Mirror, mirror…have you seen the fashionably fabulous @halstonnetflix yet? Look for me in this fun scene at Bergdorf Goodman early in Episode 1. Step aside, Elizabeth II—there’s a new Old Queen in town! Thanks again to Director and Executive Producer Dan Minahan who has long held a passion to tell the story of this great gay fashion icon, and to Ewan MacGregor who is simply a joy to work with, and to Ryan Murphy for co-writing, producing, and partnering with Dan to make this gorgeous series happen!
I love that Dan chose a take in which I was riffing and improvising a little bit–he established such a comfortable, fun set that we all felt free to go with it! 😀🙏❤️
Here’s what auditions look like these days. While it can be frustrating not to physically be in the room with the casting director, live virtual casting is actually pretty darn great, much better than just submitting self-tapes–because the casting director can coach you and give you feedback in real time to help you land the gig. But you need to be set up to succeed. To look your best, consider having:
Adjustable ring light with remote control
Collapsible plain-colored (chroma key is ideal) background (the one pictured is chroma green on the other side, and comes with reflector covers as well for photography use!)
Water in a n0-spill container to whet your whistle (a chapstick is good to have handy, too)
Laptop for video audition room
iPad or printout for your script
(I also have a light-up selenite crystal for a little extra good energy in the room!)
A huge thank you to all the hard-working casting directors who believe in us and coach us to succeed whether in person or online. You all rock.#bowlingmisciacasting @josydiva @therealbobcline @stephanieklappercasting@judybowmancasting @brettegoldstein @donna_grossman_casting @wojcikseaycasting @rosalie.joseph #meredithtuckercasting #chrystiestreetcasting and many more!😀🙏🎉
The virtual waiting room….My behind-the-scenes setup. (If you look closely, my MinuteMaid print ad cast by Donna Grossman is on the wall!)
This September, Colin and I were asked if we were willing to present five awards for the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Emmys. Of course we said yes!
Since the actual winners had to be kept secret, Colin and I had to record two entirely different segments for each of the five awards, plus intro and outro clips. I shot the segments in front of a green screen in my home office, and the Emmys team added a suitably Gothamesque animated background in post production. The end result is a lot of fun. You can watch a selected clip below. Enjoy!
Missing live theatre? Love Shakespeare? Or just love a good story with complex villains and heroes, and some all-out magic? You can now listen FREE to all four episodes Shakespeare@’s beautiful new radio play production of The Tempest with an awesome international cast and audio by Emmy-winning Sonic Designs. Tim and I have listened to the entire production and it is simply wonderful. This fabulous production is adapted and directed by the amazing Sean Hagerty, Artistic Director of Shakespeare@.
You can stream or download us on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and the Shakespeare@ website. Music. Magic. Monsters. Mayhem. And me. For FREE! (I play faithful old court counselor, the chatty Gonzalo.) 😉 Enjoy! ❤️ #OBraveNewWorld (And if you haven’t already heard our acclaimed production of Richard II, it’s available in its entirety for FREE in all the same places!)
I’m catching up with my blog posts! 😏 You can now listen FREE to Episodes 1 & 2 of Shakespeare@’s new radio play production of The Tempest with an awesome international cast and audio by Emmy-winning Sonic Designs. You feel like you’re on the island with magic all around you.
And the news gets better: Episode 3 drops tonight at 8pm EST! The final episode will drop next week. Tune in and catch up with all the fun! This fabulous production is adapted and directed by the amazing Sean Hagerty.
Hear us on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and the Shakespeare@ website. Music. Magic. Monsters. Mayhem. And me. For FREE! 😉 Enjoy! ❤️ #OBraveNewWorld (And if you haven’t already heard our acclaimed production of Richard II, it’s available in its entirety in all the same places!)
You can now listen FREE to Episode 1 of Shakespeare@’s new radio play production of The Tempest with an awesome international cast and audio by Emmy-winning Sonic Designs! Adapted and directed by the amazing Sean Hagerty. Hear us on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud and the Shakespeare@ website. Music. Magic. Monsters. Mayhem. And me. For FREE! 😉 I play Gonzalo, the faithful (and highly opinionated) old court counselor. Enjoy! ❤️ #OBraveNewWorld (And if you haven’t already heard our acclaimed production of Richard II, it’s available in its entirety in all the same places!) The remaining three episodes of The Tempest will drop in coming weeks. Stay tuned!
