Flashback Friday: How I’ll use my 50 seconds
Today’s flashback is from The Granted Actor and a little gold trophy.
“A few weeks ago, in the midst of a “what am I doing with my life? I have nothing, I’m a failure” pity party of one, I was walking home from the subway when a familiar shape caught my eye. It was an Emmy statue, displayed in the basement home office of a Brooklyn brownstone. I stopped and stared, in awe of two things: that someone who actually won an Emmy is my next door neighbor (how cool is New York?) and that no one had broken in yet to steal this piece of bling (we are in New York after all…) Most importantly, that little moment led to the dissolution of my pity party, because, it got me to start practicing my Oscar speech again.” Click to see what she’ll say!
Unified Auditions from the Other Side of the Table
My interview subject was keen to figure out if there would be time to eat dinner before callbacks began. After seven hours and 200 auditionees, he was feeling a little fried. Unified auditions – like UPTAs, SETCs, NETCs, and MWTAs – are great for actors to be seen by lots of different companies at once, and are great for companies to see hundreds of talent in one place, streamlining their auditions over the course of one weekend. They are, however, exhausting. For both sides of the table.
They are also puzzling for the actor to unpack how to market oneself to 40+ companies with a single 90-second “package” that can include music and monologue. I accompanied StageOne Associate Artistic Director, Andrew D. Harris, to UPTAs and, following SETCs a month later, asked for his insight into the unified experience from the perspective of someone with casting authority.
The Enterprising Actor (TEA): As an actor, it is daunting to think about how to make yourself stand out from the other 199 auditionees you will see in one day – and that’s just one day of three or four days of auditions producers are watching. What makes someone stand out?
Andrew D. Harris (ADH): Don’t try to stand out. I saw a lot of people who were doing things to try to stand out, but it backfired on them 99% of the time. What stood out was someone who knew their type, executed their piece or pieces well, and generally behaved in a professional manner. If they were a type I needed and I saw some talent and professionalism, I gave them a callback. Or I kept their resume, if I don’t have anything for them this season but they are a type I don’t have in our local casting pool. We also know the shows that are on the short list for 2014-15, so I was keeping an eye out for roles I know we’ll be looking for then, especially the Cassius Clay piece we’ve commissioned.
Stage Fright
I am grateful for theatre because it calmed and focused this nervous wreck into a perfectly happy human being. I was an anxious child on the verge of a panic attack and now I’m a still somewhat anxious young adult who’s been recently suffering from performance-oriented panic attacks.
Yeah, that’s what I wrote: performance-oriented panic attacks, more commonly known as “stage fright”. The sudden temperature change, the tight throat, shakiness, emotional reactions, the instinct known as fight-flight-or-freeze kicking in—all of the above. I’ve become a nervous wreck all of a sudden and I don’t like it one bit.
Please welcome guest poster Ryan to the blog today! Ryan is a New York-based actor and singer, whom I asked to share with us what the new Actors’ Equity Audition Center is like compared to the old Equity lounge, and how it affects both Equity and non-eq actors.
Peeing With Pride: The New Actors’ Equity Audition Center !
Dignity. There was a time I possessed some but, somewhere between my days peeing in the McDonald’s bathroom and the “movement callback for singers” I just had, I think I ran fresh out. As actors, dignity is a luxury that we are rarely afforded. Don’t believe me? Look at your “special skills”. I’m pretty sure President Obama never had to recite the alphabet backwards AS Carol Channing (though….not gonna lie….I would totally like to see that.) We wake up at the a**-crack of dawn and stand in line in the freezing cold, just so we can sing 8 bars that will, hopefully, book us an increasingly low- paying job (thanks, Troika) with housing that may or may not have cable (most likely…not). I mean, there are upsides too….doing what we love…creating works of art…taking an audience on a journey… BLAHHH BLAHH BLAHHH…BUT, Dignity? Not so much. However, as I sat in the new Audition Center on the 16th floor of the Actors’ Equity Building, waiting to humiliate myself in my “movement callback for singers”, I felt just a tiny bit of dignity restored to this baritone who moves…not so well.
