How 'True West' (John Malkovitch & Gary Sinise) grounds the actor in me...

Years ago, in my early 20's, I caught a broadcast of a teleplay of 'True West' by Sam Shepard. It was filmed in 1983 on the Steppenwolf stage, and starred John Malkovich and Gary Sinise. The performances were so nuanced and powerful, and it really pulled me in. 


A short synopsis from the playwrights website: "TRUE  WEST is a character study that examines the relationship between Austin, a screenwriter, and his older brother Lee. It is set in the kitchen of their mother's home 40 miles east of Los Angeles. Austin is house-sitting while their mother is in Alaska, and there he is confronted by his brother, who proceeds to bully his way into staying at the house and using Austin's car. In addition, the screenplay which Austin is pitching to his connection in

Hollywood  somehow gets taken over by the pushy con-man tactics of Lee, and the brothers find themselves forced to cooperate in the creation of a story that will make or break both their lives. In the process, the conflict between the brothers creates a heated situation in which their roles as successful family man and nomadic drifter are somehow reversed, and each man finds himself admitting that he had somehow always wished he were in the other's shoes." 

From highschool musicals, college plays, and community theater in my teens to my 20's, I definitely considered myself more of a song and dance guy, more of a performer and less a serious actor, and I certainly came from the school of funny faces/voices. There's always that part of me (at the ready) to perform as such, but I remember catching this viewing of 'True West' and thinking... 'Huh. I'd like to try my hand at serious acting.'. Once in a while, from there on out, beyond a comical, schticky, quirky role, I have been known to be given a dramatic role to tackle. I love the challenge. There's that old quote, 'Dying is easy...Comedy is hard.' I've always felt it to be the other way around (for me). When I was younger, I found it easier to make people laugh than to go deep within and pull out some dark and gritty stuff to show for others to see. Watching 'True West' reminds me of this possibility in a profound way. 

Most people can remember something that inspired them. A play, a musical, a movie, a TV show, an experience, that had them inspired. This is my go-to on the dramatic front. An A-HA! moment where it clicked. I've even had the fantasy of producing a stage version of it in LA, getting to play with my buddy, actor Tripp Pickell, although we don't look like brothers at all. But neither did Gary Sinise and John Malkovich, really. 

I'm excited that the world wide web has become such a great resource to view old clips and such. This is the link to actually watch the full movie of TRUE WEST on YouTube, if you're inspired... 

My evolving headshot...and self.

20 years ago, I had my first actors' headshot session. To celebrate 20 years of my personal headshots, I post those ones I've used over this time, here in order... 



1995:  First official headshot session. Photographer was Paul Gregory. I vaguely remember having a good time with this photo shoot... and happy to have a good number of photos that represented the little '90s twink who had hair, and who used to try to go for the icy model stare, on occasion. 

                               

                           

1996: Trying to have friends take my photos...  Around this time, there was 1 failed attempt at a photo shoot (by an agent recommended photographer) where my agent at the time clearly had a deal with that photographer to split some cash for referring clients. I just looked her up, and still... pretty bad work. Mostly, I remember the stinging pain of someone plucking my eyebrows for the first (and only) time I've ever had that done.  I only have the contact sheet from that one time... no photos were ever printed from it. No refund. 

I then went on a crusade to have friends take more photos that I could potentially use. I had roommates take photos, my friend Apollo took photos (I found that contact sheet), and David Marr had taken photos one day with a rare camera that produced even more rare film (that I still have the negatives of). To have one picture developed onto a CD cost a bit of cash many years later, but I wanted to save this one below, which is a somewhat good shot out of the bunch from that day. 24 years old... 

1997: Second official headshot session. This session was by Daniel Chapman, who is still a headshot photographer in LA. I was pretty pleased with the shots that came out of it. In the collage trio of photos just below, the one on the left makes me chuckle. I remember him saying to me for that photo, 'So... why don't you do that 'Hey, Dude' kind of look'... I wasn't quite sure where to go with that, but that's what I came up with. The others in that series are pretty relaxed and charactery. Fun to look back on... 

2003: Third official headshot session. Ugh. Probably the worst session I had had where I spent money for the session AND to print, etc. I actually don't remember the photographer's name, and have no paperwork that reflects the name either. There was a battle to try to override either a sepia tone or a bluish hue afterwards. The lighting, etc...just not good overall. It was a bleak period in booking gigs that lasted for a brief period of time... 

2005: Fourth official headshot session. This one was shot by David Carlson, one of the leading headshot photographers in LA (nowadays). I was happy with all that came out of it.. there was plenty to use, in the end. I was told I could bring props for the session, and I decided to bring a stuffed animal (skunk). Purty dang random. Not quite sure what it achieves except to ask the question, 'Why?' Heh. 

