Sci-Fest LA 2015, and Getting Back into the Game

In a few days, Sci-Fest LA 2015 will wrap up its run with the final performance of Program B on May 31. I have had the great good fortune to be a participant in this festival, on multiple levels and in multiple roles. When I first heard about Sci-Fest in the spring of 2014, I got very excited to find out that a one-act  festival of science fiction plays would be produced right here in Los Angeles, just a few months after I had moved back here from Texas. Little did I know how involved I would get, and how Sci-Fest would inspire me to get serious again about acting and theater.

After donating some money towards their first Kickstarter campaign and helping as a volunteer to promote Sci-Fest in 2014, I was invited by co-producer and Sci-Fest mastermind David Dean Bottrell (“DDB”) to join their marketing committee for the 2015 festival. I jumped at the chance, because I attended both programs of the 2014 edition and was blown away by the stellar level of excellence in all aspects of the production. I knew that I wanted to continue working with this amazing group and contribute in some small way to the next festival. I attended committee meetings, met other supporters, and learned a lot about how a festival is organized and publicized. Along the way, I took a month of acting classes from DDB and really enjoyed that. I also volunteered to read some of the scripts that had been submitted for the 2015 festival. That was a fascinating process; I read a lot of science fiction plays about a wide range of stories, characters and settings. At least one of the plays that I passed along as a “possibility” ended up being chosen for production in the 2015 festival.

In the fall of 2014, a fundraising event was announced: a staged reading of the original 1938 radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” as produced by the Mercury Radio Theater and directed by Orson Welles. The one-time-only performance would star a long list of well-known actors from Star Trek, the X-Files, and other sci-fi-related shows. Plus, a few very generous donors would have the opportunity to actually be on stage, in the performance, playing very small roles alongside the all-star cast.  I made the required donation to get two tickets to this can’t-miss event so my wife and I could see it. After some deep thought, however, I decided that I could not pass up the chance to take one of those donor roles. After all, what were the chances that I would ever get to act in the same play as some of my favorite actors such as Walter Koenig, Wil Wheaton, Armin Shimerman, Tim Russ, Rene Auberjonois, Michael Dorn, Linda Park, Dean Haglund, and Jason Ritter? I upgraded my original donation and secured one of the cameo roles. Rehearsing and performing with these people was one of the highlights of my acting career, at least so far. Apparently I did a reasonable job in my brief role; I think what followed in the coming months may have been partly a result of my involvement with “The War of the Worlds.”

Not long after “The War of the Worlds,” the Indiegogo campaign for Sci-Fest LA 2015 was kicked off. All of us involved in the promotion of the festival started posting countless Facebook notes and contacting everyone we could think of who could help us tell the world that this year’s festival was coming and needed plenty of financial support. As the dates of the festival drew closer, and the casting process for the plays began, DDB emailed me saying that he wanted to offer me a small role in one of the plays that had been chosen for Program A of the 2015 festival, as well as the chance to understudy a lead role in one of the plays in Program B. I was rather shocked; I assumed that the producers would recruit from the cream of the crop of Los Angeles actors, which I have not quite joined yet. I suspect that DDB asking me to be in the cast of this play stemmed from a number of factors: my support of the festival, both financial and in time and effort; my participation in “The War of the Worlds”; and my having attended his acting class. I guess he decided that he could trust me to get in front of an audience and not embarrass myself or the festival. Before he could change his mind, I accepted the offers. Soon I had a script for “The Lunchtime Show” and found that my character may not have a lot of lines, but he is very important to the story. I didn’t think of Tourist # 1 as a small part at all. Before long, we started rehearsing and I met the director and my fellow cast members. All turned out to be great people and fine artists. I would love to work with each and every one of them in the future; I hope that most of them would be willing to work with me again too. I also attended a few rehearsals of “A Billion Tuesday Mornings” for which I would understudy the role of Gerald, an autistic man who invents a device that could change the world. Another great group of people, whom I wish I had had the chance to know better.

Rehearsing and performing “The Lunchtime Show” has been a lot of work but even more fun. Besides the excellent cast and crew of our show, I also got to meet the casts and crews of the other Program A plays; all terrific people as well, who put on four incredible shows in addition to ours. But wait; that’s not all! About halfway into the run of the festival, DDB emailed me asking if I would be available for “Sci-Fest LA Radio Theatre” which was scheduled for Act II of Program B for their second set of performances. They had offered some small roles for big donors again but had not had as many takers as they had hoped. Once again, I chalk up this opportunity to having done the same thing for “The War of the Worlds” as well as my willingness to help out when asked. I accepted and will be going on in Program B for three performances during the final weekend of the festival. I have attended one rehearsal and look forward to joining the all-star cast for the performances.

Being around so many professional actors, directors, technical artists and others during Sci-Fest LA has offered me a number of lessons about the entertainment industry. I have been away from L.A. for over 20 years; I have forgotten many things about the business, and have discovered that a lot has changed in those years. I stayed active in performing while I was away, but almost exclusively in amateur productions. There is a lot that I have to learn or relearn now that I am back in a town where virtually everyone is better informed and more experienced than I am. Some of the differences that I am noticing may go against the habits that I developed in my community theater years, and I’m not sure that the changes that may seem necessary here will sit well with me. I am a bit of an old dog now, and I will have to see how well I can learn some new tricks without compromising who I am at heart. I am hoping that some of the fine folks that I have met through Sci-Fest LA will help me out now and then as I stick my toes into the waters of the L.A. show business ocean.

When I heard about Sci-Fest in 2014, I just hoped to have the chance to see their productions and tell others about them if they were good, which they most certainly were. Having become a member of the Sci-Fest LA “family,” if I can claim that privilege, has been an incredibly rewarding experience for me. I sincerely hope that Sci-Fest LA will continue for many years into the future, growing and expanding until it TAKES OVER THE UNIVERSE, BWAHAHAH!!! And I hope I can continue to be a part of it along the way.