Auditions for Week of 01/23/2011-02/06/2011

Notes about audition postings: This is just a quick overview of info I've received on Bay Area auditions. For detailed information please subscribe to Theatre Bay Area or bayareatheatrebums. Please do not email me for more information.

1 Hour Special Project
Needed male and female actors to imitate 70 year old body movements. Needs to be available from 1/23-30. Email H/S and resume to ram.fish@bluelibris.com.

Masquers Playhouse
The Marriage of Bette and Boo
Auds 1/23 2p & 1/24 7p. Email Peter Budinger & DC Scarpelli, dremile@tremendo.org for appt.

Sonoma Stage Works
Summer Theatre Festival:  The Odd Couple & Treasure Island
Auds 1/22 & 1/29 1p-4p. Call 707-996-6003 for appt.

Role Players Ensemble Theatre
The Foreigner
Auds 1/24 6p-10p. Call 925-837-6560 or Email robitaylor@aol.com for appt.

Napa Valley College Repertory Theater
The People's Temple
Auds 1/24-25 7p. Call 707-256-7503 or  Email jking@napavalley.edu for appt.

Crystal Springs Players
The Memory of Water
Auds 1/24 7p. No appt. necessary.

Napa Valley College Repertory Theater
Title TBD
Auds 1/26 6p-9p. Call 707-256-7503 or Email jking@napavalley.edu for appt.

New Conservatory Theatre Center
The Stops
Auds 1/26 7:30p-9p. Email H/S and resume to Jovan Olague, jovan@nctcsf.org for appt, put "THE STOPS Auditions" in the subject line.

New Conservatory Theatre Center
Waiting for Giovanni
Auds 1/27 6p-9p. Email H/S and resume to Jovan Olague, jovan@nctcsf.org for appt.

Dragon Productions Theatre Company
A Streetcar Named Desire
Auds 1/29 10a-2p. Email info@dragonproductions.net for appt.

Mountain Play Association
Hairspray
Auds 1/29 9a-12p for non-AEA & 1p for AEA. Call 415-383-1100 for appt.

Pacifica Spindrift Players
Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure
Auds 1/29 11a-3p & 1/30 1p-4p. Call Craig, 650-355-7355.

Sunnyvale Players
Cabaret
Auds 1/30-31 7p-9p. For info see Facebook page for info.

Solano College Theatre
The Wizard of Oz
Auds 1/31 & 2/1 6p-10p. Call 707-864-7000 x4518 for appt.

City College of San Francisco Theatre Arts Dept
Guys and Dolls
Auds 2/5 10a-1p & 2/6 10a-2p. Must register as student. Call 415-452-7279 for info.

Pear Avenue Theatre
Raisin in the Sun
Auds 2/5 11a-1:30p. Call 650-254-1148 or email aceastar@pacbell.net for appt.

2 Actresses Needed
For a video shoot 2/10-12 in Concord. Email davidpurzycki@gmail.com for info.

YouthAware Educational Theatre Program
Cootie Shots
Send H/S and resume to sara@nctcsf.org.

Prepping for Kaiser Permanente

So I've recently learned that Kaiser Permanente will be having their auditions for their Educational Touring Program in late March. So I've sent off my audition request and have been approved (yay!). I now have 3 months-ish to get my "ish" together. ETP sends out a packet that includes a list of monologue samples. I've decided to do a piece from David Mamet's "Oleanna."

I've auditioned for ETP last year and wasn't called back. I'm hoping to put in some very hard work so that doesn't happen this year. Last year I also did "Oleanna," however I did a different monologue than the one recommended. This year I don't want to take any chances so I'm do the one off the recommended list. I am a little worried about this because I have to figure out how to stand out among all the other actors who'll probably use the same piece.

ETP also offers a seminar in early March. Again I didn't attend the seminar last year, I think I was too busy. This year I plan on going. They offer a chance to present your monologue and I don't want to miss any opportunity for feedback.

