Brian Egland in "Drood"

My first musical. I played the part of Rev. Crisparkle. The greatest thing about the video in reference to me, is me missing a que. Always great to have your flubs recorded. It might not be noticeable to everyone, but then again. Never the less, the first times are usually a beast.

Brian Egland in One Morning by Charmine Lewis Trailer

I shot a short film, I can't even remember when, and was surprised to find the trailer on youtube. It's funny. Style wise I'm definitely channeling some Tupac from Poetic Justice, don't you think. Whenever I shot the film I wasn't crazy about my performance. I'm all about rehearsal and perfection or as close to it as I can get, and this was improvisational drama. I didn't do as bad as I thought I did, but I'm still not crazy about it. I wish I had created more of a character. You learn each time, right? Next film...it's on.

New Youtube Movie: Hero

Been meaning to blog about this for some time now. James Holloway is an up incoming actor on the scene who is taking the steps towards making it big. He recently wrote, directed, produced, and starred in his own independent short action film called Hero. Great quality. The dude can fight, so don't mess with him. And it's brilliant for the simple fact that it is exposing a great talent that he has that he might not have been able to showcase if he had not decided to showcase it himself. Action Star in the making. Check out the Hero movie below, then check out James' acting reel, you'll be impressed.

New Series Milk & Honey

Ran across a trailer for a new series which features Debbie Allen, Lance Gross, and Chad from Passions (remember him, the second one.) From what I know, the show hasn't been picked up by a network yet....can BET save the day again for another African American series with potential. Check out the trailer, it looks like it could be a pretty descent show.

milk + honey series trailer from brown paper dolls on Vimeo.

The Birthday Dinner DVD!!!

Happy New Year!!! Better late than never right? Well if the start of 2011 is any sign for the year ahead, I'm predicting progress. The new year has started with me auditioning for a independent film and getting a callback. My first of both so I'm really excited and we will see what happens. Also 2011 has finally brought me the DVD of The Birthday Dinner. The DVD has it shares of flaws unfortunately, but what it does do is captures my show and for that it is a gem of DVD. To the left is a pic of me and some of the case at my house for a viewing of the DVD. I decorated and everything! As far as what I will do with the DVD...I don't know. It's not in a quality I would like it to be to distribute or circulate, but I have seen many DVD's of plays with worse quality, one angle, and other horrible etc's that people buy, watch, and love. So maybe those same people would love The Birthday Dinner DVD in its current state because they don't care about that kind of stuff. We'll see. I'm just happy to have it. My cast....man I really lucked out and honestly had the perfect cast. They killed it. The killed harder then some people who are payed to do it do. It's crazy. Maybe this DVD may bring about an opportunity...you never know.

Random Things I've Been Meaning to Post About

So I must begin this much overdue post with a huge apology to Thandie Newton. I underestimated her talent in such a huge way. She was incredible in For Colored Girls, as was the entire cast. The movie was a departure from the average Tyler Perry project. I thought the cinematography was actually well done. I thought the movie was powerful. For some the movie may have been “too” much. However I don’t think this project For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enough is something that can ever be simple. The title is not simple. The stories are not simple. The characters are not simple. It to me seems like a composite of “too much.” Which makes it powerful and beautiful. The other argument is th e dramatic black film…people say they are tired of the movie of the black struggle. Point taken…however that is somewhat the difference between movies and tv most times. I say let’s just be happy we have a black film, support it, and allow for opportunities for other films to flood the theatres.

Speaking of Tyler Perry and more uplifting entertainment…where the movies tend to hit one nerve….the plays hit anoth er. Madea’s Big Happy Family is imo the best of Tyler Perry’s plays. It was the usual setup of any of the Madea plays for the one exception, no Cora who has been the only staple character in the world of Madea besides Madea…because Madea has one very confusing family tree if we are speaking honestly taking in both the movies and plays. So what makes this play different…nothing. I just think the format has finally been perfected, has been refined, has reached a certain quality now that Tyler Perry is now Tyler Perry. I can’t find an actual document listing the names of the cast, strange eno ugh, to spotlight certain members of the cast who were incredible. This time around, the acting wasn’t too shabby…though a bit overly dramatic I was impressed they could “go there.” Cause some haven’t been able to go to actual emotional places. I know I and have heard others skip the singing in many of the previous plays. Not this one. The singing is really something to watch and the songs aren’t that half bad. And of course Madea is Madea. Funny and straight shooting. I regret not having paid the high price to go see it live when it came to New Orleans. However, I did not have that high price and still enjoyed the experience watching it for $1 from the redbox, in which I had to stalk via online to get a copy of the dvd. Mr. Pe rry the ticket prices man, the ticket prices. Don’t forget your people. I can’t afford the ticket prices.

