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BOTOC: Dealer’s Choice! Awards

December 29, 2012 in BOTOCS (Battles of the Ongoing Classes), Lesly, Lesly's Thoughts, Ongoing - leave a reply

AWARDS

BEST HAIR: A Tie: Becca Leigh Gellman & Laura Berberich

BEST LEGS:

1st place – Jolie Jenkins
2nd place – Trisha LaFache
3rd place – Briana Lane

BEST BICEPS: Sammy Obeid

BEST ABS: Nicole Koval & Jacy King (two kids later!)

MOST COMMERCIALS: Thursday Day Class

BEST CAR: Saku Ee & Casey Unterman

ONLY SECRET SANTA: Thursday Day Class

SHINIEST: Dean Li

BEST SCORE: Monday Night Class – INTO THE BLISS by Anna Campbell

BEST SCRIPT: Thursday Night Class - THE MUSIC OF GREY GARDENS by Mallory McGill

BEST PROGRAM:

1st place – Friday Day Class - Jennifer Mather
2nd place - Thursday Night Class Coco Parks and Mal Wow McGill
3rd place - Tuesday Night ClassNoodles Schneider

BEST COSTUMES:

1st place - Friday Day Class - Gina Novish
2nd place - Monday Night Class

BEST IN BOXERS: Isaiah Mustafa

BEST WIG:

1st place – Allison Poccia
2nd place – Emme Rylan
3rd place – Briana Lane
4th place – Aaron Gaffey

BEST BIOS: Monday Night Class (Lesly’s Monday Night Class BOTOC: Dealer’s Choice Bios!)

MOST ORGANIZED: Janet Cao

BEST ENSEMBLE:

1st place – Pink Ladies (Nicole Koval, Sasha Salinger, Natasha Rose Capener, Pepi Sonuga)
2nd place – T-Birds (Casey Unterman, Sammy Obeid, Collin Palomares, Nick Jaine)

SEXIEST WOMEN:

1st place - Thursday Night Class (Lilah Richcreek, Alison Turner, Bettina Olivieri, Eden Riegel, Maitland McConnell, Allison Poccia)
2nd place – Monday Night Class (Briana Lane, Lili Mirojnick, Kelly Frye, Anna Campbell, Jacy King, Alexis Krause)

MOST ENTHUSIASTIC:

1st place – Collin Palomares as Kenicke
2nd place – Alison Haislip as Peter Pan
3rd place – Ellen Wroe as Maggie

BEST INDIVIDUAL SCENE: Thursday Day Class: “Portlandia” with Tommy Dickie, Molly Cerne, Leanna Spear

MOST COMMITTED INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE:

1st place – Courtney Parks
2nd place - Mal Wow McGill
3rd place – Josh Rachford

MOST COMMITTED INDIVIDUAL EFFORT:

1st place – Anna Campbell
2nd place - Mal Wow McGill
3rd place – Lilah Richcreek

BEST SPORT: Robbie “Tank Top” Silverman

MOST FUN:

1st place – Tyler Ritter
2nd place - Amir Aboul-Ela
3rd place – Thursday Night Class, in general

MOST ANGELIC: Briana Feehan

MOST CREATIVE: Anna Campbell

MOST INNOVATIVE SHOW: Thursday Night Class - THE MUSIC OF GREY GARDENS by Mallory McGill

SEXIEST: a tie between Trisha LaFache & Lilah Richcreek & Alison Turner

MVP: Jay Lacopo & Victoria Kelleher Garcia

MOST MOVING SONG: “At the Ballet” with Trisha LaFache, Jackie Geary, Ellen Wroe

MOST MOVING MONOLOGUE: Alex Quijano

FUNNIEST PERFORMANCE: Jay Hayden

SEXIEST SONG:

1st place – “Cell Block Tango” with Briana Lane, Lili Mirojnick, Kelly Frye, Anna Campbell, Jacy King, Alexis Krause
2nd place - “Cell Block Tango” with Lilah Richcreek, Alison Turner, Eden Riegel, Allison Poccia, Maitland McConnell, Bettina Olivieri

MOST THRILLING SONG: “Music and the Mirror” with Ginifer King

BEST ACTING OF A SONG: “Nothing” with Angelique Cabral

MOST SEEMINGLY EFFORTLESS SINGING, DANCING & ACTING: “Tits & Ass” with Jolie Jenkins

BEST NON-MUSICAL ACTRESSES: Mallory McGill & Courtney Parks

BEST SHOW:

1st place – Tuesday Night Class: WHAT WE DID FOR LOVE: A TUESDAY NIGHT CHORUS LINE
2nd place – a tie! Between Thursday Night Class: The Music of GREY GARDENS and Monday Night Class: INTO THE BLISS: A Story of Twelve Fucked Up Characters and How They Learned to Cope

Congratulations!!!!

