American Actor Picks Top 6 Finalists

Philadelphia, PA. The pilot series of American Actor is currently in production and shooting in Philadelphia. The series showcases actors in challenging performance scenes ranging from theater to television/film and improv situations.

Over 200 actors showed up for the first round of auditions, held at Mike Lemon Casting studios in September. From those 200, weekly rounds of competition have narrowed the field down to the final 6 competitors by mid-October.

The next challenge involves placing the final 6 actors into three groups—each group assigned to a student film team from Drexel, University of the Arts and a third Philadelphia-area University. All three university teams are being given the same assignment: write, shoot, and edit a 3- to 5-minute film using their 2 American Actors. The original film must include all the following: a fight scene, a romantic or ironic involvement, and a spiritual or alien aspect. Other than that, the teams are free to be as creative and competitive as possible to win this round of the competition for their actors.

The films will be produced from late October through early November and will be screened before a panel of prestigious judges that includes Mike Lemon, the premiere casting director in Philadelphia; Jerry Berry, president of SBK Films—a film production company based in Philadelphia that has created and produced IMAX films and hundreds of television commercials for national clients; and Diane Walsh, professor of film and television at University of the Arts.

The judges will screen the films during the next episode of American Actor. This episode will also feature well-known television, film and Broadway actors, (tentatively lined up are) Richard Kind and Lisa Waltz, who will be mentoring our 6 finalists: Nick Reeves, Jonathan Dickson, Brian Gallagher, Krystyna Hutchinson, Joshua Sinclair Ray and Greg Barkhamer.

In addition to the judges already mentioned, previous episodes have included sessions with Michael Port (a best-selling business author and former actor on Sex in the City), and Scott Adams, a Philadelphia casting director and intuitive acting teacher.

The final episode of the pilot series of American Actor will be broadcast LIVE from The Players Club Theater of Swarthmore, PA, on December 11th. The broadcast will start with a recap of the competition, and then the judges will announce their decision, narrowing the field down to 3 finalists. These 3 finalists will then compete live on the broadcast in a variety of acting challenges, culminating in the crowning of our first American Actor winner.

The broadcast will be carried live on the internet at www.newcenturytv.com, where viewers will be able to interact with the actors and participate in the competition, voting for their favorite actor. Judges for the final round will be Hollywood talent agents from three leading agencies. The Hollywood agents will hold the power to choose our American Actor finalist in what is sure to be an incredibly exciting broadcast.

Should American Actor become a nationally televised program, the winner of this pilot round of the series will advance to be guaranteed a slot as a competitor in the first episode of the national series. The winner of that competition will be given a walk-on role in a primetime television series.

We invite the media to follow along with the upcoming student film teams as they shoot their short films with our actors. We also invite coverage of the final live broadcast in December.

Please contact:

Ariel Schwartz
New Century Television
215-860-5662 or email: amactor@newcenturytv.com for more information and to arrange coverage

Or contact:

Michael Shoeman
LifeAct International
877-539-9005 or email lifeartist@lifeactcoaching.com


Please visit us at www.newcenturytv.com/amactor for more information about
American Actor, and see

http://stagemagazineonline.com/articles/archives/167/trackback for photos and interviews from our previous weeks of competitions.