Auditioning for TheatreWorks

This last Friday I auditioned for TheatreWorks general auditions. It was my first time auditioning for this company but I had heard many good things about them and much more about impressing Leslie Martinson (TheatreWorks casting director).

Overall, I think I did alright. I didn't bomb the audition, but I certainly could've done much better. Honestly, I did not prep very well, which is an awful thing to not do. I had over a week for this prep, which was plenty of time to either find new monologues or go over the monologues I currently have in rotation.

Since I waited for the last minute I felt I had no choice to use the monologues in my repertoire. Unfortunately, my rep is pretty limited and a bit outdated and wasn't quite appropriate for this audition. The pieces I used were Carol from David Mamet's "Oleanna" and Constance from Ann-Marie MacDonald's "Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)". Here's why these pieces don't really work: a) I feel a bit too old to be performing Oleanna anymore. The character is in her early 20s and  I feel I make a barely passable 20-something. And b) the pieces don't contrast very well. Now part of this is my fault for not working them earlier in the week to make clear character distinctions to show my "range." But if you look at the pieces I think that both can be done as strong women in different settings. I've finally started to understand that contrasting doesn't necessarily mean one comedic and one dramatic.

I'm currently in the process of searching for new monologues, but til then I'm stuck with those two. Like I said, despite my lack of prep I was glad Leslie and her assistant at least laughed/chuckled during my comedic piece.

My very dear friend/mentor, Larry Barrott, gave me the best piece of advice, "Just relax." It's so simple and I've heard it before but it really struck me this time. As I drove to my audition I pumped myself up by reminding myself why exactly I was doing this audition. I love acting. It's an escape for me; to pretend to be someone else for awhile. So I just kept telling myself that someone was giving me the chance to play. To use my imagination and play. I had done enough of the work to know that I knew my lines and even though I was doing ridiculous things like making last minute cuts on my drive to the audition, I was finally able to relax and have fun.

One thing I saw this summer was actors having fun onstage. They knew their character well enough that they could play and it made for some amazing performances. It's something I seemed to have forgotten. But I'm glad to finally start bringing it back again.

I won't really know anything about the TheatreWorks auditions unless they want me for a show. So this means I'm out of their running until sometime next year. The way most generals work, from my understanding, is they put on file. When it's time for the show they're producing to come up they either know who they want for the roles, hold additional auditions and then start sifting through the files for additional callbacks. I'm pretty sure they do all three of these at certain points during the process. But essentially since I went to the generals I'm ineligible to go to the individual auditions since they've already seen me. If they have a part in mind for me they'll call me. (Please some clarify and/or correct me if I'm wrong.) Here's to hoping...