Category: Media


Casting Time: Teen Titans

“And now for something completely different.” Theatre. I love theatre. Correction: I love directing. I love pulling together an artistic whole by bringing out the technique and profession those performers, artisans, and techies can do when pushed.

Since I don’t get to step into a theatre very often. I occasionally satiate this desire by casting. For those who have lived inside a box, casting is finding the right performer for a part.

I think I picked up this from my father who was a HUGE Stephen King fan. About every few years he’d re-read “The Stand” and then tell me whom he would cast in it. (All of this is a rehash from an early post on LiveJournal)

But to do a casting session for my new blog I have decided to not merely push the envelope but send it into the next dimension. (Fortunately, C.O.D. is a thing of the past)

So this post’s casting session asks:

What if we were making a Live-Action “Teen Titans” film that was inspired by the recent Saturday Morning Cartoon?

Image from the Saturday Morning Cartoon: The Teen Titans

Teen Titans

Pict Actor Role Comments

Actor Role Comments

Thomas Decker

Robin
Decker has that steely-eyed look that says that eventually I will control whatever situation I’m in. He’s still got a youthful look about him and can easily play surprise as well as he can disdain.

Collins Pennie

Cyborg
Collins was actually one of the inspirations for this list. I’d done a casting a little while ago with actors from any time period, but I couldn’t find a good Cyborg. Then I saw the recent remake of Fame. Pennie has both strength as well as heart. He also has the most charismatic eyes since Levar Burton. So like Geordi LaForge, we immediately cover one of them.

Kay Panabaker

Starfire
Well, while I was stealing from Fame, I had to take Panabaker. She was marvelous both in the stage as someone young and awkward and stunning as she found her absolute inner strength. Her innocence couples wonderfully for Starfire.

Ellen Page

Raven
Out of makeup these two actresses look very similar. Granted anime girls often become interchangeable. In makeup it works, trust me ;) And who could not fall in love for the razor sharp delivery as Juno for Page to make Raven so biting, yet adorable.

Jimmy Bennet
Beast Boy This role was one of those, “No clue… No clue… No Clue… No clue” when all of a sudden I thought about Star Trek. I thought about the kid going over the cliff, climbing up, and saying, “Is there a problem officer?” and I KNEW I had my Beast Boy.

In my head they all fit.

So, in a fit of complete fool heartiness, I edited the pictures. I wanted to get a rough look and see how I did. And now you can too. I actually ‘Photoshopped’ well, “Acorned” the photos.

Do they work? How would you cast it?

Addendum : If anyone is good at WordPress/CSS, drop me a line. No clue why my table text is so off kilter above. :-/

This is the first of several postings that are coming from the site Formspring. Typically, these will be marked with a FQ at the beginning of the post title and maybe tagged.


Would you go into Theatre if you make the same money as you do now?

I’m going to have to go at this from two angles. Currently, I am unemployed. So my income is not what it ‘typically’ is as a full-time, corporate, Apple Product, 3rd-party, software engineer. So right now, it actually wouldn’t be too difficult to find a Theatre gig that pays comparable to what I’m currently not making.

But let’s assume that the Theatre gig is offering what I normally take in a year as an engineer. I suppose the best way to respond is ZOMFG HELL, YES. (With a dose of caveat.)

I LOOOOOOUUUUURRRRVVVVVEEEE the theatre. And my highest love of theatre comes from working on a show as the artistic director. Oh, sure… I love to act too, but that’s just a lark, not a passion.

To me, directing is a combination of: (deep breath) artistic planner, sports coach, symphony conductor, cat herder, mentor, despot, chief technical officer, professor, tyrant, puppeteer, guru, art critic, amateur writer, and kid in a candy store. And you get to do all these things with everyone else’s talent.

The last taste of this that I had was about 2 ½ years ago, just after the birth of my son. I was to be artistic director on a semi-professional, touring musical production. I did a good deal of the casting and had to pull out when I cast my wife (not out of nepotism) in a role and then left nobody to watch the baby. Even after out of the production I was still able to add casting assistance when there were late emergencies by the company.

Of course there is that caveat. The reality that I cannot return to theatre for at least another 2-3 years for just the reason listed above. Right now, my biggest concern is providing for my family and especially my child. Not just financially but as a present father. I want to be someone who’s there to be close during his first formularize years. I figure once he’s 6-7 he will have been raised with the maturity to spend evenings at the theatre with his dad and possibly even auditions for shows if he’s interested.

Personally, I wish money weren’t the motivating force of this question. I do the things I do out of passion and love for the activity. I make money out of the desire to be able to stably provide for my family.

Short and sweet, I hope it answers the question.


A look at the ShowdownI have been playing on the site BuddyTV for a while. They have good reviews of television. One of their features is the Showdown.

Given a list of related pictures, every possible pair is made. Then you pick the better of the two. This can be quite a lot of pair ups. (I’m not doing the math for you)

In tradition as old as Ginger vs. Mary Ann, I have decided to take every character in Whedon’s creations (on TV and skipping the REALLY minor ones), added a few of the real women behind the scenes; and want you to decide… Kaylee vs Willow. Dark Willow vs River Tam. Vi vs Mag… okay… maybe not that last one.

There are 44 women from Whedon’s Worlds. And that makes 945 potential match ups.

Who drops to the bottom of the list? Kendra? Kate Lockley? Which vamp is the uber vamp? Willow, Dru, Darla?

What happens when you have Whiskey, Claire, Fred, and Illyria against each other?

You may need to register for BuddyTV; but it’s free and I’ve received no unwanted Spam as a result of following them.

You can check out their social networking points:
website at http://www.buddytv.com
twitter at twitter://buddytv
facebook at http://www.facebook.com/BuddyTV

Jump on in… And if I missed anyone… Feel free to comment and add them in.

I’m curious if Buffy really is Number 1 in the Whedon Worlds… I think the end result will surprise people.

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