, Tyler Hill, Autumn Robinson

sb.imagery

A Change Gon' Come

Okay sooooo the title should give this away a little bit, but in my last post I mentioned an audition. I got cast and I'm ironically happy to announce that I will be the Slave Overseer/Officer Riley in The Finest! Youth Performance Troupe's A Change Gon' Come! The piece is an African-American gospel play, complete with music and dance numbers, written by local equity actress Kashi-Tara Barrett. The play centers around a black woman who lives in the present and does not embrace her culture as much as she should, and once asked to write a speech about Harriet Tubman she has a dream that takes her back into the slave era embodied as Harriet Tubman. It is a VERY dramatic show, but is also extremely uplifting in the end. The character I play in the first act is unlike my typical casting. For one, it is dramatic and not the romantic lead, or comedic. Secondly, it is a villianous role, which I have only gotten to play once. And third, IT IS NOT A MUSICAL! This is a first for me as I have never not had to sing in any (theatre) show I have ever done! It is definitely a change of pace for me, but at the same time a big breath of fresh air... the old stuff was starting to get stale. The performances will be on February 18th and 19th at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre in Rockville, MD.

Aside from that, I don't really have much other news. I have not seen anything at The Kennedy Center through my internship yet, and I have been too busy with it and rehearsals to have seen any shows so no reviews. Although I will say that my internship is going GREAT. You all should make sure you catch some of the performances! There is a FREE performance every night at 6 pm at the Millennium Stage, and obviously the other shows are of great acclaim, too. Visit the web-site at http://www.kennedy-center.org/.

Thanks for stopping by!

sb.imagery

Happy New Year!!!

Wow! So it's been a while since I've written anything here! Where to begin...

Well I have wrapped up with The Spitfire Grill (obviously...) and have moved onto some new pastures in terms of performance. I think it's safe to announce that I have been cast in a production of Chicago with the St Marks Players on Capital Hill! I'll be playing the role of Harry and will get to dance a lot in the ensemble, which is exactly what I've been wanting what with my dance show mishaps over the last year. I don't have a full cast list yet, but once I do I'll make a post here. Also, I have an audition tomorrow (meaning today since it's already Saturday and I'm typing this instead of sleeping...) for a play called A Change Gon Come. It's an original piece that toured around in 2006 and 2007 and the city of Rockville has asked for it to be remounted for the 16th Annual African American Heritage Production at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre in Rockville, MD. I sat around perfecting my southern accent today so that I can hopefully give a good audition tomorrow. Other than that I can't really think of much else important to mention because obviously I didn't get cast in anything else.

It is also my pleasure to announce that I am a college graduate! On December 15th I graduated with my BFA in Photographic Imaging from good ole AiW, and I could NOT be happier to be finished. My book "back.story" was a success at my portfolio show, along with all my other stuff. Which reminds me that I never posted the link to the finished result on here... so here it is...

And if that doesn't work, you can do to this link : http://www.adoramapix.com/backstory/book/backstory

One more piece of news before I stop talking about myself... I'm really grateful and proud and happy and ecstatic to announce that I have been blessed with an internship at the Kennedy Center for the Spring! I'll be working as the Graphic Design/Advertising intern for the next four months in the in-house ad agency they have. This is probably my favorite piece of news because I always wanted to work there in some capacity and now it's a complete dream come true because of the type of internship it is. I'll get to make signs and ads for the Kennedy Center advertising their upcoming shows in addition to designing the newsletters and such that get sent out throughout the year.

Anywho, I think that's about it in terms of new stuff in my life. I think I want to leave you all with a clip from Chicago... this is the "Cell Block Tango" scene from the movie, and I really hope I get to dance in this scene!

sb.imagery

The Wheels of a Dream

Yesterday, I did a "back.story" shoot with my friend, actress Shemika Berry. We were originally going to do a shoot with her as Ruth from the play "A Raisin in the Sun", but in order to continue with the theme of my series we decided to cast her as Sarah from the musical "Ragtime". Instead of telling you about the character and the show, this is the back story Shemika provided...

