"Time in a Trashcan" and "New Writers Now: From Civil War to Civil Rights"

First post of the new year! I'm excited to say I have not one, but two events that I'm involved in this upcoming week:

I'll be in attendance (in the flesh) at the GALA Hispanic Theatre in DC with Young Playwrights Theater, working my community ambassador skills. Our program for the evening, "New Writers Now! From Civil War to Civil Rights," explores the history of the district through a series of short plays written by young students and the elderly. The pre-show reception begins at 6:30 with the staged readings to follow at 7pm. Admission is free!

I'll also be in "attendance" (on the screen) for the CAmm Cine Lounge, at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson. There will be a showing of Running Storm Production's 2010 Baltimore 48 Hour Film Project, "Time in a Trashcan." This event is also this upcoming Monday, February 7th at 7pm. Our film was recognized as an audience favorite when it first premiered, and director Dean Storm will be there to field questions about the film. Admission is only $8 for non-Creative Alliance members and $3 for members.

Hope you can make it out to one or the other! :)

-Vaness
www.vanessastrickland.net

Baltimore 48HFP, adaptations and interpretation

Wow... I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted. Certainly I've been busy, but I always like to regroup and fill people in on what I've been doing between updates.

I'm re-joining Running Storm Productions again to perform in their 48HFP that shoots this weekend! Dean first cast me as the lead in his short for the inaugural 29 Days Later Project, which he also co-founded. I then worked with him again on the "Crash the Superbowl" Doritos Commercial Contest which we shot in fall 2010. I'm excited to see everyone again and work together on what's sure to be a fun project all around.

Our screening will be on Tuesday, June 22nd at 7:30pm
at the Charles Theatre
1711 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD
we are Running Storm Productions in Group A
Admission is only $9
http://www.thecharles.com/
Tickets should be available via the Charles Theatre website probably starting next week.

Later this month I'm meeting with Charles Martin Kline of The Mystery Workshop to discuss my involvement with a horror film he's working on this summer. My involvement would include assisting with makeup and special effects as well as possibly doing some puppeteering on certain effects and monsters in the film! All details should be hammered out for the end of the month so I'll have a better idea of what to expect, but man... I have to say I've always been a huge fan of horror effects (particularly animatronics and stop-motion effects featured in so many early 80s horror films), so this project should be pretty cool to be involved in!

I've hit up a few different auditions this month and last, and I'm in the running for a creepy-evil ghost role in a short called "The Dark," so we'll see what comes of that. Otherwise, I did Stonehenge this past Sunday and had the opportunity to audition for the Maryland Ensemble Theatre's mainstage season, which consists of an adaptation of "A Clockwork Orange," which I am utterly speechless over. I will be seeing it regardless! I read the book and watched the movie endlessly when I was in high school, so I'm really interested to see it interpreted onstage.



In addition to attending the MET's auditions, I have been looking over lines for their steampunk adaptation of "The Canterbury Tales," for a potential fall tour of the show. I saw the production earlier this spring and was approached by writer-adapter Reiner Prochaska to perform in it. Again, an exciting opportunity to work on a very cool, stylized vision. This is the kind of work I really am drawn to.

With all these adaptations I've heard of/seen in the past few months, I've been kicking around an adaptation idea in my brain a bit and perhaps with a few more conversations and planning, I may be interested in putting up a production for next summer's Capital Fringe Fest. It's just an iron in the fire for now, but the past week has got me very seriously considering it as a real possibility.

Uh, so basically, acting is pretty cool! :) 'Til next time,

-Vanessa
www.vanessastrickland.net

Vote for my Dorito-encrusted FACE!

UPDATE! - apparently I was mistaken and a panel of judges have already chosen the top 6 commercials. We didn't make the cut, but you can certainly still watch the commercials by following the links below! Thanks again to those of you who stopped in to check them out. :)

So... those two Doritos commercials I did in fall '09 that I linked up here?

It's time for viewers to actually vote for their favorites! Voting opens today (1/5/10) so please swing by and check out my two commercials and give them your votes. If one of them wins, then our commercial gets featured on the half time show at the Superbowl (and the cast and crew gets a nice chunk of change as well).

