Audition #10: Shakespeare Theatre Co. Fellowship

Before I really get into this, I want to say that there was an audition #9, which was for Ensemble Stage Co. in Blowing Rock, NC. I worked with this company a year ago on a production called Going To See the Elephant, which you can read about here. It was an audition I didn't even need to do. They know my work there and I wasn't even sure if I would be in the area for their season. I went because I wanted to be there with them. The feedback I was given by Gary is something I keep on my own little shelf to save for the days when I hate everything about acting, of which he reminded me that there would be plenty. So, yeah, I did a couple of pieces in a auditorium back in March or so, but that's not really what I took away from it and sometimes, after sharing everything as an actor, there are little things that you like to tuck away just for you. The ninth audition is one of those things.

Auditioning for the Shakespeare Theatre Company was similar in the sense that what I took away from the experience was not the audition itself. I traveled to New York and visited friends, saw the city, and went to a Broadway show. I remember all of that much more than the five minutes "in the room."

I think I wore a purple blazer and gray pants.
I think I did well with all my problem words with my dialect.
I think I joked excessively about how I brought too many head shots.

Maybe this says something about the memorability of my audition from the other side of the table. But you know what I do remember?

Having margaritas with Aurora after my audition at 11 am.
Going to Peter and the Starcatcher with Mike and Jenny.
Listening to a couple of NY policemen tell each other stories about threatening people with their guns.
Sitting on Aurora's roof with her and Martha Frances.
Unintentional hot yoga at Yoga To The People in a room without air conditioning.
Getting home and setting a date with my boyfriend to move to Chicago.

The trip inspired me and reminded me of what excites me and the plans that had somehow fallen out of practice up until that point. Here's what I wrote in my journal on the day of the audition.

June 19, 2012

Today was the much-anticipated audition day for the Shakespeare Theatre Co. of DC. I have been fretting over it for at least a month. I did Isabella from Measure for Measure and Hypatia from Misalliance. Although I've been nervous for weeks about this, a few days ago, all my nerves suddenly disappeared and I felt unusually confident (which, in turn, weirded me out). I'm not sure what clicked or why. I know and knew then that my pieces weren't and aren't perfect. For whatever reason, I just wasn't worried about it. I've always wondered if there was a point when I would just get used to auditioning. Maybe this is it? Or maybe I was able to direct my focus to the trip instead. Either way, I am pleased with my audition this morning. When I was done, he said it was a "very good audition" and he was pleased to have met me. That is worth being pleased about, even if I didn't get a callback. I got seen. I'm in New York. I'm reconnecting with Aurora and Martha Frances. Every time I make a trip like this and see people from my artistic journey, I re-realize just how important (and wonderful!) it is to nurture those relationships. Not just so I can have a place to crash in NYC, but for professional reasons and it's just so fulfilling to have friends that I can connect with on an artistic basis. And Aurora is down with post-audition margaritas at 11 am. F***ing awesome.

Being in the city is also really hitting home just how ready I am to move and to live this life. I'm ready to be busy and live in a place where there are things going on in general and for me as an actor. It is a vibrant place to be. 

Audition #8: Barter Theatre

In my last post, I said I was going to try and post twice a week. Not really sure when I planned on starting that, but clearly it wasn't before now. Oops. But hey, there's always a new week ahead to try again.

A week ago, I went up to Abingdon, VA to take part in the Barter Theatre's general auditions as well as their auditions for the Barter Players, a troupe of 6 actors who have graduated college or have equivalent training. Here's how the day went...

Date: December 11, 2011
Acting audition: 11:00
Dance audition: 12:15
Player interview: 6:30
Auditioned For: AD Richard Rose and others
Pieces:Vianne from the novel Chocolat by Joann Harris
Bess from Hunting and Gathering by Brooke Berman
Attire: Dark purple jacket layered with yellow cardigan and gray tank
Denim trousers
Brown oxfords

The auditions for Barter were held at their alternative space, Barter Stage II, which is a lovely building with a cafe that is open before and after performances and looks across the street at the main stage. When I arrived, I was greeted by Casting Assistant Kevin Dmytryka, who had me fill out some forms and return them with my three copies of my headshot and resume. Then I milled about the cafe area with the other waiting actors. If any of my dear readers audition at Barter next year, I want to give you a heads-up: There is no place to warm up. The cafe is right outside the theatre itself, so do your vocal warm-ups before you arrive!

The folks at Barter are very organized and will take good care of you. They announce a whole set of auditioners and will have two people on deck while one is auditioning. They are quick to smile and make the whole process as painless as possible.

A tangent: A week or so before I went to this audition, I talked on the phone to my good friend Richard McKenzie, who is one of those actors that you've seen or heard plenty of times before but can just never quite place him.

