Hello my dear FOD's (Friends/Family of Doug)!
Ah April! The warming temperatures, the colors of the blooms peeping out of tree branches, the smell of lamb's blood drying on the doors of our loved ones that reminds us it's Passover! Please do not feed or tease my people by waving the challahs at us. Next week, feel free to wave all the challahs you want, but now we're working the matzo thing. And speaking of reasons to celebrate, FODapalooza II is slated for June 11, 2008 (whoops--that was an error. It's June 10!) at People Lounge in NYC so save the date! Enough with the intro. On with the update!
Love, Monsters, and Politics
LOVE!
I've just started rehearsals for LOVE! THAT FOUR LETTER WORD, playing a lovelorn psychologist going through his mid-life crisis. Naturally, it's a musical.
Written by Deborah Vines, Produced by Bill Sharp and Brady Amoon, Directed by Deb Failla, Generally Managed by R. Erin Craig and La Vie Productions, with Musical Direction by Lenny Babbish.
Cast: Melissa D'Amico, Doug Shapiro, Kate Wood Riley, Carl Anthony Tramon, Johanna Weller-Fahy, Heather Stricker-Dispensa, Scott Sowinski, and Actor TBA once we fill the final role. Here's the information:
WHEN: June 4-9, 2008 (Times TBA)
WHERE: The Kaufman Theater at The Algonquin,
123 East 24th Street,
in Manhattan between Park Avenue South & Lexington Avenue. Here's the
Google Map
COST: Tickets, priced $18, will soon be available by calling (212) 868-4444, and visiting www.smarttix.com.
(Industry and members of AEA get in free.)
MONSTERS!
Well, monster.com, that is. This past Friday, I voiced one of four office drones who steadily find their calling in a radio ad for Monster.com. Stay tuned! (Thanks to FODs Faith Sandberg and Tim Ewing for being my muses. This was the audition where I saw you guys last Wednesday!)
POLITICS!
I've just been cast as Gilhooley in OF THEE I SING at The Richard B Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College. What? I'm being paid union salary? Was brought in by a bona fide NYC Casting Director? A rehearsal process of more than one week? I won't be holding my script during the show? There's time to DEVELOP a character rather than find my funny voice and silly walk and go? Whose life is this? This will be my second go-around with the wonderful Will Pomerantz as director and I know of two other FODs who have signed on: Chad Harlow and Rich Silverstein. If there are any more of you, let me know!
In the bittersweet department, it also means I will not be returning to The Barnstormers in Tamworth, NH this summer after being a company member seven years running. (I've been acting in New Hampshire and Maine every summer since 1995.) I love you New England. Time to make new friends in Annandale-on-Hudson.
Draw or animate DougToons!
The first installment of DougToons! has been penned by the incomparable Crystal Skillman and voiced by me at Silver Hollow Audio, with producer (and fine voiceover talent in his own right) Brett Barry. Now that it is in the can, my very talented graphic designer and animator have a great deal of other work on their plates. I'm looking for a few more graphic designer/cartoonists and computer animators to add to my team. The work we create would be for each other's websites to display our cartoon fortitude! Drop me an e-mail if you would like to join my toon team!
***Every Thursday at 7:00 a.m. Jill Burk and I continue to be the voices of New York Times for InTouch Radio reading news and periodicals for the visually impaired over the air.
***I continue to sing through my Sunday mornings at The Madison Avenue Baptist Church with choir director Paul Stephan, singers Renee Jarvis, Julia Mintzer and Christopher Preston Thompson, and the fabulous Reverend Susan Sparks.
Please Don't Panic! I'm as busy as a farmer with one hoe and two rattlesnakes, but for you, I'll find the time. Should you need the pigs and chickens voiced in yer cartoon, a down-home campfire ditty sung fer yer musical project, or a model to sport that little gingham number fer yer photo shoot, give me a yee-haw and we'll create something great together.
And now the monthly Two Items of Interest for FODs...
Meet the famous Alexandra de Suze in person!
Surely you've heard of Alexandra de Suze!
Well, from April 7 to May 7, she is going to travel across the country in order to interview folks about the "what are you" culture of our nation for her show Single What? Female. She's already been meeting some wonderful FODs across this great nation. If you're along her Amtrak route, could you spare a couch? If not, perhaps you could sponsor her? How about just meeting her for a beverage and answering the question "what are you?" This e-mail is already plenty long, so I'll direct you to her blog page which will tell you all you need to know. She's great company and living the dream for all of us.
Get NetWORKING!
I have been having a wonderful experience monitoring and taking seminars with The Network. Paul Michael has created a wonderful alternative to Actors Connection and TVI with a very professional staff and great guests. If you're looking to meet with casting directors and agents one on one, this is a great way to do it. Through these seminars, I have landed a wonderful on-camera commercial agent, Erica Amsinger with The Mine and am back on the radar of many casting directors. Check them out!
Life is good here. We have a working bathroom again so we are no longer the wandering Jews trekking down to the gym showers every morning with our bag of shampoo past Miguel...the Troll Beneath the Bridge. We just had two great dining experiences: one at Vegetarian Dim Sum House at 24 Pell Street in Chinatown (to celebrate FOD Annie Shih) and an incredible dinner party with FODs John and Abz at their glorious home in New Jersey. We're gearing up for St. Thomas in early May.
I also started running two days ago. If you see me laying on the curb somewhere, please run immediately to Billy's Bakery and get me a cupcake.
Take some breathing time for yourself, tell me your birthday,
and thanks for being in my life. Please let me know what's going on
in yours!
As Always,
Doug
Doug Shapiro
(917) 929-0998
www.dougshapiro.com
doug@dougshapiro.com
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and, oy vey, I'm also on Facebook
Doug's song stylings
on BroadwayDemo.com
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