raymondraymondleelee.com

My creative juices aren't flowing and I'm at my wit's end on this.  Most of the obvious domain names such as raymondlee.com, raylee.com, raymond-lee.com... etc.. seem to be taken already which means I need to get creative.

Calling all creative people!  Could you please throw some ideas at me?  I don't care if they're awesome or not I just need something better than what I have now (raymond-lee.org)-- bleh!

You could send them to me via facebook, myspace, email (raymomomo@gmail.com), or simply on the comment section of this blog.  You will be handsomely rewarded with lunch and perhaps dessert if it's really awesome.  Or if you don't want to have lunch with me then I'll get you a gift card.

P E A C E & L O V E

I BOOKED IT!

My friends, I come bearing amazing news!  

(drum roll)

I booked a national NOKIA commercial!  

Whew~ What an emotional roller coaster these past week has been.  Details.

First, I got called to audition for the Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre Group.  At first I thought big deal, but after looking at all the benefits and compensation the job entailed I shut myself in my room for two days and solidified my monologue and 15 bars of a song.  Two days after the audition I was called in for callbacks.  The callback was nearly 5 hours long.  It was no joke.  The day started with an orientation with the entire creative staff of the company.  It then moved onto a dance section which was led by a severely over-weight, hispanic man who I thought would not be able to move the way he did.  I learned Fosse that day.  The severely over-weight, hispanic man was magnificent, and by the end all 30 of us that made it to callbacks had a new appreciation for Bob Fosse along with a new found respect for the severely over-weight hispanic man.  Then came the Improv part.  Some people really shined here, some didn't.  They cut 20 people afterwards and then stood the final 10.  We broke off into pairs and studied sides to perform them in front of the staff.  Overall, I had a blast and thought I'd secured a spot with the company, for sure.  From 1,200 submissions to 250 auditioners to 30 called back to the final 10 that made it to the end of day.  A few days later, I found out I didn't get it.  Needless to say I was pretty frickin devastated.  I was never so sure of an audition before.  Lesson learned... never say YES before the YES.

Now the NOKIA.  When I got to the audition I saw some familiar faces I've been seeing along with a good handful of other very good looking Asian men I've never encountered before.  Surprisingly, I wasn't phased at all.  I think I'm really starting to grow my audition skin.  It's becoming impenetrable.  Kind of.  While others were nervously shifting their weight, making bad conversation, I played it cool and kept to myself.  It was weird but even amongst these somewhat exceptional guys, I felt that I somehow stood out.  They were hands down taller, tanner, and better looking than I was but I just felt right being who I was.  Pale and red.  After the audition, the casting director had very little to say except for a quick look that spoke to me, "you will be called back."  That evening I got the callback call.  A couple days later I went in and did the same thing I did the first time around except this time it was in front of the producer and director.  A bit more nerve wracking but I stayed calm nevertheless.  I got a call from my agent later the next evening saying I've been put on STRONG ON-AVAIL.  Now I know what on-avail means but strong on-avail I've never heard of.  I'm guessing this means being a stronger runner up?  Well whatever it meant, I ended up booking the job.  Got the call today and I'm shooting on Friday!  I'm really REALLY excited and happy and then excited again.  I've seriously been praying so hard that something tangible would materialize from my efforts.  Audition after audition, callback after callback... all for just one measly day of work and then off to the next job.  This is the life of a struggling actor.  A life I would not recommend to any poor soul unless you really love the grind and the rejection like I do.  Only then does it become a manageable life.

In the words of Babe Ruth, "Every strike gets me closer to the next homerun."

I'll keep ya'll posted.  Much love!

Panasonic Commercial

So a fellow Panasonic commercial cast member of mine Jesse Lewis IV, whom you might remember as the "fat" model from America's Most Smartest Model, told me the commercial was on the Panasonic Japan Website.  I dug a bit and found it.  I'm not too heavily featured but recognizable nonetheless.  Check it out!