Richard McKenzie as Fred Bunker in All In The Family

Dick is a fabulous storyteller, so when I told him I was auditioning for the Barter, a theatre he has worked at, he was off to the races. He said when he auditioned, his number was 13. He was waiting offstage, watching number 12 do an intense monologue from The Master Builder and she ran off into the wings and into Dick's arms, crying and shaking. He said, "I thought, if she's this scared, then I'm outta here!" He left the building, walked across the alley and was going to leave before the stage manager caught him: "Are you number 13? Get in here, they're waiting for you!" So he went and auditioned and was hired. "If I had made it to my car, I never would have been an actor." (If you go to the Barter and look directly above the door into the box office, you'll see Dick's rather cynical-looking head shot.)

When my name was up, I was the very first of the set and was a little caught off-guard, but marched into the space (which is a very intimate thrust stage) while the stage manager announced my name and number... Number 13. I couldn't help but smile, thinking of Dick... and also that I didn't have to face number 12 running into my arms.

I tried to keep the pace up with Vianne, which resulted in me feeling like I wasn't thinking at all. Of course, this may be beneficial for me. I'm notorious for chewing things up and mulling them over too much before getting them out of my mouth, but when I take the direction of just picking up the pace, I don't "feel" anything (us actors always wanting to be sentimental). I am completely unable to judge whether my performance benefits from quicker speech and reduced (or quickened?) thought. All that is to say, I really don't know how well Vianne went. I do know that I kind of settled into things, including my breath, for Bess. Her monologue felt much more present with clearer tactical shifts and the last line got a laugh (internal squeak of joy). I feel fairly confident overall with the acting auditions.

Barter Stage II. Phenomenal cosmic powers! Itty bitty living space.

 When you register for the auditions, you are given the option of attending the dance call, which is encouraged. As someone who has two left feet, I say do the dance call. I actually had a ton of fun. You will have a chance to change and warm up. The combination they teach everyone is not advanced and they take time to help you with rough spots and give you alternatives if you are unable to do certain choreography. They teach the combination to the group as a whole, then they will select some people to stay to learn more advanced choreography while the rest go into another room to work on what they've learned and help each other. Once everyone has had time to review, they pull auditioners in 4 or 5 at a time to perform the audition. Smile a lot. If you mess up, do it big. And do only what you can do. I had a blast.

My mom and I spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying Abingdon, making fun of how fancy the Martha Washington Inn is, and poking around out in the boonies. Then I napped a little before my last appointment: the Barter Player interview with Katy Brown, Artistic Director of the Players and Associate Director. She meets with everyone all together first to tell candidates the following:

• This is not for everyone.
• This might not be for you.
• You will work your toosh off.
• It is a 15 month contract.
• There is very little time off.
• This might not be for you (again) and if you decide not to have an interview, we will not hold it against you and you will still be considered for other roles.

Challenge: Accepted 

But really, it is a helluva long commitment and she is right. That sort of thing isn't for everyone. But I see myself in a state of transition, headed toward moving to Chicago, a direction that could be changed. I am in a position where I could take on 15 months of working my toosh off. So I had an interview. She is very pleasant and straight-forward. She mostly asked me about my resume, but she did ask what I am specifically working on with my acting right now and the dreaded "Do you sing at all?" I almost got through the day without having to sing, but alas, she got a nice little rendition of Happy Birthday. She told me they would be in touch with candidates in February and March for another interview and that was pretty much it, I thanked her and said I had to get home and feed my farm animals, which started some chitchat about milking (her sister also has goats!). I like to find out a little bit about the person asking all the questions.

Then I headed home to some hungry ponies.

I had a fantastic day in Abingdon, as long as it was. I feel confident about my work and I enjoyed meeting a few new people in the time in between auditions and interviews. I find that an organization is reflected in the people that keep it running and the people that it attracts and everyone that I ran into at the Barter--whether they were teaching a dance combination or announcing auditioners or auditioning themselves--were warm and welcoming. It seems like a lovely, nurturing place to be. Even if they never call me, I will definitely be back to see some more shows!

Going To See The Elephant

Way back in April, I did an audition for a little theatre here in the Blue Ridge called Ensemble Stage Company (Check out that post here) and, naturally, I assumed that I wouldn't be hearing back from them after I had waited a good while. I set my winter/spring audition marathon in the past and went forward, which ended up with me in a uninsulated cabin in the Rockies taking miniature actors and dancers under my wing. But not so fast! The last week at camp, I got an email from Gary at Ensemble Stage asking me to be at callbacks for 'Going to See the Elephant', the last show of their season, on that Sunday. The fact that I intended to be leaving Colorado at the time of the callback resulted in frantic email writing and nail biting while waiting for a reply.

