Voice Acting, and Auditions times one millions

Did some voice acting today with www.tipyourwaiter.org - big thanks to Bil, Lance, and Trevor! Had a really good time. The project was acting out hate mail written about various people and sent into tipyourwaiter.org. The audio will be edited in with music, video images, and other cool stuff. The finished product should be pretty interesting. Here's me and Bil at work:



In other news, just auditioning, auditioning, auditioning. Looks like I'm doing fight scenes in a production of Romeo and Juliet, but other than that I'm not sure yet. Oh and starting this month I'm taking an on-camera acting class at Green Room Studio here in Chicago, which has come highly recommended. Very exciting stuff, I really can't wait to get started.

Annnnnnnd still working on the album. Actually having thoughts about expanding from a solo act into a group, maybe a trio? More to come...

Oh yeah! St. Paddy's coming up soon! If it's as cool this year as it was back in 2008 in Seoul, then I'll be pretty excited about that. Somehow this past version of me doesn't seem convinced. We'll see!

2010: a running start

This week I am opening two shows:

Aelita/Shiny Boxes

These are two brand new plays presented together, and I’m in the second one. Working with the folks at Dream has been a really good experience overall and I’m incredibly excited about this show. I can’t recommend it enough. Details:



Tonight being a dress rehearsal I got a chance to see Aelita and came away impressed. As for Shiny Boxes - I haven’t been this excited about a play in a long time. This is going to be an incredible night of theatre.

TGIF: Raw

“Dramatic and Dangerous interpretations of Vintage Sitcoms”




I’m also doing a show with my good friends Lauren Maul and Tom Bambara (as well as a great cast of brilliant improvisers.) This show is going to be friggin bananas. We’re doing improvised versions of Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, and other classic TGIF junk food TV of yesteryear - but with a sinister and hilarious edge. Details:

Saturdays at 11:30PM
February 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th
12 bucks
The Gorilla Tango Theatre
1919 N. Milwaukee (right next to the Western blue line stop)

Did I mention that I am doing live acoustic versions of all these TV theme songs as part of the show? You do NOT want to miss this...

The truth about Santa and puppets

Well, one show ends and another begins. Thanks to everyone who came out and made Giving Thanks to the Music such a fun show to play. All the musicians played great sets and it was good to see everyone coming out and having a good time. As always, sign up on the mailing list to get notified about upcoming shows.

The show that’s just begun is a night of new plays called The Feats of Strength. The theme is surviving the holidays and the shows are all a really good time. (If you want to know how this relates to the title of this entry, you better just come and see...) We’re performing at Strawdog Theatre and the show is being put on by Dramatis Personae, a new(ish) Chicago theatre company led by my buddy Tim Bambara, who actually was my TA in Basic Acting class many moons ago back at JMU. Dramatis Personae is all about working with Chicago playwrights and giving this city a voice, hence all the new plays. It’s good to be doing comedy again after my last show, which was, well, pretty friggin serious. Anyways here’s the flyer for The Feats of Strength:




(PSSSSST. I know the code to get tickets for only 10 bucks! Ask me!)


Also on the horizon, I am doing a new play at Dream Theatre called Shiny Boxes, which will open early next year. Dream Theatre has a great rep for its otherworldy and sometimes unsettling plays, frequently written by company members and other Chicago playwrights. They’ve gotten a bunch of Jeff recommendations for their work and I’m excited to be doing a show with Anna Weiler and company.

And finally, I’ve recently gotten my headshots re-done and updated my resume. Bounce over to the acting page to check it out.

Happy Holidays!

Big show coming up November 22nd!

I’ve got a big show coming up!

Myself and four incredible musicians will be taking the stage at Studio BE here in Chicago, November 22nd, for a damn fine get-down before turkey day. Studio BE is a a multi-purpose theatre venue and it’s also BYOB!!! Located right around the corner from Belmont Red Line at 3110 N. Sheffield Ave, and almost across the street from the Vic Theatre. Featuring the talents of:

Sincerely, Iris - Singer-songwriter Todd Murray is going to start the evening with his seasoned folk-blues stylings, not to be missed.
Tiffany Strietelmeier - Tiff will be there with her band, playing some incredible stuff and promoting her new CD coming out in December!
Lauren Maul and her Songs for Children (which, uh, aren’t really for children - but they are friggin hilarious.)
Alive Day - Dan Arrecis, the force behind this local Chicago powerhouse will be doing a solo acoustic set!
And of course, me.