And if anyone is computer saavy enough to actual put it on some sort of a reel for me I will treat you to a delicious treat.  I'm trying to compile a commercial reel so... help a brotha out!!

http://ch.panasonic.co.jp/contents/01261/viral.html

Find Me!!

EURYDICE and ME

Hello loved ones..  this one's a long one.  PLEASE READ UNTIL END.

I hope you've missed me as much as I've missed you.  It's been an insane month.  A month riddled with emotional pitfalls accompanied with financial ones as well.  That's what happens when you commit 3 months of your life to a play.  It also means complete obliteration of a social life.  

There's a ripple effect that occurs when you agree to a play.  First, rehearsals are 6 days a week from 7-11.  When you're getting out of rehearsal at 11, no one's hungry and no one wants to wait for you to go home and get ready to go out.  And if by some chance you do make it out you leave early and sober because you have an early morning shift the next day.  And the only reason why you have this early morning shift is because of rehearsals.  And because there's no money in working mornings you leave work completely dejected and hungry.  So you're hungry and you look into to your wallet to see the whopping $30 you made that shift and contemplate what you can afford.  Jack in the Box it is, again.  Do this for a couple weeks and the result begins to form around the waistline.  You then begin to start judging yourself.  Slowly you feel inadequate and self-conscious which then bleeds into your rehearsal process.  Then you start to feel worthless because the character you're creating isn't at all where it needs to be at that stage of the work.  This sense of worthlessness then directly reflects back to your customers which make them feel uncomfortable which then results in a bad tip.  So you call up your friends to blow off some steam but they've planned an evening without you and are out of town somewhere because they've assumed I had rehearsal.  No friends, no money, no character, no life.  Excellent...  

Actually I kinda blew it out of proportion.  At first I just wanted you to feel bad for me but now I'm feeling kinda pathetic.  It actually hasn't been that bad.  Luckily due to Alex getting married, March has been the most eventful month in quite some time.  There was a lot of alcohol involved.  Vegas, the cruise, and the wedding = vomit vomit vomit = fun fun fun.  But srsly... I can't believe it.  Two down!  CONGRATS ALEX AND JANET!

Anywho... I'm here to plug my play.  Please come see it!  At $25 a pop it's kinda steep but don't fret, there are options.  

Option #1:  Come as a group.

The production staff is really really good about group discount rates.  So get a small group together and make it happen.  Give me a shout, PLEASE.

Option #2:  April 16th is pay-what-you-can night.

Self explanatory.  Save the date!

Option #3:  There isn't one.. just come anyways!

Here's the detailed info:

EURYDICE

by Sarah Ruhl
directed by Trevor Biship

 

EURYDICE, by Pulitzer Prize nominee Sarah Ruhl, is a bittersweet and off-beat retelling of the classic love story of Orpheus and Eurydice, this time through the perspective of the departed heroine, Eurydice.  After her arrant death on her wedding day, Eurydice finds herself in an aphasic underworld, where she reunites with her father while struggling to reconcile with her lost love, Orpheus.  As visually breathtaking as it is curiously charming, passionate, and heartbreaking, Eurydice is the play that established Ruhl as one of America's most inventive contemporary dramatists. 

 

"RHAPSODICALLY BEAUTIFUL.  A weird and wonderful new play--an inexpressibly moving theatrical fable about love, loss, and the pleasures and pains of memory."    THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!

OPENS FRIDAY APR 10^TH!

April 10 thru May 16, 2009
Thursday, Friday and Saturday shows: 8:00pm
Sunday shows: 2:00pm

Plus a “Pay What You Can” night on
Thursday April 16

The Hayworth Theatre
2511 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90057

$25 – General Admission
$20 – Previews/Seniors/Students/SAG & AEA & AFTRA Members

Call Now!
323-960-7726 
or visit 
www.plays411.com/eurydice

For more information about the show, visit:
www.rangeviewproductions.com