But all was well. I went to alternative callbacks on Wednesday with a couple other girls. (And you know what? I have no idea what I wore. Sorry, not my usual M.O., but things have been a little crazy!). The callback was with Gary, as the audition was, and he had us reading from three or four sides and swapping out characters. I ended up lagging behind for a chat with Gary as the other ladies left, which resulted in him offering me the role of Etta.

Wait, would that mean... My first professional role? Why yes it would!

There we are at our first read-through! I'm the mess on the left. Photo by Jeff Eason.

 We had nine rehearsals. Count 'em. NINE. Not only am I used to leisurely rehearsal periods, I also usually get parts like "MacDuff's Child" with only 10 lines. It's a bit of a different story when there's only four women to share 50 pages of dialog. I was hoping to really apply the Practical Aesthetics technique (read A Practical Handbook for the Actor by Bruder, Cohn, Olnek, Pollack, Previto, and Zigler) but ended up doing a truncated version of the script analysis for the sake of time, since the technique is usually very particular and nitty-gritty. So, to be honest, I don't think I've ever used any of my "as-if's" from my work, but outlining my objectives (or "actions") was definitely helpful. The whole thing desperately made me wish I had that pocket-sized version of my teacher that I always joke about.

What has been very beneficial and worth the time I put into it has been my physical work. Good ol' Chekhov. I love him so much. A little "contracted with hope" here, a touch of the largest circle of awareness there, plus avoiding eye contact... It's gotten me pretty far in nine rehearsals and just as many performances. Except I have weird knots in my back now because of Etta's physicality.

Photo by David Rogers. Again, the mess on the left.

 

 

One thing I really love about this show is that it's about women, by women, with a female cast and (in our case) a female director. And yet it doesn't scream angry feminism and burning bras. While men aren't present on stage, they are present in the characters' lives, and are spoken about in honest, often loving, ways. But having the men offstage or "in town" allows an opportunity to show what women are capable of and what they did regularly as pioneers--coping with trauma, putting a beloved cow out of misery, making their children's pants out of flour sacks, nursing the weak and burying their yucky dysentery stool, and somehow managing to find some joy in a piece of ribbon or a book of maps. They were absolutely against all odds. They lost hope, children, peace, but Kansas is settled, as well as everything west of that. It makes me wonder what else we can tough out, what else we can pioneer--women and men alike.


The show closes tomorrow. It's been such a joy to work with the cast and with Lisa and Gary. The hilarious rapport Gary and I have built will hopefully continue through future projects, perhaps a children's acting camp on Saturdays, and who knows what all. It's been a whirlwind--a hurricane if we want to be more appropriate for the season--of a process. I couldn't be happier with the play or the people that have been my first professional show.

The Discouraging Start

I had every intention of spending this summer with one theatre company or another, continuing my training and adding a little something extra to my resume before I move to Chicago in the fall. Unfortunately, things have proven to turn out a little differently. Out of the seven companies I auditioned for, I have received four rejection emails. Some of them were expected. Some of them were encouraging. And some of them couldn't even manage to put a "Dear Elise" at the top and a "Sincerely" at the bottom. The remaining three, in my mind, boil down to one "not a chance," one "not likely" and one "still reviewing."

It has been frustrating to know that my start out of the gate has been slow, that I spent money and time traveling to auditions in which the people behind the table hardly paid attention. That I will never know just what went wrong, and if it was anything I could change. Watching my peers excel while I warm the proverbial bench this summer is going to be tough, but the disappointment and comparison of myself to others is something I can deal with. However, being so removed from the acting world has already had an effect that has caused my very patient and supportive boyfriend to recently say he's wondered where I've been lately. I think my restlessness, lethargy, lack of motivation, moodiness, etc stems from my 5 month-long detachment from the thing that has propelled me for the last few years. I guess reading the New York Times and American Theatre just ain't cuttin' it.

So I chose April 30 to be the last day that I look for responses from the summer opportunities that I applied to, which makes today the first day of defiantly planning an artistically productive summer. In other words, its time to quit moping about rejection letters and do something with myself that will make me more "hire-able" next time around. Might as well make my own opportunities. I'll design my own daggum training program. Curriculum on its way soon.

As they say: slow and steady wins the race. Half speed, full intention.

Dropping Like Flies?

As a young theatre artist, my blood pressure rises every time I read about the financial crises that are causing theatres on both coasts to send out SOS calls. After reading in American Theatre that Actor's Express in Atlanta would need "$200,000 by the end of July to stay afloat," I had to consider it against the travel expenses to audition for their internship program. In the end, travel expenses won. (Read their distress call here.) Just now, I read in the NYT that the Intiman Theater in Seattle (whose troubles were also highlighted in AT) has canceled the rest of their season as well as the jobs of the staff. I even got an email a few months ago from the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, where I was an apprentice last summer, that they had not met their fund raising goal and were looking for donations.