Speaking of actors to spotlight…let’s first start with Essence Atikins. She’s been doing her thing since Smart Guy and is still under rated in so many ways. I just recently say her in the movie, Preacher’s Kid which starred Letoya Luckett formerly of Destiny’s Child. This movie would have been just some movie if it wasn’t for Ms. Essence. She had a small role, but to me she stole the movie and carried it on her back with the few scenes she was in. So I just wanted to spotlight her.

So Desperate Housewives keeps finding ways to keep the show alive which is pretty incredible because it has been on the air for quite some time now. What’s the current secret? Vanessa Williams. After the end of Ugly Betty, which broke my heart, Vanessa Williams returns to t he screen in her great diva-bitch fashion that she does so well and completely steals the show. Wilhelmina Slater will always be missed by me, but this will suffice.

Speaking of Desperate Housewives, I s aw this amazing indie film on HBO on demand a few months back titled Don’t Let Me Drown. It was really cool. Carlos, Gabby’s husband was also in the film, which is how I relate it to desperate housewives. The two stars of the movie, E. J. Bonilla and Gleendilys Inoa gave incredible, natural, rich performances. I always like to see what the careers of these young emerging actors are like to try to put two and two together. The two stars of this movie will be in another indie movie that looks very promising. The film is called Yelling to the Sky and has somewhat of a all star cast in the sense of new young emerging promising talent. Of course the two actors previously mentioned are in it. So is Academy Award Nominated Gabourey Sidibe, Issiah fro the old school Halle Berry, Laura Linney film Loosing Issiah, Marc John Jeffries, and Lenny Kravitz's daughter Zoe Kravitz in the lead role.

Speaking of Laura Linney and Gabourey...these two starred in what was probably my favorite new show of the season, Showtime's, The Big C. The season finale had me crying.

Showtime’s other great show, Dexter. Last season Rita, Dexter’s wife, was killed by the season’s serial killer. It was compelling, gripping, shocking, and honestly it pissed me off. I recognized it as great, great writing, but I vowed to not watch the show again as it was just too much for me to deal with, Dramatic right? Anyway, I didn’t stick to the dramatics I silently spoke and have been watching this season faithfully just like the others not knowing how they would keep me involved after such hurt. These Dexter people are smart…they must have been like, what can we do for Brian to keep him with us…I know let’s call Julia Stiles from Save the Last Dance. That worked for me. And Julia Stiles is giving her best performance since she was breaking it down in club steps, breaking it down with Kerry Washington. It has made for the best season of Dexter since the 1^st or 2^nd season imo. BTW, a little disappointed with Weeds this season. The show has been on a decline for me since season 2 and with no Celila...it's been rougher.

I mentioned ABC pulling the plug on Ugly Betty and breaking my heart, well they did it again this season with My Generation. Maybe I was the only one who liked the show. I don’t know. But I did. I thought it was smart and well made and I was into it and two episodes deep it gets cut off on me. I’m like I know I saw a preview for next’s weeks episode. When, how will I ever see it? I was really enjoying the performance from Sebastian Sozzi, who is a new actor I got wind of from the show. The next episode was really going to feature his character, so I'm mad he didn't get that spotlight. All this made for the season of TV rough for me. Not like I have had the time, but then again I have had the time, but what is there really to watch. There isn’t really anything that interests me. Thank goodness BET has done something so profound and has saved The Game. Is it too late to save Girlfriends. What was that, the CW. Man those people really did a number to black tv didn’t they.

My favorite past-time, The Young and the Restless, has been truly good daytime TV for the past week all rolling off of a trip to New Orleans that became a trip of lust and romance between Sharon and Adam. To top that, there's the addition of a new black character and employment of a black actor, Angell Conwell. This girl has been acting for years and has one of those recognizable faces, but hasn't made it big big as I had no idea what her name was. She's killing it on Y&R, and I have to say...is it me or doesn't she look like Jennifer Hudson or Jennifer Hudson's sister/cousin.

Breaks My Heart

Oh this breaks my heart. So on November 5, 2010 Tyler Perry will release his next motion picture, a film adaption of the play "Four Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuff" which will include an all star cast that originally included Mariah Carey, but now stars Thandie Newton in that spot as Mariah had to drop out for reasons that have not yet surfaced. I'm so bummed. Don't get me wrong, Thandie Newton is an amazing actres and I'm sure she is fantastic in this film, but I was so excited to see what Mariah would bring and looking at the trailer a lot of Thandie's scenes are with Whoopi Goldberg, which would have meant a lot of Mariah's scenes would have been with Whoopi Goldberg. Now that breaks my heart even more. My two favorite women could have been together...acting in brilliance. Wold have been something I tell ya. Oh well, I'm still looking forward to the movie.