Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Prove It! Act Your Way Out of A Paper Bag

Earlier this week I had to prove myself...I think that is the perpetual struggle of the actor; I almost said artist, but I realized a lot of art, you can do on your own like paint or write a poem without much more than pen, paper, canvas and some color...but to act. You must prove yourself. After all, you've got to prove yourself to get the chance to act.

I know a lot of artists have to prove what they are worth when it comes to commanding a certain dollar amount for your work, but for an actor, unless you are acting for your friends in your living room, or willing and able to shell out several hundred to several thousand to put a film or even a play together, you need to prove yourself to get the chance to act.

So there is this director who really likes my work, he's got a feature that he wants me to star in. But when he brought it before the Powers That Be...all the questions arose...Can she really do it? Do you really think she can pull it off? What has she ever done before? How do you know she will stick it out? Can we trust her to pull it off?

God bless the director, but he did not do his homework before that meeting. Any quick search on google for the name Katherine Norland would have a least brought up half a dozen if not more clips of work I had done in the past, so show I didn't just crawl out from under a rock. But he gave into the badgering. I got called in to have an informal screening of my work. I brought about 20 clips of previous work I had done that I was proud of. And he was put at ease and assured that "I actually can act my way out of a paper bag" :)

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