Audition 23

This past Friday marked the last week of our project, 30 in 30. This past Friday, we had an audition, which we counted towards our 30 in 30, precisely because we obtained the audition within our 30 day time frame. Stephanye, a colleague of mine, actor and executive producer of Nombril Productions, played the game and brought Kevin, Matt, and myself in for a "general." It was great. She gave us each feedback and notes. It was a wonderful audition experience. Later that evening, I also filmed a short vignette with Matt Cody and Darin Quan who auditioned me on Tuesday....dialogue was improvised but it was great practice and it's already edited and posted! Very cool! Friday marked my 15th audition! I am proud to say that I reached my goal of 15 auditions in 30 days! It's been a HUGE learning experience. I want to thank each and every person who helped me to reach this goal, to Kevin my partner, and for all of those who supported us and followed our progress on this blog.

Project Title: Audition 23

Location: Nombril Productions

Date: Friday, October 23, 2009

Time: 2pm

Submitted by: Self

Role: n/a

Medium: Theater/Film

People in

Audition Room: Stephanye Dussud & Jeremy

20, 21, 22

Friday morning I had an audition for a short student film at the New York Institute of Technology. Frankly, I didn't even realize that the NYIT had a film program. Or that there was a NYIT.

Anyway, the format was cold readings and the part I was reading for was an Irish priest so I had to pull my Iish dialect out of my a**.

The interesting thing about this particular audition was that the auditioners were nervous. I'm sure that it was because they were students and this may well have been the first audition that they were conducting on their own, but it was strangely comforting. Because of their nerves they became human and not figures to decide my fate. As a result, I was able to walk away from the audition that I felt ambivalent about and do just that--walk away.

On to the next....

Lara was kind enough to set up auditions for us with a friend of hers who has a production company that produces both film and theater.And Stephanye and her partner Jeremy were kind enough to carve a bit of time to see us. I did the Insomnia monologue for them and they gave me some interesting direction which I've started to incorporate into the piece.

Today I had a class at one on one that was designed to brush up on screen skills. The class was taught by an old friend named Suzy Savoy. She's never seen me perform and I'd never been in a class that she's taught, so there's that moment where your deeply hoping that you/they don't suck. Luckily, Suzy rocks as a teacher and I did a bang up job with the monologue.

Check it out!
one on one on camera monologue

Suzy is kind enough to agreed to sit down with me and allow me to pick her brain. It's my impression that she wants to take me under her wing. Which is pretty awesome!

Project Title: Audition 20

Location: NYIT

Date: October 23, 2009

Time: 10am

Submitted by: Self

Role: Priest

Medium: Film

People in

Audition Room: Charlie Sincinito, et al

Project Title: Audition 21

Location: Nombril Productions

Date: October 23, 2009

Time: 2pm

Submitted by: Lara

Role: n/a

Medium: various

People in

Audition Room: Stephanye Dussud & Jeremy

Project Title: Audition 22

Location: one on one productions

Date: October 24, 2009

Time: 2pm

Submitted by: Self

Role: n/a

Medium: Video

People in

Audition Room: Suzy Savoy and students

Auditions 18 & 19

So we met with Janice at Ripley-Grier and had her record our auditions on video! It was great to see Kevin's work. His work was so concentrated and specific, really lovely. As always, it was great to meet with Janice who has been such a source of inspiration for me.

Project Title: Audition 18

Location: Ripley-Grier

Date: October 19, 2009

Time: 3pm

Submitted by: Self

Role: n/a

Medium: Video

People in

Audition Room:Janice & Kevin

Yesterday, I auditioned for Darin Quan, a filmmaker. It was fantastic. I auditioned with two of my monologues. He gave me a few adjustments on each piece and all of his notes were not only helpful, but brought up so many new and creative choices for me. I really enjoyed the collaborative experience and look forward to the possibility of working with him in the near future!

Project Title: Audition 19

Location: Champion Studios

Date: October 20, 2009

Time: 3pm

Submitted by: Matt Cody

Role: n/a

Medium: Film

People in

Audition Room: Darin Quan

Auditions 15, 16, & 17. Woot!

So, I'm behind the stick at The Brooklyn Inn last Wednesday and one of my regulars, Paul Kelly, is done for the evening.

"Send me off with some Shakespeare," he says as he pulls on his coat.

I take a second to consider, decide I'm going to go for it and then launch into Hamlet's speech to the players. I do the speech directly to him. I could see in his eyes that he was a bit taken aback that I took the challenge (for challenge it was) and furthermore, that he was going to get it full on. He was rapt. When I finished, he was silent for a moment then smiled, shook my hand and thanked me. When I saw him next, he thanked me again.

This whole audition thing is getting easier. Sure, there's a certain flutter of nerves before I begin, but once the words begin, once I'm in the character, I'm having fun. Yes, auditioning is the job. I'm beginning to enjoy the job.

