Thursday, December 25, 2008

Anna Elizabeth Kendrick in New York City

Hi! My name is Anna Elizabeth Kendrick and I've been living in the wonderful city of New York for several years now! I mostly grew up in a small town you probably never heard of called Rehoboth in Massachusetts, which today has a population of over 10, 000.
In New York I've been pursuing acting, singing & songwriting, and I've made slow, yet steady progress, so I have lots of hope! I started off doing the usual thing, going to the Drama Book Store and getting the Ross Reports and plays to learn more monologues from and Backstage magazine to send out my headshots to whomever I thought might cast me. The less expensive headshots I had made by the company ABC. You can mail your headshot away to them and they'll make lithograph copies for you. The more costly, better quality headshots I have made up by Reproductions in New York.
I already had a resume in theatre from my work in Rhode Island, where I went to Rhode Island College aka R.I.C. and was involved in various theatre groups there. Any film credits I had were just from background work from some productions shot in Rhode Island, so in order to build my film resume I started working on student films. From there I started getting parts in indie film shorts and featuress, in leading roles and supporting, so I was able to build a reel in not too much time.
I became SAG eligible, but didn't join right away, because I wanted to be sure I could be in as many low-budget non-SAG films with good roles as possible. Unfortunately, though, some of these low-budget films never even finished, and I became frustrated, so I ended up joining SAG. Even if I took work with deferred pay at least the projects and the people running them would be more likely to be more professional and there'd be an end result, I hoped.
In the meantime, I have had featured parts on many mainstream T.V. shows and films, regular background work and stand-in work (there are lots of lead actresses in T.V. and film with my general stats).
One of the most exciting parts I've had to date was as a rape/murder victim on a re-enactment segment of the "Maury Povich Show." It's the first job I've done that has led to a few residual checks for me, which is a milestone for any actor/actress to achieve.
Lately, I've taken to focusing on my jazz music, because I feel as though it's one of the venues of opportunity that I'll have the most control over. I do have a published dance song called "Fantasy" on Nikki Beach's "Summer in St. Tropez" album, and I like the song and production quality a lot, but I had very little control over the decision-making process of that particular song.
I've performed jazz standards and originals in many various New York venues, such as "Don't Tell Mama," "The Slipper Room," "La Belle Epoque," and more. Mostly I'm a guest singer for my good friend Ian Kane, with his Boogie Stride Trio, although I've done a showcase as well. His website is: kaneandzaray.com. I just created my own website this year called: www.annaelizabethkendrick.com. You can also hear my jazz music at: www.myspace.com/annaelizabethkendrick  and: www.myspace.com/annakendrick for my dance music.

That's about all of the news I have for now! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and everything else to all!

Best wishes,

Anna Elizabeth Kendrick