BOTOC: Dealer’s Choice!

BOTOC: Dealer’s Choice!

December 28, 2012 in BOTOCS (Battles of the Ongoing Classes), Lesly, Lesly's Thoughts, Ongoing - one comment

We survived

BOTOC: Dealer’s Choice!

December 10-14, 2012
(a BOTOC is a Battle of the Ongoing Classes)

Here are the results!

Lesly & Trisha’s Monday Evening Class
did a show called

Life in All Genres:
An Anthology Curated by
Janet Cao, or

25 Days of Christmas Co-Stars

Everyone wore black, and it was very clean and well done. Each scene moved seamlessly into the next. It was well organized; they were fat free!

Click here for photos!

Lesly’s Monday Night Class
did a show called

INTO THE BLISS:
A Story of Twelve Fucked Up Characters and How They Learned to Cope

Written by Anna Campbell
Story by Anna Campbell, Alison Haislip, Alexis Krause and Lili Mirojnick
Choreography by Alexis Krause & Lili Mirojnick
Lighting by Anna Campbell
Music by Alison Haislip
Directed by Anna Campbell & Alison Haislip

Everyone played a character from a different musical or show in a fabulous costume and make-up. Anna wrote the show from scratch incorporating songs and characters people had wanted to play or she wanted to see them play and/or sing. We saw Peter Pan, the Cowardly Lion, Sweeney Todd, Ado Annie, Glinda the Good Witch and so many more! They clearly had a great time. It was fast and fun with great lighting and wild enthusiasm. Amazing sets and props and wardrobe and make-up — and the wigs!  OMG!

Click here for photos!

Lesly & Eyal’s Tuesday Evening Class
did

Wishing Scenes

Kudos to those of you who made it!

Click here for photos!

Lesly’s Tuesday Night Class
did

What We Did For Love:
A VERY TUESDAY CHORUS LINE

Directed by Jolie Jenkins
First Assistant Director:  Ellen Wroe
Musical Directors:  Ginifer King, Helen Highfield
Choreographers: Jolie Jenkins, Trisha LaFache
Videographers: Helen Highfield, Jay Hayden, Todd Grinnell, Joel Johnstone
Video Production: Jay Hayden
Property Mistress:  Angelique Cabral
Morale and Inspiration: Todd Grinnell
Program Design: Chris (“Noodles”) Schneider

Musical Accompaniment: Greg Nabours


First they sent out a trailer.  Yup! A trailer!  See it here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYw61KvDAxw.

This was an extraordinary experience for me. Not only did they somehow put up most of a Tony award-winning show, but they did in just about a week, and they did a show that hit it big right when I was falling in love with acting back in the ‘70’s. And it’s a show about our business and auditioning — I mean the first song is called, “I Hope I Get It!” Plus, to see them play such iconic roles, cast so well, and soooooo freakishly committed in spite of having new babies and shooting commercials and working on set and flying in from shooting movies and writing movies and having full-time non-business-related jobs and having three part-time non-business-related jobs and going through horrible emotional crap! And they did it all with such incredible specificity and wit and charm and believability and warmth and humor and vulnerability and depth! Uch. It was so amazing that I asked them to do it again – and they did!  On Sunday night.  With barely two hours’ rehearsal, two cast changes and a sold-out house!

I took the pix on Tuesday night, but Jenni took the great pix you’ll see on Sunday night. So sorry, Joel and Todd! I’m no Jenni!

Click here for pre-show photos!

Click here for Lesly’s photos!

Click here for Jennifer Szilvagyi’s professional photos!

Lesly & Vikki’s Thursday Day Class
did 23 scenes -

Dear Santa, For Christmas I want
All of My Favorite Showrunners Together In One Night of TV!


They split into four groups, and each group covered either multi-camera comedy, single-camera comedy, network drama or cable drama. They did scenes from shows and showrunners they love and admire, and sang Christmas carols in between.

Click here for photos!

