THE HOOKS TRANSITION TO CHICAGO IS UNDERWAY, BUT ED IS STILL IN SAN FRANCISCO
I'll teach in San Francisco through August. We still have time to work together if you start soon. Don't wait!

I've signed a lease on an apartment in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, just north of Lincoln Park, a couple of blocks from the water, close to the El. I plan to move there the first week of
September and will begin teaching in Chicago shortly after that. I'm currently shopping for studio space in Chicago for my classes, and I have begun to advertise classes in Performink
(http://www.performink.com/), the Chicago equivalent of San Francisco's Callboard Magazine.

LOOKING FOR A PALO ALTO APARTMENT FOR MY WIFE AND DAUGHTER
As many of you are aware, my transition to Chicago and to Europe is being carried out in stages. First, I'm going to Chicago in September, but my wife, Cally, and daughter, Dagny, will remain in Palo Alto so Dagny, a high school senior at Palo Alto High, can graduate in the school system where she began the first grade. We will be a commuter family for the upcoming school year.

We plan to move Cally and Dagny into a smaller and hopefully less expensive living situation in Palo Alto or vicinity when I go to Chicago. We'll be supporting two households, one in Chicago and one in Palo Alto, so a one-or-two bedroom place in Palo Alto would be ideal. Like everybody else in the Bay Area, we're looking for a bargain -- otherwise known as an affordable rent. (Ha! Ha!) If you know of a kindly landlord who desires reliable, adult one-year tenants who don't smoke and who pay their rent on time, give him my number. 650-325-5334. We'll be ready to shift apartments in August. Thanks!

SAN FRANCISCO - SAN FRANCISCO - SAN FRANCISCO!
The Shady Shakespeare Company, founded by some Bard-loving actors in San Francisco's south bay, has a new and lovely web site (designed by the ultra talented Ms. SARA BETTS) with plenty of info about the company's work, upcoming productions and activities. Check it out! http://www.shadyshakes.org/

"Nash Bridges" has ended San Francisco production and will not return next season. The show has been cancelled. This is a blow to local actors, but you wouldn't know it based on the article about the show's demise that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle. (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/05/17/DD183657.DTL ) That article talked about the loss of revenue to local motorcycle cops, hotels, caterers, real estate biggies, whatever, but never once even mentioned the impact on Bay Area actors. Anyway, this leaves San Francisco with precisely zero regular television shows being shot locally, which is too bad. Keep your fingers crossed for something new to pop up! Every now and then, check the web site for the San Francisco film commission, http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/film/.

CHICAGO - CHICAGO - CHICAGO!
MTV's "The Real World" will be shooting in Chicago July - October. "Chicago has absolutely everything--beautiful backdrops, diversity, culture, music and great neighborhoods," said Jon Murray, co-creator and executive producer. "We can't wait to get started."

Chicago's Art Institute has scheduled a precedent-setting fine art exhibit for the fall, and I can't wait to see it. "Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South" will have 130 paintings, drawings, sculptures and ceramics by Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, who worked together during a famously productive two months in 1888 in Arles, France. Here's the web site for the Art Institute: http://www.artic.edu/aic/index.html.

If you're curious about movies and television shows being shot in Chicago, check out the city's film commission web site, http://www.cityofchicago.org/SpecialEvents/FilmOffice/

JEAN NEWLOVE TEACHES LABAN MOVEMENT THEORY IN LONDON!
My good friend Jean Newlove dropped me an e-mail from London to say that there are still a few spaces left in her upcoming summer Laban program. This is a rare opportunity to study with a true pioneer. And it's fun to visit London anyway! Jean Newlove and JOHN DALBY will both be teaching August 4th - 11th, and the cost is 200 pounds, which equates to about $300 U.S. these days. Low cost hotel accommodations are available for those who get in early. All classes in this will be Laban based. You will cover Dynamics and Spatial Harmony, character and expression, voice and singing, dance, dance-drama, acting and improvisation, clowning, Commedia Del Arte and stage combat. For more information, contact Ms. Newlove via e-mail at: an@newlovemakepeace.demon.co.uk. Or write to her at the Jean Newlove (Centre for Laban Studies), 1/44 Woodville Gardens, Ealing, London W5 2LQ, England.

MEANWHILE, BETSY KAGAN TEACHES LABAN IN BERKELEY...
Ms. Kagan will be teaching an Intro. to LMA in Berkeley on the weekend of July 21-23 (Sat., Sun., 10-5:30 and Monday morning 10-1). She is also offering an afternoon Space Harmony workshop (7/25) and a Movement Observation through video (7/26), and a Bartenieff Fundamentals on the weekend of July 28-29. Contact her at (510) 547-0843 or at betsyk@webbnet.com .

