It was a delight to finally get my hands on a copy of this, as we did the voice-over months ago.  Only recently had I started hearing from friends that there’s a new commercial running on TV and they swore it was my voice.  They were right:

And here’s a little bonus behind-the-scenes peek in the editing suite, after recording the tracks, as my audio was set over the video:

Have I mentioned I have the best job ever?  I have the best job ever.

I’m not sure what will ultimately be chosen to air, but I imagine whatever it is will stand out – it’s not often you hear long, chill ads sans underscoring these days.  Kinda refreshing, that.

ParentAwareRatings.org – “Hope” :60

ParentAwareRatings.org – “Hope” :30

ParentAwareRatings.org – “Hunches” :60

ParentAwareRatings.org – “Hunches” :30

ParentAwareRatings.org – “Control” :60

ParentAwareRatings.org – “Control” :30

We filmed it in three locations on February 2, and it was…cold. Ohmygodsocold.  As in, high-for-the-day-was-10-degrees-Fahrenheit cold.  Texts to a friend that morning consisted of helpful weather indicators like “my legs are frozen solid,” and, “holy jesus it’s cold.”  Despite Mother Nature trying to kill us, the day was wonderful.

Without further ado, a behind-the-scenes look at filming for Good Friend:

 The park with the most fabulous old metal play equipment.

A portable ice-fishing tent served as our warming house.

This thing was a tiny miracle.

Musician toes + portable propane heater.

The playground was situated next to an ice rink covered in fresh snow.  The adult boys made a game out of seeing who could run to the edge and then slide the farthest.  There were very specific rules.  The child boys won.

Adam Whisner on the swing set.  In a sweet little bit of all things coming ’round, Adam was the Doug to my Kayleen in the last two Minneapolis productions of Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries.  When we learned of the casting, our text conversation went thusly:

Me: You and me?  We’re gonna be in a music video together.  That makes me happy.

Adam: We’re going to be yelling at each other.  Next play we’re in, let’s just be in regular love ‘n’ stuff.

Me: It’s a deal.

The imaginary friend rests.

Setting up the long shot while Adam and I wait on the metal bench swing.

Adam and I waiting on the metal bench swing.

The pretty, pretty long shot of the metal bench swing.

Reconciliation. Awwwwww.

Our intrepid director, John Burgess, standing in for “Sam.”

“Sam,” pre-spaghetti-head.

“Mom” and a spaghetti-headed “Sam.”

Charles Hubbell looking up something terribly important relating to Captain Underpants on IMDB.

The light truck outside our third and final location, awaiting load-out.  The sweet, quiet end to the long, sweet day.

Even so, it was a beautiful project to partake in – one that made me grateful for the gratitude alone.  And in considering this 2012 Year in Review, Day 28 of my Month of Thanks leapt off the screen at me:

:: Month of Thanks, Day 28: today’s recording session was in a pretty, pretty studio I’d never seen before. And the longer video for which I was providing voice-over was really quite lovely (there was a commercial, too, but that was, you know, short and commercialey). I am profoundly grateful that a combination of luck, training, skill, and perseverance has enabled me to do what I love for a living.

That, right there, is the essence of so much of last year.  The joy of exploring new studios. Of meeting engineers, writers, and producers.  Of realizing that I am able to make my living doing what I love because of luck, training, skill, and perseverance.  No single one of those things alone would cut it; it takes every piece to create the balance.  Some of those things are in my control, some are not, but every one is a gift.  And for that, I am most grateful.

And so, without further ado, my performance highlights of 2012:

JANUARY

Stage

• Continued part-time work at the Science Museum of Minnesota on the Science Live team – performing live science demonstrations and science-related short plays for museum audiences.
• Traveled to Portland, OR to present to national museum colleagues the first draft of Kitchen Chemistry, a new live stage presentation I created for the Science Museum of Minnesota.
• Joined the advance-publicity team for public appearances and started rehearsals for my roles as Anne Bonny and Mary Read (depending on the day) in the Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota.  Photos from the exhibition here.