Lesly’s Thursday Night Class
did

The Music of GREY GARDENS

Script by Mallory McGill
Musical Direction by Lilah RichcreekAlison Turner
Music by David Murphy, Oliver SingerBettina Olivieri
Lights by Bettina Olivieri, Mallory McGill & Oliver Singer
Set by Trevor TorsethMallory McGill
Catering by Trevor Torseth & Mallory McGill
Programs by Courtney Parks & Mallory McGill

Program note:  “No animals were hurt in the making of this production.  Just our sanity.  And souls.  And sobriety.”


They transformed the Yellow Room into the set of GREY GARDENS. Mallory wrote a “journey through the imaginations of Big and Little Edie Beale. They lived their lives confined to the walls of Grey Gardens, while their minds were lost in a world of make-believe. Tales of glamour, love, triumph, hardship, good and evil filled their heads and hearts.”  Characters appeared from RENT, THE BOOK OF MORMON, WICKED, GLEE, CHICAGO, MOULIN ROUGE, ONCE and other famous shows. They had so much fun, took such enormous risks, dared to suck – I saw everyone do things they’d never done before. The room was covered in roses and they hadda smoke machine! I was woooooowed!

Click here for photos!

Lesly & Jolie’s Friday Day Class
did

GREASE

Executive Producers: Dean Li, Sasha Salinger
Director: Sasha Salinger
Additional Direction: Dean Li
Choreography: Nicole Koval, Briana Feehan
Music: Sasha Salinger, Eric Lindquist
Make-up: Cher Tenbush
Set Design: Casey Unterman, Saku Ee
Props: Kristina Campo
Script Editing: Sasha Salinger
Stage Manager: Bronwyn Cornelius
Party Planning: E-Kan Soong, Briana Feehan
Program Design: Jennifer Mather

Program Note:  “In memory of Patricia Ann O’Donnell Goldberg Kahn.” Love that, guys. Many thanks from both of us.

I liked the choreography, Kristina’s props, Kantu’s dance, the fabulous commitment of the T-Birds (Nick, Sammy & Casey) and the Pink Ladies (Nicole, Pepi & Natasha), Eric’s live accompaniment, Saku & Caseys car, as well as Bri’s lovely voice and Sasha & Collin’s gutsy gusto. Gina, Josh and Amir did amazing character work. Rosalie, Emily and Dean looked cute in their wardrobe. Jenny Mather’s program was gorgeous!!!!

Click here for photos!

Stay tuned, we’ll post the awards tomorrow!

Greatest Hits of the Class Minutes

December 11, 2012 in From Class Minutes, Lesly, Ongoing, Quotes - one comment

  • Your acting ability comes into play ONLY when they’re comparing two actors with EQUAL marketability.
  • Have a moment before your lines. Something was happening before your character started talking. Figure out what that was and react to it.
  • Comfort has nothing to do with acting. Comfort has to do with sleeping.
  • There is no BIG ACTING or SMALL ACTING; there is only general and specific.

BOTOC: Dealer’s Choice Teaser

December 10, 2012 in BOTOCS (Battles of the Ongoing Classes), Ongoing, Videos - leave a reply

Check this out–Tuesday Night 7pm Class’ BOTOC: Dealer’s Choice Teaser 2012!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYw61KvDAxw

Best Selections From the Class Minutes!

November 30, 2012 in From Class Minutes, Ongoing, Quotes - leave a reply

“Don’t show that you’re listening.  Just listen.”

“Stillness does NOT equal boring.”

“Move with purpose or don’t move at all.”

“Don’t judge your acting WHILE you’re acting. There are plenty of people to do that for you.”

“Nobody books jobs by being safe. ‘Throw a party’ when you act. The audience lives vicariously through you. Give them a party!” –Tyler P

Thanksgiving Love!

November 28, 2012 in Actors, Ongoing - leave a reply

Ok guys, I this is your “sappy” warning. Because the following is going to be reeeeeeeally sappy.

*ahem*

Today is my favorite holiday. The parade, the turkey- those are all lovely, but sitting with friends and family and reflecting on how blessed we are to have one another? That is a beautiful day.

A year ago, I had just moved out here and though I luckily had friends to see for dinner, I remember feeling very alone and homesick.

