Hello my dear FOD's (Friends/Family of Doug)!
Happy Memorial Day weekend! (or shortly thereafter) April and May have been about service to others--singing my face off for several wonderful benefits and participating in readings to help up and coming artists take their work to the next level. Sometimes both at the same time! I also attended an awards ceremony for a project I voiced and have a fun story about a big ol' celebrity.
Now, take the favorite of your seven laptops over to the Comfy Chair and join me on this e-journey--and at the e-conclusion, oh yes, oh yes, there shall be the two (by which I mean four) items of interest for FOD's!
FODapalooza V: Birthday Edition
Join me for the fifth FODapalooza!
WHEN: Tuesday, June 30, 2009--my birthday (the day all the coupons expire!)
6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
WHERE: People, in the Loft upstairs
163 Allen Street, New York, NY
See below for directions or go to the
Google Map
COST: No cover, cash bar. If you're desperate to give me a birthday present, I'll be accepting donations for City Meals on Wheels.
Gather, ye FOD's (Friends/Family of Doug), and meet your brethren at the fifth FODapalooza! We've got sultry goth vixens, poignant lyricists, efficient stage managers, cuddly activists, empathetic social workers, foxy doctors, Renaissance folk who do it all, and even some single men with no criminal record who want to date women! We'll have the upstairs lounge all to ourselves with the Wall of Rain, meat on a stick, and (hopefully) de-lishish Margermelon Wadderitas. (Translation: delicious Watermelon Margaritas.) If you have an event coming up or a service you provide (PG-13 please), bring your cards/flyers and we'll spread them around on the tables.
Directions
People is just a block and a half below the intersection of First Avenue
and Houston (the east end of the F and V train).
Doug's Stage-Right-of-Broadway Debut
Thanks to FOD (and stellar music director/conductor) Jeffrey Biering, I was hired to be a backup singer for the opening number of the 23rd Annual Easter Bonnet Competition, benefitting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. We performed it in the Minskoff Theatre, which houses Broadway's The Lion King. We were stationed offstage right, backing up parody segments of Les Miserables, The Wiz, The Wild Party, and even a bit of "Single Ladies" for the amazing dancers, soloists, and celebrities. Our merry band of backup singers included Kimilee Bryant, Kris Koop, Becca Johnson, Kristen Maloney, Trevor Southworth, Michael Anthony Pesce Jr., Frank Galgano, myself, and Liza Minnelli.
I'm sorry, what?
You read that correctly. Liza Minnelli.
Liza was the grand finale to the opening number and was waiting back stage with her posse of elegant gentlemen. She is full of life and joy and decided it would be a kick to jump in and back up Aisha de Haas on "No Bad News" with us...both verses, both performances. I was on (or very close to) a Broadway stage, watching a dear friend in the monitor conducting in a Broadway house, and voicing incredible arrangements with a group of phenomenal singers that just happened to include Liza Minnelli. I love New York. (In fact, she sang New York, New York as the finale to the opening number and showed us all how this theatre thing is done.) Have to mention the excellent stage management team too: Brian Rardin and Cindy Hennon--really impressive.
Awards and Remembrance
I have voiced several sound/image projects for the students of FOD Susan Zizza at New York University. In "The Swim Team," (by Matt Ahl, Sourabh Chakraborty, and Thurmon Green and based on a short story by Miranda July) I voiced both the husband and wife of an older Jewish couple who are taught to swim on the floor of their apartment by putting their faces into bowls of water and kicking. Shawn and I had the honor of attending a ceremony at which these students were presented with the NYU Tony Hawkins award for Audio Drama. This ceremony ended up having a deeper meaning for me than I could have known.
The presenter was Helen Engelhardt Hawkins, and she shared that the this award is named in honor of her husband Tony, a devotee to radio drama who lost his life when Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed by a bomb over Lockerbie Scotland on December 21, 1988.
I was ending my first semester as a freshman at Syracuse University in 1988 when this occurred and 35 students from Syracuse University were on that flight, including five students from our drama department who had been studying in London. In my senior year, I was honored with one of the first 35 Remembrance Scholarships in their names. Just in case I never get to honor them while accepting an academy award, please take a moment this Memorial Day weekend to remember at these students who were a part of my Drama Department and another, Scott, whose mother I got to meet: Nicole Boulanger, Timothy Michael Cardwell, Theodora Eugenia Cohen, Scott Marsh Cory, Turhan Michael Ergin, and Miriam Luby Wolfe.
Savvy Doug
I continue to work with phenomenal clients as an acting career consultant with The Savvy Actor. Jodie Bentley and Kevin Urban have built a remarkable company that helps actors turn their craft into their business through classes, coaching and seminars. Interested in doing this work for yourself? E-mail me at doug@thesavvyactor.com or call (917) 929-0998 to set up a free half-hour intro session. We also coach by phone for those of you outside of NYC. Just so you know, I've been informed that my rates are about to go up, but if you respond to this newsletter I can lock you in at the old rate. Let's get your career going!