While New York theatres seem to be holding on okay, (with Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark bringing in well over a million every week without having even opened yet) I think that regional theatre work is essential to our community, especially to those of us who are just joining. Not only does it give us newbies a place to start without trying to jump into the deep end that is the Big Apple, it also provides an outlet for regional voices that may one day make it to the big city.

I don't think that the floundering of two theatres means the death of the regional circuit. However, with government funding for the arts dwindling and possible donors and patrons feeling pinched for money due to the still-recovering economy, thinking about it makes me a little queasy. It makes me feel like it's not quite as strange as I once thought when my friends discuss survival plans for the zombie apocalypse.

Okay, the zombie apocalypse is silly, but how do we approach this possible conundrum in a way that will benefit us as artists, both individually and collectively? I'm all about donating time and work to the betterment of a theatre (I was notorious for devoting myself to a zillion projects at once in college), but at this point we all know:

Can we promote our favorite companies in a way that will convince audiences, donors, and sponsors that theatre is a worthwhile place for the money that they are clutching to during this economic struggle? Maybe there is more to be mined from the ever-expanding world of social networking and the iPad, since technology is something people are unafraid of spending time and money on. Or perhaps it's time to stop waiting for patrons to come to us and take theatre to them, by which I mean focusing on even smaller communities than regional theatres. Each community has a story that could potentially be told on stage. AT even had an article on a puppet theatre that did shows in people's backyard. Is it possible that traditional ways of doing theatre have become old hat to the point that it's difficult to fund anymore? Is there any one change in theatre that will bring audiences back and define the newest generation of artists? Just some food for thought.

On the other hand, I could be freaking out too much and every generation of artists coming into this crazy world have been faced with one problem or another. Either way, from what I've seen of my colleagues, I think we'll come up with something.

Audition Journal #6: Florida Studio Theatre (and the joy of the hay loft)

Date: March 29, 2011
Auditioned For: James Ashford
Pieces: Bess from Hunting and Gathering by Brooke Berman
Vianne from the novel Chocolat by Joanne Harris
Attire: Jeans, short-sleeved button-down, black vest

After I emailed all of my application materials to Mr. Ashford, I received a reply that said my application would be complete when I sent him a YouTube link to my filmed audition, consisting of two contemporary monologues no longer than 90 seconds each. Of course, I seem to always feel short of contemporary pieces after I learned how weary Michael Legg at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville was of Neil LaBute. So I scrounged around for a monologue that I had pulled from the novel Chocolat for an assignment in my camera acting class, cut it down, and put it together while it snowed. Meanwhile, my friends in Savannah are posting updates about going to the beach.

Anyway, I was shooting to film on Monday (the 28th) but the weather was poopy and cold. Why does the weather matter, you ask? Because I filmed in my barn loft. Listen, my house looks big on the outside, but actually doesn't have much room on the inside. Nevermind that it's also chock full of stuff. And what is cooler than a background of hay bales?! Okay, I kid. But you can't say it's not unique. On Tuesday, the temperature got all the way up to mid-50s, so I grabbed my mom and my barely used and kind of outdated Panasonic MiniDV and climbed the ladder to the hay loft.

Just as background information, the hay loft is a magical, wonderful place. When I was five, my very first duty on hay day (when we stored the hay that we would use until the next summer) was to count bales as they came up the hay elevator. Also around that age, there was an intense hurricane-induced flood in which the New River (just across the road from our house) had swelled to the road. My brother Charlie and I were up in the loft, hanging out, making plans of what to do if we had to spend the night up there, and otherwise letting our imaginations run wild. Meanwhile, my mother is totally panicked and looking for any signs of us, expecting tiny barn boots to wash up miles downstream. It is where cats tuck away their kittens, where I stashed snacks pilfered from the kitchen, where climbing around is totally acceptable. It is the ultimate club house. As the location of many to most of my childhood imaginings, it seemed like a good place to audition.

It took me about three or four takes to make my slate acceptable, never mind that I had practiced just that a billion times. In a separate take, I did my monologues back-to-back, just as I would in an in-person audition. And that was it. Done and done.

Well, sort of. It's always fun to find out you can't--for whatever reason--get your audition from your camera to your computer when it is due in a couple days. After much researching, asking my friend Amanda, and nail-biting, I found out I was simply missing a firewire cable. $43 later, (yeah, going to return that and buy one for $7 off of Amazon) I have imported my video, cut out the crappy takes of my slate, and uploaded it to YouTube. As a suggestion from a friend, I set it as "unlisted" so only the people who have the link can find it. Because if your soul isn't damaged from the agony of watching yourself act, the jerks on YouTube will do it for you. (Poor Rebecca Black...)

