Beware of prat falls in auditions

It's been a busy week/week and a half starting sometime...

Last week

I had a call back for Pericles with the American Bard Theater Company.  I'm very excited about the prospect of working with this company.  I've gotten to know a few members...as well as you can when communicating about castings and they really are a company I'd like to work with for no other reason than they are nice people!  Anyway, we were given a few scenes worth of sides to prepare prior to the audition.  And I did my homework as much as I could.  And we just dove in. It was very relaxed and fun.

At one point during the one of the scenes Pericles comes in and surprises? startles? the fishermen (who we were reading as).  During one of the runs through the scene I happened to be sitting in one of the rehearsal space's chairs.  So what do you do?  Fall out of the chair. That's right.  It got a laugh.  But then again, the three of us who were reading the sides all reacted in some huge way, so I think it was a laugh at the general commotion of the moment.  So there is me, on the chair, on the floor, on my feet...the scene moves on.  Well...the best laid plans, right?  And the best impulsed ideas...I fell off the chair wrong.  Some how my lower back collided with the corner of the chair.  I didn't slide off completely.  And it hurt.  There is a huge black and blue mark on my back.  I carry it as a badge of honor.  A war wound?  It's just now going away and starting to fade.  It was my lower right side.  I'm fairly indestructible I like to think.  And I don't bruise too easily.  So clearly I blame the chair.  It was made of sturdier stuff than I thought.  But the call back went fairly well.  I can't quite judge this one.  I mean I haven't heard back so I'm probably not cast.  But then again, they're not really starting any work until January.  So they could take their time with casting. Who knows.  The only part I felt a little iffy about was the SURPRISE side they threw at us at the end.  Not a big deal, I just didn't have too much time to play with it and think about it.  So it was rough.  But, that's also understood.  It's a definite....who knows type thing.

While focusing on the ABT call back, I was also working on sides for the commercial night with the Actor's Green Room.  OH AGR.  They're amazing people.  Truly.  They hold contests almost daily for spots in their classes and joy of joys I managed to win a spot in their commercial night.  What's a commercial night?  Well I'll tell you!

Basically it's where you get to meet with a set number of agents or casting directors, perform a pre worked on piece of copy and go on your merry way.

Usually I hate these things.  The industry members behind the tables usually look like they're not happy to be there and you get little to no feed back.  Well the Actor's Green Room is doing something very right compared to all those other places.  I got amazing feedback and a lot of it too. I re-met some people I've met recently and have been wanting to connect with.  So it was nice that they saw me in a different light and saw that I'm making an effort with my career.  I'm going out there trying to better myself. So now I've been going through the list of industry professionals I met, or re-met and have been sending out my thank-you's/hello's.  Let's hope someone calls me in.  Both rooms, the agents and the casting directors were VERY nice and had wonderful things to say, so here's hoping, no?  There was a room of 5 agents with whom I like to think I had a very nice rapport mostly surrounding my last night.  Take that Grandpa! See, it was a good idea NOT changing my name.  They took their time and wrote out feedback for all the actors they saw that night.  Even if it was just a few words, it was and is valuable stuff.  And the other room had 5 casting directors who were wonderful to meet with and perform for.  I was given positive notes on my reading and asked to do it again, but a different take on it.  Some how it came out very threatening.  Which is fine because I clearly took the note.  So go me!