Doug's Wilde again, beguiled again...
I was brought in again by The NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program to workshop Brandon James Gwinn and Dan Marshall's The Happy Prince, a one-act musical based on Oscar Wilde's story of the same name and other material. It was my second time playing Oscar Wilde in a musical. Directed by Jonathan Warman, Music Directed by John DiPinto, Stage Managed by Chae-Kyung Lee and Paul Castle, and performed by Drew Aber, Claybourne Elder, and me.
Bishop Doug
Coming up! I'm playing The Bishop of Basingstoke in a benefit for The New York Society for Ethical Culture...
Jekyll & Hyde in Concert
SAW Theatricals, Inc., will be staging a one-night concert benefit performance of Frank Wildhorn's Jekyll & Hyde to benefit the New York Society for Ethical Culture. I will be playing the Bishop and singing baritone. FOD's will include Sarah Melissa Rotker (Producer/Music Director), Richard Binder, Sal Sabella and Tony Wolf.
WHEN: Monday June 15, 2009 at 7:30 pm
There will also be a FREE pre-concert panel discussion on the ethical issues of Jekyll & Hyde.
WHERE: The New York Society for Ethical Culture
2 West 64th Street, NYC
See the
Google Map
COST: Concert Tickets $15-$20
Post-Concert Donor Reception Tickets $50-$75
Tickets: Visit www.ethicaljekyll.com or call 212-352-3101.
Dougbytes
***We continue work on the second installation of DougToons! This one is also going to double as my animation voiceover reel, so we've got a wonderful challenge ahead of us. If you have yet to see the work of animator Ken Truhan, writer Crystal Skillman, producer/engineer Brett Barry and voice actor me, the first installment of DougToons is on both YouTube and Facebook. Please log on to the YouTube site, give it a rating, and share with your friends!
***I was a guest performer for a mostly teen cast in The Music of Hope, a benefit concert for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, presented by Westchester based theatre company Little Fig Stage. I sang the works of FOD's Clay Zambo (for whom I'll be doing an upcoming reading of his Greenbrier Ghost), Haim Cotton, Adam Overett, Robert Lopez, and Kristen Anderson. Directed by Marci Elyn Schein, Music Directed by Michael V. Ficocelli, drums by Jason B. Anderson, and Choreographed by Megan Hawkins. (Other guest performers included Barbara Ficocelli, Charlie Levy, Carlos Lopez, and Susannah Jones. Other FOD composers included Deborah Abramson, Steven Alper, Dan Acquisto and Sammy Buck, and Michael V. Ficocelli.)
***Thanks to a recommendation by FOD Frank Galgano, I sang the works of Hyeyoung Kim & Michael Cooper and Brett Macias & Caroline Murphy for the fifth NEO concert, celebrating New, Emerging, Outstanding writing talent in musical theatre. NEO is a benefit for The York Theatre Company's award-winning support of new musical theatre and its creators, and consists of an evening of one-song-each by different writers and writing teams. If I start trying to list all the FOD's involved with this, I will start bleeding from the eyes, but Matt Castle must be mentioned as a music director who not only teaches you notes, but understands why the composer/lyricist team wrote a song segment in a certain part of your vocal range to compliment a specific lyric. Then he lays it all out for you in actable terms. Just phenomenal.
***Thanks to FOD's Doug Besterman and Anne Bobby (and the magic of Facebook), I participated in a reading of The Witches of Lublin, a radio play with klezmer. Written by Ellen Kushner, Elizabeth Schwartz, and Yale Strom. Participating FODs included Fiona Jones, Anne Bobby, and Chris Delaine Costalas.
***I was a reader for Theatreworks USA's auditions for Click Clack Moo. I got to differentiate between three different cows whenever anyone read for the role of the duck.
***I will be returning to The Barnstormers for my eighth season in Tamworth, NH to play Elyot Chase in Private Lives (July 21-25) and Lyman Sanderson, M.D. in Harvey (August 4-8)
***News from de Suze: (Surely you've heard of Alexandra de Suze!) She just tested out new material for her one-woman show Single What? Female at No Name and is looking for other venues at which to continue the momentum. Any ideas? e-mail her at funkweee@gmail.com.
***I continue to participate in "The Actor's Workout" with an incredible intenSati instructor, Erin Stutland. The practice of intenSati offers a training for your body and your life. The greatest power to influence our life, our health and our happiness is our thought power or our spiritual power. So, in class, we simultaneously work through challenging aerobic exercise and spiritual yoga while voicing our goals to cover mind, body, and spirit. Intrigued? Send Erin an e-mail at stutsreal@yahoo.com.
