Meron Langsner
  • Home
  • About Meron
  • Blog: Taking Note and Taking Notes
    • Most Popular Blog Posts from Taking Note & Taking Notes
  • Playwright
    • Plays Available for Production or Development >
      • Playwriting Press/Book Covers/etc
    • Slippery Slope Podcast
    • Selected Videos of Short Plays from the Gi60 Festival
  • Theatre & Performance Scholar and Dramaturg
    • TEX Talk: "The Impossible Body" (Tufts Idea Exchange)
  • Fight Director/Movement Specialist for Theatre, Opera, & Film
    • Photos of Combat & Movement Compositions >
      • Press Quotes for Stage Combat & Movement Work
    • Stage Combat Resources >
      • Martial Arts Resources for Fight Directors
      • Cautionary Tales: Stage Combat Gone Wrong
  • Educator
    • In-Class Group Exercise Based on MARISOL
    • In-Class Group Exercise for CLOUD NINE & BLASTED
    • Class Exercise: Muppets, Casting, & Shakespeare
    • Sample Assignment: Towards a Dramaturgy of Stage Combat
    • The Cinematographer Exercise: Introducing Non-Contact Blows
    • Dramaturgy Prompt Assignment
    • Selected Comments from Student Course Evaluations
  • Contact Meron

How to Write a Bio for a Playbill

5/30/2013

16 Comments

 
PictureAn old headshot. Mock away.
I've noticed what appears to me to be a disproportionate amount of anxiety from people at several levels of the field about writing bios for programs and such. 

What I intend to present here is a series of templates and principles that should make the task take under five minutes and be a relatively low stress endeavor.

The purpose of the bio is to let the audience (including other industry professionals) know a bit of additional relevant information about you.  While to some degree it can serve to establish the credibility of the artistic team, if you are early in your career (or even doing your first show) that is also an interesting bit of information to an audience.  (With that in mind please realize that no one worth knowing is going to judge you harshly for being new to the field, so don't worry about having a short bio.) 

This post is particularly aimed at people early in their careers.  Remember that you'll be getting more credits as you go, which means that your bio can change constantly throughout a season.

These are all fairly flexible and geared for short bios.  Long-form bios are basically expansions on the template.  (I have bios for several of the disciplines I work in throughout my site). 




Read More
16 Comments

Why You Might Want To Think Twice Before Putting "Stage Combat" On Your Resume

8/14/2012

6 Comments

 
PicturePETER PAN @ Tufts University - Photo by Elizabeth Herman
Attention Young Actors:  You don't always know what you think you know. This is especially true when it comes to stage combat.  And you may want to think twice before you claim it on a resume.  This is true even if you took a workshop or two and/or performed fights onstage a handful of times.

I'm talking mostly about the "Special Skills" section of the resume.  As many of you know, common wisdom dictates that you should not put anything down on there that you cannot do on short notice.  I want to work on the assumption that people are making their claims in good faith (liars are a whole other issue).  That one would not put down a language that they do not speak, an instrument they do not play, or claim a degree that they have not earned.


But unfortunately, sometimes stage combat ends up on an acting resume when it really shouldn't be...



Read More
6 Comments

Being On "Stage" for EXPERIMENT AMERICA @ The ICA

6/26/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
The ICA in Boston, MA
This past weekend I had the pleasure of performing in Experiment America 2012 at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) in Boston.  My director was Mikhael Tara Garver and the event was part of the Emerging America Festival.  

During this process I also had the opportunity to work closely with Will Pickens, the sound designer and voice director, who directed and recorded me in an A Brief Guide, an "audio tour" written by Jason Gray Platt, as well as with Jeff Stark, who guided me through the suitcase installations (more on those later on).

Experiment America was a large immersive theatre experience  utilizing the entire museum.  It was a big project.  Really big.  The sort of thing that falls under Richard Schechner's concept of Performance of Magnitude; that is, a performance that is too large for any one spectator to experience the entirety of.  Keeping that in mind, I cannot hope to describe the event as a whole.  My own small part, however, was interesting and fun enough to give me plenty to write about.



Read More
0 Comments

On Behalf of Whistler In the Dark Theatre Company...

6/25/2012

0 Comments

 
It is a dark, dark world that we whistle in...

Read More
0 Comments

Shooting An Abuse Prevention Video for IMPACT: Ability - Acting On Camera In Somewhat Unusual Circumstances 

6/15/2012

1 Comment

 
Picture
Not very long ago I shot an abuse-prevention training video/PSA at Triangle Inc with Ablevision as part of their new IMPACT: Ability program.  

The last time I acted on camera was a little over a year ago for Malarkey Films, which in turn was the first time I'd done that in several years.  That shoot involved a stuffed monkey puppet and a gas mask.  This project however, had a significantly more serious tone.

It was great to be a performer again, as very few other arts have the same degree of immediate gratification.  I had almost forgotten how fun it is.

This however, was not a typical shoot...



Read More
1 Comment

    Taking Note & Taking Notes

    Meron Langsner, PhD

    Playwright, Theatre & Performance Scholar, Fight Director/Movement Specialist, Director, Educator

    Archives

    June 2020
    May 2019
    December 2018
    February 2018
    January 2017
    October 2015
    October 2014
    August 2014
    April 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    May 2013
    January 2013
    August 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011

    Categories

    All
    9/11
    Acting
    Adaptation
    Anthropology
    Boston
    Business
    Christie Gibson
    Collaboration
    Comic Books
    David Gram
    Directing
    Dramaturgy
    Edward Gordon Craig
    Fight Directing
    Filmmaking
    Freelancing
    Gi60
    Godot
    Hamlet
    Imaginary Beasts
    Internet
    Israel
    Israeli Stage
    Jewish Theatre
    Justine
    Lark Play Development Center
    Lmda
    Macbeth
    Marketing
    Marquis De Sade
    Martial Arts
    Merrimack Rep
    Metathearicality
    Mitx
    Muppets
    New Hampshire
    Opera
    Pedagogy
    Performance Theory
    Playwrights Commons
    Playwriting
    Psychology
    Puppets
    Romeo & Juliet
    Rory Miller
    Scholarship
    Shakespeare
    Silvia Graziano
    Skydiving
    Small Theatre Alliance Of Boston
    Social Media
    Social Sciences
    Stage Combat
    Stagesource
    Ted
    Tex
    Tom Stoppard
    Tufts University
    Vagabond Theatre Group
    Violence
    Whistler In The Dark
    Writing
    Youthplays
    Zeitgesit Stage
    Zillah Glory

    RSS Feed

    Follow @MeronLangsner

Resources

Plays Available
Stage Combat Resources

About Meron

Playwright
Fight Director
Scholar
Educator

The Blog

Taking Note & Taking Notes
Most Popular Posts

Contact & Press

Links to Press
Student Testimonials
Contact Meron
All content Copyright Meron Langsner 2011-2020 unless otherwise specified