This is an organization I want in with for a few reasons. The obvious ones being the steady pay/work and benefits. But working with ETP is more than that for me. I have a degree in Psychology that I feel like I rarely use. I love performing. Why not combine the two with educational theatre? Could this be my calling? I don't know. But I would love an opportunity to find out.

As a note, I have a love/hate relationship with "Oleanna." I've used one particular piece (starts with, "You ask me here...") pretty much throughout college. I enjoy the piece and the play, but I really struggle with it. I've never nailed down a full character analysis of CAROL. The way Mamet writes with his ellipses really confuses my brain. What are these people trying to say to each other? What do they mean? Why can't they finish a thought? When are they being interrupted vs. trailing off? It's a struggle. Once I get my groundwork done, A.K.A. memorized, I'll start in on some real character analysis and then take the piece out to my coach. Hopefully I'll nail it this year.

Auditions for Week of 1/10/2011

Notes about audition postings: This is just a quick overview of info I've received on Bay Area auditions. For detailed information please subscribe to Theatre Bay Area or bayareatheatrebums. Please do not email me for more information.

Marin Shakespeare Company
General auditions
Auds in February, accepting appointments now. AEA: Prep 2 contrasting monologues, 3 min max. Non-AEA: Prep 1 Shakespeare monologue. May also prep short singing, musical instrument or special skills demo. Email, info@marinShakespeare.org or phone 415-499-4488 for appt.

Sunnyvale Community Players
Annie
Auds immediately. Looking for actors ages 12-18. Email Myra
Diamond, myradiamond@comcast.net for appt.

City College of San Fancisco
The Importance of Being Earnest
Auds 1/14 & 1/21 5:30p-9p; 1/15 & 1/22 12p-2:30p. Prep 1-min monologue. Email John Wilk, jwilk@ccsf.edu for appt.

Los Gatos Shakespeare Festival
General auditions
Auds 1/15 11am-3pm and 1/16 3:30 -6pm. By appointment only. Prep 2 classical monologues. Bring H/S and resume. Call (408) 996-0635 for appt.

Coastal Repertory Theatre
Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?
Auds 1/15 11am-1pm. Cold readings, can perform monologue if wanted but not required.

Ross Valley Players
Quilters
Auds 1/15-1/16. Cold read & prep 1 musical number. Bring music w/full piano accomp in your key. Call or email Maureen, (415) 235-8800; omaureen@hotmail.com for appt.

Northside Theatre: "A Christmas Carol"

When James initially asked me to stage manage/A.D. for him I was pretty nervous. I have previously only been an assistant stage manager, which I honestly feel doesn't fully prepare to become a stage manager-they're completely different jobs, and I had never been an A.D. But I have a temporary back up plan that if acting doesn't work out for me I could become a stage manager. So I was certainly looking forward to gaining some experience as well as doing some networking. I never try to pass up an opportunity to network.

I did know about a quarter of the cast already, although not well. So this was a great chance to get to know people better as well as to establish myself with a new company. I think I proved myself very well as a decent stage manager. Even though I don't think being an A.S.M. really prepares you I'm pretty observant and picked up a lot of useful tips from working with Shady's S.M., Chris Tani. He's currently attending Cal Arts to get his Master's in Stage Management, hardcore!

After a couple of weeks of busting through rehearsals I started to feel very comfortable with my role as a S.M. As far as working as an A.D., well, I certainly assisted the director in lots of various ways. I did not actually direct any scenes, but I was ok with that. From my understanding an A.D. does anything to actually directing to working as a S.M. But I will certainly take the A.D. title on this one, even without directing.

Overall this was a great show to work on. We didn't have any major problems until tech week, and even then we muddled through it very well. Once we made it through tech week, the rest was just getting down the timing of everything. I honestly felt really bad for the actors, the costumes were a nightmare to work with because clothing is so heavy and had a bunch of pieces to deal with for quick changes. Eventually we got the hang of it.