Speaking of which, I did endure the whole audition a few times and there's definitely some things that I want to adjust next time:

• I placed my focus somewhere besides just off the camera. Not sure where I got that wild hair.
• I have a habit of a strange eyelid flutter that I think is particularly active under pressure. Time to get that baby under control. 
• Work on Bess. I was more content with Vianne, even though she was new for me. Bess just looked a little pushed. I'd also like Vianne to become just a touch more grounded and centered.

Each time I watched it, I realized a little more that it was not as rough as I thought. The pieces are definitely a great contrast and I think it shows that I am capable of handling both maturities, styles, and languages. There's definitely plenty to work on before I use these two pieces again on Saturday, but hey, it's done and it's decent. And it's in the barn loft.

Audition Journal #5: Disney Parks and Cruises

Before I get into the craziness that was auditioning for Disney, I figured I would give a brief update in bullet points.

• First off, my website is live! Please check it out and feel free to make suggestions or comments via this blog or the contact form on the site. It's still a work in progress, but I would appreciate your thoughts!
• I ordered 100 prints of my headshot from Reproductions and I am very pleased with them. The print quality is great and their online order form allows you to format your prints the way you like (with your name in any corner, in either black or white, or not at all, borders or no borders, etc.) For an extra fee, they also have an option for a type of paper that allows you to print your resume on the back on your personal printer. Awesome? I think so.
• UPTA sent me a list of all of the theatres that registered to attend with all the contact information and season line-ups. I picked through and found ten that I thought would be a good match for me. They have all been sent a cover letter, resume, and a lovely new headshot. Do I think it will amount to a whole lot? Probably not. But I take every opportunity to put my face in front of people.
• I have applied for the Acting Internship at Florida Studio Theatre, who I auditioned for at KCACTF Region IV. They have asked me to do a filmed audition and upload it to YouTube by April 1st. This will be my first audition tape, so we'll see how it goes!
• I just got an email from the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC saying they had received my application materials and would contact me if they wanted me to audition. I sent those materials in November and figured they'd been tossed out. Just goes to show that you never know what's going on on the other end of things.

Now, for Disney!

Date: March 20, 2011, 11:00 am
Where: Gotta Dance Studio, Atlanta GA
Auditioned For: Perky friendly Disney ladies!
Attire: Black yoga capris, close-fitting red tee-shirt and black dance shoes.

I traveled to Atlanta by train and stayed with my lovely friend Corinna as well as her cat, Kitty Charlie. Motion designer Nathan joined later. There was also a surprise visit from Darwin (check him out over at Me and Darwin Hull)and I got to catch up with my best combat buddy Jo and my brother, Human Charlie (there had to be a way to distinguish him from Kitty Charlie). It was a weekend full of burgers and zoo adventures and Yuengling and laughs. Much of the laughing was over the Disney audition that Corinna and I attended together on Sunday.

We arrived shortly after 10:00, which is when registration was supposed to begin. They had not finished setting up and we mingled with other auditionees until they called us into the studio. We filled out audition cards, received a number, and had a picture and our height taken (it's a sad day when I find out that I'm even shorter than I thought I was). There was more stretching and mingling. I started to notice the dancer types who can lift their leg over their head in a standing stretch and I began to wonder what exactly I was in for.

Oh, if I only knew then. They started the whole group (of about 50) doing what they call "animation exercises"-- short situations that we had to mime out in a way that was "Disney big." For example, we had to plant a tree. For this, it seemed like it was best to go all out and engage the face as much as possible struggling with said tree. Corinna and I were the only people making noise while most everyone else were being incredibly dancer-like, but man did we plant those trees. Then we all moved on to what they described as "movement." 'Tis not movement. 'Tis dancing. Lots of dancing. I stopped dancing when I was twelve and I wasn't even good at it then. Remembering dance choreography is just not something I do very well because it has no motivation or objective behind it (I'm such an actor) whereas combat is quite the opposite. They were constantly telling us that if we were not dancers or we messed up, that we should just keep going and have fun and that they were looking for personality too. But we all know that when they tell you in an audition that it's ok if you can't do something or it doesn't mean anything if you don't get a callback, they're lying 99% of the time.

But I digress. In spite of not remembering how all the choreography went together, I was having a great time with what little I could do. Then they had us put our animation exercise with the dance. There was much movement and much sweating. Bring extra de-o for the B.O. to the Disney audition, my friends. Once we had run through it with all the pieces together, they sent everyone into the lobby and called us in four at a time in numerical order to do the choreography all together. At this point, I was no longer looking like a princess. I was looking like a sweaty northern European who gets bright red in the face in the event of any exertion.

