I am freshly back from Egypt – which was an amazing and indescribable journey! I had such a fantastic time and thoroughly enjoyed my meditations and visits to incredible temples in a land steeped in layers of history. Particular highlights of my trip include private dawn visit to the Sphinx, private visits to the Queen and King Chambers in the Great Pyramid and the Oracle Temple of Amun Ra at Siwa Oasis in the Great White Desert after swimming in Cleopatra’s pool! I am indebted to Elisabeth Jensen, Medhat and Shashi Yehia, Dr Morad our egyptologist and all those who travelled with me and made my journey so unforgettable.

This will be a short update….. as I should be PACKING! That’s right – the fantastic news we have all been waiting for….. my O1 Visa is all officially approved and ready to go!

I had my appointment at the US consulate yesterday and received my passport back in to my hot little hands this morning…. now I am in a mad flurry of packing and organising and sorting and……. phew!

So, it is with great excitement that I prepare to make the move to LA next Friday the 11th of December. 

It is also my great pleasure to confirm that I will be represented commercially in LA by Dina Ziegler-Panagiotou at Arete Talent Agency – www.aretetalent.com. Dina has over 30 years experience in the imdustry and has an impressive array of talent on her books. I look forward to working with Dina in the near future.

So – over the next few days, I will be spending time with family and saying goodbye (temporarily) to my dear friends in Adelaide. I look forward to catching up with everyone in LA and getting my teeth sunk into the business in LA!

Until next time, have a blast!

Alicia

It feels like forever since I last sat down to write about my adventures – but here I am at last!

I’ll start where I left off – India. I was blessed to travel to India for 3 weeks with Candace Silvers from Los Angeles and 13 other talented and amazing people for a spiritual journey in Rishikesh, at the foothills of the Himalayas. 

Rishikesh – the home of Yoga, the place where the Beatles famously travelled in 1968 to stay in an Ashram, and the birthplace of Anand Mehrotra – our other spiritual guide on this journey and Yin to Candace’s Yang.

What an amazing adventure! There’s too much to detail here – but it was an immense journey of self discovery for all involved…. we climbed mountains to temples, meditated in caves, swam in the mighty Ganga, participated in Diwali celebrations, did morning yoga, played with monkeys and elephants and made life long friends. We laughed, we cried, we broke through barriers – We talked about the universe and quantum physics and splashed each other with water. We jumped off a cliff and changed our lives forever. I took so many things from my journey to India – lessons about life and insights into self. I have come away a stronger and fuller person and am blessed to have had the opportunity. Perhaps my highlight of the trip was visiting the school children supported by Candace’s charity – New Possibilities Children Foundation. To see the smiles and joy in their hearts touched me deeply and was an experience I won’t soon forget.

For more information, check out:

www.candacesilvers.com

www.childrenofrishikesh.com

www.anandteachings.com

Apart from my trip to India – October has been a HUGE month! 

Firstly, there was the voting for the AFI awards. I have to say what an amazingly strong field of great Australian films it was this year! I really enjoyed tearing through my viewers and getting to see some fantastic features and documentaries. 

I have to say two films that stood out for me were:

The Combination, directed by David Field – and Beautiful, directed by Dean O’Flaherty. Admittedly, I might be slightly biased towards Beautiful as it featured several close friends and was shot on location in Adelaide,  but all in all, it was a fantastically written and shot piece. The Combination was a surprisingly powerful and emotional piece about marginalised youth which really packed a punch. I can highly recommend both of these films.

In other film news, The Boys Are Back is on release from this Thursday the 12th of November in selected cinemas. I attended the cast screening on Monday, and discovered a beautiful, emotional and delicately crafted film. Again, although I may be slightly biased, I found it to be very well written, with fantastic cinematography and strong acting – particularly from the leads, Clive Owen and Nicholas McAnulty. It was also a perfect showcase for the beauty of the South Australian coast. Let alone on a personal level, the opportunity to work with Scott Hicks, which was amazing. Look out for me at Katie’s wake…..

