Audition #3 - United Professional Theatre Auditions (UPTA)

So I have been finding that beginning to write this blog has been extremely difficult.

Not because UPTAs was a completely terrible experience, but because putting the pen to paper (in this case finger to keyboard) is forcing me to accept the fact of how clueless I was about how to prepare myself for UPTAs. Not always a fun thing to write about.

The Audition:

UPTAs is an amazingly well run unified audition.  I don't think there really is much competition when it comes to the organization, specificity and atmosphere that UPTAs provides.

We began the day at 7:30 A.M.  First thing we did was check in at Playhouse On The Square (where the audition was being held).  This process can sometimes be a painful one.  If the unified is understaffed or has a hard time understanding that St. is not my middle name, then it can take quite some time, but this checking in process was completely painless and the friendly faces of the staff was definitely a plus.  I think that was a huge strength to this convention.  Everyone involved was so friendly; everyone was ready to help and willing to guide every individual.  It's always a nice juxtaposition to the extreme indirectness of the audition process.  It's funny how small you can feel with a number slapped on your chest amongst a group of others with all their numbers slapped on their chests too.  I like to compare the unified auditioning process to that of a slave auction.  Think about it. 

Memphis: Where the audition was
hosted. Definitely not the fun city
I was expecting.

Anyways, we check in and are eventually herded into the beautiful theatre at Playhouse.  Honestly, the theatre is pretty spectacular; they are currently doing an acapella version of Shakespeare's Midsummer and that forest looked like so much fun.  The meeting was basically a debriefing process.  We were informed of how everything was going to run and allowed to ask any questions.  Also this meeting was very fun and light hearted.  It even included an Elvis impersonator to continue to keep all 200+ of us young theatre artists entertained and at ease.

The meeting is concluded and we all leave the theatre to allow for the companies to come in and find their seats to begin the process.  By this time I'm feeling pumped.  Especially since the convention was sponsored by Red Bull and I had just finished my first one of the day.  Unfortunately my readiness was completely misplaced.  Being number 192, I was going to be spending most of my time sitting around waiting.  That was such a mistake.  If you know that you are going to be later in the day at an audition, FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO!  Sitting around in all the nervous energy does you absolutely no good.  It just ends up making you more nervous, because not only are you sitting waiting to audition you are also hearing all the success/horror stories of everyone who is auditioning around you.  Not really anything worth listening to until you have done your audition and have your own story to tell.

While I was waiting I got the opportunity to mingle with a lot of my fellow young theatre artists.  This is something that you must do when you are at these conventions.  It is a great way to see what everyone else is doing and how they are finding their own success.  I ended up hanging out with some of the artists, that day, who found a lot of success at UPTAs.  The conversations I had with them made me realize now that I really have to step up my game, if I want to be successful at unifieds.  Just a few things that I picked up from these smart artists:

• Audition outfit: I thought I had learned my lesson at The Actor's Theatre of Louisville, but obviously I didn't take my own advice to heart.  While, this time I didn't look as extremely costumed as before, I still looked like a businessman rather than an artist.  All clothes should be form fitting, this means tight jeans and a nice dress shirt or sweater that shows off your shape.  Companies want to see what you're working with, they'd rather not play the guessing game when it comes to body-types. (Be on the look out for a blog to explain all this better, it's going to include some fun pictures!)
• Headshots:  I need new ones.  Not only do I need a new headshot, but I need to have more photos of myself available.  Every single one of these guys had a photo on the top of their resume, a business card and a postcard that all had different photos of themselves.  It's a lot easier to market yourself as a versatile artist when you have photographic evidence.
• Social Media:  I've got to continue to step up my social media game.  I need to keep up with my blog posts, doing my best to have a new entry each week. I also have to begin working on my own website.  Every single one of these guys had a consistently updated Facebook, twitter and website that looked great and really showed them as professional, business minded, artists.  Companies love if they can just type your name in google and see everything you've done.
• Package:  No, not the one between my legs, but the one I audition with. I need to really work on finding a great package.  The monologue that I did from The Dreamer Examines His Pillow by John Patrick Shanley is not enough to show companies everything I can do.  The girl who had the most success in my audition group crammed in both a classical and contemporary monologue.  Doing two monologues in 60 - 90 seconds seems like a daunting task, but I feel it is plausible.  Right now I'm considering doing a package of Biron from Love's Labor's Lost and Buff from Suburbia by Eric Bogosian. Companies would rather see that you can do both right on the spot then assume that you have any classical or contemporary experience. 