2011: Fifth official headshot session. A bonus when one of your friends is a headshot photographer! I had my last headshot session (4 years ago) with Christine Retzer. We spent some time to get some great photos with different looks, characters, etc.  I was pretty pleased. She's no longer in LA, but currently in the Chicago area... 

2015: NEXT official headshot session. I'm looking forward to having a headshot session with my friend (and awesome photographer) Dagney Kerr of Dagney Photography...Check out her website!

http://dagneyphotography.com/ 

David Garry did a post on Facebook... what happened next was ASTOUNDING!

 

David Garry did a post on Facebook... and people actually sponsored him on his Walk for Kids, which provides Camp for kids with Cancer... What a great reprieve from thinking about cancer for these kids, taking them out of the hospitals, and giving smiles (and life's socialization lessons) to them! 

So far, 14 donations were made (LIST BELOW!*) to help sponsor David Garry in his Walk, helping him reach 58% of his goal of raising $1,000 !! Please consider contributing! Many want to wait till the end to carry the torch to the finish line (meeting the goal), but everyone who's contributing from the beginning (and till the end) is just as important...and any dollar amount helps... $10, $25, $50, etc... 

 CLICK THE 'I'M AN AWESOME PERSON' LINK!! 

             (for more info and to contribute) 

Special thanks so far to those who've helped out so far (in no particular order): 

Liz, Eric, Anna, and Tessa Anderson          

Michael Erger                                          

Christine Taylor  

Mary McGuire

Maryanne Sweeney

Stuart Atkinson 

Irene Modlin

My Mother and Father 

Karen Miller

Brooke and Tom Crawford 

Sean Mullaney 

Amy Grimes

Dana Blenkin and Daniel Osers

'Until There's A Cure...There's Camp.'

If you're pressed for time, have a lot more to do and see online, and just want to skip to donate to my Walk for Kids page (to help provide Camp for kids with cancer), by all means, get thee to my Donation Page! Thanks so far to those below who've contributed so far!* 

Purple Team for 'X-treme games' on Cabin Night 

 If you're willing to stick around for a hot sec, learn a little more, maybe watch a quick video, and/or find other ways to be awesome and help : 

I've been the Volunteer Coordinator for Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times for nearly 8 years now. This past full summer (of 2014) and Winter (2015), I was able to go up to Camp and do my job from up there for the first time (will also look forward to doing that again this coming summer). 

What an amazing experience it is to be able to be a part of a team of staff and many

With some of our Camp Volunteers before the campers arrive... 

volunteers who donate their time to provide a Camp program for kids with cancer (and their siblings).

Not only is it about fun, there's also outcomes that we actually work on with the campers during the Camp experience (on positive self-identity, social competencies, independence/self-reliance, and providing a sense of support).  

At the Walk for Kids (start line) in Exposition Park, Downtown LA 

I hope that you will join me in providing support for this program for our campers! I will be at the Walk for Kids on Sunday, April 12th at Exposition Park (Downtown LA) coordinating the volunteers for the whole event, and will essentially walk a full 5k on the grounds of the event itself!

To give you an awesome visual and idea of what we do, watch this video! (I can't promise it won't pull at the heartstrings): https://vimeo.com/79354118  

If you are interested in making a secure online donation to help me reach my fundraising goal (I hope ya are!) please visit MY WALK PAGE! At press time, I've surpassed my halfway mark in raising $1,000 and would love to reach my goal with your help. 

Musical Theater activity for Winter Camp (for Teens) 

Thank you SOOO Much (in advance) for your support in helping this very important program and bringing smiles to children with cancer. 

OTHER WAYS TO HELP: 

• If you're interested in volunteering for Camp, go to Apply to be a Camp Volunteer: We'll be finished with interview season by the beginning of April, so apply a-now! 
• I also (as I said before) coordinate volunteers for the Walk for Kids (Exposition Park in Downtown LA on Sunday, April 12th). We need a good number of volunteers to help make the event happen. If you're interested in helping out, please fill out this quick form:  Locking that in very soon too! 

* Awesome peeps who've conributed so far (and not in any particular order): 

Liz, Eric, Anna, and Tessa Anderson          

Michael Erger                                          

Cabin 1 on Cabin Night. 

Christine Taylor 

Mary McGuire

Maryanne Sweeney

Stuart Atkinson 

Irene Modlin

My Mother and Father 

Dana Blenkin and Daniel Osers

Karen Miller

Brooke and Tom Crawford 

Sean Mullaney 

LOVE and HUGS! - David 'Jingles' (Camp Name) Garry 

My Website has been revamped! Visit DAVIDGARRY.COM

I've had an actor website out here on the world wide web for over 18 years... It might be purty funny and archaic-looking to see what my fledgling Geocities site looked like back in 1997 (before Geocities was acquired by Yahoo in '99). You can choose a color to have as a background, and put a picture up there of yourself?! Cool!

