Audition 9

Just a quick post:

Got a call from a submission that I did on Backstage early yesterday afternoon. It was for an NYU short and the director wanted to see me in the early evening. Luckily, I'd had enough coffee to field the call. Also, luckily I didn't have to be at work until 10pm.

Go luck!

I think I'm really getting the hang of this. No nerves and had a great time. I could get used to this!

Project Title: Baby
Location: 35 West 4th Street
Date: Saturday, October 10
Time: 7:20pm
Submitted by: Me
Medium: Film
Role: Principal Role
People in the Audition Room: Tine Thomasenn, Allison (didn't get her last name - we auditioned together)

Audition 8

Today at 12:30pm I went to Judy Henderson Casting to audition with commercial copy for a Wal-Mart commercial en espanol. We did 2 rehearsals with the copy and 3 times on tape. I realize that my pronunciation and the accent I use when speaking Spanish could be improved. At one point she said, "Great attitude, now with the better Spanish, I can hear some American in there." Funny, but all in all a great experience. I would love to be going out for commercials all the time. This is audition 7 out of 15! Almost half-way there!

Project Title: Wal Mart Commercial

Location: Judy Henderson Casting 330 W. 89th Street

Date: October 9, 2009

Time: 12:30pm

Submitted by: Avanti Talent

Medium: Commercial

Role: Young Mom

People in Audition Room: Judy Henderson

Audition 7

Yesterday I woke up around 5 am to make the line outside the Equity building by 7:55 am for an EPA for Ground-Up Productions. They were looking for actors for a reading series. I was #5 on the non-union list. As I sat there, Meagan Barno walks in. We met at the Ward Studio and had performed together in I Wish You A Boat 3 years ago. Which was great. We got to wait on line together! Then, my friend Stephanye, an Equity member, said the list was looking good for us to get seen, at that point, they only had people signed up until 10:10am.

While in line, I get this call from a manager who hasn't called me in over a year, for a commercial for Wal-Mart in Spanish at Judy Henderson Casting for tomorrow!!!

Lunch hits, we haven't been seen.

Now it's 3:45pm. None of us had been seen and no updates. Then Katia Hoerning and Matt Cody arrive at the building at about the same time. It's a bit of a reunion. Matt has EMC points, goes into the lounge and speaks the monitor who tells him she's not going to get to any of us. So we leave, a bit saddened and disappointed.

Luckily, all is not lost. Matt told us about an open call for The Milk Can Theater Company at Ripley-Grier. We get there early and are seen in the first 1/2 hour. Audition 7 for our 30 and Audition 6 of my 15...I want to break the halfway mark this week!!! Thanks to Meagan for spending an entire day with me and Matt for the heads up on the audition... and also to the lovely girls who were waiting on line with us.

Project Title: The River- a play
Location: Ripley-Grier Studios-520 Eighth Avenue, 10th floor
Date: Thursday, October 8th, 2009
Time: 6-9pm
Submitted by: SELF
Medium: Theater
Role: Jennifer
People in the Audition Room: Lorraine Cink, Bethany Larsen,

1 other woman whose name I couldn't find out

Audition 5

Sorry, but I am posting Audition 5 after 6. Just got my new computer yesterday!

I just worked a very productive 4 day trip. Averaged 8 hours of flying each day, 14 hour days. I wanted to get at least 1 audition in and the wonderful flight attendants I was working with were game to be auditioned for. On the 3rd day of our trip, in the galley in the back of the plane, after service, I auditioned for Patricia and Juana. It was a monologue cut from Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz, which I love, the character of Conchita. Despite the noise of the engine and the chance of interruptions, I concentrated myself, and went for it. When I finished, they both had tears in the eyes and Patricia came over and hugged me. It was an incredible experience and I am grateful to both of them for being so generous.

Project Title: A Plane Audition
Location: JetBlue Airways Airbus A320/Flight# 315 OAK to IAD/in aft galley
Date: Sunday, October 4th, 2009
Time: 12pm EST
Submitted by: SELF
Medium: Theater
Role: None
People in the Audition Room: Patricia Hill & Juana Espinal

Audition 6 and the Definition of Success

At first, the universe seemed to be conspiring against me.

I woke up late because I had set my alarm to 9pm as opposed to 9am. I discovered that my wife got the stapler in the divorce. The trains were crawling.

I got to 23rd Street at 11:45am. My appointment was at noon, four blocks north, and I was still sans stapler. Oh, by the way, they want you to be there 10 to 15 minutes early to fill out paperwork.

