Featured prominently in the
acting workshop will be a spe-
cial panel on "Acting In De-
troit," with insight from
commercial producer Sheldon
Cohn of W.B. Doner Advertis-
ing Agency, director Larry
August, Detroit-based casting
director Mary Locker, and Af-
filiated Models Inc. honcho
Christine Claussen.
Casting director and work-
Always be
shop panelist Ronnie Yeskel
says there's still plenty of de-
mand for local actors in Holly- close off the most interesting
wood films; the trick is gaining sides of their personalities.
In a first audition, sticking
access to them.
"It's the local actors who of- rigidly to the script is often less
ten give a film its distinctive col- important than conveying a
sense of imagination
oring," she points out.
and daring, Lands-
In addition to work-
In Detroit or L.A.,
shops in improvisation, there's no place like burg adds.
"Show me that
scene study and script
home for
you're
alive, show
screenwriter/producer
analysis, the acting
me
that
you're
Lynn
Isenberg.
seminar also will ex-
brave, show me that
plore the ins and outs
— or ups and downs — of au- you're willing to take chances
and show me that you know
ditioning.
Director Valerie Landsburg how to make an adjustment,"
thinks many actors "derail" she says.
Casting director Yeskel
themselves in auditions. They
agrees.
get tense. They pick "safe," bor-
"I'm not really interested in
ing scripts. Worst of all, they

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d always remem
only show busin g

looking for pretty faces," she
says. "I look at the whole pack-
age."
Isenberg has demonstrated
she has what it takes to conquer
the arduous process of climbing
the movie-industry ladder.
Shortly after college, she left for
California, and in fairly rapid
succession served as co-pro-
ducer of I Love You To Death
with director Lawrence Kas-
dan; associate producer of the
Rob Lowe romance Young-
blood; writer and/or associate
producer of several erotic melo-
dramas with titles like Bordel-
lo and Maui Heat for HBO and
Showtime; and producer/co-di-

rector of the extremely suc-
cessful sex-therapy video series,
Ordinary Couples, Extraordi-
nary Sex.
She also spent a year in the
literary department of Creative
Artists Agency, arguably the
most powerful in Hollywood. In
addition to the workshops, she's
currently working as writer and
associate producer for a family
adventure titled The Little Mer,
maid, starring Ron Silver and
Cynthia Gibb, slated for pro-
duction this year.
One of her pet projects has
been the Hollywood Literary
Retreat, which Isenberg con-
ceived as an antidote to "read-
ing too many formulaic scripts"
At these yearly gatherings, a,
cross-section of writers, diree=
tors, producers and agents rent
luxury cabins in a Walden-like
setting outside Santa Barbara.
There, says Isenberg, they learn
to reconnect with their roots as
storytellers.
"We'd party and have the
best time. It was like going to
camp. People would bond in an
extraordinary way, which I
found to be much more sub-

•

stantive than lunch on Mel-
rose."
Isenberg hopes to recreate a
bit of that spirit in Detroit. In
return, she'll take some re-
newed impressions of her
hometown back to L.A.
"I want to have my life in
both places. By being here (De-
troit) I still miss my peers and
my friends from -my L.A. life,
and I don't want to give that up.
That's a part of me and I'm a
part of it." ❑

ft Writing for Interactive
Media will be held from 8:30
a.m.-5:30 p.m. Saturday and
Sunday, March 16-17, at the
Kingsley Inn in Bloomfield
Hills. Fee: $325-$395.
Acting for Movies, TV
and Commercials will be
held from 9 a.m.- 6 p.m. Sat-
urday, March 23, and from
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday,
March 24, at Mark Ridley's
Comedy Castle in Royal
Oak. Fee: $245-$295.
Both workshops require pre-
registration. For more infor-
mation, contact Lynn
Isenberg at (810) 645-2538.

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