Unfortunately, it's not a miracle story in which I remembered all the dancing perfectly when it was my time to shine. Instead, I accidentally stepped on some guy's foot. But the good news was that my group of four did not contain a single dancer. We all looked silly and had a great time doing it, fully expecting it when we were not asked to stay for callbacks. Instead of worrying about it, we had fun in Atlanta, including a jaunt to the zoo:

There are certain limitations on how often you can audition for Disney parks and cruises. I believe your audition is good for a year and you can audition for the cruises again at anytime, but you have to wait six months to audition again for the parks. I think that's it. Don't take my word for it.

So should you audition for Disney even if you're like me and can't dance? Yes. It's fun, everyone there was incredibly nice, you get your face out there a little bit more, and it's free cardio training. Bring a friend for extra fun. Interested? Here's the link to the calendar of auditions.

Recent Reads

I have been pretty slack with reading plays post-graduation. And those I read in school were for class rather than keeping up with current work. No more slacking for me. Not just because it's my job to keep up with contemporary work and expand my knowledge of older pieces, but also that reading plays is really the only way to find monologues (novels can be good sources too). True, I have a couple monologue books that I have used in a pinch, but I'm not a huge fan. They take the work out of the play's context, they're not always current, and they make monologues so readily available that the same ones become over-used in the audition room. However, they are good for finding pieces in your age range and type and can therefore point you in the right direction of plays that suit you...

Now that I'm done with my monologue book tangent, what I started out saying was that I'm kicking the reading into high gear. I have a ton of plays lying around my room, most are dated, but the more the merrier. My Amazon wish list is ever growing and I will soon be subscribing to American Theatre Magazine (a student ID gets you 10 issues for $20. So hang on to your student ID when you graduate!). I am reading the New York Times theatre section much more frequently to keep up with up-and-coming playwrights. Another great resource for buying plays is the Drama Book Shop in New York City. If you can't find it anywhere else, they will probably have it. If you knew all this, I hope you're not being a slacker like me. If you didn't know, now you do. Start reading.

Here are my thoughts on a few recent reads and what monologues they have in store:

1. The Ruby Sunrise by Rinne Groff: Bought this one at the Drama Book Shop in New York, thinking that the role of Ruby would be a good one for me. The description on the back described her as a farm girl building an early TV in her barn. It sounded quirky and fun, but I was met with something much darker than I anticipated. Not that dark is bad, but I was not particularly enraptured by the storyline of a girl finding an outlet to tell her mother's story while exhibiting similar characteristics to Mommabear (She doesn't call her that. I just made that up.). It seemed a little old hat. It did stand out to me that the daughter's storyline takes place during the Red Scare, and she works for a TV station (and her mom was building TVs.. get it?). I think the crisis of the daughter's era could have been more deeply explored, rather than a focus on already obvious parallels between mother and daughter that result in a fairly predictable ending. Monologues? A couple. Short ones for Ruby ("young, maybe 17") and a longer one for an actress, Suzie ("20s")
2. Eternal Hydra by Anton Piatigorsky: Another Drama Book Shop find (on the faculty recommended shelf). This is a very well-crafted play. It follows two female authors/researchers who are attempting to get books published that vouch for two writers from the turn of the century. As the truth comes forward about the two earlier authors, it becomes clear that their stories overlap more than expected and the repercussions of that discovery echo into the work of their modern researchers. Four actors (2 m. 2 f.) seamlessly move in and out of all of the parts to create a story that weaves between modern-day New York, 1930's Paris, and New Orleans post Civil War. Conversation is evoked about plagiarism and equality of gender and race. This one's a winner in my book. Monologues? Yes. There are monologues for the two women, one of whom is African-American. There are also a few for the middle-aged to mature gentleman playing the author of the 1930's.
3. In The Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks: I love Suzan-Lori Parks. I knew I loved Suzan-Lori Parks by the time I finished the first page of Topdog/Underdog. This play was no exception. It is "a modern day riff on The Scarlet Letter" (as the back-cover description says), following a woman named Hester and her five children, all of whom have different fathers. The role of Hester is the only one that is not doubled (the children playing their own fathers or someone involved in the sexual encounter that produced them), and the children are played by adults. There is also a strong parallel between In The Blood and Mother Courage that begs to be examined further. I bought this play originally for my Women In Dramatic Arts class, but ended up reading Parks' Venus instead (also recommended). Both plays are excellent as a study of the role of women in theatre and in history. Monologues? Yellow light yes. For African-American men and women, and one for a Caucasian female. Mature, rough subject matter. By which I mean sex. And not the good kind. Tread lightly in the audition room with these babies.
4. Hunting and Gathering by Brooke Berman: Berman uses the search for New York apartments as a metaphor for commitment and "finding your place" in a more abstract sense. There are four players, two women and two men, who all have closely connected stories resulting in a staged romantic comedy. I'd say this is a step above your typical Hugh Grant or Ashton Kutcher movie, as the characters struggle with engaging problems that go beyond "I am lonely and this person is perfect." This play is full of laughs as Ruth learns about life while playing Big Buck Hunter and Jesse becomes acquainted with IKEA. This play is a great read for young actors, as all the characters are between 20 and 30. Monologues? Holy crap YES. Each of the characters has multiple direct addresses to the audience that are charming and revealing about their nature. Also great for scene work, as the play is composed of two-person scenes.

