I'm back!!!

So, I took a little time off--well--about a month off--to be a wife. Specifically to travel to France for our wedding anniversary. No, we weren't there for a month, but when you're going to be gone for an amount of time, it necessarily (and in this case, quite definitively) limits your availability for auditions, rehearsals and filming.

I am glad to report it was the best trip ever. We had a wonderful time. And then when I got back, all unmotivated and nicely relaxed by daily chocolate croissants and twice/thrice-daily glasses of wine, I found out I had been given a role in a short film I auditioned for right before we left. And then today, not even a week later, a second role just landed in my in-box, all written for me and ready to go.

So November and December will bring work with new teams of people--I love expanding my Austin circle--and wildly different roles. Class starts up for me again on Tuesday too, so I'm good to go. Back in it and hoping that Cell kicks some serious ass at competitions in both Beverly Hills and Switzerland over the next few weeks.

Daytime Confidential Shows Cell

This awesome shot of Jourdan Gibson (Sarah) and Beth Chamberlin (Brenda) was on the web site Daytime Confidential today talking about Beth's role in the season finale of Cell's season one. Her fans from Guiding Light seemed to really enjoy seeing her in such a strong role--we did too! She scared the crap out of us!

Can't say enough about what a kind woman she is in 'real life' though--speaks volumes about her acting chops. And yes--that's me (Lara) lurking in the background in the white wife beater. Scott Mullins (Drew) is in the yellow shirt; Robert Tamble (Robert) is in the front left and Martinique Duchene-Phillips (Joan) is in the front right. All three deserve mad props--the guys for having to wrestle Jourdan all day (not as much fun as it looks) and Martinique for having to wrestle Hilary Wagner (Katie).

Cell: The Web Series

More than a year ago, I read a script by Mark Gardner that I loved. It was smart and real and compelling and properly punctuated. And it referenced King of Pain, and I have a soft spot in my heart for Sting after my brain irreversibly and inexplicably tied the best date/day of my life to a Sting song. TMI. Sorry.

Anyway. Since I read that script, I've been wanting to work with Mark Gardner. And this month, I was given that opportunity when he invited me to appear in the Season Finale of Cell: The Web Series, which is the magic that started out as that script I read such a long time ago.

I was thrilled. Not just to work with Mark (who ended up being as great as I thought he would be), but to work with an amazing, amazing collection of people--from Jourdan Gibson, who has brought Sarah to life to Danny Cameron's turn as Brian and Kevin McCarthy's work as The Man. And if seeing their performances wasn't intimidating enough, Beth Chamberlin, an Emmy-nominated actress, joined the cast for the Season Finale. And that doesn't even mention the crew that Mark managed to assemble, which is like a superhuman who's who of the best of the best around here. (And there are some great people around here.) They help to explain how on a complicated shoot, we managed to wrap early, not once but twice. After finishing more than we thought we could.

Anyway, enough talking. Watch it.

Acting intensifies...everything.

I spent last night catching up with some of the cast of Cell: The Web Series before the lovely Jourdan Gibson heads off to LA and the rest of us catch up with her at iTVFest in a few weeks. What an amazing group of people. Really. Every one is nicer than the one before. And as I sat at the table with them, I thought again about how really lucky I am. And how every down moment this crazy passion has incited is followed by two or three really wonderful ones that more than compensate.

For me, acting allows me to wear both rose and ash colored glasses. Right now, they're rose.

So even though that meant hauling my tired ass to the gym this morning (really, one of the benefits of this pursuit is I have to stay in shape), when I got there, the 90 year old woman who is a fixture in my class did her thing to Ludacris, Lady Gaga, Pitbull, and then gave us all chocolate cookies she'd baked and tied into individual packets with purple yarn.

Our cool down song is "What a Wonderful World." It is.