Thoughts behind our scripted lines
Food for your acting thoughts…
“Every day and every place that we go and with every person we meet, we judge them. That’s just what we do. It’s human nature and how you talk to these people is based on what you’re thinking. If you go to Subway, you’re not just ordering a ham sandwich. You’re looking at the guy or girl going, ‘Did this guy wash his hands?’. You’ll say, ‘Ham sandwich?’ (in a questioning tone), or if it’s a Playboy Bunny behind the counter, it’ll be ‘Ham sandwich’ (in a flirty tone), it’s all based on what we’re thinking. I want you to start being aware of your thoughts and what you’re saying to people and how your thoughts dictate what you’re saying. We do it every day of our life but yet we don’t do it in our craft. To me it’s asinine because when you’re in a scene with somebody and you’re reacting to somebody, there should be thoughts there. It’s not just about lines. It’s never about lines. Yes, the lines are important but when we act every day, there’s always a thought behind something. When you walk into a casting office, don’t pre-program everything because anybody who has something pre-programmed in my office, I’ll say, ‘Let’s do it again. Let’s change a few things.’ It’s like the robot. They come unglued… ‘That’s not how the coach I trained with told me to do it.’ No… because I’m trying to get you to be more natural. Those are the directors that I work with. Those natural reactions. Those real life reactions.”
-Tracy Weisert, Casting Director (Full Article HERE)
Producing: The Variety Show, Part 2
Ok, so you’ve booked your space and now it’s time to focus on The Show – aka, the fun and creative part! In this installment (part 1), I want to chat about ways to make the show a reflection of what you want to achieve with it.
Let’s start with the first and easiest way to do it: Call your friends and ask them to perform whatever they want. Easy-peasy.
But, if you want to get more specific, ask yourself: What do I want out of this? Do you want to show your core group of friends/family/fans that you are your type most perfected – or the opposite – to break out of the type you’re usually cast as? Do you want to show the world you can play an instrument? That you write poetry? Sketches? This is your chance to be in 100% complete control of what you are performing. Pick something that you love and, even may be a little scary – it will push you to achieve greatness.
The Final Callback Curse
There are sometimes those days where you actually feel really good about your audition. You pretty much killed the open call. You aced the callback. You got the sides down and practiced the song you were given to the point where you had become the character. Plus, most importantly, they seemed to REALLY like you. So much so, that you commuted back multiple times to dance and sing and read and harmonize and be generally awesome again and again.
Now, there are many sources that offer tips and advice on audition techniques that would probably say that you should forget about your audition as soon as it’s over. But come on…..we’re only human. Isn’t a glimmer of hope better than no hope at all? If you’re anything like me, I have practically filled my daydreams with everything from how I would play the part to what I would wear on the first day of rehearsals. I’ve virtually invited all my Facebook friends, written my Playbill biography and decided where to put the credit on my resume. I’ve imagined the moment I get my script and planned Starbucks dates before rehearsals to highlight all my lines and research my character.
The problem is that as soon as it comes to the casting director dialing those numbers to give you an offer, you are pushed into another pile of ‘no’s’. I officially have what I like to call, ‘The Final Callback Curse,’ (getting down to the very end and not getting the job).
Flashback Friday: On NOT Getting The Part
Today’s flashback is a post I wrote about 18 months ago. I need to be reminded of the truths I wrote, and maybe you do too! If this is your first time reading then please answer the poll at the bottom of the post!
“We can pretend this doesn’t happen. When non-theater people ask, then of course we love our jobs. We love being performers. We love every opportunity and experience that being an actor brings. But this isn’t true. How frustrating is it when you have a great callback or multiple callbacks for a dream role, and then don’t get the part? Recently I had this happen to me, but even worse, I was cast in the ensemble. I ended up declining the show, but for a DIFFERENT reason then not getting the part I wanted…” (Here’s the rest!)
The Green Room 