First sessions of an Acting Conservatory are always a bit weird, at least when I'm the instructor. I'm never sure how a new group is going to gel, how talkative they'll be; everyone's slightly nervous. Why shouldn't they be? They're performing scenes in front of strangers and I'm deconstructing everything they do. Ouch.

As usual, my colleagues at the Actors' Theatre (who adminstrate the course) called me to remind me not to be too nice to my actors.

I know I'm not doing actors any favors by being diplomatic in my comments about their work, and that nice guys finish last. All the same, no matter how tough and brutally honest I am with my students, I always try to be constructive and leaven my criticisms with broader observations - so I'm including the whole class in my discussions, not just picking on one poor soul.

This week was more unusual than most. One student, Shawna, started feeling too hot and had to sit at the back of the room. We turned down the AC and tried to make her comfortable. Next thing I know, she's telling me she's 8 weeks pregnant and asking for an ambulance. I called 911, found a comfortable stretch of stage for her to lie down on, and we waited for the ambulance to appear through the torrential rain that was hitting Folly.

The other actors helped out & managed to work on their scenes at the same time. We've got a good mix of participants, from the 14-year-old Iz to Robyn, who's caring for her disabled husband at home, to Karen, who makes a 2-hour drive from Myrtle Beach to attend the class.

The EMS guys turned up surprisingly quickly - I was expecting hours, they took minutes - and Shawna was taken to our state hospital, MUSC. I got a call from her that night, telling me she was okay. Hopefully, she'll be well enough to attend next week's class and early next year she'll be hearing the patter of tiny thespian feet.

Looks like I'll be starting a new acting conservatory on Sunday (June 25), my second course this year.

Actors usually choose their own material to develop with me over a 7-week period, culminating in a showcase at the end of the course. They've already got some interesting monologues planned, including one from Full Metal Jacket and a John Wayne scene.

The classes are at the Folly Beach Community Center in SC; you can find out more by visiting the Actors' Theatre website or by calling (843) 588-9636. You won't be sorry you did.

Sometimes bad art is a good thing. I don't mean bad quality; the art I'm referring to is just plain sinister. The kind you wouldn't want to show to your Great Aunt Penelope.

A whole show was devoted to evil art last week, and you can read my review of it here.

Not only did The Cheap and Free Art Show feature a promising garage band called Motormouth Mabel, which has dubbed itself "Charleston's most dangerous band." The exhibition also benefited from the blessing of John Pundt who runs ZenGrafix (he did the pic above).

Best of all, the art was cheap. Or free. I'm looking forward to the next batch of bad art.

No sooner is one film festival wrapped than another one looms on the horizon like a big fat chemical cloud. But, er, a nice chemical. The Charleston Documentary Festival is still accepting entries (up until June 30) and the event will be held on October 6-9.

In order to help pay for all those screening overheads, Chasdoc will show An Inconvenient Truth, a film about bad chemical clouds and what they're doing to the environment. The sneak can get peeked at The Terrace Theater, Charleston SC on June 22 and you can find out more by emailing info@ChasDOC.org.

As a co-founder and coordinator of Piccolo’s Folly Felder Film Fest, I have parts of my job that I love and parts that I hate. The good parts include viewing all the entries as they come in; this year, that meant I got to watch gems like Todd Tinkham’s And Then There Were Nun (slob attacked by clockwork penguins), William Renken’s Dreams of Sergio (movie theatre drone acts out spaghetti western fantasies) and Taylor Engel’s powerful documentary, Mourner’s Kaddish (recollections of an Auschwitz survivor).

The bad part: telling filmmakers that we couldn’t show their films for reasons of length or technical quality. Sometimes they just didn’t fit with the other films on the program. But we found a balance between entertainment (lots of comedies) and thought-provoking stuff.

Three films nabbed the short film festival’s Palmetto Awards. Bronze went to Todd Tinkham for his nun effort. Chicago-based Colin Magill Somers took the Silver for Somersault, a tale of bad boys and bizarre birds. The gold and a $500 check went to local filmmaker Scott Kirkpatrick for The Adventures of Schizophrenic Bill; any movie where the hero eats a camera lens on toast has got to be memorable.