I kept my head, ducked into a CVS along the way to pick up a stapler and managed not to strangle the clerk at the counter (clerk counting out my change: One. Two. Three. ARRGGHHH!!!!!!), and got there at 11:55. I checked in, filled out the paperwork, stapled the resume to the headshot, and waited. Luckily they were running a little behind.

As I waited, to quell any nerves, I did my yoga breathing and reviewed my pieces (Walter from the film Insomnia and Man from Chirstopher Durang's Laughing Wild). In the lobby of One on One (http://www.oneononenyc.com/)they have a monitor where they show off their success stories. I really hadn't been looking at it, but at one point I looked over my shoulder at the screen and there was my friend Matt Cody's smiling face. I took it as a good sign.

I was feeling good - excited to strut my stuff - when my auditioner, Michael Goldfried (www.michaelgoldfried.com), invited me into the room. Completely centered, I knocked both pieces out of the park, then sat down to receive his comments.

"That was really good," he said.

He proceeded to compliment both my choice of pieces and me as actor. I believe his words were something along the lines of, "You're a very good actor."

(Insert MASSIVE s**t eating grin here)

We chatted a bit more about my goals, etc. I thanked him and went to gather my things and let myself out. As I was about to open the door he says, "Oh, let me ask you a question."

I stop and turn around.

He says, "I teach a directing class at SVA and we sometimes hire actors to participate. Would you have any interest in something like that?"

(OH, HELL YEAH!!)

"Sure," I say.

He gives me his card and asks me to keep in touch. I float out of the room and down to Union Square to meet Lara.

I would say that that was an unqualified success. Which brings me to:

The Definition of Success.

I'm not sure if we'll be able to meet our goal. I'm not even convinced that that is really the most important thing about this project. I have gleaned so much so far:

• The importance of communication
• The importance of self-confidence
• The self sabotage of not seeing the forest for the trees
• And by extension, the importance of the baby step.

I would say that ANY lesson learned from this process is a success.

All of which is not to say I'm not going to do my damnedest to achieve our goal.

I'm on fire right now. I am a good actor. I believe in myself.

This is who I am.

Project Title: One on One
Location: 34 West 27th Street, 11th Fl.
Date: Wednesday, October 7
Time: 12pm
Submitted by: N/A
Medium: Networking
Role: General
People in the Audition Room: Michael Goldfried

Monday updates

Just some quick updates from today:

• I'm auditioning for One on One Wednesday at noon.
• I've joined Backstage.com, got my headshots and resume onto the site and submitted myself for a bunch of stuff.
• Fingers are crossed!

Hopefully more to report soon!

Last Weekend

Last weekend, Kean University Theatre Department produced a retrospective going back to it's first incarnation as a drama club in the early 20th century. This is the event for which I've been working on Hamlet's speech to the players.

The weekend was amazing.

It started Friday, when I picked up my headshots. They look fantastic. I'm so pleased! (Thank you, Scott!)

I then hopped a train out to Jersey for a rehearsal. The train station in Union is butt up against the Kean Campus. I was already keyed up by the prospect of seeing people that I've not seen in years and being in spaces where the ghosts of performances past still linger, but I was completely unprepared for the physical changes that had taken place. New facilities and buildings seemed to have sprouted, fully formed from the empty places in my memories.

In my adrenaline fueled, hopped up state, I made my way to the main theatre on campus, taking in all the change, quietly reciting the monologue by-rote, and welcoming the flood of memories filling my head and my heart. Arriving at the theatre, I crossed the lobby and entered the theatre where the memories threatened to overwhelm me. It was here that I started my Kean theatrical career, playing Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. 

Peggy Dunn, a professor emerita who directed me as Toby Belch in Twelfth Night many years ago was my coach on the piece. We were able to find an empty classroom in the building and rehearsed for an hour or so. I was nervous at first. I've been operating in my safe, comfort zone for so long, that working with someone new - even someone who I have worked with before but separated by years - was outside that zone. But that's what this whole process is about. Getting out of the comfort zone. So, I threw myself out there and we had an extremely successful rehearsal. The piece took off.

On Saturday evening, after an extremely long and emotional day of rehearsal, we did the show. I knocked the speech out of the park.

So, energized by the weekend, pictures in hand, I'm ready to make the best of the time remaining in the project.

Up next: Today I'm going to set up an audition with One on One.

Project Title: Encore! A Theatre Retrospective
Location:Wilkins Theatre, Kean University, Union, NJ
Date: Saturday, October 3
Time: 7pm
Submitted by: N/A
Medium: Theatre
Role: General
People in the Audition Room: Holly Rhoades Logue, Michele Mossay-Cuevas, Susan Speidel, etc.