Munro's Things Theatrical & Artistique

Sorry - I have neglected this blog and any of you out there.  Been busy.  First side-tracked by writing the first part of my budget book and getting it off to the editor!  Then had some work for the internet (played a "hideous old woman" but didn't turn out to be so hideous after all!) Just got paid for THAT.

Auditioning for "green" lifestyle shows, too - Would like to do a movie this summer - but Hollywood is so weirded out by the strike threat....

Doing the summer showcase for my GRATIS Santa Monica Emeritus College Scene Study Class, directed by Barbara Gannen.  It's such a blessing - a FREE GOOD class during the day.  It's worth the schlepp to S.M. - And we HAVE A SHOWCASE -

Roberta Bassin (of BARFLY) and I are doing a scene from Daniel Margulies' play COLLECTED STORIES, in which I get to play a writer.  Good scene!  The showcase is on Sat. 7/19 at 1 PM at the new Edge Theatre of Santa Monica College at 11th and Santa Monica Blvd. in S.M.

Barbara Gannen is very good, and her other classes outside are pricey.  The registration for the Fall semester of the S.M. Emeritus College is coming up.  Go to the S.M. College website for info.  The class is on Tuesday afternoons around the corner from the 3rd St. promenade (and there is a parking structure right next door.) These classes are FREE and meant for seniors, as is the whole Emeritus College, but they don't mind for others to join in if there is room.  It's really worthwhile and a great bunch of folks.

Also P.S. I have discovered that you can send 2 FREE postcards per day at www.hippopost.com - I am using that as a stimulus to send postcards out to the Hollywood community to remind them of my existence!  Postage has gotten so high - and you can upload your own pix.  There is some minor advertising, but I think it's a great deal, myself. 

Rehearsing the scene for the Sat. Showcase.  No auditions yet on the schedule.  Ugh, I am getting spoiled by going out so much (for me)!

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Here's the picture that appeared on the front page of the Business Sec.of the L.A. Times yesterday, 5/20 - (It's also online at www.latimes.com - search for my name, if you like)

All this came out of my association with www.thriftyfun.com - a frugal website I blog on at www.myfrugallife.com/blog_pamphyila.html - I mean, how do you think I have survived in Hollywood?  Stealthy thrift! 

Also was interviewed at www.lbn.com on the email newsletter on Sat. 5/18 -

It's a PR blitz of sorts - viral marketing, guys - it works!  Just went out on an audition yesterday, sent by my manager - I am not used to that!  But I continue to do my own PR - as I am as good as anyone I can afford!

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Well, I have put together another "movie" on jumpcut.com (they call it that, but it's my new theatrical reel actually) 

 The technology is amazing!  jumpcut.com is a tiny user-friendly program - now owned by Yahoo, I think  - in which you can cut & make your own little films.  Really. It's got lovely pre-made titles & effects you can play with - dissolves & wipes & everything. 

When you think that I have seen really dorky reels as examples on editing websites - I am very proud of myself - Only had to pay someone to get the footage into digital so I could work with it. So, in essence, I have saved several hundreds of dollars, and learned something, to boot!

So now, come what may, I have something to show people & posted on line, too.

The silent movies & the fact that they have silent movie titles on jumpcut inspires me - Maybe I could do a "grey gardens" type of thing!  No Bouviers as relatives - but I have a lot of weird stuff - ???

Oh, to be good at PLOT!

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Just read an interesting artilcle about "rainmaking" or getting new clients herehttp://www.raintoday.com/pages/3617_two_rainmaking_traps_smart_hard_working_professionals_fall_into.cfm

It's from one of the marketing newsletters I have subscribed to.  One of the important points it makes is avoiding "all or nothing" thinking.  Or failing to follow up on contacts from some event because you can't contact ALL of them.  Or failing to keep in touch with your contacts because you can't do it EVERY month.  We have the same problems as performers.  That's why I am trying to be very good about keeping up on my email contact list, so I can keep in touch more easily - as say, with the Happy Earthday cards I sent out recently!

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Back to the Renaissance!!

I won't be anywhere as nearly elegant - as I will be a lowly "bardwife" of the Celtic stripe - but my husband Mark & I are going to a Ren Faire in Hermosa Beach this weekend (sponsored by the Rotary as an educational event) A last minute booking - so I am dusting off my Ren repertoire & gear and looking for the tent - and we are off for a busman's holiday....More later....

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Just got invited to be on the LBN E-Lert, www.lbnelert.com as its next "FaceSpace."