Yesterday, Lara and I met with Janice to check in and record our pieces. For me, one of the exciting things about the experience was wanting, actually wanting, to go first in the taping. Again, I'm enjoying the doing. I'm confident in what I have to present--to give as an actor.

Below are links to both of our pieces:

Kevin's monologue.

Lara's monologue.

Later that same day, I had the pleasure of hanging out with my friend, Jess Cohen, a really talented actress. We hadn't seen each other in a while and spent a lot of time catching up and my recent successes with auditioning came up.

If you haven't been to Bar 13, they have a rooftop deck. We went up for a smoke and she was asking about my pieces so I decided to just do them for her. Which I did. And again, the lack of fear was what struck me. I just loved doing the pieces!

I'll tell you, if there's nothing else I take from this project, it'll be that: the love of the doing.

Project Title: Audition 15

Location: The Brooklyn Inn

Date: Wdnesday, October 14, 2009

Time: Around 9pm

Submitted by: Self

Medium: n/a

Role: n/a

People in Audition

Room: Paul Kelly and others

Project Title: Audition 16

Location: Ripley-Grier Studios

Date: Monday, October 19, 2009

Time: 3:40pm

Submitted by: Self

Medium: Video

Role: n/a

People in Audition

Room: Janice Hoffmann & Lara Silva

Project Title: Audition 17

Location: Rooftop Deck of Bar 13

Date: Monday, October 19, 2009

Time: Around 7pm

Submitted by: Self

Medium: n/a

Role: n/a

People in Audition

Room: Jess Cohen

Auditions 13 & 14

Having recently reached out with a mass email to all my friends and family about possible auditions, two remarkable people offered themselves up as guinea pigs and/or auditors. These two remarkable people happen to be my siblings (I'm only slightly biased in my opinion of them.) My brother Ronnie lives 3,000 miles away in California and currently freelances as PA on commercial and film productions in LA and my sister is an ever busy PhD candidate at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx in bio-medical research. Now, given the distance and their crazy schedules we bring in technology and voila! Today I auditioned for each of them separately over video chat!

It was a very interesting experience, I had never video chatted before and performing via video...it was great! It was exciting to share my work with two wonderful people whom I love and deeply respect.

Project Title: Audition 13

Location(s): My home in Queens & my childhood home in Santa Cruz, CA

Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Time: 2:13pm EST/ 11:13am PST

Submitted by: Self

Medium: Video

Role: n/a

People in Audition

Room: Ronnie Silva

Project Title: Audition 14

Location(s): My home in Queens & my sister's apartment in the Bronx

Date: Tuesday, October 14, 2009

Time: 8:00pm EST

Submitted by: Self

Medium: Video

Role: n/a

People in Audition

Room: Andrea Silva

Audition 11 & 12

Auditon 11

I was visiting a friend on the UWS whose neighbor, John McNally, is a filmmaker. She knocked on his door and asked him if he could spare a few minutes for my project. He said, "sure," and I briefly explained the project and then performed a monologue from Face Divided by Edward Allan Baker. Afterwards, his response was, "I didn't expect it to be that good," and my friend said she got chills. It is a very powerful piece. I like it very much.

Project Title: Audition 11

Location: UWS apartment

Date: Monday, October 12, 2009

Time: 5:50pm

Submitted by: a friend

Medium: n/a

Role: n/a

People in

Audition Room: John McNally, my friend

Audition 12

Right after leaving that audition, I checked my phone, and had a message from Actor, Director, and Vocal Coach Joanne Pattavina, whom I have studied with and who I deeply respect as an artist. I had left her a voicemail and asked if she'd be available for an "audition opportunity." She had 15 minutes to spare and luckily was in the same neighborhood. Now, I did the same monologue, but somehow, perhaps because of our history, because I wanted to do well, I felt I was watching myself, I also felt outside of myself and I knew it wasn't going as good as I would have liked it to go. Joanne was great, because unlike most of my auditions she could give me feedback, and really useful feedback. She picked up on exactly what I felt was going on. She said I was telegraphing, that there was distance between "me", Lara and the "character". I was also playing around with a bit of an accent because the monologue is about a poor/working class couple from Providence Rhode Island. It was a great note, either really work on the accent OR drop it. Great advice. Really grateful for both the auditions, really great experiences.

Project Title: Audition 12

Location : UWS apartment

Date: Monday, October 12, 2009

Time: 6:20pm

Submitted by: Self

Medium: n/a

Role: n/a

People in

Audition Room: Joanne Pattavina

Audition 10

Sunday night. It was another open call, this time for Looking Glass Theater's festival of short plays. Matt Cody met up with me there and we were seen in the first group. 1 minute brief contemporary monologues. 8 down 7 more to go!

Project Title: Winter 2009/Director Forum

Location: Looking Glass Theater, 422 W. 57 Street, NYC

Date: Sunday, October 11, 2009

Time: 6:15pm

Submitted by: Self

Role: Various roles in short plays

People in Audition Room: 10 or so women, names were not provided