Hello miss, how can I help you?

My boss gave me so many hours that I haven't had any time to think about acting! This is not good at all. Oh, retail!

Make a choice

I woke up at 4 am this morning (after going to bed at 1:00am. And by bed I mean laying in it and not sleeping), got ready at a snails pace and left my house at 5:10 for the city. It was a really enjoyable road because the expressway was empty (I got to the city in 25 minutes) and I was listening to my new Michael Buble cd.

I got to Actorfest around 6:30 and had to stand outside for 2.5 hours. Let me just tell you, I was freezing. The good part about the wait was that I wasn't alone because my friend VK came as well. We were allowed into the event after filling out a form and being given a side (it was 30 seconds long of some girl lying her way out of detention). Lots of booths were set up in Hammerstein Ballroom. They were headshot photographers, SAG representatives, people from different acting studios, etc. It was interesting to see all these people who have a common dream gathering in one place. However, it also made me really understand the fact that there are SO many other people trying for the same thing as you. Somewhere around 200 people showed up for the Nickelodean casting call and they were all going out for the same roles as me.

The audition was very non-traditional. We had to stand in a line all the way up until we walked into the room with the Casting Director, there were 3 different rooms of CD's, it was not filmed, and there wasn't a reader-the CD read the other lines.

Now, I did all my work on the line. I figured out my objective and my moment before and I made 2 clear vocal and physical choices. But I will be completely honest with you guys because there's no need to lie: I did not do well. For some reason--and I am definitely going to invest in an audition techniques class--everything went out the window. If I could have done anything more to help me I would have warmed up more and really grounded myself. On the line for the audition there was this very loud boom and considering I was in Manhattan it was scary. Everyone jumped and started looking around but after a minute I figured if something really happened than we would have known by then. So that pretty much put me completely on edge and I had trouble getting back into it. I think as an actor it's important that you don't put the blame on anyone or anything else. If you messed up, figure out why. Were you not prepared enough? Were you not grounded? Were you not confident? Find out why you didn't do as well as you hoped and decide what you can do to fix it.

Needless to say, I did not get a callback but they still have my headshot for further castings. What's next? I need to invest in better head shots and submit for more auditions, I suppose.

What ever happened to Hey Arnold?

It is terribly windy here tonight. Weather.com says that gusts up to 40 and 50 mph have been occurring. Some branches are down and the garbage can that normally stays on the back porch is now across the lawn.

I haven't had much to report on in regards to the acting world lately because I haven't been doing much. I've got a new part time job making only a tad bit more than minimum wage and I've starting rereading the Harry Potter series for the...19th time. Yeah, don't judge me. But this weekend I am going to attend Actorfest. I didn't sign up for any of the classes (mostly because I don't exactly have the money right now) but I did do basic registration so that I could go to the open casting call for Nickelodean. They're looking for people between the ages of 13 and 20 who can play high school age. Oh hey, that's me! So anyway, getting my butt up early Saturday morning and going into the city for that. It's an open call so you have to get there early to guarantee you'll be seen.

I spent my day trying to print out my headshots/resumes for Saturday and it was a MESS. I would like to tell you now that if you have the money (and even if you don't) PAY FOR A GOOD PHOTOGRAPHER AND HAVE THEM PRINT OUT YOUR HEADSHOTS! Do not do it yourself! It is stressful and I regret it. I will most definitely be doing that next but I obviously didn't have time for a reshoot before Saturday.

I will absolutely update after Actorfest about the chaos of young, inexperienced actors (like myself) running around Hammerstein Ballroom trying to impress a bunch of Casting Directors who would probably rather be warm and comfortable in their bed that early on a Saturday morning.

ALSO if you don't really use blogspot or like to follow people on blogspot I have a buzznet account where I update with the same entries:

http://rachhs.buzznet.com

Well, this is disappointing.

The pictures did not come out well. I gotta do a reshoot.

Picture Perfect

So today I finally got my headshots done. We took them in a park a town over from me and let me tell you, for the first week of Autumn it was HOT. It was so muggy out you couldn't see the land across the water and I almost sweat through my shirts (attractive, I know).

There's something weird about someone just standing there with someone taking photos of you. You're standing there looking into the lens and only seeing black when essentially you're actually looking into the eyes of the photographer. It feels like they're not looking at you but then you remember they're staring right back at you. Now I don't mind looking people in the eyes. I actually think it's one of my better qualities that I always look people in the eyes when I'm talking to them. But I had some trouble getting into this. It sort of felt invasive, but then I realized that it's the same with a videocamera. Why is it that when I'm in front of a videocamera I feel perfect but in front of a photography camera I don't know what to do. I didn't know how to pose and it was as if I forgot how to smile. The photographer said "smile!" and I thought, "how?" That's probably not good.

Sorry this wasn't that funny or interesting. I will post my headshots when I get them.

Would you like some thunder with that lightning?

My dad went on a business trip to Florida this past week. One night I was listening to the news and the weather report was that there was supposed to be a bad storm where I live. So I did what I always do: go to www.weather.com and stare at the radar map for several minutes pretending I know what it all means. Ooooh the yellow part is over the town! That means lightning! Red?! TIME FOR THE BOMB SHELTER (we don't actually have a bomb shelter)!!! I do this mainly because I have a fear of thunderstorms and I always tend to psych myself out before it hits and make myself even more nervous and scared.

Anyway, back to the story. My dad was in Florida so I texted him "There's supposed to be a storm here and I'm scared! Nobody is home and you are 1290312489341 miles away!" He showed his friends and coworkers the text and they all said "Awww, that's adorable! How old is she?" "...Eighteen." I think my dad facepalmed because all of his friends burst out into laughter. I am not amused.

Tonight however, was worse. A really intense storm hit New York today and it seemed like the Apocalypse. The sky had been grey and cloudy all day but it was still light out. My dad and I were cooking dinner around 5:30ish and I turned my back to mix the noodles in the pot and BAM! I TURN BACK AROUND THE SKY IS BLACK. BLACK, I TELL YOU. Within seconds the wind started whipping and the rain hit the kitchen window so hard it looked like someone was spraying it with a garden hose. The lighting strikes were so fast and bright you would think someone was taking a flash picture of you from an inch in front of your face. So what does my dad decide to do at this time? "Let's go stand at the front door and watch!" The wind is going 60 mph, you can't see in front of you because of the rain, the lightning is striking every 2 seconds and my father opens up the front of our house and stands in the doorway smiling.

I think it was payback for embarrassing him.