#2. Company One

Since I was in SLAMBoston, Company One, the producing company, let me know about auditions for their upcoming 11th season.

This included productions of THE OVERWHELMING by JT Rogers and THE GOOD NEGRO by Tracey Scott Wilson.

Between boths plays there were only two parts for a young white male, but I figured, what the hell?

Location
Brookline High School. It's on the opposite end of Brookline from where I currently live, but I decided to walk there, anyway.



I haven't seen such a nice public high school since I left New Jersey.

Scenario
My audition was scheduled for 8:15, which seems pretty late to me.

I strolled into Brookline Hills. As I came in view of the high school, I saw a tall, good-looking young fellow get out of a shiny-new black car and stroll towards the back entrance. He was holding a headshot.

Damn, I thought, actors can own cars?

As he walked out of sight, I took out my phone with the intention of taking a picture of the car and posting it in this post with a caption along the lines of: Check out this SLICK RIDE that this ACTOR drove to this AUDITION at this HIGH SCHOOL!



I did so, and then I turned to walk into the school. I looked up and noticed a stairwell that I lot of people were hanging out in. They were waiting to audition.



Oh, God, all of these people just saw me take a picture of this car for reasons that they don't understand.

I walked in past the guy with the car talking to another guy about doing background work, grabbed an audition form, and filled it out in such a way as to make anyone reading it think that I had no conflicts.

Fellow Emerson graduate Andrew Oberstein auditioned, as well. He told me he was cast in The Wonderful World of Dissocia. Good for him!

I paced around the halls of the school for a little while. In some ways it was similar to my own Northern Valley Regional High School of Demarest, but different in that some doors had stickers reading GLBT SAFE SPACE and fliers for a Magic: The Gathering Club meeting.



Audition
The directors for both plays were attending. They seemed very nice.

"Hey, there. I'm Terry. Uh, I'll be doing a monologue from Red Light Winter by Adam Rapp."

The moment I began, I felt like punching myself. Not only was I standing entirely too close to them, but I realized I hadn't even gone through the whole thing once out loud before stepping into the room.

Once again, I was merely saying words.

You cocky bastard. I knew something was wrong when I didn't feel nervous at all.

They told me Thank You the way you say it to someone who gives you something that you don't really want, and I was on my way.

Reflection
When I first did my Red Light Winter monologue for my Business of Acting class at Emerson, I was on fire.

This is not to brag, because now I know the reason that I was on fire. It is because I believed that the only way my audience would be able to truly understand and appreciate the piece was if I performed it excellently. So I worked hard on it, because I believed in it.

I also wanted to impress all of the kids in the BFA program.

The response was so glowing that I got cocky about it. I let it sit. I figured that I already put all the work in that I had to.

But if I don't work in it, I can't find anything new in it to get excited about. And if I can't get excited, then neither will any director.

I cannot forget the importance of hard work.

Never forget.

Never give up!

Never surrender!



8 headshots remain.