JACK GARRITYNEW HEADSHOTS………
Well it was about that time again. The pandemic is kinda over, I stopped coloring my hair and was embracing the gray! Quick aside, as I let my hair go gray my Mom would always ask “Jackie, are you frosting your hair??!!”
Now it’s an actors responsibility to show up in the room looking as close to their headshot as possible. Since mine were close to five years old and I used to try and recapture my youth with a touch of peroxide I knew it was time to give Joe Henson a call and schedule a sitting.
Now I have been using Joe Henson for the past 20 years and for very good reason. Its not just his skill as a photographer, or his keen eye for lighting and composition, but how he combines these innate talents and uses them to the ultimate benefit of his subject. Namely ME and hopefully YOU. Joe understands that your headshot is more than an actor’s calling card, these headshots need to represent you as a person, as an actor and as a life force. Its a terrific collaborative process and the end result has always been exceptional.
Now he is not alone in this process. By his side is his stylist and wife Kerry-Lou who applies the same principles to her styling. You want Glam, you’ll get glam, but do you really want Glam? Her understanding of who you are, what your markets are and who is going to hire you come into play and are far more important in the process than “making you pretty” Oh you’re going to look outstanding, but its going to be the best outstanding YOU there can be.
Now I know these may seem like basic concepts, but without the collaboration of the photographer, the stylist and you, in a way that ensures capturing the best you then why bother.
And one final note, I have been deemed an “HMS” client by this dynamic duo. A High Maintenance Shoot, enough said.
40 YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP
It’s hard to believe we all met 40 years ago!!! 1979 at the University of Lowell, which is now University of Massachusetts at Lowell. I was a freshman and searching for “my tribe” and I knew where to find them.
I was an accounting major, although I wanted to be an acting major and my parents response to that request was “not on our dime”. Maybe in hindsight they did me a favor and as I write this from my 7th floor office in Times Square where I am a CPA as my survival job. But I am posting this blog entry on my actor’s website so……….
But that Spring of 1979 were the auditions for the theater department’s production of “Pippin” and I was determined to get cast. Armed with more enthusiasm than talent I wasn’t going to let a pitch problem stand in my way. Launching into an unsuccessful rendition of “Patchin’ the Roof” I was politely stopped and asked to sing “Happy Birthday” In the key of C please. Like I said I wasn’t going to let anything stand in my way.
SO, I was cast as a Player and got to meet this crew who 40 years later have assembled themselves in Upstate New York at my and my husbands country house for the weekend. We’ve all been through losses, spouses, homes, jobs, kids, break-ups, weddings, funerals but through it all we’ve stayed in touch, somehow.
I can’t tell you how grateful I am to still have these people in my life. Friends who know you, love you (sometimes unconditionally) and can and will put up with you. The inside jokes are endless, as are the fights when we play games. But we make up, laugh at ourselves and each other.
I can’t post a notice about the Upstate Weekend with the Theater Gang without thanking my husband Tom who continues to support me in life, living and laughing. Helped me put this weekend together and welcomed all these crazy, lovely people into our home.
FROZEN THEATER REVIEW……………….
OOOPS THEY DID IT AGAIN!! Or should I say, they’re at it again. It is painfully obvious, and I do mean painfully, that the magicians at Disney pulled out all the stops to literally recreate every trick, spin, flake and icicle that was in the animated film. If I wanted that I would go and see the movie. Hey Disney! take a page from Tina Landau’s directing manual and go see Sponge Bob – The Musical, they did not use one costumed character but still created the life and energy of Bikini Bottom on stage.