Then, making the leap to Earthlink as my internet service provider in the early 00's, AND getting a website along with it with MegaBytes of space?! Sounds EVEN better. I was having fun building my website on my own, too. A bit clunky and basic, it didn't have any bells and whistles, but I definitely input the code back then and tweaked it on my own, still somewhat proud that I hadn't used a program or third party website builder... just learning how to tweak it with HTML.

Somewhere along the way, when it sounded like getting domain names became pretty easy, I decided to make that new leap to actually own my own domain. It didn't hurt that someone gave me some frank advice beforehand from reading a bio of mine in a play, with 'Are you serious about this being your website address?: home.earthlink.net/~dgarry. Nobody's going to remember that, let alone find that ~ symbol on the keyboard.' Hence, DAVIDGARRY.COM was eventually acquired and created.

Early versions of DAVIDGARRY.COM still seem pretty dated when I look back.
There's been so many changes online and with website building, I decided to make the huge leap and utilize GoDaddy's website builder. SO much easier... and so much better looking, in the end. I can be somewhat of an OCD perfectionist, all about symmetry and all, so this latest incarnation still took a good amount of time for me to put together, and revamp completely from the model I was working from before, but I'm happy with how it turned out. I think it's relatively simple and straighforward, and gets the information across. I'm always open to constructive feedback, though, to enhance the visitors' experience. Feel free to take a little tour... and 3rd mention's the charm: DAVIDGARRY.COM

My Time Helping Lead a Musical Theater Activity at Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times

'Students' and 'Professors' of Musical Theater 

In the third weekend of January, 2015, I had the rare opportunity to help lead a musical theater activity at Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times. This Winter Camp was a specialized program designed for teens (ages 15-18) in all various stages of cancer and their siblings. The name of the weekend was 'Academy of the Arts' and campers were 'students', activity counselors were 'professors', and all of the students chose a 'major' where they spent a couple of days working towards the goal of either showing an art project they created or perform something they've learned and rehearsed by the end of the weekend. 

Rehearsing for Musical Theater

Musical Theater was just one of the activities that the students had to choose from (other examples were woodworking, visual art, choir, music ensemble, dance, film, etc.). Our activity had 8 girls that had signed up, and we set out to have them rehearse a musical number... a mashup of sorts of Rent's 'Seasons of Love' and Pippin's 'Corner of the Sky'. It started off with the cup song made famous by 'Pitch Perfect' but set to the beginning of 'Seasons of Love'...then it led into the full song of 'Corner of the Sky' with some girls having solos, duets, etc., and ending with all singing, and then we had an a capella refrain of the beginning of 'Seasons of Love' again, with all finishing in full voice. 

Rehearsals were fun and hard work at the same time. There were all

Performing 'Seasons of Love' set to the beats of the 'Cup Song' 

levels of experience the girls brought to activity, and their determination to make sure that it came off sounding good, looking good, and that they felt confident about it was so great to witness. Amazing how much they achieved in just 8 hours of time (4 hours on Saturday, 4 hours on Sunday) including learning the songs, staging, lines added in for dramatic affect, etc. 

Part of the Musical Theater Performance

We were very proud of the finished product, the enthusiasm, and most especially, the crowd reaction and supportive encouragement the girls felt from the audience. This is just one experience Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times offers. We have spring and fall family camps where children ages 8 and under can go to Camp with their family unit over a weekend. The summer is just for campers ages 9-18, with five different sessions to choose from. 

We're always looking for more volunteers to bring their awesomeness and selflessness to Camp, providing good times for campers with cancer and their siblings...starting with a summer session (when we provide training to newbies). I'm the volunteer coordinator, and can give more information if you'd like. Also, links are below if you're inspired and interested: 

Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times Website
Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times Facebook Page
Camp Volunteer Information and Online Application 

New Acting Demo Reel for David Garry !

I have a new Acting Demo Reel to share... and remarkably, it's just under 3-minutes. It was originally around 6 minutes, but with some helpful feedback from some friends* , I was able to trim it on down. Such a good feeling to have it completed, and to say that I edited it myself on iMovie. Woohoo! Here's the LINK to watch the finished video. Thanks for your support!

You can also visit my YouTube Channel HERE to see other videos in general, some interestin' playlists I've put together, and see some uber random videos I've favorited, if you're curious...

*Special Thanks goes out to the friends who helped me with feedback for my demo reel:
Erica Johnson, Matt Dinan, Cynthia Lugo, Tripp Pickell, Vincent Amaya, Jay J. Levy, Claire Partin, Eric Mofford, Stuart Atkinson, Barrett Gregory, Ashleigh Boiros, Dagney Kerr, Walter Volpatto, and Chris Comeau! :)

More later,

David Garry