Ukrainain Woman

Ukrainian dialect, anyone?
I got to PLAY today! Huzzah! I love trying out new dialects and Ukrainian was a new one for me. The reading went well. I put raisins in my shoes and frozen peas in my bra in addition to my usual work-up for a character. Want to know what food products have to do with auditioning/reading? Check out Glenn Morshower's The Extra Mile (See one of my previous blogs for link.)

My husband, Jeff, who actually has a Master's Degree in Acting and learned the phonetic alphabet in grad school (so that's what grad school is for!--insert forehead smack) helped me take it a step further than simply listening to a compact disc. (Email me at evelyn_elam@yahoo.com for more info!) He auditioned for the same short film so we were both working on the dialect simultaneously, which helps! Get a buddy! Similar to learning a foreign lanuage: much harder when you only talk to yourself.

I have been finding auditions to be so much fun lately! That may sound crazy to some people out there, but I'm telling the God's honest truth. It's the cheapest way to practice our craft. It's the easiest way to learn to control nerves. And if you suck, so what, there's another one down the pike! Fire and Forget! My career has gone from a couple of meetings/readings per month to several meetings/readings per week: all without an agent's assistance. Next up: several meetings a DAY, with an agent's assistance!.
--Evelyn Elam