Medium Dreams

Medium - The Experience: Encounter With Maria Lark

by Sheila on November 13th, 2006

Medium - The Experience
A chronicle of my adventures visiting the set of Medium
1-Arrival | 2-Encounter With Maria Lark | 3-The Sets | 4-Patricia & Jake | 5-The Journalists | 6-Sofia | 7-The Ones I Didn’t Meet

The security guards at the main entrance to Raleigh Studios-Manhattan Beach are a riot. Of course they are all business at first. Guard #1 is tall and lean with long cornrow braids that set off the whiteness of her uniform. Guard #2 is heavyset and wears a do-rag. I’m ‘fraida her.

I give my name and, much to my relief, it is on the list. There is some back-and-forth like “oh thank god I wasn’t sure I’d be on the list” and “hm, maybe you’re not let me check again.” Hence: riot. Eventually they tell me to park on the top floor of the parking garage and proceed to the first building on the right. Behold the studio map below for orientation purposes. (If you want the 360 view per the orange dots, trot on over to the studio website and click on “Virtual Tours.” Warning: they are quite dizzying until you get the hang of slowing down the 360 degree rotation with your mouse.)

I meet the guard shack ladies at main gate A, park at the tippy top of parking garage B, and enter the Medium offices at C.

And promptly stand there with no idea where to go next. On my right is a giant Medium poster directly across from an elevator. No avoiding Patricia Arquette when you exit the elevator, folks. A memo taped to the wall warns employees to prepare for a special visitor next week. Another says Dr. so-and-so will be on premises to provide flu shots. I cannot find an office directory anywhere. The closest thing is yet another piece of paper taped to the wall with, “Medium Casting Second Floor” scrawled in fat black marker. I pull out the email from the publicist. No floor indicated. I think back to the directions from the guards. Did they tell me which floor? CRAP! I can’t remember.

Medium Casting it is.

I step out of the elevator into just as dingy a hallway as the entry below. I am definitely in an office building where work is valued. Prettiness? Not so much. Signs everywhere say, “QUIET. AUDITIONS IN PROGRESS.” I walk as quietly as possible but, you know, I don’t hear anything. Shouldn’t I hear people auditioning? Are the rooms soundproof? Maybe everyone is at lunch. I finally come across one lonely desk and tell the woman I am here for the Medium set visit but I may in fact be lost. She clearly has no idea what I am talking about but is very nice and tells me to try Production on three. She sends me up the back stairs.

Tags: maria lark, medium, medium nbc, medium set visit

What a difference a floor makes. I exit the stairs smack into the middle of a busy office: desks, people, happy chaos. No one seems to notice I have arrived in their private space. Or maybe they just don’t care. I approach the nearest desk and ask for the publicist, Kelley Colello, saying I am there to meet her for the Medium set visit. A blank stare. I have the distinct feeling Kelley does not often visit the set because nobody seems to recognize her name. Then the woman’s face clears, she says producer Laurie Siedman will be along shortly (the other name on my list of tour guides for the day), and won’t I have a seat in the waiting area with the other journalist?

I turn to see an alcove with a couple of squishy couches and one lone guy who turns out to be Patrick Lee from Sci-Fi Wire. Just as I am sitting down after the”‘hi how are ya’s,” I am attacked by a tiny, four-legged, licking machine. Patrick looks appalled and asks if the dog is mine. (Now really, what journalist brings a dog to an interview!) I say no, and send the pup over to lick on Patrick, who reads his tag and discovers his name is George. We find out later he comes to work every day with his owner. I so wanted to take him home with me, as I believe I mentioned in a prior post.

Between face lickings, Kelley the publicist arrives with Laurie the producer and Jennifer Godwin from StyleNetwork.com. We are to be four journalists in all, rounded out by Abbie Bernstein from Titan Magazine:Dreamwatch. It is at this point I find out we are all “online journalists” and wonder how many other set visits the cast and crew have had to endure before us for other types of journalists.

While waiting for Abbie, who is experiencing online-map unreliabilitude and arrives shortly, Maria Lark bounds into the production office proclaiming she is done for the day. Hurrah! She wears shorts and has incredibly mussed up hair. Done on purpose for a scene or just that way because she is a kid? Either way: adorable.

As Laurie introduces her to us, she greets everyone the same way. She grabs your hand with both of hers, looks you right in the eye, and vigorously pumps your hand up and down while saying “It’s nice to meet you” with a great big smile. I cannot help but feel like she thinks it is funny to greet people with a handshake. It is just that sort of smile. A grin, really. I think it is funny that she thinks it is funny so, when my turn comes, I start to giggle, which sets her off giggling, but she continues the vigorous two-fisted handshake the whole giggle-infested time.

It is the best handshake I have ever had.

I take the opportunity to say, “I have a question for you, missy. I cannot find your birthday anywhere on the Internet. Is it a secret?”

Her reply goes something like this: “June 20th, 1997. At least I think it’s 1997. Maybe 1996. No, it’s 1997. I was adopted from Russia. My mom is single.”

(…)

I LOVE THIS SMALL PERSON. Really, if my computer bag had been big enough for both Maria and George, they would be here with me now.

__________________________

Next post in the series: Set Tour (but probably with a jazzier name, like Adventures in Set Visits! or perhaps Set-o-Rama!)

TIPS I LEARNED ALONG THE WAY

• When you have to be somewhere, make sure you know exactly where you are going, including the floor number.
• When you are provided multiple names for a meeting, determine which one is based at the meeting location and reference that name when you arrive. When in doubt, use the name highest on the food chain: executive producer trumps producer trumps publicist.
• Offices are pretty much the same everywhere and so is office work. There be no glamour here.
• Kids are kids, regardless of what they do for a living. Have fun with them.
• Take pictures.

Share This

Related Stories

• Medium - The Experience: Patricia & Jake
• Maria Lark Adoption Month Interview
• Medium - The Experience: Arrival
• Maria Lark on The View
• Medium - The Experience: The Ones I Didn’t Meet

POSTED IN: Interviews, Maria Lark