Leigha Horton :: Greenroom
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The weekend before last was a whirlwind of filmmaking chaos and excitement – the 48-hour Film Project sat upon Minneapolis, and the town was appropriately aflutter. To put it plainly, 60 production companies (that makes Minneapolis the third largest in the nation, thankyouverymuch) got together for our assignments on a Friday evening at Cuzzy’s, a bar that should only seat about 17 people but somehow crammed in about 139 before the revolt and subsequent move to the parking lot. There, each company drew out of a hat a genre written on a slip of paper. Genres included such gems as Restoration Drama, Musical/Western, Foreign Language Film, Comedy, Mockumentary, Spy, Sci Fi, etc. After everyone had their genre in hand, the 48hFP Dudes in Charge (DIC) announced a character name and profession, a prop, and a line of dialogue – all of which had to be used in our films. Then we were released with the instruction to get back to Cuzzy’s and the DIC with a completely original 7-minute (max) film by 7 pm on Sunday. Yes, a mere 48 hours to work some cinematic magic.

And so we did. We had the best damn team these Twin Cities have ever seen – it is rare to be amongst so much staggeringly good talent across so many fields, from cinematography to music to editing to acting – I was so proud. Tired and cranky come Sunday, but proud.

And, as it turns out, for good reason: we’ve just been informed by the DIC that our little ditty was selected to be re-screened as part of the “Best of Minneapolis!” Yay, us! So – grab whoever is nearest, and swing on over to the Riverview Theater on June 27^th at 7 pm to view “Burnout Trail” and the 12 other besters. I only saw 10 out of the 60 when ours first screened last Tuesday – I can’t wait to see the others!

This experience hereby makes it on my personal “Best of Minneapolis” list. Indeed.

UPDATE: Well, a girl goes fishing a day earlier than planned, and all hell (the good kind) breaks loose! I just returned yesterday from the northwoods and it looks like while I was getting in touch with nature our film was getting in touch with the “Best Actor Ensemble” Award! Congrats, team! SO proud.

Holy Hannah in a honkin’ huge hand-basket. Know how I said two posts ago that I hadn’t heard back from Children’s Theatre Company, so assumed that I ultimately wasn’t chosen for the part – but the callbacks were an honor nonetheless? I was wrong. YES – I WAS WRONG, and I’ve never been happier to say so! Dudes, I got cast. My very spanking first audition at the illustrious CTC, and I got cast!

This winter I shall warm the hearts of wee ones in Tale of a West Texas Marsupial Girl – in the role of awesomely named Lacey Rubbertree. And it’s professional! And it’s full-time! And there’s a real-live bunny outside my window right now, no doubt here to congratulate me because we all know that animals talk to you when you’re a princess! And I am so excited that I don’t even know how to act properly when I think about it! HI LITTLE BUNNY! THANK YOU FOR COMING TO VISIT!

Oh, MAN. This is really really good – nay, this is FANTASTIC.

I’m not sure how most of you get to this here greenroom (if you have just the greenroom bookmarked, or if you go through plain old www.leighahorton.com, “coming soon,” to get here). If it’s the latter, you might have already seen the source of my excitement. If you didn’t notice anything different, go back and hit the refresh button. If you generally skip the main page all-together and come straight here, quick-quick go look at www.leighahorton.com!

IT’S MY SHINY NEW SITE! IT’S HERE! Yay, yay, yayyayyayyayYAY. YAY!

Now, in all your awesome readership glory, will you check the site out on your various browsers and report back any problems? I thank you, and my web monkey thanks you. And I thank my web monkey. He deserves many head-injury-free naps under coconut trees and many bushels of bananas.

(Insert Horton Happy Dance here)

Callbacks without castings: good for my ego; ineffectual for my resume. sigh.

Two weeks ago I was unexpectedly called in for an audition at The Children’s Theatre and ended up making callbacks the following week (not bad for my first audition there, eh? More! More!). I haven’t heard back from them, so am assuming I ultimately was not chosen for the part – but the callbacks were an honor nonetheless.

In addition to that, I had been specifically requested to hold a date for a Target radio commercial voiceover – they indicated I was on their “short list.” Ultimately, it turned out that whoever was on the shorter end of their list got the gig. Still, it was momentarily exciting… my hopes are that next time they’re looking, they’ll go back to that short list. Hell, at 5’2”, few people do short better than me.

Next week shall be The Week of Definites. Because I’m short.