Audition Stories are so fun...so here's a fresh one!
Had an audition today.
Since I am still working at the school this week, I had to leave work early from Chicago Heights/Lynwood and drive all the way to Evanston for a Unified Audition. Today I auditioned for five theatre companies at once: Northlight in Skokie, Apple Tree in Highland Park, Writer's Theatre in Glencoe, and Piven and Next Theatre in Evanston. Whew. So according to Google Maps (which is the new Mapquest), it takes about 64 minutes to get there from my job. Driving with a massive headache already, I get off the Edens expressway at Touhy and make my way to Evanston. Of course, I get lost on the way because Evanston can be confusing at times...all of a sudden I get a pain in my stomach. (TMI ALERT>TOO MUCH INFORMATION>TMI ALERT>TOO MUCH INFORMATION>TMI ALERT>TOO MUCH INFORMATION). I'm like...NOOOOO! NOT NOWWW! Mama made that navy bean soup last night so.... Yeah. 
(Great timing, digestive tract!) To not have that "look" on my face (y'all know the one) during the audition, I do what I must do. I stop at the restaurant across the street and handle it. AAAH! So I'm better now, and I walk up the stairs to the audition area and I see the typical audition setup. For you non-thespians, this is how these things go. There is an actual audition room, and outside of the room there is a "monitor". The "monitor" is usually an intern or stage manager that takes your name and checks you in. Around the room are several actors...whose behavior can be fun to watch if you have time to check them out. There are some actors sitting on the floor, practicing breathing exercises, others pacing around, stretching, a few sitting stoic and staring into space, some doing vocal warmups, and a couple who try to avoid all eye contact with anyone, and many mouthing the words of their monologues. I have been all of these people at one point. Today, I just wanted to kind of "do my thing" and go. I quickly glanced to see any familiar faces and also, as a person of color, most of us always do the "am I the only black person/person of color" check? (at this specific time I was, which was no biggie, just made a mental note.) I went to the bathroom, practiced my signature monologue quickly once, and stood next to the audition room door ready to go. I was next, or "on deck" as they say. The monitor called my name to go in and there were about 7 -8 people in the room. Typically, when actors do a general audition they are required to perform 1-2 monologues and or a song if it is a musical audition. Before you begin your monologue, traditional training says that you SLATE, or say your name, the name of the character you are performing, and the name of the play. Although this was not a super nervous audition day, some nervousness always jumps up in me when they call my name. ALWAYS. So I often goof up my slate. To not look nervous, (although it happens anyway), I always give a big 'ol R. Marie smile, twinkle/buck my eyes and try to be cheery and personable. Then I forget to tell them my damn name or my piece. I make stupid conversation like "hey, wow so many people here," or do a Tanisha move "Haaay, how ya'll doin, " 
or shake everyone's hand taking up all their time (most auditions are less than 2 minutes and are timed.) And then I do one of the biggest audition goofs, which is walk right up to them and stand in their faces and they always tell me "back up, so we can see you hun" (fyi, in my School at Steppenwolf Audition, when I was doing a scene with the reader, I moved my chair towards him. Erica Daniels, Casting Director at Steppenwolf was like "No stay. He will move to sit close to you, it's about YOU GIRL!"...she is the best!) I like to think of my self as loveably awkward, and sometimes it tends to work to my advantage (exaggerated wink). 
This time, I walked in saying my name..."hi, I'm Rhonda" and said "I'll be performing 'Shelly' from 'Heat'" I moved my chair forward (just a little bit), then I did my thing. They smiled and said "Thank you, Rhonda". As I was walking out, one of the directors said, "hey Rhonda, how tall are you?" "Five-five...and a half" (wink/smile) I said. They chuckled softly, I smiled and I left out...right out the door of the theatre ( I saw a sister walk in when I was leaving and gave the her the "smile" which is the female version of "the nod.") I don't like to linger around and ponder "what did i do wrong, what did I mess up?" I thought, hey...love it or hate it...I did my best. This is what I do...now I can only hope "they" will give me a chance;) On to the next!
