The Glimmer

So. Failure. And lots of it.

The mafia musical was no go.
Same with ArtsWest.
And now R&J too.

Damn. I can't help but feel the kidney punch to my soul. I talked to my girlfriend about and she was just kinda "That's the biz," about it. Easy for her to say, she was just cast in a show. But at the same time she's been through it too. And much worse than this. I'm just 0 for 3, and probably about to make it 0 for 4.

But here's the thing, we always hold on to The Glimmer. The Glimmer of Hope, I like to call it. It's that glimmer that calls out from a distance. It whispers softly "Maybe, just maybe..." And then it trails off. And it keeps you going. It makes you sign up for auditions and throw yourself into callbacks because maybe, just maybe, you never know what might happen.

With Romeo and Juliet, they said they were going to get back to us pretty quickly. I didn't really think about it all that much at the beggining of the week but then when it neared the weekend it was a recurring thought I couldn't shake. Like a parasite sucking my lifeblood. When the weekend came and went, I couldn't help but expect rejection. But I emailed to inquire and held onto The Glimmer. I was told casting took longer than expected and I should hear back shortly. More than 10 days after I auditioned I found the rejection email waiting in my inbox.

Le sigh. I should've expected that. I kind of did.

As I said before I had 4 opportunities. That leaves one more. It's the longest of the long shots. But, it's also The Glimmer. I'll hold on to that.

Important Lessons in Counting Chickens

Rember that post I had not too long ago about all those opportunities that were popping up? Yeah well... so much for that.

Through a series of avenues I happened to hear that medium-sized house role I was up for already had their callbacks. Needless to say, I wasn't asked to attend. Not that I'm not being considered I guess I divulge a few details. The play was The Dead Guy and it's being performed at ArtsWest. Supposedly the director wanted the cast to skew older than I look. Fair enough. But it would've been nice to know that I was no longer being considered.

I guess I'm still technically up for Romeo and Juliet at Balagan but I'm not holding my breath. It's been about a week since the audition and they said they would get back to us right away. I shot off an email to a couple of people at Balagan and got a reply that said they had just finished casting, it took them longer than expected, and I should hear something pretty soon. It's a glimmer of hope. Not a spectacularly bright glimmer though.

I think I will gun for this Rep role though. It's a bit of a longshot but it's worth. It's the metaphoric Hail_Mary, only I'm throwing the ball towards the start of the first quarter. Maybe even on third down.

Call me over-eager.

Afterglow

So I had my audition and callback for R & J this weekend. To my surprise they had me read for Romeo. There was a lot of people there so they were moving things through pretty quickly but I read Romeo and Mercutio (II.iv) and Romeo and Friar Lawrence (III.iii). Then they had me read with 3 others the immortal scene from Act I Scene v which follows here:

A hall in Capulet's house.
Musicians waiting. Enter First Servant & Second Servant.

First Servant:
Where's Potpan, that he helps not to take away? Heshift a trencher? he scrape a trencher!

Second Servant:
When good manners shall lie all in one or two men's hands and they unwashed too, 'tis a foul thing.

First Servant:
Away with the joint-stools, remove the court-cupboard, look to the plate. Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane; and, as thou lovest me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone and Nell.
(Enter Anthony and Potpan.)
Antony, and Potpan!

Anthony:
Ay, boy, ready.

First Servant:
You are looked for and called for, asked for and sought for, in the great chamber.

Potpan:
We cannot be here and there too. Cheerly, boys; be brisk awhile, and the longer liver take all.


It always strikes me as strange when I read for something like cause I think I'm much more of a character actor than an ingenue. But wouldn't you know it; it's either Romeo or Servant 2, that sounds about like me.

Information Travels Faster in the Modern Age

So, I regret to inform the masses I will not be playing a gay hit man with a bad Italian accent in a Mafia musical at the Knutzen Family Theatre. Sorry everybody. Maybe they didn't like Popular.

Another audition on Saturday. For the most famous and infamous tragedy in the Western Canon.

Another Note on Popularity

I got so wrapped up in how I did in the audition I nearly forgot one of the main reasons I started that last post. That audition prep professor I spoke of earlier (here: fifth paragraph) always said your audition should be a reflection of who you are, it should say a little something about your personality. I'm not sure how much I bought into that but I always chose monologues which I enjoyed.

When I sung Popular it was immediately evident after it came out of my mouth that it wasn't me at all. I told Brenda afterwards, I will never sing that in an audition again. Even if a role came up like that again, I would give it a second thought before trying it again.

Maybe I Don't Need To Be Popular

I have a bit of an issue with musical auditions.


