Hello my dear FODs (Friends/Family of Doug)!
Cancel that therapy session! Stop drunk-dialing your pastor! Walk sloooooooowly back from the ledge, because your newsletter has returned. Spring's almost here and great things are yet to come, so pour yourself a citrusy Zima and settle in for this semi-regular e-journey, and when we reach the e-conclusion, oh yes, there will be the usual 2 (by which I mean four) items of interest for FODs!
The Very First Ever FODapalooza West!..
Doug and Shawn are hitting the West Coast and we're bringing FODapalooza!!
WHEN: Sunday, March 20, 2011
7:00 PM to 10:00 PM
WHERE: Jones
7205 Santa Monica Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90046
COST: No cover, cash bar.
RSVP: Not required, but I'd love to know you're coming.
Gather, ye FOD's (Friends/Family of Doug), and meet your West Coast brethren at the ninth FODapalooza! This gathering at Jones will coincide with The Savvy Actor Crash Course MBA Weekend, for which I'll be facilitating the "Enriching Your Support System" section. So, I get the incredible blessing to have all of you swell people that I haven't seen in years along with my new friends from the weekend seminar all in one place.
By the way, the first person who responded to my Facebook event about this happens to be a straight, single male friend from High School who is a massage therapist. Just sayin'.
The Brand-New dougshapiro.com has gone live!...
Ladies and Gentlemen, I invite you to the brand-spanking-new dougshapiro.com! It's been updated to reflect my brand of "Fearless Mensch," so drink in the new color scheme, relish the new photos and cruise gleefully through media and VoiceOver clips. You will be inspired to call anyone who hires actors or career coaches and insist they partake in my Fearless Menschiness. This new website was created by the handsome and talented Stephen Mitchell Brown of Money Note Designs. Hire him to design your performer website and then hire him again for your music theatre needs because he's a wonderful singer too.
Makin' Movies...
The Cycle
I'm kvelling up a storm! The short film The Cycle, in which I played a diplomacy-deficient police officer last fall, just finished its run on HBO and continues to rack up the awards, most recently BEST DIASPORA SHORT FILM at the 2011 Africa Movie Awards. (Note: the word "kvelling" is not used anywhere in the film.) Based on actual events, The Cycle takes place in the modern-day Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, and brings the fallout from an ongoing gentrification process to life through the stealing of a little girl's bicycle. The movie is written and directed by Roy Clovis, produced by Mundo Loco Films and cast by Liz Ortiz-Mackes of Casting Solutions. The cast includes Randy Baisden, Dracyn Blount, Corinne Bobb-Semple, Tanesha Gary, Lynda Gravatt, James Holloway, Sharon Hope, Dennis Johnson, Phyllis Johnson, Royce Johnson, Justin Jones, Jaymes Jorsling, Leopold Lowe, Christine Renee Miller, Tomike Ogugua, Surfin Percy, Sheila Tapia, Benja K. Thomas, and me (as Officer DeLuca).
The Egg Timer
I've been cast as the male lead in the 3-minute movie musical THE EGG TIMER, in which a couple struggles to define their relationship in the time it takes to properly cook an egg. I was invited into this gloriousness by the talented brothers David Rigano and Paul Rigano who composed and wrote the piece. Fellow cast members will include Erin Cronican, Christina Cervenka, Lisa Hufnagel, Jacob McGlaun, Brandon Peker, and the delicious Jennifer Wren!
Adventures in VoiceOver
Stewart Talent
As of the beginning of this year, I'm now working with Stewart Talent for VoiceOver and On-Camera Commercials. They're great. I'm thrilled.
Rockstar Games
So, if you're walking by a game console and you hear someone screaming for ammunition to fend off the zombies, that's me. Rockstar Games has come out with RED DEAD REDEMPTION: UNDEAD NIGHTMARE and I had a great time voicing it. The story of how I booked the gig through a mastermind group, LinkedIn, and a one-on-one informational meeting with a generous soul is now a part of The Savvy Actor Crash Course MBA Weekend.
Irrational Public Radio
Whoa, boy, am I excited about this one. One of my most bestest pals from my Syracuse University days is the very talented Joe Smith. In addition to his excellent commercial career, Joe is the talent behind Irrational Public Radio, a brilliant sendup of National Public Radio. Download this podcast on iTunes. Really. Do it now. I'll wait....
.....
...Welcome back. Make sure to listen to future episodes because when I'm out in California this month, I'm joining the cast.