Since I am still working at the school this week, I had to leave work early from Chicago Heights/Lynwood and drive all the way to Evanston for a Unified Audition. Today I auditioned for five theatre companies at once: Northlight in Skokie, Apple Tree in Highland Park, Writer's Theatre in Glencoe, and Piven and Next Theatre in Evanston. Whew. So according to Google Maps (which is the new Mapquest), it takes about 64 minutes to get there from my job. Driving with a massive headache already, I get off the Edens expressway at Touhy and make my way to Evanston. Of course, I get lost on the way because Evanston can be confusing at times...all of a sudden I get a pain in my stomach. (TMI ALERT>TOO MUCH INFORMATION>TMI ALERT>TOO MUCH INFORMATION>TMI ALERT>TOO MUCH INFORMATION). I'm like...NOOOOO! NOT NOWWW! Mama made that navy bean soup last night so.... Yeah. (Great timing, digestive tract!) To not have that "look" on my face (y'all know the one) during the audition, I do what I must do. I stop at the restaurant across the street and handle it. AAAH! So I'm better now, and I walk up the stairs to the audition area and I see the typical audition setup. For you non-thespians, this is how these things go. There is an actual audition room, and outside of the room there is a "monitor". The "monitor" is usually an intern or stage manager that takes your name and checks you in. Around the room are several actors...whose behavior can be fun to watch if you have time to check them out. There are some actors sitting on the floor, practicing breathing exercises, others pacing around, stretching, a few sitting stoic and staring into space, some doing vocal warmups, and a couple who try to avoid all eye contact with anyone, and many mouthing the words of their monologues. I have been all of these people at one point. Today, I just wanted to kind of "do my thing" and go. I quickly glanced to see any familiar faces and also, as a person of color, most of us always do the "am I the only black person/person of color" check? (at this specific time I was, which was no biggie, just made a mental note.) I went to the bathroom, practiced my signature monologue quickly once, and stood next to the audition room door ready to go. I was next, or "on deck" as they say. The monitor called my name to go in and there were about 7 -8 people in the room. Typically, when actors do a general audition they are required to perform 1-2 monologues and or a song if it is a musical audition. Before you begin your monologue, traditional training says that you SLATE, or say your name, the name of the character you are performing, and the name of the play. Although this was not a super nervous audition day, some nervousness always jumps up in me when they call my name. ALWAYS. So I often goof up my slate. To not look nervous, (although it happens anyway), I always give a big 'ol R. Marie smile, twinkle/buck my eyes and try to be cheery and personable. Then I forget to tell them my damn name or my piece. I make stupid conversation like "hey, wow so many people here," or do a Tanisha move "Haaay, how ya'll doin, " or shake everyone's hand taking up all their time (most auditions are less than 2 minutes and are timed.) And then I do one of the biggest audition goofs, which is walk right up to them and stand in their faces and they always tell me "back up, so we can see you hun" (fyi, in my School at Steppenwolf Audition, when I was doing a scene with the reader, I moved my chair towards him. Erica Daniels, Casting Director at Steppenwolf was like "No stay. He will move to sit close to you, it's about YOU GIRL!"...she is the best!) I like to think of my self as loveably awkward, and sometimes it tends to work to my advantage (exaggerated wink). This time, I walked in saying my name..."hi, I'm Rhonda" and said "I'll be performing 'Shelly' from 'Heat'" I moved my chair forward (just a little bit), then I did my thing. They smiled and said "Thank you, Rhonda". As I was walking out, one of the directors said, "hey Rhonda, how tall are you?" "Five-five...and a half" (wink/smile) I said. They chuckled softly, I smiled and I left out...right out the door of the theatre ( I saw a sister walk in when I was leaving and gave the her the "smile" which is the female version of "the nod.") I don't like to linger around and ponder "what did i do wrong, what did I mess up?" I thought, hey...love it or hate it...I did my best. This is what I do...now I can only hope "they" will give me a chance;) On to the next!R.Marie
Thank you for that insightful and...detailed...glimpse into your life. :-)
ReplyDeletei'm late, but if i didn't tell you (which i better have)....BREAK A LEG! (i'm sure you did;))
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