Had to fill out a questionnaire about myself - Did I know anyone who had been paid for sex?  Not as far as I know.  But the rest was quite tame. I used my "Judi Dench" picture that Peter Brown and Eldon Turner took of me last month - a character one - looking thoughtful, I think.  Don't know when it's coming out - but I will let you know when I do...

 Do I look too grim?  I almost got to play the Judi Dench "M" part in a project once - but somehow it fell through. What do you think?  Is there A dameish quality there?  I did help found a Shakespeare Co. once.

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I have been doing something that I never have before - turning down projects.  This is the second time that I have gotten a script (or part of it) and decided it wasn't very well written, that I didn't like the character for me - and it was a smalltime production, to boot - And I decided I didn't want to go for it.

How unusual.  I used to go for everything!  Perhaps I dont' have patience & when I see an overwritten script, I just get tired...it's not going to go anywhere...unlike even JOLLY ROGER.  Now, that was in its own way, a witty script, and the "pirate movie" as I always call it, has turned out to have legs. It's been on TV and there are Eastern European websites with my picture from my JOLLY ROGER rampage on them.  Who knew? 

Looking at the script, all of a sudden something came back to me from a biography of Cary Grant, which I read a few months ago.  He was very careful about what was "Cary Grant" and what wasn't.  Nowadays they call that branding.  He made sure that the tailoring of all his suits for work were superbly tailored, for one thing, whether or not anyone else involved thought it was important.  And other seemingly trivial aspects of props, and so on.  But he instinctively knew that it all would be up there on the screen WITH him, so it COUNTED.  He created the "Cary Grant" brand, and when he got too old to be the leading man and romantic interest, he just retired - because he thought his fans wouldn't want to see their Cary Grant any other way than his classic persona.

Now, that's very different from ME - who has always aspired to be an "actress" for whom such considerations weren't supposed to count.  But after a while you can tell which parts will do you good and which won't - Sometimes you just need the credit - or the work - other times it's career-building. (I could use some episodic TV right now.)

But I found myself asking - very uncharacteristically - Would "Pamela Munro" do this part?  (It was a sort of stiff villain.) And part of me said "no." I don't know if I am right or wrong here - or just didn't want to go to that dark place of being a villain without it counting more professionally...After all, Anthony Hopkins, a real sweetheart made his real fame as Hannibal Lector!

But imagine me picking and choosing.  Maybe my half dot on the topten fansite is going to my head...

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I keep on trying to get myself MOVING - & on a frugal blog I found a conversation among all sorts of people ALSO at their computers, who were trying to solve the exercise dilemma.  I used to take classes, but they have gotten so EXPENSIVE. And the community college ones I am interested in all seem to be at 8 or 9 AM - not good for me. 

My husband and I do walk as much as we can - But I have to admit that there are some days I don't leave the apartment.  Ugh. 

On the bright side, tho - I have to share with you a wonderful yoga download - which is gratis from yoga.nz.org (that's yoga New Zealand) - It's about an hour, is very thorough and descriptive, and though the postures seem basic, they really gave me a workout yesterday - Check it out.

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Spent late yesterday morning submitting an electronic VO interview for an animated series.  All cyber.  Got the alert via a casting site and since I only received the late the next morning and it had to be in by 3 PM, I struggled to get it out. 

My hubby Mark has been working with various electronic recording devices - and I tried to get the newest little one to work - but somehow I couldn't.  So I just went back to the little sound recorder that Microsoft has - Thanks heaven the piece I had to submit was so SHORT - I hooked up a little old microphone & it actually came over very well - then I had to find a converter to get it from a WAV format into an MP3, so I could email it to casting.  One the second try I found some suitable freeware, downloaded it and converted the file - and OFF!!

It really is different from the old media, n'est-ce pas?  But the fact that I have kept up with the technology has given me an edge for my age - and I acquired my 1/2 a dot pf fame out of 5 on a fan site, all post 40, so it is an accomplishment.

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Went downtown to day to be interviewed by Sam and Manu on their internet radio program "California Dreaming." It was my first interview in a studio, even though I have talked on the radio via phone hookups before (about my acting).  This was about my acting - but also my pennypinching that I have developed to a fine art through my years of being a starving artiste.

It was great fun - look for it at www.bbstalkradio.com (Sam & Manu) on 3/31.

All grist for the mill, I say.  I used to get nervous about these things.  No more.  I hope it will promote my pennypinching blog at www.myfrugallife.com/blog_pamphyila.html as well as my articles on thrift at www.associatedcontent.com/pamelamunro

And now I have to get to work on my BOOK.

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