ED WILL BE TRAVELING JUNE 23 - JULY 8TH
I'm looking forward to seeing old friends in Stuttgart, particularly Sven Pannicke at Filmakademie who has delightedly become a dad since I saw him last year. My agenda has me teaching for a week at Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, where Sven is head of animation training, then doing a one-day class near Frankfurt and finishing up with a class for Scanline Productions, a SFX company in Munich. After that, I'm heading back to San Francisco, with a four-day stop in Chicago. My San Francisco classes will resume July 9th.

ED'S UPCOMING SAN FRANCISCO CLASS SCHEDULE
***Commercials Workshops: June 9-10, July 28-29, August 25-26. $250
(10% discount for TBA members).

***Scene study: San Francisco on Monday night or Tuesday night; Palo Alto on Thursday nights. $135 per month, start any time.

***Film Demo Workshop - I'm still trying to get a three-weekend film class on the books for July/August. The hold-up is purely a scheduling thing. Stay tuned.

***Acting for Animators: I'm teaching at Stanford University's New Media Lab in August. For enrollment info, call 1-877-455-9582 or, on the Internet, visit http://newmedia.stanford.edu. You can also read about this on my other web site, http://www.ActingForAnimators.com.

HOOKS ACTORS WORKING
SARA BETTS (f/tv-'00) is in Crowded Fire's "The TrojanWomen: A Love Story" by Charles Mee playing Fridays - Sundays, June 1 - June 24, 2001, at The Next Stage, 1668 Bush (at Gough), S.F. Tickets $12 - $20, sliding scale. Reservations can be made at the company web site, www.crowdedfire.org, or by calling their box office at 415-675-5995. MURPHY HART(comml-'00) shot an industrial entitled "Conflict Hunter" for Playback Media and has been signed by STARS-The Agency. She is appeared last month in "Man of La Mancha" with Pacific Alliance Stage Company in Rohnert Park. ANNIE SCOTT ROGERS (s.stdy - '95-'96) has a major supporting role in an indie entitled "The Calling". RAY RENATI (s.stdy - '00) has been cast in a principal role in an independent film called "Character is Destiny" produced by DreamWeaver Film & Video Productions. SHIRLEY (f/tv - '00) is co-starring in an indie, "We Got Next" written, directed, and produced by a group of women from Flaca Films. MARY SAUDARGAS (f/tv - '01) shot a commercial for Tilex. PHIL SHERIDAN is playing the Wizard in "The Wizard of Oz" at the San Rafael Community Center, 6/1 & 6/8 @ 7:30 and 6/2 & 6/9 @ 11:30, 2:30 and 7:30. For tix, call 415-485-3333. BILL HAMLIN (all classes - current) has been cast as Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin in "Chekhov in Yalta", to be put on by the Pacifica Spindrift Players at the end of June. JACK RAMAGE (comml - '87) plays Ben Franklin in "1776" at the Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City, through July 15th. ALEX BARKER (comml - '01) will appear at Cal Shakes as 1) an understudy in Cymbeline (May 30 - June 24), and an ensemble member in Romeo & Juliet (Aug 8 - Sept 2). KURT KROESCHE is in "It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's SUPERMAN!" at 42nd Street Moon in San Francisco. For ticket info, call 415-255-8207, or check out the web site at http://www.42ndstmoon.com. ANDRE JONES (s.stdy & f/tv - current) landed a good role in an indie film entitled "I Got What You Want", from Nuvision Films. NATASHA BAKER (comml - '01) is in "The Wiz" at the Willows in Walnut Creek.

CRAFT NOTES
SAN FRANCISCO VERSUS CHICAGO
Callboard magazine's managing editor, Belinda Taylor, attended a theatre conference in Chicago a few weeks ago. When she returned to San Francisco, she reported on her Windy City adventure in a Callboard lead editorial (May '2001). What she said caught my attention. While in Chicago, she attended a performance of the city's famed Second City improvisation company and found the show to be "racist." With no explanation about what in particular she deemed racist, she quickly went on to explain to Callboard's readers that some of Chicago's hottest plays actually originated in San Francisco, citing as examples "Buckminster Fuller: The History and Mystery of the Universe" and "Dame Edna".

I can appreciate boosterism as much as the next person, and San Francisco can for sure use some assistance these days, but these kinds of claims really ought not go without comment. I don't know whether or not Second City was racist, but it is an improv show after all, and I suppose anything is possible on any given night. Probably, if Ms. Taylor wanted to accuse them of racism, it would have been helpful to explain why she thought that. It is a pretty strong and inflammatory assertion for an educated theatre person to be making, don't you think? But she offered no explanation, only an assault.

And about those hit shows that supposedly originated in San Francisco. Neither of them did. Barry Humphries created his Dame Edna character in Australia and then took her all over the world, including London's West End, before he wound up in San Francisco. And Ron Campbell created his Buckminster Fuller show at the San Diego Repertory Theatre. Both of these productions were simply road shows that happened to play San Francisco before heading for Chicago. And after they leave Chicago, they'll go somewhere else.