Voice

• Voiceovers for Marketplace Events spots – fourth year running.  Ty Pennington and I on national TV and radio urging you to attend home shows across the U.S.  TV commercials aired on HGTV and ABC and their affiliates.  Recorded at Audio Ruckus for Coordinet.
• Voiceover for Land O’Lakes butter – my first truly-national television commercial.  I had done plenty of spots in the past that were aired in specific markets all over the U.S. (and therefore recorded multiples with appropriate city names filled in), but not one single commercial that would be aired everywhere.  Network TV, cable, everywhere.  It was very exciting.  Recorded at Echo Boys for Campbell Mithun.  View the commercial here.

FEBRUARY

Stage

• Opening of Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah at the Science Museum of Minnesota.
• Started rehearsals for Rajiv Joseph’s achingly beautiful two-person play Gruesome Playground Injuries.

Voice

• Voiceovers for KeyBank – this was the first session reading tags for their “Vase” (and another – the name of which I’m forgetting) TV and radio ads. 47 tags, to be specific.  Recorded at Todd Syring’s studio at Campbell Mithun for Campbell Mithun.  Check out one of the full  commercials.
• Voiceovers for KeyBank (yes, more) – I ended up having several more sessions at Campbell Mithun this month – just a couple tags here and there – but still a delight to be in their studios every time.

MARCH

Stage

• Performances of Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries, which merited some lovely press, a hug from a newspaper critic, and a sweet note from the casting director at The Guthrie.  AND a new “Facebook friendship” with the playwright.  An honor and a joy.  Photos and general thoughts on my experience with this show here.
• Continuation of Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

APRIL

Stage

• Performed/read at a new script workshop at The Playwrights’ Center for a new play, which I’m embarrassed to say I retained no notes about – so cannot recollect the playwright nor the name of the play, nor if I read a role or the stage directions.  For shame, Leigha.
• Continuation of Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Voice

• Voiceovers for more Marketplace Events spots – this was for home shows that would be taking place later in the year, hence weren’t recorded at the year’s first session in January.  TV commercials aired on HGTV and ABC and their affiliates.  Recorded at Audio Ruckus for Coordinet.

MAY

Stage

• Read stage directions at a new script workshop at The Playwrights’ Center for A User’s Guide to Hell, a new play by Lee Blessing.
• Opened Kitchen Chemistry, a new live stage presentation I created for the Science Museum of Minnesota about the science of spaghetti – covering topics from boiling water to starch structures to smell and taste perception.
• Continuation of Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Screen

• Wrote and hosted the filming of the third in a four-part series of short satirical 1950’s-style educational films, titled The Wonders and Worries of Nanotechnology:  Who Benefits? on behalf of the Science Museum of Minnesota for The Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net).  Film + Production by Teddy Media.  View the film here.

Voice

• Voiceover for The Gimmie Awards, General Mills’ bi-annual awards ceremony.  Recorded at Syring Studios for Campbell Mithun.  I have to admit that it was a little exciting knowing who the winners were and why before the winners themselves.

Featured Press

• Interview and photo shoot for small feature article and very large photograph to run later in the month in Vita.MN, a local arts and entertainment magazine owned by the Star Tribune.  The focus of the article was my work in Minneapolis/St. Paul as a full-time stage, screen, and voiceover actor.  Photos and link to the article here.

JUNE

Stage

• Read stage directions at a new script workshop at The Playwrights’ Center for Way West, a new play by Mona Mansour.
• Continuation of Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Screen

• Performed on-camera as The Bride in Girls in Lane 4, Steeltoe Stiletto’s entry into the Minneapolis 48-Hour Film Project.  For our efforts, we garnered a “Best Film” nomination and walked away with a coveted “Audience Favorite” award.  See photos from the screenings and awards ceremony here.

Voice

• Voiceover of animatics (they’re like roughly-animated storyboards) for a new Land O’Lakes product, which I still believe is going through the development phase.  I’ve been told that if it does make it to market with this concept, I’m in for the final spots.  This is, however, a months-long process – so who knows.  Keeping my fingers crossed nonetheless, because optimism feels better than the alternative.  Recorded at Todd Syring’s studio at Campbell Mithun for Campbell Mithun.
• Voiceovers for KeyBank – a few more sessions this month – just a couple tags here and there for their “Vase” TV and radio ads.  Recorded at Todd Syring’s studio at Campbell Mithun for Campbell Mithun.

