Preparing For A Role

Back in the day, way way back in the day, when I studied different approaches to acting, I found that I was most comfortable with Sandy Meisner's technique and one of the basic tenets is doing some background work to build the character's foundation.

What I know:

• Helen Keller was born in 1880 in Tuscumbia Alabama (here's a Google map of the present day city).  
• Most of The Miracle Worker, and the scenes that I'm in take place when Helen is 6 1/2, putting the timeline at about January 1887. (Helen's biography puts Annie arrival at her home in March 1887, so the weather should be fairly temperate.)
• Tuscumbia is 2 1/2 hours by car directly south from my house in Waverly, Tenn. and it gets hot, hot, hot in the summer time
• My Southern accent is close to the Alabama accent, but I think I need to try clipping words a bit; it doesn't seem to be as drawly. 
• "Evaline" has the bedroom next to Arthur and Kate's in the floor plan of the house where Helen was born.
• Legal Name : Evalina H. Keller, 1826-1904, Find a Grave entry
• "Evaline" Keller wrote to Alexander Graham Bell April 1887 thanking him for his hospitality towards the three of them (Annie, Helen and herself?) 
• Link to Library of Congress site with digital scans of Ev's letter to Bell, April 20, 1887. 
• Link to site for Ivy Green, showing Evaline's bedroom next to Keller's on the main floor

Aunt Ev is described by Gibson as "a benign visitor" who serves as a catalyst for the Kellers's first contact with the Perkins Institute. Aunt Ev is a talkative woman who often tries to be helpful, but who can be a bit intrusive. She sometimes oversteps her place as a visitor in the Keller household and at one point even threatens to take matters into her own hands.

Getting Started - Not You, I Mean Me

I had a good friend who went back to school and got a degree in library science. He said his library career was his "retirement job" and since we were both working school librarians, pre-retirement, the term always made me pause. What was a "retirement job?" Did I want one?

It's no secret that education and educators are under a microscope. Student assessments are dismal. Student behavior is dismal. District administrators are being held accountable by the State and they are holding teachers accountable, which makes attitudes among professionals dismal. It's not fun to be a public schools employee. However, I would venture to guess that there are relatively few employees in any industry who would describe their current employment as "fun." We live in interesting times.

I don't mind working. In fact, I rather like it. I like having a focus. I like earning money. I like spending money. The notion of taking a pay cut to leave the work force and travel around in an RV doesn't appeal to me. What does appeal to me, and is a little surprising considering my pro-Union positions on practically every political issue, is the idea that the harder and more efficiently I work, the more money I can make.

As I've gotten older, I've thought a lot about a quote from Freud, "If youth knew, if age could." What would I have done differently in my advertising career if I had known what I do now about patience and planning? When I was an actress, what would I have done differently if I had known about marketing and promotions, patience and planning?

All of this brings me back to my friend's concept of a "retirement job." As a I see the years advancing steadily towards retirement, I've been thinking about what to do when that day actually gets here. My ideal retirement job is flexible, creative and fun. My ideal retirement job is acting.

Not long ago I received a preview copy of a book called "Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed"  and I like its short, focused chapters.  I've decided to test the book out in this blog and use the strategies to put my own retirement career in voice over acting into action.  And the adventure begins.