"Sarah in Ragtime is an idealistic young woman raised in Harlem during the Ragtime heyday of music. She grew up in a staunchly religious home and was very active in her church. Her one true passion has always been music. It stirs her soul and when she heard the piano playings and singing of a young musician named Coalhouse she instantly fell in love. The passion she felt for him made her forget about everything around her. Her love for him cause him to compromise her standards and the morals her parents raised her with. Her parents disowned her and forced her to leave her home upon discovery that she was pregnant with "that musician" Coalhouse's baby. Pregnant and unwed, Sarah was a disgrace to her family. When she had her baby, Coalhouse, Jr. she was alone, the baby came early and was so small he wasn't breathing. She didn't know he was still alive when she buried him, she would have never tried to harm her own child. Her anguish and horror at what she has done comes crashing down around her after her baby is discovered alive and crying in the garden."

Here are the photographs we came up with!

And the photograph that will be featured in my book... sb.imagery

All images owned and copyrighted by Scotty Beland.

back.story

.Today I wrote my artist's statement that I will include in my book. The book will be called "back.story", and... well... you'll figure out what it's about once you read below!

"What is a back story?

A back story is a device used literally as a background story which chronologically would have taken place prior to the narration of a novel, film, or in this case, a dramatic work. These devices are directly related to the narration and usually deal with the history of characters or other underlying elements. Kind of like a prequel.

There are a lot of considerations an actor has to make when coming up with a back story for their performance to make it their own. The lines in their script are only a basis for practically birthing a new character. The psychology of a character simply cannot be provided in a script or the brief character summary that not even all scripts provide; it is the actor’s responsibility to create this psychology and what makes the character tick. After all, if you think about the way a person was raised, who they knew growing up, what trials they faced, the obstacles they overcame, their first kiss... All of these things shape who a person is. This should be a testament to how powerful a back story can be. Two actors playing the same role with two different back stories will portray the character in very different ways.

My intent for this series was to create a collection of “character stills” that show actors, who have played these characters, in full costume and make-up and for them to talk about the back stories they developed for their characters. The photographs are meant to capture the essence of the character and what makes each character unique. Accordingly, each photograph and back story is accompanied by song lyrics that give insight to each particular characterization.

If anything, a person who reads this book should be able to take away the importance of a back story in someone’s life and how these “prequels” shape a character, and ultimately an entire society.

So, tell me... what’s your back story?"

If you want, you should totally let me know what you think! I want as much advice as possible. I will be posting about my progress in the making of this book on my other blog: http://sbimagery.blogspot.com/. Be sure to check it out!

And on this blog, I will be posting a new set of "character stills" soon. My lovely friend and actress/make-up artist, Shemika Berry will be portraying Sarah from the Broadway musical, Ragtime. I met Shemika when we were both cast in a production of Gypsy. She was cast as a stripper with a gimmick, and I was a 12-year-old! We have worked together several times since then and I know she is the perfect actress to portray this character. I'm sure it will be beautiful! I don't want to give too much away about specifics, but this is a song from the show that Sarah sings (hope it will get you in the mood Shemika!).

sb.imagery

Something's Cookin'

Last Friday was the opening night of another show I was in! Despite a short rehearsal process and some serious microphone issues (in addition to a period of mass confusion in which I forgot the words to one of my songs... :-) ), it was well-received by our opening weekend audiences! The show is called The Spitfire Grill, and it will be running for two more weekends (this Friday and Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 3 as well as next weekend). You can order tickets online at http://www.tantallonstage.com/ or call 301.203.6070.


Although this particular show is not well-known, it is a really good show filled with great music and intense dramatic moments! I play a somewhat dim-witted Sheriff who falls in love with a parolee who came to this town after being entranced by a newspaper clipping. She takes employment at The Spitfire Grill and soon enough, the town is thriving with life again. If you want a review, you can find one here from the folks at Showbiz Radio: http://www.showbizradio.net/2010/09/29/review-tcp-spitfire-grill/.

And here's another one from the Maryland Independent: http://www.somdnews.com/stories/10012010/weekmor130843_32199.shtml.

Here's a few more photographs shot by my good friend, Kristin Leahy.

I really hope to see some of you there!!!

sb.imagery

All of the images in this post copyright Kristin Leahy.