The Return to The Public Theatre
In Late April, I'll be returning to The Public Theatre in Maine, having appeared in Three Little Pigs last fall. The show is BEAU JEST (by James Sherman), and I've been wanting to play the skeptical, divorced, psychologist brother Joel for ages. Even better, I'm going there with three friends from completely different parts of my life and they're playing my family. Marina Re as my mother Miriam (we're friends from my Boston actor days), Bill Van Horn as my father Abe (from The Theater at Monmouth in Maine and Theatre Three on Long Island), and Sarah Corey as my sister Sarah (from Prospect Theater Company and New Dramatists' Composer-Librettist Studio here in NYC). My actor family becomes my stage family.
Plan your trip to Maine. Here's the info:
WHEN: May 6-15, 2011
See The Public Theatre website for specific times.
WHERE: The Public Theatre
31 Maple Street, Lewiston, ME, 04240
COST: $18, $16 for students and seniors.
TICKETS: Call the Box Office at (207) 782-3200.
Cavorting with Composers and Whisking about with Wordsmiths...
My FOD Composers and Wordsmiths continue to bring amazing things into the world and I get to be their vehicle! Here's the latest:
Exodus Code: Advice to Wanderers
Oy! Such a reading with music we had! You've heard of A Bintel Brief, nu? The advice column started in the early 1900s in the Yiddish newspaper The Forward. So that nice girl, Lynn Thompson of America-in-Play, she makes a few calls and oy, such nice writers she gets! That Susan Tenneriello and the Andrea Lepcio and such music by that nice boy Rob Hartmann! I was kvelling! Bursting with pride, I tell you. And the actors? Nu, such a talented bunch. Shane Baker, so funny I plotzed. Daniel Maté, so good with the guitar and voices. Jonna McElrath, a speaking voice like velvet. Yelena Shmulenson, she sings like an angel. Me? With the Jewishness, the multiple characters and accents and the singing, a good time I'm having too. Add Shane Breaux and Leah Miles to the production staff, an accordian player named Michael, and put it in the Tenement Museum? A glorious kosher event for the whole mishpocha.
Coaching with Clients...
Such clients I've got! In my side career as a career consultant with The Savvy Actor, founded by the actor/business mavens Jodie Bentley and Kevin Urban, I have been helping my savvy clients set up systems for themselves to treat their acting craft as a business through classes, coaching and seminars. (Yes, we coach by phone, too.) Recently, my clients have signed with managers, booked off-broadway shows, earned their union cards, and got things DONE. Interested in doing this work for yourself? Click this link to set up a free half-hour intro session with me. I also recommend our amazing book The Savvy Actor Career Manual. Let's get your career going too!
And, for my West Coast pals, think about this: an intensive weekend on the 19th and 20th to inspire your inner business owner, your good pal Doug teaching a technique to enrich your support system, and then we head over to Jones bar to start enriching your support system with your fellow classmates and warm-hearted FODs! Click the pretty link...click the shiny link...Crash Course MBA Weekend. Oh, and if you're interested, e-mail me. I know a guy that can get you a FOD discount. ;-)
And speaking of getting your career going, my next webinar: Mailings - Faster, Smarter, Cheaper! is coming up on Sunday, March 27th at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time and you can be there from your own computer. Click this link to register for this webinar!
Dougbytes
***I worked another day as The Mailroom Guy on 30 Rock! So, why wasn't this the first item in the e-mail? Because after I was in holding for 8 hours, the powers that be decided that Sherri Shepherd and the guy playing her assistant could handle the scene on their own. (As the fantastic props lady said when it happened, "Hey, the checks don't bounce.") But the best thing about it was that I had the time to interview some of my fellow actors and then write an article for The Savvy Actor. It's called The Liquid Network and I hereby share it with you.
***Liz Ortiz-Mackes of Casting Solutions brought me in to speak on a panel about the business of The Business for her students at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Fellow panel members included Molly Kramer Meador of Theatreworks USA, Margaret Emory of Dulcina Eisen, and David Bellantoni of Beth Melsky Casting. This coming Saturday, I'll be an audition reader for a movie Liz is casting, CAN'T DANCE.
***I'm keeping my technique sharp with three phenomenal teachers. I've been studying voice with the amazing Jeff Halpern, gaining confidence on higher notes and tackling songs I've always wanted to sing.
Joan Bogden has been coaching me on VoiceOver and most recently on the "fair balance" read you hear in pharmaceutical commercials when they list all the symptoms you could get. Such a fine line to walk, so much fun.
I've also been taking Patricia Angelin's class in ALBA technique, learning to induce real emotion and then "step out" of it in order to stretch my emotional range as an actor. The work is tough to describe and requires a long commitment, and I can't recommend it highly enough.
***On Mondays at 8:00 a.m. I have a phone gathering with fellow voice actors Brett Barry, Cristina Doikos, Tercio Bretas, Marc Garber, Maggie Phillips, and Jamie Hurley. We have our own demo CD! Let us know if you would like one for your casting needs.