You can get tickets online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/87256
or just click

HERE.

Oh, and my long rumored debut CD might just get released that night as well... stay tuned for details.

A little here, a little there

SO we just wrapped up the US premiere of Zero over at Oracle Theatre. What a great experience! I got to break back into the theatre scene with a great storefront theatre, a great play, a great cast and crew... the list goes on. If you missed it, no worries, I’ll be in something else soon.

And another case of right place, right time. Our fight choreographer for Zero was Rick Barrows. As the fight captain for the show, I happened to get into a discussion with him about my intent to study stage combat - it’s really the synthesis of my martial arts experience (two black belts and my time in Thailand) and my acting experience. I guess Rick saw that I was serious and shortly after working together he offered to be my stage combat instructor! Along with my good friend David Boren, I have been learning all manner of combat, both armed and unarmed, for about a month. We’re just getting started and always looking forward to the next session with Rick, who is incredibly experienced and highly skilled in performing and teaching the techniques of stage combat. Dave and I intend to stick with it and later this year we aim to take the Skills Proficiency Test administered by the Society of American Fight Directors. Needless to say, I feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to train with Rick and Dave!

Aside from all that, there’s news on the music side of things. A couple months ago I entered a contest to win free studio time at Gravity Studios, a professional studio here in Chicago. Well I didn’t come in first, but I was offered a GREAT DEAL on studio time, which I intend to take them up on as soon as I can. I’ve also finally got my myspace page up and running at myspace.com/zachlivingstonmusic. Take a look! I currently have five songs available - there’s plenty enough for an album waiting in the wings, and I’ll put more songs up in time. Also on myspace, I’ve entered a contest called Rock the Space - I submitted my best song, and the grand prize is a record contract with Myspace Records and 10,000 bucks worth of Fender gear! You can actually help me win this thing - hop over to the Songwriter page for more info on that.

Other than that I’ve been playing small shows and open mics here and there, always with great response. In particular, I played an open mic at Uncommon Ground on Clark a few weeks ago and wound up coming in first place! (Hilariously enough, I wasn’t even aware it was a competition before I showed up.) That got me a spot in the Open Mic Semi-Finals on Monday, July 6th, 7:30pm at Uncommon Ground on Clark. If I move on from there, I will be in the FINALE at Uncommon Ground on Devon on July 8th at 7:30pm, and if I win that, I walk away with a thousand bucks! Needless to say, I’m pretty friggin’ pumped. If you’d like to come cheer me on, please do! It’d be slick to call ahead and make a reservation for a table though, since both locations get PACKED. I have the phone numbers up on the main page.

That’s about it for now. Please take a look at the myspace page, listen to the songs, feel free to leave comments, friend me, all that sorta thing. I also have a fan page up on Facebook - both are great ways to hear about upcoming shows and more news.

I hope everybody is happy and healthy!

Back by (popular?) demand

Here we are folks. The site is reborn and the blog is back in action. After relocating to Chicago this past fall, I am pursuing my career in the arts in earnest. The website will still have this blog, but now-a-days it will also be a showcase for my creative endeavors and calling cards - headshots, demos and all that sort of thing. I’ll do a more general update on what’s going on at a later date. Watch this space!

Monsoon Lightning Rod

Saturday I drove a motorcycle to Burma. I wrote my friend Sarah an email about it and rather than try to one-up myself with an even better telling, I'll repeat it here. I'll warn that because this was a personal email to a good friend, and I was still amped up from the trip, I drop the F-bomb about a million fucking times.