This year I feel much more at home, but more importantly- I’ve found all of you. Like I said, today is my favorite holiday, so I just wanted to say: I am so thankful for every one of you. I was so terrified to join this class back in september, and now you feel like family. Thank you for rehearsing, for supporting, and for inspiring me every week. Thank you for reading the 11 thousand e-mails I send you every week about our rehearsal schedule, and thank you for always eating the experimental baked goods I have at rehearsal.

I am so thankful to be here, in one of the biggest cities in the world pursuing what I love every day with all of you by my side. Man, we’re lucky.

Love and pie,

Sal

ps. I swear to god if any of you don’t have a thanksgiving to attend today and you DON’T CALL ME I will cook you like a turkey.

And the Winners of BOTOC: Scare Me . . .

And the Winners of BOTOC: Scare Me . . .

November 19, 2012 in Announcements, BOTOCS (Battles of the Ongoing Classes), Lesly, Lesly's Thoughts, Ongoing, Pictures, Videos - one comment

And the winners of BOTOC: Scare Me . . . and recipients of Individual Casting Workshops at Scott David’s new company, The Actors’ Link are . . .

THE RED DOOR!

Written, produced and directed by Anna Campbell! And starring Jay Ellis, Zach Lewis, Jacy King, Allison Haislip, Lili Mirojnick, Shaan Sharma, Franz Latten, Joanna Sotomura, Jacie Dotin, Louise Griffiths, Kelly Frye, Alexis Krause, Jack Jack Merrill, Anna Campbell (Khaleesi) and Jon Prescott. (Not Pictured: Aaron Gaffey, Kristina Sexton and Eric Nenninger.)

Lesly’s Monday Night Class

Watch it again here: http://vimeo.com/53169606.

BOTOC: Scare Me! Results Post #6

BOTOC: Scare Me! Results Post #6

November 15, 2012 in BOTOCS (Battles of the Ongoing Classes), Lesly, Lesly's Thoughts, Ongoing, Pictures, Videos - leave a reply

Les & Jolie’s Friday Day

Katie S, Matt N, Eric L, Kristina C, Nicole K, Hassie H, Saku E, Keesha H, Gina N;
2d row down: Brandon S, Dean L, Kantu L, Casey U, Collin P, Josh R, Sahara H, Emily O, E-Kan S;
bottom row: Andrea S, Rosalie M, Briana F, Pepi S, Amir A
(missing: Saxon A, Natasha C, Nick J, Sammy O, Sasha S, Cher T, Kay W)

From the Producers: The class as a group decided upon the theme of ghosts, so that even though we were dividing up into smaller groups (mostly for logistical reasons), the projects would be somewhat cohesive.

From Lesly: Colin was the Emcee and intro’d the first entry, a film called TANG, written, edited and directed by Emily O. They were all at a fun party when Rosalie became possessed by Amir. It was somewhat like a music video with lotsa music.  It was interesting and fun, but not very clear and not scary. Watch it here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxj2o099p6o&feature=youtu.be.

Andrea then told a long, complicated story that was about psychic phenomena.  Later, Trisha told a one minute story that also involved psychic phenomena and it was really scary. We learned how important it is that the beginning of a story ties through the middle and into the end.  In Trisha’s story (which could have won for Tuesday Night Class had they entered the Kahnpetition – it was the scariest thing all week), her family moved to a house and Trisha and her mom had bad dreams about funerals and murders. She later learns that there was a murder and funeral in the house.  THAT was scary.

From the Producers: “While other groups elected to do short films, my group decided to do a live presentation. Nick wanted to do chants and spells. His good friend is actually a part of some witch network and though we weren’t going to actually invite spirits into the Kahn, there was talk of it and a ouiji board (briefly). Nicole came up with the idea of wanting to be the ghost of someone who was murdered and telling the story of that. For reference she was thinking of The Lovely Bones. I liked this idea and then of course thought that Nick‘s chanting and this purgatory state would match well. For purgatory, I was using Jean Paul-Sartre’s No Exit and Beetlejuice as references. In comes Kristina with her serial killer knowledge. She just happens to read about this stuff so we then decided the closer to reality the narrative, the scarier — so out with the netherworld.

“After lots of late night, sleep prohibiting research on serial killers, we decided that we wanted to juxtapose scenes of a serial killer and his victims. We wanted to highlight the fact that serial killers (outside of their illicit activities) seem like pretty normal and nice people, otherwise they would never find people to kill. The idea was to watch the serial killer in a ‘normal’ day making breakfast, etc,. and then to catch a glimpse into his torture chamber. We then thought it would be interesting to see a scene in which he meets his next victim, Natasha.