JULY

Stage

• Performed/read for a new script workshop at The Playwrights’ Center of a new play, which I’m embarrassed to say I retained no notes about.  This is the second of two in 2012 that I somehow didn’t manage to keep records on – what on earth?  My apologies to the playwright.  For shame.  Again.
• Continuation of Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

AUGUST

Stage

• Read stage directions at a new script workshop at The Playwrights’ Center for Regulation 18B, a new play by Scott Wright.
• Read the role of Diana Margineanu at a new script workshop at The Playwrights’ Center for No Hay Luz and the Search for the Red Bourgainvilleas, a new play by Domnica Radulescu.  Thank goodness for my four years of Spanish in high school.  Rusty as all get-out, but the foundation is still there.
• Continuation of Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah at the Science Museum of Minnesota.  I KNOW, right?  When on earth did this thing end?!  Labor Day.  And so this is the last time you’ll see this particular gig mentioned.  It was a hell of a lot of fun, but I was so, SO happy when it was done for the sole sake of not having to fuss with that wretched dirt makeup anymore.  That shit was satanic.

Voice

• Voiceover for Cheerios – this was an incredibly sweet online video featuring a “panel” of really cute kids talking about how their moms don’t really realize that they still like Cheerios even though they’re not babies anymore.  Adorbs.  Recorded at Spotnik for Orange Filmworks.  See the final video here.
• Voiceover for Marketplace Events spots – yes, more.  I love these people.  TV commercials aired on HGTV and ABC and their affiliates.  Recorded at Audio Ruckus for Coordinet.

SEPTEMBER

Stage

• Performances of the remount of Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries.  Man, I love this play.  Rajiv is brilliant.  He didn’t write it for me, but I want him to write for me always.
• Started rehearsals for kaotic good productions’ The Cooking Show con Karimi & Comrades: Viva la Soul Power! at Intermedia Arts.  This year’s show was going to be HUGE.

Voice

• Voiceover for Target – the second iteration of a short film about inclusiveness – entitled Anthem  (originally voiced in December 2011 and entitled You Make Us).  Recorded at Media Loft.  Watch the full video here.
• Voiceover for Crystal Farms’ Simply Potatoes – announcer on two fun radio spots featuring some fantastic Minneapolis/St. Paul talent.  Recorded at Babble-On for Gabriel deGrood Bendt (GdB).  Listen to the final spots here.
• Voiceovers for KeyBank – a few more sessions this month – just a couple tags here and there for their “Vase” TV and radio ads.  Recorded at Todd Syring’s studio at Campbell Mithun for Campbell Mithun.
• Voiceover for the National Bone Marrow Donor Program’s annual awards ceremony.  This was my second year back in the studio for this client, and it was an honor and a joy to be asked back. Recorded at Aaron/Stokes for Blue 60 Pictures.
• Voiceover for General Mills’ Yoplait Yogurt – dialogue with the delightful Gary Bingner, announced by the equally-delightful Mark Benninghofen.  Recorded at Audio Ruckus for Shout! Creative.  Listen to the final spot here.

OCTOBER

Stage

• Read stage directions for a new script workshop at The Playwrights’ Center of The Toupee, a new play by Tom Dunn.
• Performances of kaotic good productions’ The Cooking Show con Karimi & Comrades: Viva La Soul Power! at Intermedia Arts.  This was part of a much-larger project called 28 Days of Good Energia, which included a full (and gorgeous) gallery exhibition, and it was, again, a whirlwind of activities and some of the most amazingly soulful and creative and funny people.  And incredible food.  Ohmygod.
• Started rehearsals and research for my role as Nephthys in the Lost Egypt at the Science Museum of Minnesota.  The evolution of ancient Egyptian mythology is a fascinating beast unto itself – and oh boy was there a lot to learn for this project.

Voice

• Voiceover for LifeTime Fitness – this was for an animated video that will, in theory, play on their exercise machines in gyms nationwide.  Recorded at LifeTime Vision for LifeTime Fitness.

NOVEMBER

Stage

• Closing performances of kaotic good productions’ The Cooking Show con Karimi & Comrades: Viva La Soul Power! at Intermedia Arts.

