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