I have an ok voice. It's nothing to brag about but I can carry a tune and I know enough music theory to get by. But I've had little to no formal training which makes me a bit anxious. Not only that but I know very few musicals. I know, I know, in some people's book this is a cardinal sin. Not in mine. But when I my buddy Peter introduced me to the Wicked soundtrack I enjoyed it. A particular guilty pleasure was the song Popular.


I told him one day I was thinking of using it as an audition piece and he gave me a look. A look that spoke volumes. Unfortunately most of those volumes sounded something like "That is a stupid idea. Don't do it." And the volumes spoke loudly.


When I got that email about the flamboyant hitman in the mafia musical (talk about speaking volumes) I'll admit it wasn't my first idea. But it did come to me eventually and when I mentioned it to Brenda she said that she thought it would be perfect. So I decided to sing it an octave lower (funny, how I can't hit the same notes Kristin Chenoweth can) and practiced a little.



Kristin Chenoweth I am not.


After singing it through once at a bit of a stumbly pace, the director asked if the accompaniast could bump it up a bit to hear more of my range. So she tried her damnedest to put it up a fifth and I tried to sing it there. I hit all the notes fine, but I'm sure it sounded as awkward as it felt. That's the trouble with musical auditions, you don't know the accompianist, the accimpianist doesn't know you, the accompianist may or may not know the music very well, and there's really no other way to figure out if you can sing.

All in all, it wasn't terrible. I've had worse musical auditions.
I'll know in a couple of days.

When It Rains...

I haven't been all that active in seeking out auditions lately. Which is frustrating. Frustrating because I want to do more shows but I'm not putting out the effort of creating opportunities for myself. The truth every actor knows is nobody casts the guy who doesn't audition.

My last bit of time in undergrad I didn't have to audition that much. I spent my Fall quarter in a student exchange so I just told the directors of the Winter and Spring shows that I was interested in being cast but probably wouldn't be around for auditions. I was cast in the Winter and in the Spring; something I have to admit I was a little stunned by. To be fair I did offer to audition. But they both shrugged it off. I was in my 5th year at University, they both were very familiar with my work to date. And so, I did not audition. And a lot of the other things I did that year were self-directed and self-devised.

June 2006: Enter the real world.


I graduate, move to Seattle, and realize that nobody, literally no one has even the vaguest idea who I am. And least nobody who has casting power. There are the few friends who joined me in the post-graduate exodus but sparing that I am confronted with a dozen or more theaters who have not so much as seen a headshot with my likeness.

I set to work brushing up my monologues (the Audition Prep course I took in my last year certainly helped), and auditioned like mad. I tried not to get my hopes too high or to be too disappointed when I found out I didn't get the part. But parts started trickling in.

Then I got lazy again. Which was about where I was now until yesterday morning.


Not too long ago I threw my hat in the ring of the open call at the Seattle Rep. It went just like the last time I auditioned at the Rep: they seem to like my monologues but there just aren't a lot of parts for me*. I also saw a show at one of the few medium-sized houses and the Artistic Director came over to talk to me. He told he had plans to call me in for a show they have coming up a little later in the season but they haven't had a chance to audition it yet. And he told me to read another play because he might call me in for that as well. Not one to rest on non-existent laurels, earlier in the week I grabbed an audition slot at an up and coming fringe theater's production of Romeo & Juliet. And two days ago I got an email offering (I say offering, it sounded like an offering but really they want me to come in and read/sing for them), for a "Flamboyant Hit Man."

This is all well and good but the 2 sets of shows conflict with each other. The medium-house conflicts with the Rep, R&J conflicts with the hit-man-thingie. This always seems to happen to me, that everything conflicts. I am one who tries to attend all the birthday parties*. But I typically end up running myself ragged. Plus I need a day job to pay the bills.

As nothing's solid yet, I don't have too much to concern myself over. And hopefully this will all work itself out, rather than me having to do it. In the meantime I can't help but bite my nails a little.


* I plan on addressing this at a later date.

Memorization Pits

Right now I am struggling to memorize a monologue. A 4 page monologue. A 4 page monologue single spaced in 10 pt font.

Why would any writer do this to an actor?

I might get lucky. One of the pages I might be able to read.
Keep your fingers crossed.

I am.

That's The Central Conceit of the Show*

I graduated June 2006 from Western Washington University with a BA in Theatre Arts (concentrations in Acting and Playwriting) and minors in Latin and Film Studies. Now I'm a 20-something actor trying to get work in Seattle, because that is no easy task I have a day job.
But it is only my day job.
The evidence to back this up is the fact that I have had 7 of them since I graduated 17 months ago.

The goal? That one day, art will be my day job. But until then, I will chronicle here one of the most serpentine quests for one of the most elusive treasures.



*Officer Lockstock, Urinetown