At Northside things run a bit differently then I'm used to. The stage manager actually becomes a backstage manager/house manager/costume assistant/whatever else is needed. I didn't get to sit a booth and say things like, "Light cue 1, go," which I was actually looking forward to doing. Instead the light and sound tech call the cues from the booth and the stage manager becomes a "back stage manager," which seemed to me an assistant stage manager job. I hit fog ques, helped actors with costume quick changes, kept track of/helped actors with props, and occasionally helped Tiny Tim with his makeup. During intermission I set a bunch of props on stage for Act II, called times, and acted as a psuedo house manager. It was definitely an interesting experience.

And of course, what's theatre without mishaps. There were some funky lines (leading to saying "Are there no scripts? Are there no actors?"), lots of stumbling on and off stage (those dresses were easy to trip on), the night a cloak got stuck in the trap and was sitting onstage for a couple of scenes, and a couple of major bumps and bruises. But my actors were troopers and muddled through the pain.

It was definitely a long run. Shady is a long run with shows running Thursday through Sunday for about 12 weeks. For some reason running a show Wednesday through Sunday, with double shows on Saturday just felt intense then Shady. Especially during hell week and opening week where the show ran for two weeks straight with no breaks.


However closing "weekend" finally arrived. We pretty much had sold out shows the Saturday and Sunday before closing as well as closing. I have to say closing audience, which was a Christmas Eve matinee, was so receptive and fun. You could tell people just loved coming to see a Christmas show on Christmas Eve. I wish all my audiences were that much fun. The cast pitched in and got me a collection of Dicken's stories. Adrienne made actual figgy pudding to share. It tastes just like a fig newton. We got in some great cast photos, which I can hopefully share later. We did a quick and dirty strike. Luckily we aren't responsible for lights and set on this production. Strike mainly consisted of getting costumes on the rack, cleaning the makeup room, cleaning the green, cleaning the lobby, putting away all the chairs, and picking up our paychecks (yay!). Richard, the artistic director, gave us some numbers for run. It turns out this particular show was the number selling of all time with some great audience numbers.

I'm very proud of everyone on show and the work we all did to bring it together. I had so much fun and am very much looking forward to working with everyone again, hopefully as an actress. However, if I have a bad run of luck I feel comfortable knowing I could always go back to Northside as a techie.

Have a Merry Christmas, everyone!

Upcoming Auditions: Now thru January 9, 2011

Happy Early Christmas!


Notes about audition postings: This is just a quick overview of info I've received on Bay Area auditions. For detailed information please subscribe to Theatre Bay Area or bayareatheatrebums. Please do not email me for more information.

Broadway West

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Looking for an actor/actress to play "Warren." Call call 510-683-9218 immediately. Rehearsals start late January.

Chanticleers Theatre

Lend Me a Tenor

Auds 12/27 7p.  Cold read. Email Sue Ellen Nelsen sueellen.nelsen@comcast.net for appt.

Pacifica Sprindrift Players

Speech and Debate

Auds 1/3-4 7-9p. Cold read and monologue. Call David (650) 784-5303 or email david.acevedo68@yahoo.com for appt.

San Leandro Players

Mary Rose

Auds 1/3-4 7-9p. Cold read & prep 2-min monologue (accents required for some characters). No appt. necessary.

Palo Alto Players

Altar Boyz 

Auds 1/8 11a-4p. Prep 2 upbeat pop/rock songs. Email info@paplayers.org for appt.

The New Conservatory Theatre Center 
The Pride

Auds 1/8 1:30-4p. Prep mono from play (given when appt. confirmed). Send a H/S and resumé to Jovan Olague Jovan@nctcsf.org for appt.

Ray of Light Theatre

Assassins

Auds 1/9-10 6-9p. Prep 32 bars musical theatre song. Go to roltheatre.com for appt.

Playbill Newsworthy: December 20th

Cast announced for World Premiere of The Innocents. According to Playbill the Asolo Reperatory Theatre has finished casting for this play for it's Spring 2011 premiere. This certainly looks like it will be a great piece of 21st century theatre.