Out of all of this I learned, most importantly, that the preparation that is required for unifeds is beyond any sort of preparation I have ever seen before.  From head to toe from slate to monologue to song to end slate, everything was methodically calculated and thought out that not a single thing was left up to chance.  These guys had thought everything out so carefully that there was no way that they weren't going to get 37 callbacks and 2 job offers by the end of the day.  So, I must step up my game. Point, blank, period.

Now it is about 3:30 P.M. and my group is finally called into the holding room.  The last two groups are the two groups for acting only, no singing.  This segregation really frustrates me.  Conventions tend to give people who are just acting the shaft.  It's pretty obvious to me.  By the time that the acting only group auditions the companies are bored, unfocused, uninterested or not even present.  This is a horrible energy to walk into and audition for.  I would recommend to UPTAs that they move the acting only group to the beginning of the day.  When the companies are in a better mood and it allows for the rest of the day to be devoted to the 150+ musical theatre actors.  Plus, I think it took about 30 minutes to get through our whole group.  Definitely not a large chuck of time, and wouldn't you want to start your day ahead of schedule then behind?  I paid just as much money to be present as the musical theatre actors did, so my audition should be treated with the same amount of attention and respect.

Also, 2/3rds of the group that I was auditioning with was a group of sophomores from a specific university (that will remain nameless) that sends them to UPTAs to get an internship for their junior year.  Well, this group of individuals had obviously taken advantage of the free Red Bull and proceeded to run around doing obnoxious warm-ups and screaming their monologues to each other.  I felt like I was at an audition for a community theatre production of High School Musical.  The icing on the cake was when they did a group huddle, ending it with a "Go, Group Awesome!!" before we went into the audition.  All professional atmosphere was lost.

The Stage at Playhouse on the Square.
Beautiful, right?

FINALLY, I get to have my 90 seconds on stage.  The energy I needed for the piece was not there; my timing was off and the energy and emotion looked fabricated.  By the end, I find a connection and am grounded but, by then the 90 seconds is up.  So this is when I came to the realization that this monologue just isn't right for these kind of auditions.  It's better suited for a showcase or an audition for a specific show or season.  It's not something that makes me sellable to all genres and that's what I need for these auditions.  I need two monologues that show enough of my personality, but also says, "I'm ready for anything.".  I'm hoping that I will find this in the Biron/Buff package I'm working on now.

After the audition I go to check the callbacks list and find my number on nothing. NOTHING.  I was hoping to have at least one thing to hang my hat on, but I have to chock another one up to experience, unfortunately.  I did learn a lot from this audition and have realized that doing unifieds is a game of simply trial and error.  Sometimes you get lucky and something really sells and other days you get nothing.  Today I got nothing.  This may sound like a very defeated individual, but I promise that I am anything but.  I am going to continue to work my ass off to improve on everything I learned this weekend in an effort to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

I'll sum this whole blog up with our apt phrase that me and my fellow young theatre artists came up with for UPTAs: "It is what it is," and UPTAs certainly was what it was.

Next Up:

Strawhats in New York City.  This audition is mostly for summerstock musical theaters; something that I'm not in any way right for.  I am planning on using this audition as an opportunity to tryout the Biron/Buff package and make sure that it is the right choice before I head to SETC. 

I Snagged an Offer!

While in New York City preparing myself for my Actor’s Theatre of Louisville audition, I received an email from the Artistic Director at Virginia Shakespeare Festival, concerning my audition.  

I GOT THE JOB!!