Are these mini reviews at all helpful or interesting?  Leave thoughts or suggestions about them in a comment or on my facebook. Thanks for reading and break a leg!

Audition Journal #3: Actors Theatre of Louisville

Date: February 3, 2011, 11:25 am
Auditioned For: Michael Legg, Director of the Apprentice/Intern Company
Pieces: Joan la Pucelle from Henry VI Part I
Steph from Reasons To Be Pretty by Neil LaBute
Attire: Dark blue sleeveless blouse with lace yoke
High-waist brown pencil skirt
Gray lace-up oxford heels

I have drooled over the apprenticeship at the Actors Theatre of Louisville for years. When I found out they were going to be at KCACTF while I was there, I assumed I would not audition. I was there for dramaturgy, I was unprepared, and I did not want my first audition to be piss-poor. I went to Mr. Legg's workshop about networking and found out that he couldn't stand Neil LaBute. They're a theatre that does new and contemporary plays and what do I have to present? Shakespeare and Neil Freaking LaBute. I figured that was the deal breaker (along with the fact that I did not bring headshots and resumes to the conference) and I would go on my nerdy dramturgical way. My teacher thought differently, and probably wisely. She's aware of my willingness to back out of situations like that, so she made me turn around and go talk to him about an audition slot. He said he'd like to see whatever pieces I had, even if they were Shakespeare and LaBute and put me down for an audition.

I warmed up with Dan and Kelly as best as I could in a pencil skirt and quickly got annoyed about doing Joan in the clothes I had picked for my interview earlier that day. Joan la Pucelle does not wear pencil skirts. Mr. Legg spent a good fifteen minutes each with my friends, who auditioned before me as my tongue decided to get dry and mealy. I went in, not particularly nervous, but also not very hopeful. Michael Legg was joined by Bruce Price, Production Manager of the Florida Studio Theatre. I presented Steph followed by Joan and afterwords was offered a seat by Mr. Legg. While the audition was probably poop, getting to talk to him was worth signing up. I told him I was a dramaturg as well and he suggested the Actors Theatre's literary internship, but also said it would be insanely competitive and probably not worth my time to apply as a first-time dramaturg. (However, I am going to put the application together and mention the meeting in my cover letter and request advice for next time.)We also discovered that he is a huge fan of my hometown, to the point that he named his dog after it! It was an absolute pleasure to meet him and speak with him.

Mr. Price from FST gave me his card and asked me to look at their literary internship, which I am adding to my list of applications.

This morning, I received an email on behalf of Mr. Legg saying that now was not the best time in my career to apply to the Apprentice Company at the Actors Theatre. So my dream internship isn't happening just yet, but I did make good contacts in Mr. Legg and Mr. Price and learned the value of having a wide variety of monologues on-hand. I have come away from the audition and the conference as a whole with a determination to pursue the actor I want to be rather than settling for the actor I am.

Audition Journal #2: Utah Shakespeare Festival

Date: January 19, 2011, 3:35pm
Auditioned For: David Ivers and Brian Vaughn, Artistic Directors, Utah Shakespeare Festival
Pieces: Joan la Pucelle from Henry VI Part 1 and Steph from Reasons To Be Pretty by Neil LaBute
Attire: Denim trousers
Canvas Blowfish wedges
Yellow button-down with cravat-like ruffly goodness
Blue and white striped blazer

After such a fun and satisfying audition for Chautauqua, this seemed like a bit of a downer. I didn't bomb it, but there's nothing exciting about leaving the audition room knowing you received little attention, especially having taken the 6+ hour trip to get to Savannah.

Before the audition, I dropped by to see my teacher Vivian to give her the dramaturgy casebook from 'Art' and say hello. Having worked with me on my pieces for Chautauqua, she gave me a few pieces of advice: take up space and get out of my head. (The latter has been a constant note for me.) I proceeded to not re-visit the warm up that I had done earlier in the day and mingle with the lovely people that I miss being around when I'm home. Somewhere in this time frame, I grabbed a sip of water from the fountain, choked on it, and earned myself a strange-sounding voice.

