Mystery Man in the Can.

So Monday was - for lack of any other words - amazing.

I had a 7am calltime, got a drive-on to park on the NBC studio lot, had my own dressing room (#27), then went on and enjoyed some hair/make-up with a little morning coffee.

Pre-blocking began at 8am... I went in to block at 8:20am, was done by 8:23am. It was "stand here, enter when cued, walk to here, turn, speak. Okay? Next scene... sit here, talk, get up and exit on your line. Okay? Next scene" and I was done... I loved that while everyone was there to have a good time, everyone was also there to work and that was a blast.

The inside of the soundstage (I was on Stage 4, which is across the hall from the stage that Bree got to work on) reminded me of the theatre at Stritch... with the weighted pullies, the half built sets... it was like being in college again in a very strange way. So cool.

So after the dryblock, I headed back to my dressing room, read about Robert Downey Jr and Iron Man for a while, had some breakfast and waited the hour till taping, which without a book or music or something feel like I was waiting a week... but hey, I would still rather do that everyday than not.

So around 10am I was up on the stage, with my costume that had been brought to my room while I was dryblocking and running the scene. Jay Johnson was in my scene, he plays Phillip, really nice guy. We talked for a while about what the scene was about, if I had gotten anymore scripts and when he thought I would be back... which he did, and since he is about the fifth person to either imply or come right out and say I would be back, I feel good that I am going to be on the show again. But even if I'm not - what a great time this was.

So we ran through the first scene, shot it in one take and then moved to the next scene.

Ran through that one, shot it in three takes... cause they wanted to change a little of the lines. Shot it, a little "check the gate" (even though this is video) and we moved on. "Thank you Mr. Lovett, that's a wrap for you today."

I went back to my room and gathered up my stuff and home I went.

I would love to be on this show, or any soap really. The feeling of it, is so different than the other shows or movie sets I have been on. It is really chill and everyone, like I said, is there to work but have a good time while doing it. No egos or anything...

So yesterday, I had a meeting with an A-level boutique agency that has been courting me, thanks to a friend of mine that got me on their desk. Met with their head of commercial representaion, he loved me, my look, my sense of comic timing and my work eithic, overall thought I was cool (I like to think I can fool people into believing I'm cool!) and I'm going to come back next week, meet with the other agents, show them what I have and I might have a new team by this time next week!

So lots of great things are going on. Shakespeare Fest/LA announce they are doing Taming of the Shrew this summer, which is a show I have been dying to be in for many years, and Crown Theatre will either be doing 12th Night or R&J, either one of which would be a blast!

So that is news with me... Days airs May 22nd - Bree's episodes are May 2nd, 5th-7th, so make sure to tune in. =)

Love ya guys!

J.

Like sands thru the hourglass...

Lots and lots has been going on which is why I should be posting more and yet have not. So let's back it up a bit shall we?

I've has been having a great run of auditions. A couple for Wendy's that went really well! I just finished up my second semester with Steppenwolf and am going to take the summer off before returning to classes with them. But, in the meantime, Steve has finally decided to start teaching scene study classes and we (Bree and I) will soon be starting that on Monday nights.

I've has been working out a lot and lost a lot of weight since Christmas.

We went on a cruise last month. That was cool. Bree's parents wanted to include us in their family vacation this year so Bree and I joined her mom and dad, sister and brother for a week in the Caribbean. The boat was amazing. I did a lot of napping and video arcade visiting and Bree did a lot of reading. We stopped in Cozumel and swam with dolphins at a place called Dolphinaris. If you ever have the opportunity to do this I highly recommend it. Bree cried. It was an unforgettable experience. We then went on to Belize which was probably my favorite part. It's a beautiful country but so so poor. It feels a LOT like New Orleans which, as we learned, is probably because the predominant ethnicity in Belize is Creole. Next is Mayan followed by eastern indian, chinese and amize/mennonite. I know, strange combination, right? Anyway we took a gorgeous although harrowing bus riode across the country to the border of Guatemala and climed some ruins and an ancient temple call Xunentunich (pronounced shoo-NAHN-too-NEECH). It was indescribable. Again, I highly recommend the experience if you have the chance. Really breathtaking. And the history of the culture is mind blowing. After what we learned on the trip I say watch out for December 21, 2012. There's something to it. :)

After that we returned home and tried to get back into the swing of things. The week after we got back Bree booked 4 episodes of Days of Our Lives. She played Annie, a cop. It was cool. The episodes air May 1, 2, 5, and 6. It will be hard for them to cut her out of these because she is in a LOT of these episodes. Not a lot of lines, but a lot of work time. It was awesome and she hopes to go back again soon!

The only thing that made working on Days difficult was that her car was totalled the night before. Sunday she was driving to the restaurant and got rear ended. Totalled the baby Kia and left her in a lot of pain. She has 6-8 vertebrae that are misaligned and her pelvis has gone off balance. She is in treatment 4 times a week which included shooting electricity into her back and neck to fatigue the muscles in order to allow the doctor to try and put things back where they belong. It sucks. We also had to go buy a new car which was not as fun as one might think. If you PLAN to buy a car and WANT to buy a car it's fun. When you are less than 2 years from having your existing car paid off...and that car makes you perfectly happy, then being forced to incur a new 5 year loan is not fun. Plus we found out the Thursday after the accident that the car was totalled which meant that we had to return her rental car within 3 days which FURTHER meant that we had to buy a new car over a weekend. It was beyond stressful. But we got a wonderful new Scion tC. It's a very fun little car and she is beginning to warm up to it every day.

Last week we went to a table read for a play we were thinking of doing. We spent a few weeks doing re-writes as it was a thick script that needed some streamlining. Steve would direct. The woman who would poroduce however....not so much my cup of tea. Steve, Bree and I all agreed that we did NOT want to work with her. So we'll look for something else to do. :)

I had an audition for Days of Our Lives on Tuesday...

Thursday I went in for my callback for "Officer of the Court" which Bree told me means Lawyer =)

Well, I booked work on Days, which I will be filming on Monday... yet it is not the role I read for... instead I will be playing "Mystery Man" and in my scenes I say very little but am sent to do a devilish task of I know not what... Does this mean I will be back? And if so, what will I be doing?

I'll keep you posted!

Much love.

J.