Please make sure your headshot looks like you.

Okay, I see a lot of folks audition - just finished casting the All Female Taming of the Shrew, for example, and we had tons of great actresses out but we bumped into a problem; so, I decided to have a quiet word with you about your head shot, folks.

Please make sure your head shot looks like you.

A surprising number of folks brought in glam shots as head shots. Nice pictures, lots of make up, seductive poses, a little bit with the touching up here and there. Great pictures, truly. But we would look at them following the auditions, trying to decide who we were calling back or casting and the picture would not evoke the actor in my mind. Killer for an auditionee. After the second night of auditions, we even toyed with taking a picture of each actor as she came into the room, this happened so frequently.

Remember the reasons why we have head shots in the first place:

1. To help get a callback.
2. To help get cast.

How? By evoking the actor's performance. If your shot does not make me think of you, we both have a problem.

All right, all right. Some folks are getting work because these shots. And the cynical side of me understands why you have them. Also, I think they are great for television and film. But in theatre, use them judiciously. If you are coming in for a glam character and will present in audition made up and seductive, fine; bring in that glam shot. But if you are coming in for any other kind of role, consider having a second, clean, untouched up, smiling you to look at. A shot that looks just like you.

It will help me a lot.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild, directing The Wild Life (a Kidsplay production), and prepping for the all female version of Taming of the Shrew for Jaybird Productions going up in the fall of this year. She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  


Jacqui Burke
talk/text: 647-292-0210
twitter: @jaybird01
skype: Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Sometimes Weight is Freedom

I usually don't like to weigh a show down with a cumbersome concept. I read the script over and over. The show will start to demand a certain physical reality to tell the story well. We embellish as much or as little as that show's reality requires.

Doing anything else can have the opposite of the intended effect. Concept plays were invented because the directors were moved to tell the story in a stronger way but, a lot of the time, director's concepts (metaphorically often strong and often very clever) actually compete with the piece for the audience's attention, thereby weakening both. Very rarely, an overlaid external concept breeds strength but, usually (sadly), external concepts forced on a piece are rather like placing a lightly frosted window between the audience and the play. It might be prettier but you can't see as well.

So, I worry. I have encumbered my upcoming production of Taming of the Shrew with the initial artistic decision that it will be played by all women. The rest of the process will have to accommodate that decision - from basic movement and vocal work, to blocking to costumes to....  Consequently, this play will be a little more challenging to get up than other productions. It'll be a little more difficult to get that story told well.

But I'm wondering: could this 'all-female' concept actually offer me some freedom?

For example, I have long been a proponent of blind casting but have been criticized and even ostracized for having the temerity to walk the walk on this issue. And, yet, if our default is always white and male, fairly soon the number of artists who can tell a lot of these stories will dwindle to a very small sampling of the overall population. Crazy. We need to find ways of opening stuff up.

And in this show I can. Why? If I've already blown the lid off of one pot, no one is really going to peek in the other. Honestly, if the person playing a male role is a woman, are people going to further question race? Why would they?

The construct is already sexless. We can make it raceless, too. Sometimes weight is freedom.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild, directing The Wild Life (a Kidsplay production), and prepping for the all female version of Taming of the Shrew for Jaybird Productions going up in the fall of this year. She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  


Jacqui Burke
talk/text: 647-292-0210
twitter: @jaybird01
skype: Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

How I like to work. And who I like to work with.

Actors are, by and large, my favourite people. They are funny, talented, energetic, and darn good looking besides. I was just thinking how lucky I am to have another great cast and it got me to thinking about what kinds of actors I like to work with the most.

So, what do I like about my current cast? They play. They don't come in thinking that rehearsal is a kind of performance for the director; they don't want little gold stars. They use rehearsal time to try things out and really play with the piece.

Now, I want to be plain, here. I am a deeply collaborative director. I've done some study on what makes projects work and what inspires folks and, consequently, I've spent the last four or five years figuring out how to work effectively in rehearsal while at the same time eschewing the current 'Victorian Family' model of theatre; so, so: Director as Father (unquestioned authority figure), Stage Manager as Mother (or strict nanny), Actors as Children. I don't buy this model because I feel it's too limiting and insulting for all involved. I like a looser and more creative environment in which there is a lot of co-operation.

For the sake of peace and equilibrium, I remain the ultimate decision-maker. So a bit of a tyrant, that way, but during the process, I really encourage people to own their own work, to bring ideas to the table, to really play.  Unless there are moments I am forced to craft (for example, I am currently doing a farce and at points timing is critical), I don't insist that they to do my blocking. I will have fallback blocking. I will have thought about it and worked it out, but I tend to let them move naturally through the space as we develop the piece. Not only is this ultimately more effective in producing an entertaining show, it's much more fun to rehearse because there's room for the happy accidents - those magical moments we discover together at rehearsal.

So, what do I look for in an actor? A bunch of qualities. But I can tell you that I am so thankful when I get a self-motivated cast who are willing to try anything, make fools of themselves, comment constructively, tell me what they like or don't like, and get off the darn book as soon as possible so we can really see what the play is about. Fun.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild, directing The Wild Life (a Kidsplay production), and prepping for the all female version of Taming of the Shrew for Jaybird Productions going up in the fall of this year. She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  


Jacqui Burke
talk/text: 647-292-0210
twitter: @jaybird01
skype: Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Cool Change

So, off in the Melbourne, Australia, cool changes are often abrupt and almost violent things -- wind whipping through the streets, stirring up dust and refuse, so strong you couldn't stand up against it and you'd have to hide inside. But after it passed, the temp would drop, oh, twenty degrees and the air would be clean and pleasant. Really enjoyed the days after a change.