Since I wrote a regular column for Callboard for so long, I confess I was astonished and dismayed by Belinda's words. It seems to me that she could have come up with something positive and constructive to write about what is clearly one of the most innovative and exciting theatrical arenas in the country. She could have, for instance, visited Victory Gardens Theatre, which is receiving a special Tony this year for its work with new playwrights. Or she could have visited the Goodman which is presenting side-by-side premieres of the new Alan Ayckbourn plays. In short, there is a lot to talk about in the Windy City.

San Francisco and Chicago can mutually profit from a friendly and creative rivalry, and artists in both cities can come out winners. Movers and shakers of the Chicago theatre scene can and probably do watch what goes on theatrically in San Francisco. Heck, they were smart enough to bring in Dame Edna after San Francisco finished with her, right? But good deeds and fruitful dialogue do not begin when an honored and lettered representative of San Francisco's theatrical
community shouts in print that a famed representative theatre company of Chicago is racist.

My two cents, anyway.

...AND NOW SOME THOUGHTS ON THEATRICAL HEADSHOTS

In my new book, "Acting Strategies for the Cyber Age", I recommend that actors add something to their standard photo session: a roll of COLOR shots. These color photos can be used for self-submission in the Internet, which is a color medium. And they will look better on your web site than black and white pictures. I am myself in the process of converting black and white photography on my web sites into color.

Historically, color pictures have been for fashion models, and so photographers may be confused when you ask for a color roll. It is up to you to teach them, to lead them. Your photos are your promotional tools, and you are smart to make your tools the way you want them to be, not the way the toolmakers want them to be.I have discovered that some photographers are embracing the notion of including color shots. Lois Tema (415 - 861-4471), for instance, thought it was a good idea when I spoke to her about it. Other photographers I have approached don't even want to discuss the topic because they like the status quo.

Your photos are your single most important sales tool. Agents and casting directors may not read your resume, and they may or may not appreciate the acting teachers you have studied with, but you can be certain they will look at your headshot. Indeed, based on their reaction to the headshot, they will decide whether or not to have you in on an audition or for a meeting.

Here are my guidelines for good theatrical photographs. I suggest that you print this out and carry it with you when you go to meet photographers. It might save you a lot of time.

1) Since it is true that commercials are where the money is in show biz ($570 million last year for SAG members, as much as from movies and TV shows combined), you need a good commercial shot. Since the basic psychology behind commercial advertising is that, if the consumer buys or uses the product, he will be like the people in the commercial, your commercial photograph should be playful and happy. Even if you are a Buster Keaton, no-expression kind of person, your headshot should project a light touch (just as Keaton's did), an optimistic sense of life.

2) It doesn't matter if you have a head shot or a "3/4" shot that includes your body. This is a flavor-of--month thing and has been swinging back and forth for many years. Currently, 3/4 is in. You should go with what you like, what makes you feel good.

3) Most often, photographers want to take two kinds of shots in a photo session: a commercial shot and a theatrical shot. Standard procedure is to have you smiling and showing teeth in the commercial shot, generally while wearing lighter clothes -- and to have you un-smiling and wearing dark clothes in the theatrical picture. I suggest that this should be up for discussion when you arrange your photo session. It is not carved in stone that commercial pictures show teeth and theatrical pictures have you dressed like Zorro. Perhaps you are, for instance, a comedic type of actor. If so, you may be unlikely to get cast in moody or dark roles, and a moody and dark photo is not going to be useful. It might be more practical to have a "casual" shot taken along with a "business" shot. In a market like San Francisco, where much of the work is in commercials or corporate films, that makes a lot of strategic sense.

4) In my view, the distinction between a good theatrical photo and a good commercial photo is in the attitude, not the clothes or the teeth. A good commercial shot says to the person looking at it, "I'm fun to be with at the party!". A good theatrical shot, which can be totally pleasant, says, "I'm an artist, and you're an artist. Let's get together and work on a project." In other words, the theatrical shot is just a bit more cerebral. It can still be happy, just more mental. See what I mean?

5) Before you set up a photo session, decide for yourself what kind of photos you want and need. Do not wait for the photographer to explain all that to you. Again, your photos are your marketing tools. If you were setting up any other kind of business, you would not wait for the ad agency to tell you what to sell, would you? You know what your strengths are, and your photos should display them.

Put yourself in the position of an agent that receives your photos in the mail. When he looks at the shots, it should be clear how he can sell you. "Ah! This is a soccer mom!", "This is the lawn-mowing next door neighbor", "This is a bank president", "This is a college student", "This is an athlete"..... It should be that clear. You don't want an agent to look at your picture and simply see a nice person. A theatrical photo is a sales tool. It is not the kind of thing your mom sets on the piano. Ours is a devilishly competitive business, and we need all the advantages we can get. The advantages begin by having really dynamic, exciting and accurate theatrical photos.

One final note about your "type". If you want to know where you fit commercially, watch television shows that are aimed at your demographic age. Then, instead of watching the show, watch the commercials on it. The actors in those commercials are your competition. Study them carefully because they're working.

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