Web show depicts actors’ struggles
Actor Nate Golon (left) and UCLA alumna Kimberly Legg (right) are co-producers, co-writers and co-stars of the new Web series, “Workshop.” The series, which is about the highs and lows experienced by struggling actors in Los Angeles, premieres today. The show is based on both producers’ real-life experiences.
By Saba Mohtasham
Aug. 9, 2009 11:24 p.m.
The actor’s struggle is nothing new. The reality of rejection and paying bills has always been part of the follow-your-dream package. How an actor can take that struggle and turn it into something advantageous is where the creativity comes in.
UCLA alumna Kimberly Legg and fellow actor Nate Golon took their respective battles and turned them into a Web show titled “Workshop.”
They co-produce, co-write and co-star in this scripted series, which follows six aspiring actors in their 20s as they experience the highs and lows ““ mostly the lows ““ of Los Angeles’ acting world.
As disheartening as the premise might sound, Golon promises the show is a comedy.
“We basically expanded on the idea of all the things we had to deal with and then we made it goofier,” he said.
The experiences that they’ve brought to the show range from dealing with creepy extras on set, discovering that a hard-working attitude can get you nowhere and fighting the undesirable typecasting bug.
Jonathan Schwartz plays one of the three male leads but said that in the real world, he fights to just stay in the acting scene.
“It’s a struggle mentally and financially,” he said. “You’ve got to find a job to support yourself.”
Schwartz supports himself by working as an usher at the Geffen Playhouse, where he met his co-worker, and now co-star, Legg.
Legg said her biggest struggle is learning about the industry while figuring out how to make herself known.
She graduated with a degree in music history in 2008, with less than a handful of theater classes under her belt. Though Legg had very little experience and never really pursued acting during college, this was all part of her plan.
“I just always had in the back of my mind that I was going to do acting as soon as I graduated,” she said.
Legg met Golon and Phil Jeanmarie, one of the male leads of the show, in March at a casting director workshop, a class that offers aspiring actors audition experience. After the three exchanged stories of their trials and tribulations, Legg and Golon decided that perhaps others could learn from their stories.
“If you know nothing about what it’s like to be in L.A. trying to make it as an actor but you always wanted to know, this is the show for you,” Golon said. “And if you’ve tried to be an actor, or you’re trying to be an actor, this is the show for you because it’s very much an inside look at what it’s really like.”
Thus “Workshop” was born, and Golon and Legg wrote the entire first season in less than two months. Finding material for the show proved easy as they basically just took their own lives and put them on paper.
Perhaps the most true-to-life character is that of Adam, played by Jeanmarie. Jeanmarie had a two-year run on the soap opera “Passions” as Vincent Clarkson, who was, among other things, an intersex.
Legg and Golon said that since this role, Jeanmarie has only been offered similar roles, and he tries to break free from being typecast.
“His character’s storyline pretty much follows his life but with a little bit more ridiculousness,” Legg said.
Legg also inserted her own experiences into the script for her character, Kaitlyn.
Last November, Legg had the part of an extra for a Verizon commercial, where she encountered a fellow extra whose failed attempt to hit on her involved describing the questionable color of his urine.
“He starts talking about all these disgusting things as if they were going to somehow attract me to him,” Legg said. “Being an extra on set, you run into some pretty weird people.”
Kaitlyn will experience the same thing on an episode of “Workshop,” allowing audiences all over to share her discomfort.
The actors are hoping for more than just getting some laughs. For many of them, this is their first real acting gig.
In addition to building their resumes, Legg and Golon hope to get a sponsor for the second season, since they funded all 13 10-minute episodes of the first season out of their own pockets.
“Neither of us really has any money,” Golon said, “so we thought, “˜How can we scrimp by as much as possible but still make the show look really good?'”
Since neither Golon nor Legg had any production experience, they simply learned as they went.
Their newest struggle is to get people to watch the show. They put three clips on their Web site as well as YouTube, where the show will also air, hoping to spread the word.
“Not many have seen them,” Legg said, “so everything is sort of word of mouth right now.”
As audiences tune in to see if any of the characters get their big break, the actors behind “Workshop” will be hoping for the same.