Some of the best films we screened weren’t eligible for the awards at all. Brad Jayne showed an early cut of Search, an atmospheric film that he’s still tightening up; Simon Harvey, visiting Spoleto to appear in Tristan & Yseult, dropped in One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, in which a caveman invents the skateboard.

This was our third annual festival and we’re already getting entries for next year. Every time we put one of these babies together it gets a little bit bigger, and the audience response gets more enthusiastic. Only two things are certain for 2007: we’re aiming to reuse the same venue as this year (the Holiday Inn Ballroom on Folly Beach) and we’re determined to keep attendance free. Other than that, all I can do is sit back and start watching the next batch of submissions…

Looks like the decision to hold The Munny Show during the first week of Piccolo was right on the money. The B’Zar Boutique-curated alternative art show, held on May 27, was popular enough to spark talk of another outing for the 8-inch solid white vinyl character who looks like a freshly flayed Teletubby.

Over 25 artists used Munny as a non-conventional canvas at the 53 Cannon exhibition, painting or adapting the creature to their own ends. An end-of-show auction raised around $2000 for the School of the Arts in North Charleston, with one lucky Munny selling for $350.

No wonder manufacturers Kidrobot have got enthused, hoping to become more involved with the next local Munny party.

With only 8 hours to go till our Film Festival kick-off, I thought I'd throw up this pic from our first fest in 2004.

Left to right on the carpet of red: Film Festival co-founder Nick Smith (having a bad hair day), Palmetto Award-winning filmmaker Trevor Erickson and local photographer/movie guru Robbin Knight.

Um, here's a press release for the film fest. Hope you can make it. Thank you for reading.

The third annual Folly Felder Film Festival will be held Sunday, June 4th and Monday, June 5th from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm, as a free event of The Piccolo Spoleto Festival, but this year it will be courtesy of the Holiday Inn Charleston On The Beach in their ballroom accommodating a larger audience for the popular event.

Coordinated by Media Director, Nick Smith of Actors' Theatre of South Carolina's Moving Images Group, the festival is a showcase for short films of filmmakers as far away as Japan and as local as John's Island.

Other sponsors of the event are John R. Rink of The Charleston Center for Cosmetic & Restorative Dentistry, Weight Watchers, The City of Folly Beach, Actors' Theatre of South Carolina's Moving Images Group and Charleston Magazine.

The film shorts, as long as fifteen minutes, compete for The Golden Palmetto and a $500 cash prize. The unique awards are made by a Folly Beach artist every year. Last year, Sandy Marr was the creator of the awards and this year's artist will be named at the festival. A reception follows the screenings with a cash bar.

The Festival was created by three film industry mavericks; Mr. Smith, director, writer, actor and novelist, who ran the Film School of Scotland for five years, Clarence Felder, veteran film, TV and Broadway star, and world renowned director of photography, Michael Givens, who just shot the Celestine Prophecies. They agreed South Carolina has the potential for a solid film industry, but there is a great need to encourage new filmmakers to develop their craft here.

"We have been shooting an independent feature here now for over a year for the Moving Images Group of our company, Actors' Theatre. It's a huge historical action-adventure project and we've incorporated the talents of over forty students," said Clarence Felder.

"These film students work on all levels of production," Nick Smith added. "We are very proud of what they are doing. They find scripts and shoot them, they don't just talk about it. It's exciting to have them compete in a national arena in this showcase."

Just the facts:

SUNDAY, JUNE 4TH & MONDAY, JUNE 5TH----7:00 PM TO 9:00 PM--reception follows for winners...
HOLIDAY INN, CHARLESTON ON THE BEACH, Folly Beach
BALLROOM, #1 Center Street
FREE PICCOLO SPOLETO EVENT
For INFORMATION call: 588-2447 ext. 1

Film Fest Countdown

Only 3 days to go until my very own Piccolo Spoleto event, the Folly Felder Film festival. Today I'm putting together a wee montage of previous submissions and winners to introduce the show (and spending most of my time cursing my edit suite for misbehaving).

The event got a great write-up today in the Post & Courier - now we have to live up to the hype. At least we've got plenty of comedies, documentaries and dramas to entertain people - something for everyone in fact. Why be exclusive when a good time can be had by all?