I’ve also had the great pleasure of reading several scripts this month – mostly in the developmental and pre-production stages. It has inspired me to get off my backside and start working on some fresh projects myself, as well as some scripts that have been on the shelf for a while!

Whilst I didn’t hear anything about the audition I went for as discussed last blog, I was cast in a guest role for the upcoming new radioplay, “Starpol”. I appear as Commander F’Iner in Episode One, Power of the Emperor. I had a blast at the recording session yesterday with many familiar faces. Someone commented that I sounded like Frank Sinatra whilst recording! Whilst I personally can’t see the comparisons….. make up your own mind! Episode One available online in the coming weeks at:

www.starpol.net

Now, FINALLY to the news we have all been waiting for…… my O1 Talent visa to go and work on some projects in the United States has been conditionally approved! I have booked my consulate appointment and am starting to make the preparations to relocate….. Phew! So many things to do, and not enough hours in the day! 

I’ve also been invited to attend a Masterclass in Adelaide with Marcus Graham in early December before I plan to make the move to LA – how many things can I squeeze into my itinerary? Ha!

And if that is not crazy enough, I sit here on the eve of my departure to Egypt. Yep – that’s right – I’m going on another 3 week spiritual journey! Meditations in ancient pyramids and temples and journeys down the Nile (as opposed to journeys in Denial!!). I can’t wait!

So, to all, I bid a temporary Adieu, as, in true Alicia fashion, I still haven’t packed yet! I like to think of the Internet as my personal packing procrastination medium………

I look forward to sharing more adventures with you soon!

Until then, enjoy the sunshine…

Leash

As always, I have been busy busy and getting a multitude of things done. Most importantly, I’ve updated my showreel and had it uploaded to the site – I am really happy with how it’s shaped up…….. Thanks a bunch, Tess!!! Also thanks to everyone for all your kind feedback on it.

Otherwise, I am excited to announce I am heading back to LA for a whirlwind trip two weeks from today – yay! It is going to be an insane three weeks…. we’ll be meeting with agents, doing a comedy masterclass with Jason Alexander at AIA Studios, getting some more headshots done – not to mention, catching up with everyone! I can’t wait! More importantly, it’s summer in the US and I am looking forward to escaping the winter doldrums for a while!

Before that time however, I am heading off to Melbourne for a few days with Lynda-Maree to meet Kevin when he flies in from LA, followed by a few days back home and then a couple of days each in Sydney and Queensland. Phew!

Aside from that, I have been enjoying reading some Tennessee Williams – it’s always great to revisit the classics. I’ve also been to the movies this month, so here is my brief wrap-up of what I thought:

The Hangover – What an incredibly funny film! It was actually a very well scripted comedy with a strong narrative thread to carry the humour off. I think I spent the better part of the film in tears – I highly recommend it!

Bruno – I must be in the mood to laugh this month….. Bruno was very funny, but not quite as good as the Hangover. Whilst I love Sascha Baron Cohen, I find his films a little disjointed – with a weak narrative that feels basically like several punchlines strung together one after the other. Having said that, there were some extremely funny scenes and I admire the tenacity his style – it takes a lot of guts to pull off some of those stunts! Would recommend this more for a DVD night at home with some mates.

The Lucky Country – Obviously, I felt the need to counter all the funnies I had been watching and went along to watch this AFI award contender, an Australian Period drama. It was very well scripted and the cinematography was amazing. Very strong acting from the cast, however, it just missed the mark with me. I have to say I found it an extremely depressing film. Perhaps an indication of the excellent writing, I just felt uncomfortable throughout the entire piece. There was really no sense of hope offered at any point in the film, and without ruining the plot, the ending was somewhat bleak… Absolutely worth a view, particularly if you are voting this year, but just don’t go if you are having a down day! On the upside, the film was an amazing advertisement for rural South Australia with stunning vistas. Again, not sure if it is indicative of the climate, but it appears there are a few seriously confronting pieces of cinema coming out of the local film market at the moment…….

Anyways, that’s my two cents worth!

That’s it for now, but I will touch base again soon and let everyone know how my return visit to LA goes!

Until next time….. stay warm!

Leash