Stop Kiss
Held at the Lyric Stage Company theater right next to Copley. When I checked in, I was handed an audition form by the fellow at the table an a side for the character Peter. I wonder how he decided that Peter was the character I should read for? Before I could asked he pointed to a table topped with coffee and cookies that I could help myself to, which I promptly did.
I barely sat down to fill out the form when Rough Week accomplice Scarlett Redmond emerged from the restroom. I used this opportunity to ask if she would be interested in being in a stage reading I was directing for Centastage. She said Yes.
I was invited into the theater, which was still set for Lyric Stage's production of Groundswell. I had always liked Lyric's theater - a modern thrust where every seat is a good seat, both cozy and roomy, like a Volkswagen Beetle.
Sitting in the house were the director, producer and stage manager. They told me to do my monologue and read the provided side in whichever order I pleased, and that I could use the folding chair on stage of I needed to.
I have never used the chair in an audition before. I always figured sitting was never as impressive as standing and moving about. But I told them that I would be doing my a monologue from Another Bad Night at the Candy Factory - and, OF COURSE, I have to be tied to a chair for that monologue.
So I pulled up the folding chair, put my hands behind it to mime being tied up and fired away. I didn't realize how steep the seating was in the house. I expected to be looking out past everyone, but instead I was just ended up kind of looking into them. It didn't help that I was really far downstage and all up in their business to begin with. WHOOPS!
Then I switched to the side. In the material I was given, my character was speaking to his incapacitated girlfriend at her hospital bed. What sucks about that is that the whole time I was pretty much speaking downward and rather quietly - you know, the way you WOULD speak to your incapacitated girlfriend. I wasn't sure they could even see or hear me.
Also I was wearing a turtleneck sweater. I mean, I look great in turtleneck sweaters, but looking down for so long, I could feel it creeping right up into my chin.
2) STONEHAM THEATRE
Marathon
I almost didn't audition for this one. It was for a play with only two roles and and it was in Stoneham. But once I read that anyone cast in the play would have to run in place on stage for the duration of the performance, I had to step up for the challenge.
I was half an hour late. I keep saying that I can't be late to auditions, but, I mean, I had to take a bus I had never taken to get to a place I had never been. And it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the buses were running on a holiday schedule. So come on.
Yeah, so I had never been to Stoneham Theatre's theater before. It's really nice! It's so clean and shiny - a renovated movie theater. The director was sitting in the gallery. I introduced myself as, "I am really very late." He was nonplussed, and just asked that I fill out an audition form. Then I did my Harry monologue for him.
Then I read a side with the other guy there, Tim. We read it while running in place - each reading one role and then switching on our second time through. Tim had the foresight to bring sneakers with him.
The material is really great. I would've loved to have done it. And I totally could have. I've done a performance piece where I ran back and forth on a pier for an hour and a half. I didn't have any lines, but still - the potential's there.
I just really wanted an excuse to push myself... I should just write a role for myself where I constantly lift things and do jumping jacks.
3) INDEPENDENT DRAMA SOCIETY
Three Days of Rain
After this past SLAMBoston was concluded, I was invited to audition for Three Days of Rain. There were three nights of auditions for a play with only three roles. Probably because it's so easy to get space at BU, where the auditions where. So why not?
It's pretty cool walking to an audition and being greeted by name before you say anything. It's also kind of weird. I mean, what happens when a bunch of people who DON'T know the producers see that the producers know YOU and then you don't get cast? Who knows?!
I went in to read just once with two actors whom I was already acquainted with from SLAMBoston. We read for the director, whom we all were acquainted with. Even with all the familiarity it's still weird, presenting a material as though it were actually a scene. Especially when you barely know who the characters are, where they entered from or what else is in their immediate environment.
It's weird. I hated the concept of the monologue as the crux of the audition, but I've become so used to creating my own personal story to present to others now that cold reads, which I once loved, have become so alien.
I'm always learning. I need to attain balance. Equilibrium.
RESULTS
Of the three productions, I was called back for STOP KISS and THREE DAYS OF RAIN. I was cast in neither.
Scarlett, though, was cast in Stop Kiss. Hooray for Scarlett!
In one week I auditioned for three productions and was called back for two. I don't think that's too bad.
Especially considering all it cost was one headshot! Interestingly, only Stoneham - the guys that didn't call me back - needed a headshot.
I hope they frame it somewhere.
4 headshots remain.
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