Magic Time Gives Crystal Another First

Today was our big performance day of the Magic Time radio play written by Marc Scott Zicree and Elaine Zicree in the Charlie Chaplin Theater at Raleigh Studios.

This was very exciting for me because I was getting a chance to act with veteran SAG actors as a colleague. I was on stage with actors of the caliber of Armin Shimerman (STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, BUFFY, BOSTON LEGAL), Christina Moses (Sulu's daughter in STAR TREK "World Enough and Time"), David Polcyn (Montag in Ray Bradbury's recent hit stage play FAHRENHEIT 451), Richard Tanner (STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE, JAG, NYPD BLUE, THE ADAMS FAMILY movie), Anthony Cohen (SOLITARY, WAIT UNTIL DARK, THE CRUCIBLE, GUILTY OR INNOCENT) and Neil Kaplan (Optimus Prime in TRANSFORMERS, POWER RANGERS). I was also getting to work again with Sara Jo Elise who acted in the same film I did, BURDEN OF ESTEEM.

This was also exciting because this is the first production I have acted in under a Screen Actors Guild Internet/New Media contract and I felt really part of the acting community when signing it.

In the morning we had our dress rehearsal in front of an audience of family and friends. It went really well, except for one unfortunate omission I made. I had gotten my revised script after midnight last night and was highlighting my dialogue and putting in my walla even later than that. I thought I had double-checked that I had highlighted every line, but I apparently missed one line. It was the last of my lines in one of the scenes, and because I didn't realize it was there, of course, I didn't vocalize that line.

As luck would have it, that last line is a cue for another actor to say his line, and of all people, it had to be Armin Shimerman's Lungo character. While he's one of the last people whose cue I'd want to mess up, he is probably one of the most experienced at handling the glitch. Apparently, he didn't say at all the line following mine, since I missed giving it its cue, and he just went on as if it didn't exist. I don't know because I didn't even realize that I had skipped the line -- not until afterwards when Sara Jo pointed it out to me.

When she did, I looked into the script and sure enough there was the line that was mine and unhighlighted. One line, so easy to pass over. And yet, when you have a small role, every line is precious to you.

Of course, I was embarrassed and went up to Armin to apologize for messing up his next line. Like a true gentleman, he was gracious about it.

It was a good thing that Sara Jo had alerted me that I would probably hear about it because the producers and director were taking notes to give us feedback. And hear about it I did, from the director, the producer, the associate producer, even the sound recording guy. I apologized and apologized and reiterated it wouldn't happen again.

And it didn't, because now that I knew the line was in there, I had no problem remembering to say it. But the damage was done, because even though I said the line perfectly in the real performance, we only had that one take, so we had to do a pick-up on that line afterwards. There were plenty of lines that had to be picked up for one reason or another (like getting a clean reading without the walla), but to me my pick up loomed large because once again it called attention to the fact that I had flubbed up. Next time, I'll triple and quadruple check that I have all the lines highlighted.

The afternoon performance was the full performance in front of an invited audience, which included industry people. It went very well. The performance was solid and the audience enjoyed it. All the actors were superb. Sara Jo Elice was marvelous speaking in the innocent and vulnerable tones of a 12-year old, the age of her character. Anybody just listening to the performance would be surprised to learn she's an adult.

The standout to me was Neil Kaplan, who played three roles, brilliantly, each with different accents and different personalities and attitudes. One was a Russian doctor, another was a ne'er-do-well, live-in boy friend, and the third was pretty much a thug. It was so much fun to listen to him move easily between these totally different characters he inhabited.

The funny thing is that I have known Neil for years because we belong to the same networking group, and I've known the whole time he was an actor and voiceover artist, but this is the first time I've actually seen him perform.

And this is true for all of us -- until you get to work with someone or see firsthand his/her work, you don't truly know how and what he/she does.

Though pleased with the compliment, Neil saw the humor in the situation and made some joke to the effect that now I knew he wasn't just blowing smoke when he bragged how good he was. Not that I ever doubted him, for he has worked in the business for a long time, but seeing makes you even a better believer.

When it was all over, I was touched and grateful to those who came up to me and told me I did a good job. Especially those who were other actors. But what surprised me was the number of people who came up to me and talked about the walla... how much they liked it and how good it was -- from the actors performing it to the other actors to the sound guy recording it. I was pleased that it did its job.

Past this, there is more life to this project, Marc informs us. According to him, the two-hour radio drama that will be utilized as the audio track for an animatic (animated storyboard) that will be split into webisodes and possibly aired on STRIKE TV. This is all with a mind toward selling it ultimately as a TV series or series of films. So hopefully, those of you who are reading this will be also able to experience our performance in the near future.