I was right about the good feelings that I felt about my audition, because I got the offer! What was the offer? Well, I will be working with them all summer, as an intern, staying on the campus of The College of William and Mary.  During the summer I will get to play Servant/Ensemble in “Comedy of Errors” and Guildenstern in “Hamlet”. I am overjoyed.  I also get the opportunity to help with the summer camp that they do for 11-17 year olds (added bonus?).  All while actually getting paid! My first real paid professional theatre gig.  I’m growing up right before my own eyes.  

The College of William and Mary: Where I will spending
my summer with The Virginia Shakespeare Festival.

I did have a few reservations before accepting the offer. As anyone should before signing on the dotted line.  The loudest voice came from the egotistical actor inside of me. He said, “Well, if you got this on your first audition who’s to say that you can’t get something better at all the other auditions?”.  Yah, he’s full of himself. That voice was quickly subsided when the practical actor in me realized that a job is a job and this one was a good job.  I was getting the opportunity to be in two classic Shakespeare plays (great for my growing resume) and I was also getting paid and housed (things not always guaranteed early on in your career).  Most importantly of all, I needed to realize that, yes, I am doing all these auditions, but who’s to say that any of those companies would hire me? even take interest in me like Virginia Shakespeare had? I should be pleased to have gotten the job on the first audition and happy that I will not be an unemployed actor upon graduation day. So I did the right thing. I humbly accepted the offer and am very excited to spend a summer with them.  I hope to develop a really good relationship with this theatre, as they seem like a really good theatre to get your career jumpstarted with. What would make it even more perfect is if the guy who got called back for Rosencrantz got the job too. I can dream right?

Also, now that I have my summer booked I can completely focus on finding a good year-long internship at a theatre I respect and want to work for.  Finding that awesome internship is hard, but it’s even harder finding one that focuses on acting. Now that I have the summer off of my mind, I can dedicate myself fully to the year. In pursuit of this goal, I just sent off a cover letter, headshot and resume to B Street Theatre in Sacramento, CA.  Their internship looks awesome and I'm hoping they will consider me at SETC.

But anyways, on we go! 

Audition #2: Actor's Theatre of Louisville

Whenever you go to an audition and return home you instantly are confronted with all the questions:  “How’d it go?” , “Did you get it?”, “What’d they say?” etc. etc.  Sometimes when an audition didn’t go so well, the hardest part is finding some way to answer those questions without saying:

“It went terrible my acting career is over! I don’t know how I’ll live.” or the ever popular: “They just don’t know what they are missing! They can’t see the talent oozing out my pores.”

Even if you may be feeling it on the inside.

When having to deal with all these questions concerning my Actor’s Theatre of Louisville audition, I have found the most ambiguous but poignant statement to use is the “It was a great learning experience.” answer. 

And it was, but it still sucks to come home knowing you didn’t wow them this time.

The Audition:

Grove Street in Jersey City: Home
for this trip.

The audition was in New York City. I was beyond excited to be back in NYC.  When I go to NYC I get the overwhelming feeling that this is where I belong, and to actually be in a place where you feel you belong is always a dose of excitement and confidence.  As a young actor I did everything on the checklist of what you should do before an audition:  

• I went to the studio where the audition was located the day before. It was on the 4th floor of Pearl Studios and I got to see all the spaces that were there, as well as the hectic and crazy atmosphere.  It seemed wild, but exciting at the same time.  I was prepared. 
• I made sure that I researched everything there was to know about Actor’s Theatre of Louisville.  I went through their entire website and wrote things down that I thought were  intriguing as well as any questions I might have.  I was prepared.
• I had worked my monologues throughly.  The day before my friend and I found a space and just worked on our pieces.  Trying to make them the best possible package for the audition. I was prepared. 
• I made sure I was dressed to impress.  I spent a lot of time primping myself and felt that I looked good. Very “cast-able”.  I was prepared.
• I made sure that I did a great warm-up before the audition.  Making sure that my body and voice were loose and ready to do anything. I knew that I could do this.  I was prepared. 

