Today, we're interviewing Arlene Arnone, the voice of Aunt Rosy in the upcoming full cast audiobook production of Perception and Deception: A Spy Series!
Details and updates about the production can be found here: https://andreahintz.wixsite.com/andreahintz/audiobooks
So without further ado, let's begin the interview!
Tell us about the role you are playing in the full cast audiobook production of Perception and Deception: A Spy Series!
Well, let's see...Aunt Rosy in Perception and Deception: A Spy Series??? She's Ashton's aunt. She's a sweet ole curmudgeon with a heart of gold. When you first meet her, you think she doesn't like Ashton…but in reality, she does love him and doesn't want to see any harm come to him...or to the "friends" he brings to her house.
What’s your story? How did you end up in the exciting career of acting?
My story starts when I was twelve and becoming part of St Andrew parish's first theatre company. One of the priests at our parish had a background in theatre...and even when his vocation commanded him to follow it...he couldn't totally let go of his passion for the theatre. So Fr. Donald Cunningham decided that one of our parish's community offerings should be a theatre group, where all parishioners who had an interest in being on the stage could realize that dream. And "little Arlene" had such a dream. My first role, however, was as the cook (Reba) in George Kaufman's You Can't Take It With You!. I was thirteen at the time and my son was played by a twenty-seven year old. Thus, my introduction to theatre. From here I joined several Chicago Park District Theatre Groups...none of which were Children's Groups. Soo-o-o my father had to join as well so that he would have to stay all evening at our rehearsals because no one wanted to take the responsibility of watching over a teenager in an adult theatre group. This need to stay with his daughter, brought out his hidden theatrical leanings and became an avid passion even unto his retirement years!!!!
Studied theatre in college, spent four summers in stock in Michigan, went to the Cleveland Playhouse and ended up spending almost five years "starving" in New York...before I was honest with myself. Sandy Meisner (Neighborhood Playhouse) asked me in my interview why I wanted to be in theatre. I gave him the usual comments...thought I had talent, wanted to "try and see if I could make it"! He advised me that “You have to want to be in theatre so bad that the sun will not shine in the morning if you are not in theatre!" Since I'm a character actress, I finally realized that no one was going to hire a twenty-something to play a forty-five+++ year old on Broadway. Then one morning I finally looked in the mirror and told myself...."Arlene, the sun is going to shine tomorrow morning!"
Best thing was that the next day I got a job at ABC-TV in Daytime Network Sales. That eventually led to the advertising agency-side of the business which after several years led to my owning my own international advertising agency here in Chicago. I retired in 1997 and moved to Pompano Beach, Florida.
Two months after I arrived in Florida, I became involved with a brand new theatre organization just starting up and working on their first production, Last of the Red Hot Lovers. I played Jeanette and was the stage manager for the production. From that production onward until I returned to Chicago, I was completely involved with this theatre...from acting, to stage management, props, costume design and execution, set dressing, administration, etc, etc.
As an actress during these years, I played two of my favorite parts: The Duchess of Berwick from Lady Windemer's Fan and Madam Arcarti from Blythe Spirit. I returned to Chicago in 2013 and immediately became involved with Theatre of Western Springs...both as an actress and Annual Chair of Costumes. At TWS, I played another favorite part...Jesse from Calendar Girls. I've also worked with Gallery Theatre in West Chicago, James Downing Theatre in Edison Park, The Albright Community Theatre in Batavia and Elgin Theatre Company in Elgin, IL. I'm an Ensemble Member of Theatre Y in Chicago since 2018, and added film to my resume in 2015.
Worked on several student and short films and have been in four feature films; one still in post production and one, hopefully, to be released later this year.
Audio work is really a new venture for me. Oh, I've done a couple of voice over jobs...but so far I've done a lot of auditioning and not too many actual jobs. The turning point for me really was what I did for a friend. He was a director at Theatre Y and decided to return to school to get his MFA in Directing at a California school. He mailed me and asked if I would record several phrases in several different ways for a class. He was preparing a 5 minute film. As it turned out, he picked the version he liked best and used those phrases as the voice of a "pool". He said he got a very good grade on the project and sent me a copy of the film he produced.
After I did this project film, slowly the audio auditions produced some work. I'm trying to gather them all together and eventually put them into an audio demo reel, which I hope will help me get more VO work.
Any special tips or “hacks” for recording a great narration?
So I'm pretty new to the VO field and can't offer any "hacks" to other aspiring souls who would like to work in the audio field. And Perception and Deception: A Spy Series is my first audio book. I'm hoping to get more work like this in the future. It was fun and I loved the story.
We have other actors and voice actors who subscribe to this blog. What piece of advice would you give to someone just starting out in these careers?
My philosophy of life at 80 years old is..."as long as you keep moving, they can't bury you"!!! No...kidding aside...my advice to anyone is to keep pursuing whatever dreams you may have, develop a great sense of humor and keep smiling. Life sometimes throws a lot of punches and that sense of humor helps to make you keep moving forward.
Where can we find more of your work?