***I'm still continuing to monitor casting sessions, train readers, and meet casting directors weekly at The Network. I cannot recommend this organization highly enough.
***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. By the way, one can hear the broadcast by registering at intouchnetworks.org, but then must be able to verify that they are visually impaired. Tell your visually impaired loved ones to sign up, and then bring the pizza and beer over at 7:00 am to listen to us!
***Every Friday at 8:00 a.m. I have a phone gathering with fellow voice actors Brett Barry, Cristina Doikos, Marc Garber, and Jamie Hurley.
***I continue to sing Sunday mornings at The Madison Avenue Baptist Church with choir director Paul Stephan, singers Renee Jarvis, Christopher Preston Thompson, Andy Redeker, Daryl Freedman, and Alexandra de Suze! (Surely you've heard of Alexandra de Suze!) The congregation is led by the fabulous Reverend Susan Sparks. The sermons are now podcast! (The choir is not.) AND GET THIS--This coming Sunday, May 31, 2009 will be THE BLESSING OF THE BIKES! We're having a section of Madison Avenue cordoned off, the entire service will have a biker theme, and afterwards, Reverend Susan Sparks will come outside and bless each bike (meaning motorcycle--don't bring your 10-speed) individually.
Please Don't Panic! I'm as busy as popcorn in a skillet -- but for you, I'll find the time. Should you require your song sung, your cartoon voiced, or your print campaign modeled, let's create something great together.
And now the monthly Two (by which I mean Four) Items of Interest for FODs...
Give your time..
Are you frustrated by all the mail you're receiving from countless important charities that are desperately trying to up their game? Very few of us have the money to help, but you'd be surprised at what a little time can do. I found my volunteer gig (which I love) at InTouch Radio through volunteermatch.org. I logged on, entered my zip code and used "voiceover" as a key word. I was stunned to discover that an organization needed what I love to do most. Two years later, I'm still there.
Give your soul...
International scholar, actress, and FOD Patricia Angelin is introducing Alba Technique (a method by which actors can achieve authentic human emotion by purely physiological means) to New York City's acting community. Through training in the technique, actors achieve access to and control of the six pure human emotions and the freedom of "True Neutral." This is not an acting class. It is a tool which can be implemented by anyone, regardless of age, experience, or previous training. Interested in learning more? e-mail Pat at pangelin@msn.com.
Give your cards...
Mailings--Faster, Smarter, Cheaper!
A fantastic FREE seminar offered by The Savvy Actor. Mailings are a very important part of our acting business. Yes, we know, they can be tedious, time consuming, and not always affordable. Most of us will do them without the consistency truly needed to both brand ourselves and maximize the effectiveness of our marketing efforts.
How would you like to....
• Send a 100 piece postcard mailing in less than 10 minutes?
• Send thank you cards with your headshot printed inside?
• Keep track of who you sent to, what you wrote, when you sent it and even be reminded to send your follow up?
AND... save time and money.
We are ecstatic to share with you this amazing service where you can CREATE, PRINT, STAMP, and MAIL your personalized cards and postcards – at the click of a button! It is time to work smarter, not harder so come experience our free demo of the system.
Free Seminar: Mailings - Faster, Smarter, Cheaper!
WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday May 26, 2009, 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
at Pearl Studios at 500 8th Avenue, 4th Floor
COST: Free!
RSVP: To reserve your spot for the seminar, please e-mail jk@thesavvyactor.com
What? You say you don't live in New York City but may be interested? Not you should worry. Send me an e-mail and tell me to put you on the list for my first webinar that will be coming up in a couple of weeks!
Give my husband a call...
I must brag on my man. After eighteen years as an actuary, Shawn brought his industry savvy to the people side of the business four years ago to be a financial planner. His business has grown wonderfully and he is helping a lot of people start to save money and protect their loved ones. Have you been reading the news lately? Perhaps it's time to talk with him. He knows his stuff, will not try to sell you something you don't need, and is quite easy on the eyes. Send him an e-mail at scowls@mac.com to start the conversation.
Life is good here. Shawn and I took a week in St. Thomas with his parents and our good friends John and Celeste McClain. We also arrived in time to celebrate our friend Bethany's wedding. I encountered an interesting dilemma--while we were snorkeling pretty far out from the beach, it started to rain really hard, but there was no thunder and lightning. I am programmed for "everybody out of the pool" when it rains, but if there's no lightning and we're already wet--what to do? I stayed in, but it was a mental leap.
Take some breathing time for yourself, tell me your birthday. Thanks to all of you who serve and volunteer, and thanks for being in my life. Please let me know what's going on in yours!
Enjoy Yourself!
Doug
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