Update! Training and RCCC - Actors dealing with cringe at Q&A panels.

So!  Update this week is on the large side of medium, I'd say.

I've really committed to getting the training I need if I'm going to compete at a professional level in voiceover/voice acting.  I've just started the next class in a series of On Camera acting courses offered by Rooney/Totman Acting Studio in Portland, this time around with Ted Rooney, an amazing actor and amazing teacher, who focuses on authenticity in performance and first-person storytelling.  I'm still a little weirded out by having to be on camera and full-body act instead of specifically voice act, but I know I'm going in the right direction because of that fear mixed with electric excitement feeling you can only get when you're improving yourself.

In addition, I've begun vocal coaching with Amanda Eve Studios, learning to focus on developing and maintaining good habits when it comes to breath control, vocal health, and developing the range and power of my voice.  She's personalized a curriculum for me, helping me apply the lessons singers learn early on to when I might have to really stretch my ability -- like if a role requires me to scream a lot, for instance.

I've been to the first lesson for each of my new classes and I am STOKED to continue.  In the meantime I'm never letting up with my personal education, making sure I've read Yuri Lowenthal & Tara Platt's book, "Voice-Over/Voice Actor" cover to cover and continuing to learn from Steve Blum's live Blumvox Studios teaching webinars.  My goal is to learn more each day, to immerse myself in the subject, and to be better as an actor every week than the one before.  I might post a full list of books on acting and voiceover that I've gathered since my start in a future post.

On a different note, I went to Rose City Comic Con this past weekend!  It was fantastic and crowded and frenetic and full of amazing cosplayers and cool people.  I had the good fortune to get into the panels for Chris Sabat (Voice Actor - Dragonball Z, My Hero Academia, and more), Felicia Day (Screen Actor - Dr. Horrible, Supernatural, The Guild, Author, Co-Founder of Geek & Sundry), and finally Lucy Pohl and Charlet Chung (Voice Actors - Overwatch), along with maybe the last five or ten minutes of the David Tennant (Screen Actor - Dr. Who, Broadchurch, Jessica Jones) panel immediately previous to these.

(David Tennant, Rose City Comic Con 2018)

I was somewhat disappointed in that the panels weren't really discussion or interview with the actors, but rather they were ONLY audience Q&A, but there were some gems from Felicia Day especially.  She said, "If (what you create) touches one other person, it's worth doing." and I think I need to really internalize that.  I'm not trying to get into voice acting to be famous, and from watching the "dance, monkey, dance!" demands the audience tend to put upon their favorite celebrities to repeat lines of dialogue like a juke box, I'm not sure I'd ever want to reach that level of public attention.  But it goes to show you that everything is easier when you're funny.  Chris Sabat was incredibly skilled at handling even the cringiest questions thrown at him in a joking, personable, and easy sort of way.  It was almost like an improv exercise where he had to stretch "Yes, AND..." to the absolute limit. 

And hey, we got to hear All Might tell some dad jokes, so that was pretty great.

Well, I've got some script memorizing to do for Monday.  Next week, let's do some more recording!