Auditions - The Best Of Times, The Worst Of Times.

Auditions....For any actor, be they film, TV, stage, or any other venue they are the first step to being cast (or not) in a specific role. It's the actor's version of a job interview, with a few notable exceptions. Job interviews for an office or middle management person might last from thirty minutes to two hours. Auditions typically run from five to ten minutes.

Actors look at auditions with a mixed bag of opinions, preconceived notions, and personal rules.

Yesterday I drove to Portland to audition for a role in the TV show Leverage. From my house near Seattle to the casting office in Portland is exactly 148 miles. I drove two and a half hours down and two and a half hours back for a five to six minute audition. To the non actor, this must sound quite weird. To most actors it is simply par for the course. Both the TV series Leverage and Grimm are shot in Portland, as well as some commercials and higher production films. The film and TV production industry is booming in Portland I am sure I will audition there again, as I have a number of times in the past.

Driving down I was rehearsing my lines for the audition. Coming back I had plenty of time on my hands and I begin to think about the audition process, and how it is viewed by myself and by other actors I know.

There is a female actor in the Seattle area who has two notable characteristics. One, she is an outstanding, bordering on being gifted, actor. I have seen her do roles that captured her character perfectly. The other characteristic is that she is deathly afraid of auditions, and is quite open about that. The two would not seem to go hand in hand, but we are all the sum of many parts. She has done well, but no doubt could do even better if she was not so frightened by auditions.

I will freely admit that auditions, at first glance, seem like a strange environment. To the actors reading this, you might as well skip to the next paragraph, as you know the drill. But for you non actors here is how the majority of auditions happen. First, you receive the sides (a small portion of the script) that has some of the dialogue and/or actions for your character. You usually receive these twenty four hours or less before the audition. For my recent audition in Portland, I received the sides twenty hours prior to the audition. At audition time, you go to the casting office, sign in, wait, and are then shown into the casting studio. There are always strangers in the room whom you have never met. You may know the casting director if you have auditioned at this casting agency before. After brief , "Hi, how are you?" introductions. You stand on a mark in front of the camera. You sometimes slate your name and then do the scene for this room full of mostly strangers. Someone there will read the part of the character you are playing against. When you have finished, they say thank you, you say thank you and you leave. There is rarely any feedback from anyone in the room. Experienced actors know it is tacky to ask for instant feedback, and expect none. If you agent tells you that you have been selected for a call-back (where the casting people again see the actors that most impressed them on the first go around), or tell you that you have been cast, that's great. You know you have not been cast if you hear nothing. As my agent is fond of saying, "No news is bad news," and he's absolutely right.

Most actors are either comfortable with auditions, knowing they are a vital part of the business, or simply endure them, as the actress I mentioned earlier does.

However, there is a third, if small, group of actors, with still a different take on auditions, and I fall into that group. I greatly enjoy auditions, and look forward to them. I once heard acting described as the willingness to get up in a room full of strangers and make a complete fool of yourself. I guess that is me. I have from my beginning acting days, never feared auditions. I was a professional jazz musician in my younger days and was quite used to performing in what essentially was a room full of strangers. I enjoy the challenge of an audition and feel that win, lose or draw, auditions can only make you a more experienced actor. Think of it, if you will, as a mini movie (auditions are filmed) in which you are the producer, director, and star.

I don't get nervous in auditions. When I auditioned for a role in The Office on NBC, it was by far, the biggest project for which I had ever auditioned. It was in Hollywood in a big studio, with guards and visitor passes and all such trappings. I knew and liked the casting director, having auditioned for her before. I went into her studio, auditioned for her and her assistant. She was one of the few casting directors who asked me to do it a second time. They thanked me, I thanked them, and I left. I enjoyed every minute of that audition, and ten days later was told I had been cast in the part. If I was not nervous for that audition, I doubt if I would be nervous for any audition.

To be perfectly honest, I have heard other actors who I have mentioned that I enjoy auditions to, call me an idiot, or at best say I'm very weird.

Auditions are a way of life for an actor, and depending on the actor, can truly be the best of times or the worst of times.

I'm off to LA in a week for another private session with my acting coach and another casting director showcase.

The Seattle Theater Readers are doing a staged reading of one of my short film screenplays at their May performance. I heard from them recently that they will be doing another screenplay of mine either this coming Fall or Winter.

Until next time.......