Anyone else have some doubts about this musical: Spiderman Turn-Off the Dark? Topless Robot has reported many of the mishaps that have occurred during its production. I respect the idea of turning some great comic hereos to the stage, but this play really seems over the top.

OMG! Why didn't anyone tell me about this? Al Pacino in Merchant of Venice?! New goal: get my ass to New York ASAP.

A musical from the creators of South Park? Yes, please. I will be google-ing this musical, The Book of Mormon, obsessively when it premieres Feb. 24, 2011,

Callbacks for Teatro Vision: "Bless Me, Ultima"

Teatro Vision is currently working on adapting Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima into a play. I loved this book in high school and am looking forward to it going up onstage, even if I’m not a part of it. Elisa Marina Alvarado will be directing. You can check up on Teatro’s updates on their Facebook page.

My callback time slot was for 7:30pm, but I arrived at 7pm to give myself time to warm-up. A bunch of actors were sitting around chatting. It was a very familiar feeling. A lot of people seem to already know each other. It reminded me of my family gatherings-all the laughing, storytelling and joking. I hadn't been sent a script because at the time it hadn't been developed yet, so we were asked to read the novel. However, when I got there some people already had scripts. I was a bit confused. I also had the impression some people had been precast.

I was also wary of the outfit I had chosen. The email that was sent to me said that we should wear comfortable clothing and bring our own water with us. To me, that reads as I’m going to either be dancing or just doing a lot of movement. So I wore some workout shorts, a rock tee that I cut the collar off of, my vans and some makeup (gotta look good, right?). However, a number of people were dressed in jeans, nice shirts, some of the ladies even had heels. Only one other lady showed up wearing a workout sort of outfit, and a couple of the guys. I was initially really worried I had picked out the wrong outfit. As I learned later though, I did not.

It was at least a half hour before I was called in to read, so in the meanwhile I talked to the other actors who were also waiting. I talked a lot with a young woman who was working for Kaiser Permanente's youth traveling program, which I am very interested in. I grilled her about the program. She had travelled all the way from Fresno, where she was currently touring and then had to return the same night. Another gentleman, also with Kaiser, had driven from Sacramento.

When my time slot came up I was not prepared for the first part of the audition. I, 3 other ladies and 2 men were called in. There were sides on a table in the room, but we hadn’t been handed any. Instead, we were assigned characters, I was given one of TENORIO’s daughters, and a scene was described to us. I was very confused as to what was expected of me. I wasn't sure if were improvising, improvising with dialogue we were supposed to make up, or I was supposed to have something memorized. And we were just told to start. I became more confused when one of the guys started speaking. I looked at the other ladies who were also assigned to be daughters for guidance. They looked as confused as I was, but we all just sort of went for it. So we all just improvised it. After performing our improv piece one, which involved quite a bit of movement, we were assigned a side.

The first side was LUCAS stumbling upon TENORIO. The side was very similar to the scene we’d just improvised so I was thinking that Elisa had just wanted to see our physicality. After doing that once were then assigned sides similar to what we'd just done. Again, I was assigned to be one of TENORIO’s daughters. We ran the scene a couple of times. With the same group were assigned another side (minus a woman who had been playing "Death")-a school scene. Myself and another lady swapped JUNE's lines on different turns. We were dismissed for a bit after running the scene a couple of times.

I had some down time and spoke with a gentleman working on WVLO's White Christmas. He has a blog you should check out. I then was called back in to work with another group did the same TENORIO daughter scene. After a couple of runs with it I was let go for the evening.

I was quite satisfied with my work. I was also glad I spent time physically and vocally warming up. I probably should’ve warmed up more since I spent at least half an hour not doing anything. Also, I was glad that I was wearing the workout clothes because I spent much of my time being physical as a daughter. Now comes the waiting game. As I said before, even if not cast I felt I did a good job, there’s always room for improvement of course, and am looking forward to the production in general.