***I continue to sing Sunday mornings at The Madison Avenue Baptist Church with choir director Paul Stephan, singers Erika Buchholz, Karen Rich, Christopher Preston Thompson, Brian Long, and Alexandra de Suze!
(Surely you've heard of Alexandra de Suze!) The congregation is led by the fabulous Reverend Susan Sparks and Leslie Jackson. The sermons are podcast! (The choir is not.) Recently, I got to return to the days of my Senior Honors Thesis at Syracuse University (Duke Ellington's influence in Music Theatre) and sing Duke Ellington's Come Sunday and What Color is Virtue? in honor of Black History Month.
Please Don't Panic! I'm busier than a wetnap at a rib eating contest-- but for you, I'll find the time. Should you need me to speak the spot, give face time for the photo, or sing the song, let's create something great together. (Thanks, Jordan Yanco, for the wetnap idea.)
And now the monthly Two (by which I mean Four) Items of Interest for FODs...
You deserve a little Lovin' from me to you...
Small steps are the key to beginning daunting tasks. Is your workspace too cluttered? Start by putting away two items and call it done each day. Looking to cut out dessert? Throw out the first bite every time for a week. Terrified of dating again? Take your lunch and sit in a public place to begin putting yourself amongst people. I learned this concept from Dr. Robert Maurer's book One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way. The key is to make the initial step small enough so that it's a snap to accomplish. Once your brain is reprogrammed to let go of the flight response, you can increase your tasks by small increments until your goal is achieved.
There. Thou has been coached.
You deserve quick turn-around for your music needs...
FOD Mat Eisenstein has had many great successes lately, such as being the Associate Conductor of the Broadway companies of PROMISES PROMISES and ELF. Well, Mat has developed a great side career of creating MP3 TRACKS for actors or anyone who needs a recording of a song from sheet music. You send him the PDF- he sends you back a melody and accompaniment track the SAME DAY! (Usually within a couple of hours). Many of his clients have found this service helpful for those last minute sides you are expected to digest overnight and/or wanting to have digital versions of all your audition songs! His fee ranges between $10-$20 a song. (Depends on how many pages, etc.)
Feel free to email him at vocalcoachmat@hotmail.com for any questions or to get started on a track. This service is in addition to Mat's vocal coaching schedule, transpositions, and transcriptions that he does on a regular basis. He also arranges excellent (but easy to sight read) piano parts for your POP/ROCK song so that it sounds awesome and real on the piano for your audition!
You up-towners deserve a chance to make music near home...
I have news about Alexandra de Suze! (Surely you've heard of Alexandra de Suze!). Fresh off her victory with the Composer-Librettist Studio with New Dramatists, she is hosting No Name Presents: The Uptown Cabaret at the Indian Road Cafe. Ye northern composers, lyricists and singers who have built your igloos in the area where the A train ends, there is now a home for you to bring your music theatre selections old and new. Enjoy, and buy Alex a car bomb, why don'tcha? The cabaret is usually the third Thursday of every month at 7:00 pm, but this month, it's March 10th, so as not to mess with St. Patrick's Day.
You deserve financial guidance...
Of course I must brag on my husband. After eighteen years as an actuary, Shawn brought his industry savvy to the people side of the business five years ago to be a financial advisor. 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.
But wait! There's MORE! Shawn will have a table for his Financial Advisory practice at the 18th Original GLBT Expo on Saturday March 13 and Sunday March 14 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center (38th and 11th Avenues). I'll be working the table with him so he's free to talk with the people. Come by and say hello! And here's a Savvy tip: before you come, print out labels with your name, address, e-mail, and phone number so when you're signing up for all the raffles and giveaways at each booth, you don't have to write it all out a zillion times. The website link for the Expo has a downloadable coupon for $5.00 off admission.
Life is good here. My brother Phil generously donated some office chairs from his Wall Street office for our new Savvy Actor office in Midtown. All we had to do was move them from from Wall Street to Midtown...without a truck. Well, office chairs roll, so Savvy Actor co-founder Kevin Urban, fellow Barnstormer Kathleen Fiorito, and I rolled six chairs out of the office, down the service elevator, through the Wall Street area, through the subway system, out onto the street near Macy*s, and up into the Savvy offices. A great New York City adventure, and the chairs are just right. By the way, tax time is so very soon, and my brother Phil Rosenberg has an office chocked full of great CPA's (himself included) so get your receipts together and proceed to the website for Rosenberg & Manente, PLLC. The website music is the icing on the cake.
Take some breathing time for yourself, tell me your birthday, hug a woman (it is Womens' History Month after all), and thanks for being in my life. Please let me know what's going on in yours!
Enjoy Yourself!
Doug
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