Well, I often find as an artist that the wind gets a little stale and I have to move on. And, by that, I mean that it all gets a little too comfortable and easy to do what you do - an immediate recipe for artistic mediocrity.

Or the converse can happen. People around you start making it too hard to do what you do - by not hiring you or laying down sets of core values that aren't germane to your artistic process. Folks start to believe they know you too well, know what you can do, or know how you'll respond, and that's where they put you. Again, an immediate recipe for artistic meh.

And, then there's the worst: you get yourself a posse. Posses make you look a little more important and impress folks outside your personal sphere but tend to contribute to artistic cronyism - I mean, you gotta pay back that posse somehow, right? Death to any attempt to make great art.

So I make the wind blow, dust off my wings and go elsewhere. Between you and me, I secretly like this part. I know I'm not supposed to because change is supposed to be hard. But it gives me a chance to clear the cobwebs artistically (and emotionally and socially, actually) and tends to leave me clearer and more motivated than before.

Ease rarely encourages an individual to strive. I'd much rather be a little fish in a big pond, than a big fish in a little one. Which is one of the reasons why there is a Jaybird Productions in the first place.

It leaves me a bit of a lone wolf but that's fine. Cool change is refreshing. Consider it often.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild and prepping for her Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camps and prepping for an all female version of Taming of the Shrew for Jaybird Productions going up in the fall of this year. She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  


Jacqui Burke
talk/text: 647-292-0210
twitter: @jaybird01
skype: Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

A change is as good as a...

 Look. I`ve got an ego like everybody else. I would argue, though I`m not admitting a thing, that I have a huge ego. Most theatre people do. I know what I like and that`s what I do. I`m smart and I tend to excel at things if I work hard. So lucky.

But I think my ego might have tripped me up in the area of auditions.

I used to think I was pretty good at re-directing audtitionees. Time and time again I would give a redirect and the actor would shine, the monologue would really click, and we would see a side of the actor that really helped us make a decision in her favour.

Used to think I was so clever.

But it`s dawned on me that I ain`t so smart as I thunk because of what I now believe was really happening. The actor didn`t all of a sudden `get better` because of what I said. My interpretation wasn`t specifically better -- at times I would ask the actor to work against the text to give some feel of what I was looking for. No, it`s just that the particular turn on the monologue was fresh.

Our greatest challenge as theatre artists is to deliver work that is fresh and immediate. And, the actor has that job in spades when she walks into an audition - usually because she has rehearsed her monologue a certain way over and over and over again in the hope that her recall is cold. But, sadly, it is probably that very act of repitition that kills the immediacy that brings a performance alive.

So as an actor, what do you do? You have to learn the thing, right? Riiiiight.

But here's an idea. Why not be me? Why not be your own director? Before you walk into the audition, why not put your own spin on the piece - ideally something that shows me a side of your acting that helps me to see you in the role - but definitely something you haven't rehearsed over and over and over again? Something that forces you on your toes, makes you hop, and breathes new life into the piece. For example, if you are going to play a character who is angry, why not spin the monologue to anger? Or if the character you want to play is prissy, why not present the monologue thus regardless of the original intent of the piece?

I am sure this would be a bit terrifying the first few times you do it but I bet you would present with a more immediate, alive version of your monologue that will make a huge difference in what I think of your talent.

I have enough ego that I would like to think it's me that makes you better but, really, actors: it's you. It's your committment, your energy, your talent, your honesty, and your courage. Anyone who tells you different is selling you something.

Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently prepping and leading her Shakespeare is Boffo! theatre arts camps for active kids, directing directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild and prepping for and all female version of Taming of the Shrew for Jaybird Productions going up in the fall of this year. She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  


Jacqui Burke
talk/text: 647-292-0210
twitter: @jaybird01
skype: Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Please yourself.

Dear Friends:

Please yourself. Get out there and do what you want, how your spirit moves you, how you see it. Paint it, dance it, play it, direct it, sew it, sculpt it, act it, write it in a way that makes sense to you. Seems obvious, no? But so many artists worry and self-censor. They want to please everyone.

But you can't worry.  Or, maybe I should say, I wouldn't if I were you. Why? Because you can't please everyone. There are always critics. Everybody's got an opinion and, sure as snow flies in February in this great town, someone is going to absolutely hate what you're doing. It's a certainty. Always. Every time you get out there. Doesn't matter how much you want to please, how you adjust or self-censor....

So, why not please yourself? Way better to be genuine and piss people off than to have to stand up for something that you don't really believe in or aren't really proud of, no?

And don't forget about the people who love your work. Your vision, your input, your turn on whatever it is that you do. Because, just as sure as there are folks who don't appreciate your work, there are those who are going to love it; no, even need it.

So, please yourself.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently prepping and leading her Shakespeare is Boffo! theatre arts camps for active kids, directing Love Letters for Encore Entertainment, and preparing to direct Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  


Jacqui Burke
talk/text: 647-292-0210
twitter: @jaybird01
skype: Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/