"Roommates" features an adorable dog licking Dorito-dust off my face, while the "Chip Fumble" consists of a group of friends tackling each other for the last chip... so take your pick or vote for both!

Here are links that'll lead you directly to my two commercials:
(Please feel free to skip through the flash intro as it will take you directly to the video)

“Roommates:”


http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/video/3209

“Chip Fumble:”


http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/video/3324

Thanks! Further news on the horizon as it comes in!

-Vaness.
http://www.vanessastrickland.net

Drawing to a close

Hi friends,

You know, I always intend to update more often than I'm able, but I usually find I'm kept busy with work and acting and personal projects, so I neglect to take the time to sit down and blog about my accomplishments. I figure being busy isn't too bad a thing, but I always want to be sure those of you that check up here have an idea of what in the world is keeping me so busy!

Earlier this month, I performed some excerpts from the shows I've been in with Deviated Theatre at their first annual Storyteller's GALA at the American Dance Institute in Rockville. On the second night of the GALA, we had our first snow of the [fall] season, which may have affected our audiences, but we still had a good amount of attendees who were very responsive! My friends Dean and Sutisa Storm showed up, as well as Mary and Regan Garcia. They drove all the way from Baltimore in the hazardous weather, which I appreciated tremendously!! The two-night GALA was great fun, with catered food from the Ambrosia Grille Restaurant and Whole Foods, a wine ring-toss, and silent auction, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and got to go home with some awesome prizes and presents.

Since then, I've been working a lot before winter break- and just recently I've worked a few events with Carbone Entertainment. It seems there's a lot going on this time of year with the holidays, so already I've had quite a few gigs in the past three weeks! I'm definitely looking forward to doing more work with her company as it's really creative and engaging, which two things I enjoy about this business.

I'm still auditioning for shows around the area and I just accepted a role in a staged reading by Miriam Gonzales of Young Playwrights' Theater that's going to be happening in January at Sidwell Friends school. I can run more information on that once I've had more time to take in the script, but check back here for further details.

On the visual arts side, I'm working on illustrating a children's book for Joann McKinney of the Greater Homewood Community Corporation in Baltimore. I'm still in the early stages, working on a storyboard of sorts for the book, but perhaps I'll post some work in progress here later on down the line.

For now though, I think I'll actually take a break from all this busy-ness and enjoy my [SNOW!] day off with a little bit of retro gaming. :)

-Vaness.
http://www.vanessastrickland.net

Deviants and Doritos

I wanted to write and let you all know what's been happening in the past few weeks with my career, as I've been shifting gears very quickly as fall changes to winter! Plus, I have a special event coming up the first weekend of December that I'd like to let you all know about.

The third weekend of October, I opened and closed "LORE" with Deviated Theatre at my alma mater, UMBC. I had been working and rehearsing non-stop through most of September and October, so I did not get the show announcement out as timely as I'd hoped, but regardless, we had a wonderful audience all three nights; I believe Friday we may have been at 80% capacity, Saturday was possibly sold-out and I know Sunday we over-sold-out! The show itself had evolved since it's run in June '09 and was like an entirely new experience with new moments as well as new cast members.

I spent a day shooting two 30-second commercials for the Doritos "Crash the Superbowl" contest in late October. The winner of the contest gets their Doritos commercial shown during the Superbowl. Viewer voting doesn't begin until January 5, 2009, but if you'd like to check out the commercials themselves, they can be found at the following links, since garnering views and some positive comments certainly can't hurt our chances! :)

(Please feel free to skip through the flash intro as it will take you directly to the video)

"Roommates:"
http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/video/3209

"Chip Fumble:"
http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/video/3324

Up next for me is Deviated Theatre's first annual fundraising event called the "Storyteller's Gala:"

[The Gala will] be held at American Dance Institute on December 4th and 5th, 2009. The GALA will include highlights from several of Kimmie Dobbs Chan and Enoch Chans' stories: Aspiro-step into curiosity and LORE‐ A MYSTERY AWAITS, as well as an exciting new version of their 30 minute short TOKEN-the stakes are altered, and a preview of an entirely new piece entitled SWAY. Silent auction, games, and prizes accompany the performances, along with a strolling violinist, life-size cutouts of the Chans' original and
adapted characters, a full gallery display of Enoch Chan's photography, food and wine.

