Munro's Things Theatrical & Artistique

Choices and Options

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:39:56 GMT

My husband Mark Christensen & I are playing our electic music for a private party on Labor Day - through a party co. I had registered with a while ago. Lots of our funky material on hand for autoharp, concertina, etc - Latin, folk, standards - and our electronic tracks to sing to! And Mark provides percussion...and his baritone Elvis material!

Also playing for the First Los Feliz Art Walk 9/5 in the courtyard of Hollywood Lutheran in L.A. Similar material - but no vocals.

Glad I said no to an acting gig - it was in the desert - too far to go for too little $ & hard on the car. Making more with my music, it turns out!

The Emeritus Acting Class or Group as I like to call it starts after Labor Day. I am looking forward to it. But sortta disappointed I didn't do another horror flick this summer - just that Poltergeist spoof for the internet.

Hopefully everyone will get this union stuff straightened out and things can get back to normal in Hollyweird!

Tags: Emeritus College, Panoply, Poltergeist, horror, Pamela Munro, actress, folk music

Update

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:34:10 GMT

Ctr. for Health Care Rights PSA photo

Ok - another apology! I have neglected this blog terribly. Mea culpa (I am sorry.) I find mlyself writing in the frugal blog at www.myfrugallife.com/blog_pamphyila.html - since my artsy stuff forced me into my frugal mode in the first place! Stalled on my frugal book tho. Had coffee this AM with Eileen Dietz of Poltergeist and horror flick fame, which is pretty funny since I just did a Poltergeist spoof. Apparently, I should have kept the head cast that was done on me for JOLLY ROGER as a horror artifact. I wonder if I can find it anywhere?

Eileen is a longtime board member of Women in Theatre - & they are giving Barbara Gannen (whose acting class I have been going to) a Red Carpet award in the fall - so it's a small world. I am trying to plug the class, as I know how these things go & one has to keep the numbers up - so I am trying to help Barbara out. It's the least I can do for her wunderbar Emeritus scene group.

That doesn't start until after Labor Day. In the meanwhile I just auditioned for an indie flick - I did think that went well - I can feel the effect of working out with Barbara - and my PSA for the Center for Healthcare rights in which I am an active boomer senior is being shown in L.A. at KCAL9 on 9/8 between 12-2PM. The folks there sent me a very nice note and a DVD, too. That so RARELY happens! Quite a nice surprise.

Also auditioned in GERMAN for a commercial. The only time I go out to that place on the W. Side is to be a GERMAN!

Barbara asked me to hype the Emeritus scene group on HHH (Hollywood Happy Hour) - which is what I have been trying to so - and how I got hooked up with the whole thing to begin with! Networking - so I suppose I am not so bad at it after all.

The picture is a photo taken at the shoot for the Center for Health Care Rights' psa - I use it online because the colors turned out so well!

Tags: Eileen Dietz, Poltergeist, Women in Theatre, Barbara Gannen, Emeritus College, Jolly Roger, horror, Red Carpet Award

Back Again

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:29:59 GMT

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)!

Tags: Barfly, Roberta Bassin, Barbara Gannen, Santa Monica College, Emeritus College, hippopost

PR

Wed, 21 May 2008 17:21:49 GMT

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!

Tags: L.A. Times, lbn.com, Pamela Munro, PR, Viral marketing

New Ruff Cut of Theatrical Reel - Jumpcut

Sun, 11 May 2008 21:35:40 GMT

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!

Tags: Pamela Munro, reel, acting, jumpcut.com, Grey Gardens,

Rainmaking

Wed, 07 May 2008 20:37:03 GMT

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!

Tags: raintoday, rainmaking, marketing, Pamela Munro, acting, contacts

On the Road Again

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:49:57 GMT

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....

P.S. - I was also interviewed by L.A. Times reporter Leslie Earnest for an article about frugality - thanks to a referral from Susan of www.thriftyfun.com - Didn't get to mention busman's holidays (We are making $ & the entrance fee would be $25 each!)
Tags: Celtic music, Renaissance Faire, Hermosa Beach, Rotary

Web Interview

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:28:52 GMT

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.

Tags: www.lbnelert.com, FaceSpace, Judi Dench, Peter Brown, Pamela Munro, LBN Alert

Decisions, decisions & "Branding"

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:30:15 GMT

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...

Tags: Cary Grant, branding, Anthony Hopkins, villains, Judy Dench

Let's get moving

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:38:09 GMT

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.

Tags: Yoga, walking, exercise, sedentary, yoga.nz.org, Pamela Munro