Audition Log- And So It Goes

Friday night I had a great audition for Ampersand Theater Company (a theater co-founded by my friend, Kristen). Their inaugural show is “Sunday on the Rocks” by Theresa Rebeck, who is known for writing plays with very strong female characters. After picking up an anthology of her plays, which included “Sunday on the Rocks,” I realized that I may have found my next favorite writer. I was thrilled to get to try my hand at the role of Jen for this audition. I came in with some very specific choices about the character and found some humor in the script, and the producers at the audition seemed to be pleased with it. We’ll see if anything progresses from here.

Yesterday I had the callback for Prospect Theater Company. It went well, but I did not get cast in the role. There were 5 women called back for this part and we all looked different but sounded pretty much the same. They asked us to sing a solo number from the show, and then once everyone was done they would pair us up to sing a duet. They called me in to sing the solo piece- I made some choices that ended up being different than what they wanted, so they gave some direction and had me sing it again. They seemed pleased with the adjustments I made, and then they asked me to read a little bit from the script. Then the producer said, “Thanks for coming in.” This seemed a little odd- kind of as though I wouldn’t be seeing him again, but I still had yet to sing the duet. They were running pretty far behind, so I I started to think that they might make a cut before getting to the duets- maybe they knew this when I was singing for them. I waited for about 45 more minutes before the casting director came out to let a few of us know that we wouldn’t be needed anymore. Ouch. Now, 4 of 5 of us women knew we were not going to get cast, but it always feels like a little punch in the gut when you find out that way. The good news was that it only stung for a little while, much like a band-aid being ripped off. But that is infinitely better than waiting around wondering if you are going to be cast.

We only book 5-10% of the jobs we audition for, so this is all par for the course. But I did learn something from the musical audition. I probably would have connected to the material more if I had been completely off book. I have 7 pages of music to navigate through, and though I knew the music well I did not have the words memorized. Had I been off book I would have been able to really perform the material instead of burying my face in the music. And though they may not have cast me anyway (maybe they loved my singing but I was too young, ultimately? Or too old? Who knows...) in retrospect I think that I could have been better prepared. So, I’ll put that in the back of my mind for the next time.

Things are starting to slow down in audition-land, though I am going to go to a few EPAs this week. Will keep you posted...