First Workshop of "HPAG" a big success!

Today was the first official workshop for the "Hollywood Players Actor's Group". It was a great first workshop.  I talked about my background in the business for a while and what my goal for this group is. Then everyone had a chance to talk about their backgrounds and experiences with acting.

It was so refreshing that some of these folks chose professional careers to make money, but never forgot their dream of wanting to be on stage and performing in front of others. Some people really shined today. No matter how old you are or what you've been doing in your career, it's never too late to go for your dreams! You just have to decide that life is too short to wait another day and go for it.

After the introductions, we did a short relaxation exercise to clear our minds and get centered, followed by some positive affirmations.

Next was improvisational exercises.  We'd give the actors on stage an occupation, a situation, and an emotion. Both actors had the same emotion. For the improv (pictured) below, Carl Rolle played a therapist and LarJayne Blackwell played a Dog Groomer who hates people, but LOVES dogs. Their emotion was happiness at first and then halfway through the improv, I switched the emotion to anger and boy did things get funny after that!

Julie Johnson played an interior designer and James Etue played a plumber and the emotion was 'confused'.  That was hilarious!

I played an Airline Pilot and Roger Conley played a TSA guy and our emotion was "suspicious". He accused me of being drunk and tries to stop me from getting to my plane and endangering people. I am suspicious of him, that he can't tell the difference between a bomb and a sex toy.

Curtis Han plays a NYC police officer with James Etue playing a hotdog vendor. Curtis Han accuses James of selling drugs out of his hotdog vending cart. It got really funny. The emotion was frustration.  Curtis was trying to literally take the cart from James and it was very humorous.

James: "Hey now, you're really over reacting here, this is how I make my living! That's not my pot!"

Curtis: "Oh really, you're holding a bloody knife over a body. Oh, that's not my knife! Oh really!?"

After the improvisations, everyone performed their monologues.  LarJayne performed a comedic one that she wrote. It was very funny.  Roger Conley performed the Christopher Walken Monologue in "Pulp Fiction" about the watch. It was very good.  I performed my monologue from "Girl in a Cafe" where I did an Irish Accent and everyone seemed to like it. Carl Rolle performed a very funny monologue about being a disgruntled employee at a company were he is the only employee.

Julie Johnson, Curtis Han, and James Etua did a cold reading from "Hawaii Five 0" where they question Julie's character about a friend who was found murdered. They all did great. Julie got emotional the first time. I directed them all to be more cold hearted and mean.  The second time was a huge improvement. It was electrifying. Such a great scene. 

And the last scene of the workshop was a piece brought in by Curtis Han for an audition he has this week. It's a college recreation of a scene from "Friends".  Curtis was trying to impersonate Ross. He did the scene with James Etue. James was hilarious as Joey.  After everyone left, I worked with Curtis on his audition piece some more.  I needed to get him out of his shell.  I gave him a quick tutorial on Sitcom Acting!  Gotta make it big! Timing is everything.  I think it got better the more we did it! Like night and day!

So that's basically how the first workshop went. Everyone had fun.
I'm really excited about the possibilities of this workshop! Each week will be different and we'll have different people checking it out and bringing their talents and wonderful energy! I know we'll get a nice group of actors and magic will be made!!!  I couldn't be more excited!
You really need to check out this workshop!

See you on the Stage!
Best,
Kelly Mullis, Artistic Director of HPAG