February 28, 2021
Major Tom to Ground Control
Our Weekly Recap, Resources & Recommendations for Actors, Directors & Creatives
"Destinations = Relaxation"
Thanks to those of you who joined us yesterday for the Saturday Workshop featuring Master Voice & Speech Coach, Rachael Warren!
Go here to learn about the Saturday Workshop!



The Work


AUDITION PREP
Yan Xi with reader Mark Guerette
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
by William Shakespeare
Ken Belsky
COLD READ/SCENE WORK
Lars Classington, Matthew Mueller, LaBron Mason, Emanuel Gomes, Brandon Knox and Max Kharchenko



AUDITION PREP
Robinette Dorsey with readers Robert Higgins & Mark Guerette
Hey Members!
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Here are the latest additions to your video library:
-
Coaching Sessions from last Saturday (Feb 20th): "Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike" by Christopher Durang; "Twelfth Night" by William Shakespeare; "Same Time Next Year" by Bernard Slade
- Lessons from Tom: from last Saturday (Feb 20th): "The Greeks? Find the Humor!"; "Mystery & Secret vs. Oversharing"; "Aim for the Sun!"
- Voice & Speech Lessons: from last Saturday (Feb 20th): Debora Joy Voice & Speech Workout
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TAKE A TOUR
Reminder, use the 'search' icon in the upper right to search your dashboard by titles, topics or dates, to quickly find your desired video!
Music This Week
INTRO: To Sir With Love - Lulu and California Love - Tupac Shakur
OUTRO: Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) - Sly and The Family Stone



Recommended This Week
WATCH
"Down By Law"
Down by Law is a 1986 American black-and-white independent film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni. The film centers on the arrest, incarceration, and escape from jail of three men.
Available on HBOMax
WATCH
"Sound Of Metal"
During a series of adrenaline-fueled one-night gigs, itinerant punk-metal drummer Ruben (Riz Ahmed) begins to experience intermittent hearing loss. When a specialist tells him his condition will rapidly worsen, he thinks his music career — and with it his life — is over. His bandmate and girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke) checks the recovering heroin addict into a secluded sober house for the deaf in hopes it will prevent a relapse and help him learn to adapt to his new situation. But after being welcomed into a community that accepts him just as he is, Ruben has to choose between his equilibrium and the drive to reclaim the life he once knew. Utilizing startling, innovative sound design techniques, director Darius Marder takes audiences inside Ruben’s experience to vividly recreate his journey into a rarely examined world.
Available on Amazon Prime
WATCH
"To Sir, With Love"
To Sir, with Love is a 1967 British drama film that deals with social and racial issues in an inner city school. It stars Sidney Poitier and features Christian Roberts, Judy Geeson, Suzy Kendall and singer Lulu making her film debut. A moving story about the evolving relationship between a teacher and his students.
Available on Amazon Prime
WATCH
"What The Constitution Means To Me"
2017 American play by Heidi Schreck. The play premiered on Broadway on March 31, 2019 at the Hayes Theater, with Schreck herself in the leading role. Over the course of the play, Schreck addresses themes such as women's rights, immigration, domestic abuse, and the history of the United States. This is a strong example of telling your own story with a surprise ending!
Available on Amazon Prime
SEE YOU FEBRUARY 27TH!


Our International, Intergalactic Acting Jam continues next Saturday, featuring Guest Artist & Master Teacher:
MARY LOU ROSATO
Mary Lou Rosato is a founding member of The Acting Company and a graduate of Juilliard’s Group 1 under John Houseman and Michel St. Denis. Mary Lou Rosato served as Co-Head of the CalArts School of Theater for 18 years. Currently, she is on faculty at the Yale School of Drama and the Tom Todoroff Conservatory, NYC.
As an actress, director, and teacher, she has been working in the theater for over forty-five years, most recently performing in NYC in The Government Inspector with the Red Bull Theater Company, and in The Skin of Our Teeth at TFNA.
She has appeared on and off Broadway numerous times, and in major regional theaters throughout the country including Yale Repertory, the Guthrie, ART, the Shakespeare Theater in Washington, DC, Seattle Rep, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park Cleveland Playhouse, the McCarter, the Old Globe in San Diego, and the Williamstown Theater Festival , and on international stages including the Old Vic in London and at the Taganka Theater in Moscow. In NY she appeared in THE SUICIDE starring Derek Jacobi, and in THE MISANTHROPE with Uma Thurman and Roger Rees, and played Pauline in THE WINTER'S TALE, at the Classic Stage Company for Barry Edelstein. She was in HENRY THE FIFTH starring Mark Rylance at TFNA, and in the Lincoln Center Festival production of MY LIFE AS A FAIRY TALE, directed by Chen Shi Zheng and starring Fiona Shaw. She has played Lady Sneerwell in two productions of Sheridan’s SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL – on Broadway at the National Actors Theater starring Tony Randall, and off-Broadway with The Acting Company, for which she received a Drama Desk Award. In Los Angeles, she was in THE CLEAN HOUSE at South Coast Repertory, THE PEACH BLOSSOM FAN at RedCat, KING LEAR (a Cal Arts/CNP production), and MEDEA with Annette Bening at UCLA Live in Los Angeles, CA. Her musical credits range from Brecht’s MOTHER COURAGE and THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM for The Acting Company, to CANDIDE at the Guthrie, Behan’s THE HOSTAGE directed by Jack O’Brien at The Old Globe in San Diego, and the CHANGES OF HEART directed by Stephen Wadsworth at the Mark Taper Forum in 1996, she received a best actress nomination from the LA Drama Critics Circle Award committee. In Chicago she won a Joseph Jefferson Award for her role in CURSE OF AN ACHING HEART directed by Gerald Gutierrez.
Her film credits include QUIZ SHOW, HUDSUCKER PROXY, THE WEDDING BANQUET, TWO BITS with Al Pacino, Spike Bensonhurst, Brenda Starr, Reporter, and John Turturro’s ILLUMINATA. On TV she played Nurse Kathy on TITUS, and appearances in LAW AND ORDER, SVU, CAROLINE IN THE CITY, THE LOT, MICHAEL HAYES (pilot), and WAREHOUSE 13.
She began directing in the 1990’s and is a member of SDC. Among her first directing credits was THE BEAUX STRATAGEM at the Pearl Theatre in New York, which was nominated as one of the 10 Best Off-Broadway productions of 1994 by the New York Daily News. In NYC, she directed AS YOU LIKE IT at The Juilliard School, and her own adaptation of HENRY V: Crispian’s Day at the Boars Head (2001), HENRY THE FIFTH, WAY OF THE WORLD, TIME OF YOUR LIFE, and THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. In 2013, she directed Shakespeare’s RICHARD II for Creative Pulse Company in Los Angeles.
And now YOU have the chance to learn from this incredible artist and coach without even leaving home!
Join us on Saturday to study with
Mary Lou Rosato and Tom Todoroff!
The Guidepost Card Set
These beautiful cards were created by NYC Studio Director, Mark Guerette. An excellent way to learn and swiftly and joyfully integrate all elements of the Todoroff Technique!