Milwaukee and You Tube: Ruth Arnell pt. 5

Here are the final moments of the interview with local actres Ruth Arnell,in which she talks about acting in Milwaukee and YouTube . . .

ACTING, MILWAUKEE AND SUCH . . .

Me: So what are our ambitions as far as being an actress?

Ruth Arnell: Ideally, I’d like to movie into the city and start doing more theatre her just because there’s more of it available. As much as I love that community of community theatre, (which I DO . . . I love it,) it DOESN’T pay. And you DO put in so much time. And with community and al the little things you pick-up along the way, you also put in a lot of money and a lot of energy. And it would be nice to get some sort of financial compensation for that. Especially NOW with things being what they are. I spend $200 on gas getting back and forth from rehearsals and getting Comp out of it. That’s a really hard trade-off for me. And for A LOT of people. So I’d like to move into the city and at least be some place where I can do that sort of thing more full-time. But it really is all about timing right now. The economy is kind of making things a little weird for me. Theatre isn’t a hobby for me, but the way I approach it is more hobby-like. So for me I think it might be a little while before I Can move into the city. But I have friends whothis is all they do they can’t imagine doing anything else. They MUST be doing this at all times. And they will live above the theatre in a closet somewhere if they have to just to continue ding it where as I like my apartment. It’s really nice. In the suburbs. It’s cool. [laughs]

Me: What is it [specifically] about Milwaukee and Milwaukee Theatre that you like? Because you’ve been away and come back [by choice.]

Ruth: Yeah, I did . . . yeah, there’s been a lot of talent that’s left [town.] And there’s a lot of talent that stays. And if you want to act, it’s more fun to act where the talent is and there IS talent here. AND I know my way around. You can go to Chicago and that’s great and there can be great opportunities in New York or whatever, but it IS definitely a very different city environment. And they have their own sets of things that make it more difficult to live there, but also more worthwhile and exciting and there are definitely trade-offs to it . . . my ambitions aren’t (I was going to say, “to be the next,” and fill-in th blank with some famous actress but I’m having a had time coming up with an actress’ work I admire AND really enjoy . . . Jessica Alba.)

Me: [laugh]

Ruth: There’s an Oscar winner right there . . . umm . . . I don’t know, I enjoy doing it and I can do it here. And I know talented people here. And I have the opportunity to be here and I don’t have to sell y soul to play the maid in the third act. ‘Cause I don’t WANT to be the maid in the third act.

Me: Which also suggests that you would never just decide to stop acting.

Ruth: No. I can’t imagine that. Stop? . . I really don’t think so. And seeing people who are real grown-ups and they continue to find ways to do this gives me a lot of hope. ‘Cause if they can do it, I can do it.

YOUTUBE

Me: You’d been talking about binging everything together and wanting to give people the sense of what it’s like going through rehearsals and everything all in tat moment onstage. It seems to me that the vlogging is a part of that, is it not?

Ruth: Oh, yeah. Absolutetly

Me: Nine minutes of you preparing for an audition.

Ruth: [laughs] The one putting on my make-up?

Me: yeah.

Ruth: Yeah. It seems weird until you spend more time on YouTube and you see how many videos there are like that. That’s all it is.

Me: You and cats falling off of televisions and things like that.

Ruth: Yeah, who doesn’t love cats falling off of televisions? And zipping around on ceiling fans or whatever . . . yeah, the vlogging is definitely a big part of it for me. I don’t do it as much as I’d like, just because it’s hard to really talk abut everything that you’re thinking about what happens during the rehearsal process or the audition process because I don’t want to get up there and talk aboutso and so’s at the audition and the suckedbecause . . . now I’ve just told anybody who cares to watch the video what I think of this person and what they did and whatever and y’know . . . YouTubecomments drive me crazy . . . the vlogging is areally big part of it for me. . . so I like doing that . . .

Me: You edit a lot, too don’t you? You get really into post-production and everthing . . .

Ruth: [nods] Well, in the beginning I didn’t. I didn’t know how. So my videos are incredibly long . . . and some could argue that they’re too long and too boring NOW as well, but back the they were REALLY long and REALLY boring and I couldn’t cut out anything because I didn’t know how to do it, but now I cut a lot. But it’s a whole new style of editing and video making . . . it’s almost creating a new way of talking . . . YouTube has crated a new way of video editing and we’re seeing a whole new genration of people who can do things with technology . . . it’s astounding.

Me: How long does the average post take you?

Ruth: It’s so embarrassing. I’ll record in the course of . . . maybe like nine minutes. (Except that make-up one took forever.)

Me: And this is on a tiny, little silver handheld digital camera?

Ruth: Yeah, and I set it up on top of my canister of acne medicated pads. . . a flat surface by the mirror and [laughs] and I record it and upload it to my computer and pop in a movie and while I watch it . . . and I’ll watch a couple of movies while I’m doing it. I can spend twothree or four hours . . .

Ruth Arnell continuesto vlog semi-regularly. She recently auditioned for a few roles. Her videos can be seen here and her thoughts can be read here.