Preparation is a great tool but it can only take you so far.  You have to remain available and flexible to anything that could happen.  You have to throw preparation out the window and just rely on instinct, which is never as reliable as you wish it was.

My audition was at 2:15 p.m.. My friend and I finished warming up at about 1:40 p.m. and headed over to Pearl to check in.  When we get there the place is even more hectic then it was yesterday: college students to one side, dancers auditioning for “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” in the middle, and stage moms with their kids on the other side.  The place was teeming with nervous energy.  

A space at Pearl Studios.
Not the one I was in. It was smaller with
no mirrors.  Still very nice. 

My friend and I found a place to sit and wait for our names to be called.  Well, little did we know, that the audition was moving at a very rapid pace.  Before I even had enough time to get out my headshot/resume and take a sip of water my friend was called in to audition and I was called to be on deck.  I was not ready for this, I like my time to sit and watch people go in and observe the process.  This time I had to just jump right in.  When I get over to be on deck I see a group of people also auditioning for the program. Looking them over I come to the sad realization that I look absolutely ridiculous.  They were all wearing jeans, a nice sweater or dress shirt and some nice shoes. I, on the other hand, looked like I was about to go to the party of the year down the street.  I was way, way, way overdressed.  The realization dawned on me that I was dressing for my auditions like I was going to a unified, cattle call.  I had dressed like I was going to SETC, NETC or Strawhats, but when you are auditioning one-on-one it’s more appropriate to lose all the glitz and the glamour and just wear something that shows off your ACTING the best.   The gimmicky stuff may be great for getting you noticed at a cattle call, but when you are in an audition room right in front of them, they just want to see you. DUH. Eventually I am called in to audition and the room is extremely friendly, but for some reason I am still feeling rushed and it showed.  My first monologue was a piece from "Big Love" by Charles Mee, and it was a train wreck. I’m sure the feeling I had of “Please, just let me get this over with,” was apparent all through it.  My second monologue was from "The Dreamer Examines His Pillow" by John Patrick Shanley. It actually was pretty solid and I felt like I really had them by the end of it.  I say my thank you’s and exit the room.  I go back out in the hallway and sit with my friend as we wait for the end of the hour and the callbacks to be announced.  We both find ourselves in a state of limbo, not really knowing if what we did was good enough for a callback, but still hoping that they saw something they liked.  Well eventually they call out the callbacks and out of all the people they callback two girls. TWO GIRLS! One of the girls had even gone right after me. I can just remember how confident, interesting and approachable she was. I know that those are qualities I need to continue to work on.  In the end, sometimes all you can say is, “Oh well, next time.”. My friend and I leave the studio and go to TGIFridays and get some much needed drinks, appetizers and time to bask in the dejected feeling of rejection.  Now you can see why, whenever anyone asks me about the audition I just say, “It was a learning experience,” and that is exactly what it was.

LESSONS LEARNED:

• You can prepare all that you want to, but in the end you must remain flexible and willing to adjust to any thing that comes your way.
• What you are wearing is important, but don’t let it stand in the way of your acting.  Know that when you are auditioning alone, in front of a panel, the best bet is to look good, but don’t distract from your acting - enhance it. 
• No matter what the atmosphere of the hallway outside or the room your auditioning in, your audition is your time to shine.  Take as much time as you need to collect yourself and put yourself together.  Your time is just as important as theirs, and rather than rushing to get it over with, create a moment in time they will never forget.  

So did I get the job? No.  But, have I learned enough to where I feel like if I did it all over again I could get the job? Yes. And I think that is what truly matters, especially when I’m just getting started. It’s not over till the fat lady sings! Right?

Next Up:
The United Professional Theatre Auditions.  Or UPTA as they are more affectionately called.  The audition is in Memphis T.N. and there I will be auditioning for about 86 companies.  It’s very exciting to get that much exposure in so little time, but I don’t have a huge reputation for doing well at cattle calls.  I’m banking on this time being different.

Here’s to hoping for much success!