“Add this to a whole bunch of blood and rusty tools and you have our BOTOC summed up.

“We shaped the story around people’s participation levels and presto: four bloodied and tortured girls with a new victim on the way… who also happens to be the sister of the girl who was in the basement the longest… DUN DUN DUN!!!”

Saku and Keesha

Kristina and Nicole

Saku, Keesha, Kristina, Nicole and Killer Casey (with saw)

Then Eric and Bri did a poem to music and Song (What Scares Lesterina) and One Shitty Actor Thought: To You, with guitar and signing.

Eric and Bri

Then there was a movie where Hassie and Josh had a date and Sahara was a ghost. Watch Collin’s film here:  http://youtu.be/AUaZZEQ3TYs.

Food and fab program by Matthew Newton.

BOTOC: Scare Me! Results Post #5

BOTOC: Scare Me! Results Post #5

November 14, 2012 in BOTOCS (Battles of the Ongoing Classes), Lesly, Lesly's Thoughts, Ongoing, Pictures - leave a reply

Les & Vikki’s Thursday Day

From Lesly:  The building was dark. Vikki, Ang, Casey and I came upstairs and were handed programs

by a demon or zombie

Yemi

JB

Michael

and blindfolded and brought into the Yellow Room.  There were more zombies and skeletons and décor and fab music and people touching us and weird whispers and all kinds of cool, scary stuff.  They did scenes from ROCKY HORROR

Anne and Sean

Sean and Edward and Anne

Sal and Sean

and the Thriller dance, which was so fun!

Yemi, Anne, Marcy, Jessica, Lizza

And scenes from EYES WIDE SHUT.

Nelson and Christina

At the end, there was sort of a rape –  among other things –

Jeremy

and then it got “real” but neither Vikki nor I bought it (Ang, our TA, did).  Then we took class pix:

Michael R, JB T, Edward KO, Nelson C,
2d row down:  Jessica R, Rachel A, Yemi C, Allegra L, Jenna J;
3rd row down:  Marieve H, McKenzie C, Sal N, Mary Alyce K, Leanna S (masked), Anne L, Caleb H, David B;
4th row down:  Marcy M, Lizza M, Christina S, Sean C;
5th row down:  Mike G, Daniel B, Jeremy M, spider;
missing:  Stephanie J, Rachel G, Tim B, Julie Z, Sam Y, Molly S, Anthony P

and they served tacos and baked treats and then Jeremy flashed us and then something happened and he started to get crazy and violent and Mike G and guest audience Casey M tried to hold him back and it got “real” and we actually thought it was real but then we weren’t sure and it wasn’t.  And then it was finally over but then people were acting weird and disappearing.

Jessica, Leanna, Marcy

Michael

Marieve

Marcy, Lizza, Christina, Sean, Daniel, Jeremy, a spider

Anne

Nelson, Sean, Lizza, Jessica, Leanna, Marcy

Sal, Michael, Anne

Daniel, Lizza

Edward, Marcy

Jenna, Edward

BOTOC: Scare Me! Results Post #2

BOTOC: Scare Me! Results Post #2

November 5, 2012 in BOTOCS (Battles of the Ongoing Classes), Lesly, Ongoing, Pictures, Videos - leave a reply

Tyler’s Monday Night

From the Producers: “A Lesly Kahn class gathers for an off-campus class session. When their teacher Tyler is a no show, things take a turn for the worst! The students are put in SAW-inspired situations and are forced to use their Lesly Kahn training to survive! This video was created for Lesly Kahn‘s Battle Of The Ongoing Classes (BOTOC: Scare Me!) and took two days to write, two days to shoot, and two days to edit. Watch it here! http://youtu.be/4DndVgJuM9I.”

From Lesly: It was really fun and funny! But not so scary. I loved the premise that they were killed if their acting was bad. It was so well done – what a great script!

Bonus Points: Cookies and brownies! And a special appearance by Ryan Nolan!

Dave B, Shannon K, Karin S, and guests Shobhit A, Alicia Y, Katie P, Emily G

Ryan M,
Dave B, Shannon K, Karin S, Laura K,
Jackson DP, Manny G, Lisa L, Jeffrey L, Brittany M, Andrea CR

Ryan M, Manny G, Jackson DP

Jackson DP, Lisa L, Andrea CR

Lesly Kahn & Co.

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