Good story. Here's one for you:

So I had to renew my visa eh? Right, time to go to Burma. I buy a bus ticket, and a few hours later my hostel running buddy Noom says, hey, why not rent a motorbike and just ride up there? He knows I love bikes and figures it'll be a good time. This is Saturday and I have to get to the border on Sunday or pay a late fee. Trouble is I already have the bus ticket for Sunday morning. SO I head into town on Saturday night with the idea of renting a motorbike and refunding the bus ticket. I was sort of successful.
Met a lovely American bird, name of Katie, and ended up drinking all night with her, and making out next to the old fortified moat at 7am. Walked her to her place, decided that I was going to wait for motorbike place to open up rather than go home to my hostel.
Walk into Starbuck's. Order mocha. Sleep for one hour. Rent large-ish motorcycle for 2 days for the princely sum of 1600 baht (about 40 bucks.) Back to hostel, 4 hours sleep, then ON THE ROAD TO BURMA. WHAT THE HELL?
North from Chiang Mai the roads are curvy as hell which = huge fun on motorcycle. The bike is big, but fast, and wallows through turns like a well placed brick. I take my time due to the insanely uncomfortable seat, which causes me to need to get off it and awaken my ass muscles periodically.
Evening finds me taking pictures of an ancient white temple just out of Chiang Rai (not Chiang Mai. Chiang Rai is farther north, on the road to Burma. Stay with me now.) An hour of puttering around this city with no apparent center or tourist ghetto finds me in a 12 dollar a night hotel with all thais, free internet and free breakfast. Chicken fried rice, sleep, awake. Read news. Read Barack Obama's convention speech and actually cry with love for country. Can't wait to get home. Have to go to Burma.
Up the road to Burma. Border crossing is confusing but not too worrying. Burma side of the border is like Thailand's dark side. Dirtier, poorer. Drab. A bit dingy. I am befriended by a man who slurrs his speech and calls himself Danny. He walks with me 5km down a dirt road surrounded by beautiful tropical countryside. I buy him lunch which, as far as I can tell, is fried pork intestines. Danny is really affable. We discuss our mutual love for martial arts, and his various stories of being arrested in the united states. At the border, before I go back, he asks for money and I give him 20 baht. (90 cents.) He's actually a decent guy, I think.
A brief and terrifying dip into a Burmese street market shows me what it's like to be a piece of meat thrown into a room of starving wolves. After denying at least 50 different brands of cigarettes ("MAYBE HE LIKES MARLBORO LIGHTS WE DIDN'T ASK HIM THAT YET) and who knows how many brands of nudie playing cards ("YOU LIKE YOU GO BOOM BOOM?") ("no boom boom. thanks.") I escape back into Thailand. Back on my bike and off to the Golden Triangle, the meeting point of Burma, Thailand and Laos. The road there is beautiful but about the same consistency as the Grand Canyon. I finally rumble into town which consists mostly of hotels, restaurants, t-shirt stalls, and a 40 foot high golden Buddha in sitting position, placed right on the bank of the Mekong River. This is absolutely just as fantastic as it sounds. But I'm bleeding daylight and I have 6 hours drive (I thought, haha fucking ha) to get back to Chiang Mai. Snap snap snap photographs go! And back on the bike! I slam the throttle and scream manically into my ill fitting helmet as I zoom over man-sized potholes at light speed. Hey, I was running out of time.
By the time I get to Chiang Rai, still 190km from Chiang Mai, it's total night. This is fine except for two things:
1) It starts to rain.
2) The headlight on my motorcycle is rivaled for brightness by things like fireflies, and the first lightbulb ever invented.

Needless to say the idea that I can continue blithely along at 80km/hour is done for. My speed and body temperature are cut drastically. Roads that were really fun in the daytime, perfectly dry and illuminated by golden sunshine wrapped around beautifullly rugged, green jungle and coffee farm covered mountains, are now FUCKING DEADLY in the rain, thunder, lightning, and candle-powered headlight from hell. A 3 hour drive turns into 4, then 5, then 6. I hit a bat on the road. He gets caught in my shirt and I flick him away. At this point I have one of those moments, when you just laugh your head off and go

WHAT THE FUCK COULD I POSSIBLY BE THINKING THAT I AM DOING HERE??????

Needless to say that after absolutely losing my mental luggage I finally made it into Chiang Mai around midnight. I am now safe and sane at my home piece hostel run by my home piece Noom, who by the way wants to go to bed, which means he shuts down internet, which means this story is OVER.

Hope you loved it. I miss you! Africa sounds great. Keep loving everything.



So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. There's more news to be had here in Thailand (state of emergency anyone?) but I'll leave that for later. I hope everyone is fantastic. Register to vote if you haven't already!