Voice

• Voiceovers for a gorgeous short film and not-yet-completed commercial demo made by a reputable marketing firm campaigning for a very large company.  Unfortunately, I’m unable to share more than that due to confidentiality requirements at present, but if they land the gig, I can share.  Recorded at BWN Music.  View a sneak-peek of the booth here.
• Voiceovers for KeyBank – a few more sessions this month – just a couple tags here and there for their “Vase” TV and radio ads.  Recorded at Todd Syring’s studio at Campbell Mithun for Campbell Mithun.

DECEMBER

Stage

• Read the role of Jane for a new script workshop at The Playwrights’ Center of ColorLines, a new play by David Wiles.  Keep an eye out for further developments on this play.  Because wow.

Screen

• Cast as host for on-camera industrial for DraxImage’s RUBY-FILL Strontium- and Rubidium-82 Generators.  Turns out my gig at the Science Museum has made me pretty adept at presenting information, like about machines that provide measured doses of radiopharmaceuticals, as if I know what I’m talking about.  Filming to take place in January 2013.  I blogged about it here.

Voice

• Voiceovers for Marketplace Events spots – fifth year running! FIFTH year!  Love.  Ty Pennington and I on national TV and radio urging you to attend home shows across the U.S.  TV commercials aired on HGTV and ABC and their affiliates.  Recorded at Audio Ruckus for Coordinet.
• Voiceover for Crystal Farms’ Pancake and French Toast batters – TV commercials. Recorded at Echo Boys for Gabriel deGrood Bendt (GdB).

EPILOGUE

At the start of last year I promised to dream bigger dreams and then run to catch them.  The dreaming did indeed happen, and continues unabated.  It is, however, now accompanied by blueprints for the life I intend to build.  Plans are afoot.  This is the year that I’m going to break ground on new land.

And I did.

First on-camera audition in seemingly forever, and nailed it.   More details after the shoot.

I also learned something really cool about marketing on Pandora – they can target which ads they play based on your location, almost down to the block on which you live, so that it’s ultra-relevant. I’ve found myself listening to Pandora in the past, hearing an ad come on, and thinking, wow – my neighborhood ACME Anvil company had the money for an ad on Pandora? Nah, turns out they can just be super-specific, and probably, in turn, find it more affordable.

Anyway, KeyBank has locations in 14 states, and I’ve taken the most quiet joy reading the tags for Portland, Seattle, and a couple of places in Colorado, just because I’ve got family and dear friends in those places. Here’s hoping that even if they didn’t recognize my voice, they maybe felt just a little closer in that moment.

Additional bonus: it was recorded at BWN Music, a pretty, pretty studio I’d never seen before.  And with an engineer who used to be a chemist, and with whom I had the most delightful conversation, touching on, amongst other things, the eight different kinds of bears in the world.  Lest we forget, I am a part-time performing artist over at the Science Museum of Minnesota, so this conversation was not as random as it may seem at first.  He named six right off the bat – far better than most people – and got Adorable Points for guessing the last two types as belonging to the Care- and Gummy- species.

I love working with engineers. They all seem to have these insanely awesome private lives that I often only find out about later.  They’re enigmas, I tell you! Wonderful enigmas!

Since I really can’t divulge much more than that, I’ll just give you a peek inside the recording booth, instead.

Because, I mean really – those deeply funny men in that tiny little studio at the same time? Ohmygod.

It’s probably a good thing commercial voiceover sessions don’t get their own behind-the-scenes treatment. We might never work again.

I do believe this might take the prize for most adorable spot I’ve ever had the pleasure of voicing.

Kid 1: “Who do you like to eat Cheerios with?”
Kid 2: “You.”
Kid 1: (bashful giggle)

GAWWWWWWWW!  So cute.

That’s a curious thing about voice work – as an actor, it’s so different from stage and screen work wherein the process is collaborative and your casts can end up like temporary families. In the recording studio actors are often like ships in the night, never seeing one another. I have “worked with” Laurence Fishburne and Ty Pennington, but have I ever met or spoken with either of them? Nope.

Funny, that.

Crystal Farms – Simply Potatoes – “Bake Off”

Crystal Farms – Simply Potatoes – “Cooking Show”

And a big shout-out to Babble-On Recording Studios for the great, multi-layered sounds on these spots. Love them.