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Precious Chong Blog - April 16th 2007
Okay. So my play did not get into Summerworks. And that sucks. Yes, it was an early draft with no ending and no production team. And yes, I’m new to Toronto. And yes, it’s my first play. I was still disappointed. I had it all planned out. We would do the play and then people would see it and see how charming and funny Wes and I are and then they’d build a television show around us and we’d shoot it in Vancouver and take it to the States and all those people who rejected me would eat dirt and die. I think maybe I was getting a little carried away.
It’s probably a blessing in, not that much of a disguise, considering that it was pretty much a blow by blow account of our relationship. It was hard enough just doing a reading. There is nothing quite like working out stuff in a marriage while making it into a hopefully comedic piece of writing. Sometimes I can be an art cannibal. Once my mom and I were literally fighting in the theater after she saw a version of my show. “You need to just grow up!” she screamed in the empty theater while I cleared up props. It was not the first time she’d seen the show but it was after my dad had gone to jail and well she was just more fragile. I can empathize. But it was pretty funny in a nightmare sort of way. I used it for the rewrite the next week. My dad, who was in a halfway house, just laughed when I told him. “It’s all material”. After when I started doing readings of my most recent stuff my mom joked “Well at least she’s writing about you now, Wes”.
But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. Transitioning. Moving to a new city. It happens in layers. The first blush of excitement is starting to fade and now I’m just annoyed that I have to start all over here. I mean I do have agents and better auditions for film and t.v. than I did in Los Angeles. But theatre…that’s a whole other kettle of fish. I have no history here. I mean it’s not like I was rocking the house in Los Angeles. The closest thing I got to the Taper (the “legit” theater in Los Angeles) was a couple of paid readings and countless auditions because of one casting director there who liked me but then he died. But I worked pretty consistently and I loved it. I like being on stage. It makes me happy. I like the camaraderie. I can’t believe I used that word, but I do.
Okay. I don’t have history here, which can feel strange. I moved a lot as a teenager and it was weird. I realized that my identity was fluid. One month I’m a straight A, bunhead and the next I’m in school in the south of France hanging with girls who smoked, sniffed cleaning fluid and shoplifted. My parents had no idea, they just thought it was cute that I kissed all my friends on both cheeks every morning and wore scarves. That’s when I realized I needed to go to boarding school.
I’ve submitted myself for theatre stuff but so far not a one audition. I thought that my Los Angeles mystique would at least get me an audition, but so far not a bite. Maybe they think the theatre there is a joke. And some of it is. A lot of it is. But there is a lot of fun, good stuff too.
But I’m getting sidetracked. I need to be proactive. But sometimes the thought of hustling all over again just makes me tired. It’s also the double whammy of having a baby. And it’s such a smaller pool of actors here, which can be strange. In Los Angeles I can think of 3 other actresses who are literally my doppelgangers we look that much alike. We see each other and joke about how so and so called me your name the other day. But here in Toronto this redheaded actress maddogged (gangbanger term for dirty look) me at a commercial audition as if to say “this town is only big enough for one of us”.
Trust the universe. Stay open. Don’t write the ending.
I always wanted to play Laura in the Glass Menagerie and so when I was in my late twenties I started to panic that my time had come and gone. They were auditioning for the part in this little community theater way down south in Orange County. I remember being really cocky at the audition. Like they are so lucky to have me, a real actress, audition for the role. I was outside in the courtyard preparing when I see this girl walk up to audition. She’s using crutches. I was like that’s a bit much, using props until I realized that they were real. She was really crippled. I know that’s not the p.c. term but it’s what I thought. Holy moley. She must have had cerebral palsy or something but I was like whoa. I can’t compete with that.
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