(((By the way, the items we've collected for the gala auction range from chic dinnerware and restaurant gift cards to high-end makeup kits and museum tickets; so be sure to come and check out the auction!)))

Friday December 4th: Gala party 7-10pm, with a performance at 8:00 pm

Saturday December 5th: Gala party from 5-10 pm, with performances at both 5:30 pm and 8:30 pm.

Tickets can be ordered by calling 301-984-3003 or by downloading a ticket order form from http://www.deviatedtheatre.org

Until November 20th: $25 general admission, $15 students.
November 21st and after: $32 general admission, $15 students.

Dress is semi‐formal.

You can also find DEVIATED THEATRE'S Storyteller's GALA on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=174816693727&ref=ts

Take care, and hope to see some of you at the gala in a few weeks!

-Vaness.
www.vanessastrickland.net

"Broken Wings" Clip

This has been up on the video page since earlier this month, but I just thought I'd bring it to your attention here. Just below is a clip from the short film I did back in July with Running Storm Productions. This clip is an interesting one because it shows some humor that we inserted into the otherwise creepy, dramatic story. We also get a good look at the bird makeup I worked on, so give it a look-see:

Scene from Broken Wings from Regan Garcia on Vimeo.

Dean and Regan did a fantastic job in editing... I couldn't be happier with how it looks!

-Vaness.
www.vanessastrickland.net

"Broken Wings" & the 29 Days Later Film Project

Summer's already on it's way out and as per usual, it seems that I've been busy!

At the end of June, Deviated Theatre's production of "LORE" went up for an evening at Bishop Ireton in Alexandria. The space was enormous and for having as short a marketing period as we did, it worked out well: we pulled in a good crowd and turned in a good amount of donations from our ever-popular baked goods & concessions table.

In July, I found myself as part of Deviated Theatre's Mash-up project, "Token," for the Source Festival. The short piece revolved around several characters at a bus stop who come across a special Token that gives them everything they ever wanted... but for each character, it gives them something that perhaps they weren't bargaining for...

Of course I won't be spoiling it for you here, as you can come check out "Token" for yourself at UMBC this October along with "LORE". I'll be posting more information about it here once we're closer to opening.

I also had the great pleasure this July of FINALLY being able to make it to several productions in the Capital Fringe Festival! Of the 100+ performances that were going on in the area, I caught "Please Listen: A Musical Chaos" (Open Drawer Theatre Company), "Headscarf and the Angry Bitch" (Zehra Fazal), "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead" (Nu Sass Productions) and "Skywriter" (Angry Young Theatre Company).


Dean Storm, myself, and Sutisa Storm at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson in Baltimore

Towards the end of July, I spent a weekend shooting a short film with Running Storm Productions. Dean Storm, the director, along with Dawn Campbell, are organizers of the inaugural 29 Days Later Film Project, in which filmmakers are given a specific prop and 29 days to write, cast, produce, shoot, and edit their films. This is much like the 48 hour film festival, but with more time, the filmmakers have a longer opportunity to polish their works.

Dean contacted me and formulated a script around my makeup design for "The Birds". My character became the lead and I was happy to be able to have the opportunity to work on a longer piece of work (the abridged edit is about 22 minutes), but also I was proud to have one of my original makeup designs featured. Dean and DP Regan Garcia did a magnificent job editing and with some camera and post-production effects to make the bird look majorly creepy! Here's a before/after look at brave model Tina Martello:


"The pretty ones always make the best monsters!" - Tina Martello before (L) and after (R)

Transformative, huh? After a few short hours, I pretty much forgot what she looked like as a normal person! Hopefully before long I can get a clip of some sort up here on the site for you all to check out.

That's it on the homefront for now; please stay tuned for more updates as they come in!

-Vaness.
www.vanessastrickland.net