May busyness!

5/9/22

Just got back late last night from a Celebration of Life in Denver, CO, for a college friend who died suddenly in November.  I keep trying to focus today, as there is a lot of news to share on a business level, but that's where my headspace is right now.  Maybe I'll delete this part later. . .or not and wait until my next monthly update.

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TV/FILM:

* NEW DEMO REEL!!! (on my home page) My reels were getting old and TV/film in Chicago is the busiest it's ever been while I've lived here.  So I signed up for a demo camp with The Forge to get some new footage.  They were highly organized and professional-- I highly recommend it to Chicago actors looking to update or add footage for Casting Directors to see your work.  A professional colleague/friend assisted in cutting the 6 minutes of footage down to the meat of what is useful, i.e. "short" for a CD's limited time.  I added some of my professional TV scenes to tie in a little street-cred and I'm really happy with the finished product.

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Audiobook News:

* I'm thrilled to have just signed on with Orange Sky Audio to do a new audiobook series in women's fiction with a "touch of romance": A Place for Us (Blue Harbor Book 1) by Olivia Miles.  There is an ironic connection in the storyline with my personal-share above, but told from a different perspective (and younger characters).  It's interesting how work can cross paths with your real life sometimes.

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* Currently enrolled in a Historical Fiction workshop this May with Narrator.life.  One of these days maybe I'll get as organized as Andi Arndt, but I'll settle for learning from her beautiful coaching style along with the perceptive J.D. Jackson; both have been generous with their tips and experience in audiobook work.

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* MacMillan Audio invited me to their roster!!!!!!!  I'm still wrapping my head around this.

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* I'm looking forward to the June release of The Castle of Teskom by Kim Malaj, it's a fantasy/ "magical realism" novel set in Albania.  She found me via the new Findaway Voices Marketplace platform.

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Live Theatre:

* On a sad-live-theatre note, I have been working on a hilarious premier play by Paul Finkelman:

Blair Wears a Hat!.  We were set to perform it this May, but Covid reared its ugly head (luckily not too ugly, as it could have been worse), plus a few other conflicts meant altering plans to a memorized staged reading on the last weekend of this month.  

Maybe it'll get a new life in the fall. . .

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Hope this finds you happy and calmly chugging your favorite beverage!

~AmyJ