Could I see any of that green, I wonder?
Location
The Boston Center of the Arts’ Calderwood Pavilion. Despite living so close to this place last year, I only ever patronized it during my last semester to see The Random Caruso.
Scenario
I walked to the BCA through the rain by myself. The auditions were in the Plaza Theatres. It was really happening – I didn’t think there’d be so many people.
Nor did I expect to find fellow Emerson College graduates Megan Reynolds and Sasha Castroverde. Equipped with our tried and true Emerson training, one of us was bound to be cast, right?
I checked in with the stage manager. She told me that they were running behind schedule, so it would probably be a while before I got called in.
She wasn’t just whistling Dixie – it had to wait an hour after my scheduled audition before I got called in.
In any other situation I’d be pissed, but I was actually able to use the hour to great effect – meditating and running through my monologue until every intention came naturally.
Oddly enough, listening to the recordings of my monologues here on my blog was quite helpful as well. It’s so easy to get caught up in “feeling right” that you forget how you sound to other people.
Audition
A bunch of people were in the theater attending the auditions – presumably the producers and directors of the various plays. There must’ve been at least a dozen, all fairly young.
Thanks to my hour long meditation I didn’t feel anxious at all. It also helped that everyone was very warm and receptive.
I performed my monologue from The Random Caruso, standing in the very place where I saw The Random Caruso performed. Meta! I got a lot of laughs.
Moments after leaving, I was handed a side from a play called Yellow Kelly’s. They wanted me to read the monologue presented and then come back to perform it for everyone.
Upon reading it, I could understand why they wanted me to perform it: both the side and my monologue were about flustered young men trying desperately to convey a convoluted need. Looks like I chose my material wisely.
I read it over and over, then I went back and performed it. Got some more good laughs.
Reflection
Even after walking through the rain and waiting around for an hour, this was probably my most enjoyable audition yet.
As an actor, it’s important to remember the reason I act, and that’s to tell a good story well. Performing well before an audience is one of the chief joys of my life. It makes me happy.
Actors can bitch about the hard-knock life of auditioning with barely any guarantee of success, but then they’d miss out on an important truth.
An audition is a period of time during which you have a captive audience.
And that is a real gift.
4 headshots remain.
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