Post #1

Hello, whomever!  And welcome to my first ever blog.  Tonight I'm heading to NYC(on the Chinatown Bus no less) to start rehearsals for "One Nation Under".  It's my first play in NYC. Many(some) have asked, "Joel, how did you get cast in this fine play?".  Well, I put the blame on(or give credit to) Kera O'Bryon who introduced me to TVI Actors Studio... oh, about a million or so years ago.  For a reasonable fee, TVI introduces you to casting directors and talent agents.  You get to perform cold readings, or prepared monologues, depending on whom you're seeing, and then, if the stars align and all is right in the world, one of them will call and say, "Yes, (your name here), we'd like to rep you.".  And that's pretty much what happened to me.  I went to the Big Apple in February for a Talent Showcase where I had the good fortune of being seen by the lovely Ramona Pitera of Gilla Roos Talent.  About a week after the showcase I got a call that she was interested in seeing me.  So I hopped on a plane(or maybe it was the bus again) and headed for Gotham.  One of the things she told me was to get on the Actor's Access website, where you get casting calls for all sorts of stuff.  Some are free-bees, others pay pretty well, but regardless, it's a way to submit yourself electronically and be seen by the muckety -mucks of the industry.  In June, there was a posting for "One Nation Under". One of the characters, Wesley Hanna, sounded just like me:  handsome, humble, a social bon vivant. So I submitted my headshot and resume and got a call to audition.  I did, got a call back three weeks later(after throwing the script away!), and now I'm doing my first play in the city(I also have an auditon tomorrow for a webisode for "The Onion".  That should be a hoot).  So this blog is a record of my trials and tribulations over the coming seven weeks.  Let's see what happens.