Huzzah! Now you can listen to all three parts of the fantastic Shakespeare@ audio play production of Shakespeare’s Richard II on their website ENTIRELY FREE!
Artistic Director Sean Hagerty came up with the great idea of bringing back fully-produced radio plays in response to the shutdown of theatres due to COVID-19. It’s a terrific artistic response to a troubling time–and it’s a fantastic production.
All three parts are now available for you to download or stream at your leisure, my lords and ladies! Enjoy, and let me know what you think. I am thrilled and honored to be part of this wonderful international cast.
As you may (or may not) know, I’m on the faculty of the Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Western Colorado University, where I serve as Performance Coach to all the writers.
The fledgling Publishing Masters Program at WCU, led by the amazing NY Times best-selling author Kevin J. Anderson, has just released a wonderfully entertaining anthology of 23 tantalizing tales: Monsters, Movies & Mayhem entirely put together by the grad students–and it’s a real winner. There are stories by award-winning authors, and stories that came from students in the creative writing program! Some of the stories are funny, some are scary–and some are both. All relate in some way to our love of movies.
As a little promotional surprise to the students, Kevin asked me to create a video reading of a terrific short story from the anthology by award-winning author and screenwriter David Gerrold. David has written over 50 novels, many short stories, and penned episodes for classic TV shows like The Twilight Zone, Land of the Lost, and Babylon 5. He also wrote my favorite classic Star Trek episode: “The Trouble With Tribbles!”
I encourage you to pick up a copy of this wonderful anthology for yourself, or as a gift for that monster-loving friend or family member. You can find it at WordFirePress.Com or wherever fine scary books are sold. All proceeds benefit the WCU Publishing MA Program’s future publications!
As as taste of the book’s contents, here is my reading of David Gerrold’s “Michael Thinks The House is Haunted.”
Enjoy!
Michael Thinks the House is Haunted by David Gerrold read by Andrew Sellon
I’m excited to share that Episode 2 of Shakespeare@’s radio play production of Richard II is available now on their website for FREE! Episode 1 is still available as well, and Episode 3 should be released shortly. Please see my prior post for more details. This is the inaugural production of their “Shakespeare@ Home” series and it’s a winner. It’s also an extremely timely tale, about a despotic rule and a country torn apart by divided loyalties. This was a terrific project to work on, with a wonderful international cast. Artistic Director, Adaptor, and Director Sean Hagerty hit a home run with this one.
In 2019, I was honored to play Polonius in Shakespeare@’s hit inaugural production of Hamlet. I was scheduled to play Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet for them this Spring, but COVID-19 forced the theatre to cancel both of its planned stage productions for 2020.
Undeterred by that setback, resourceful and inspired Artistic Director Sean Hagerty and his Associate Producer Sydney Steele came up with a wonderfully entertaining way to keep creating Shakespeare productions and sharing them with audiences even while theatres remain closed: radio plays!
Sean brought together a host of great talent from a number of countries, including a number of Hamlet cast members, to create a Zoom-based audio production of Richard II, starring Jamie Ballard as Richard and Derek Wilson as Henry Bolingbroke. I was thrilled he asked me to take on the role of Edmund, Duke of York. Like Polonius, he’s a faithful court advisor who has trouble with his children! And in fact, Aria Shaghasemi, who played my son Laertes in Hamlet, is playing my son Aumerle in this radio play. To make it even better (if that’s possible), the fabulous Ashlie Atkinson played my wife, the Duchess of York. We’re a wonderfully dysfunctional family! This was a terrific cast of genuinely sweet people and we had a terrifically fun week together online. The two hours we all spent creating sound effects together was a highlight!
Sean did an amazing job adapting and directing this project. This man knows his Shakespeare. The production has sound design by the fabulous Dan Gerhard and Ellen Fitton of the Emmy-winning Sonic Designs, and wonderful music by Joan Melton, who is also the company’s indispensable dialect and speech coach. Listening to it, with all the great sound effects, you’d never know the cast was spread out over a about sixteen Zoom windows and at least three countries!
Richard II is being released on Shakespeare@’s website for FREE. How cool is that??Episode One is available now. You can click here to listen to it on their website. The episode is just under an hour and I have to say it sounds wonderful. I hope you’ll give all three parts a listen as they come out–and let me know what you think!
The global company of Shakespeare@’s radio play of Richard IIPoster for the Shakespeare@ production of Richard II