When I was called into the room, I entered in what I thought was a confident manner, shook hands with David and Brian (they were offered, I was not busting into their personal space) and gave them my headshot and resume. They asked what I had for them and I, in a more causal manner than slating (since they asked), named my pieces. And then I stood and waited as they sifted through headshots. And waited. And waited for them to both look up. Eventually I asked, "Ready?" and they nodded me on.

I did my best to apply Vivian's advice in the audition, although playing with specifics of sitting and standing may not have looked thought-through. But, as I like to say, it's "fresh" not "unprepared." And I was trying to not think too much. Amidst all of this, I began to notice that my two-person audience was looking at resumes more often than they were looking at me. In between pieces, I asked for a chair in hopes I could summon their attention for the second, shorter part of my audition. No luck. When I was done, they asked what year I was in school and I explained I graduated in November. Thank-yous were exchanged and that was it.

Not so great. What was great was the margaritas with friends afterwords.

I did take a few thoughts away from the audition. I need to seriously focus before an audition. It was particularly hard to do so in this instance, being a graduate surrounded by friends I never see anymore. But that's what the post-audition margaritas are for. Also, I seriously have to re-visit that vocal warm up. It can only help. After the audition, I realized I have no idea how to actually go about getting out of my head. I know I need to do it, but I always interpreted it as "just stop thinking." Which sounds really dumb now that I type it out and maybe I misunderstood all this time. So now I'm questing to find out just how does one "get out of their head."

This audition made me have a pretty serious tangle with that awful "second best" feeling I lived with throughout college. I thought that shiny diploma granted me freedom from that. Not the case. What to do about that is another big question.

I had debated doing Vivie Warren from Mrs. Warren's Profession for this audition, but decided against it simply because of the dialect work. I think I rooted out all those "ask list" words and all the cases of scooting the final 'r' of a word over to the beginning vowel of the next word. But it felt a little weird, and then I bumped into a friend who suggested doing a contemporary piece instead of two classicals. Maybe she was right, and I think the contemporary piece was the stronger choice, but this leads to another of my many issues: I have to stop letting my peers change my mind. It's happened so many times before and I'm tired of watching myself do it. In the case of my peers at school, I think they are all well-intentioned. I simply shouldn't be such a push-over.

I think Steph and Joan have gone slightly stale in their over-working, so I'm going to give them a rest for now and find more pieces to add to my repertoire. While I'm disappointed in the audition, as I was really hopeful to go to Utah this summer, I discovered a few things to work on, and so I move onward, forward, upward to the next opportunity.

Audition Journal #1: Chautauqua Theater Co.

I've heard of doing audition journals, but had no real reason to keep one in college. But I figure it's a good way to keep track of what works and what doesn't and how many auditions I go to, as well as a way to keep people posted on what's going on in my professional life. So here it is, the first audition of my professional life.

Date: Jan 7, 2011, 10:32 AM
Auditioned For: Vivienne Benesch, Co-Artistic Director, Chautauqua Theater Company
Pieces: Joan la Pucelle from Henry VI Part 1
Steph from Reasons to Be Pretty by Neil LaBute
Vivie Warren from Mrs. Warren's Profession (just in case)
Attire: Brown short-sleeved turtleneck
Cream short-sleeved blazer
Denim trousers
Canvas Blowfish wedges
Recent haircut

This audition was for the theater's highly competitive conservatory. Last year, the company was made up primarily of grad students from places like NYU, Yale, and Julliard. So, while my fretting the week before was maybe a little excessive, it at least had good reason.

The day before the audition, I met with my teacher, Vivian, to work on my monologues. I prefaced them by saying, "I don't like to say 'unprepared.' I like to say 'fresh.'" What we tweaked:

• Introduction: Surprise! It's not necessary to say it all in one breath. Here it is with breath marks added: Hi, my name's Elise Soeder. ' I will be doing Joan la Pucelle from Henry VI Part I (upward inflection) ' and Steph from Reasons to be Pretty by Neil laBute.
• Switched the order: Everything about who I was auditioning for (Vivienne Benesch, the company, and the season) pointed to classical work. Therefore, lead with Shakespeare.
• Cut the Steph monologue in half: Again, all things point to classical. Simply make them aware that I am proficient in contemporary work.
• Various adjustments of operatives
• Heighten the stakes for both characters
• Have Joan literally show Burgundy his pining country: You can turn your back on the auditors. (WHAT?! Craziness.)
• Joan is divine and if Burgundy even looks at her, he will give in to her will.
• Don't play humor: Steph isn't laughing so that the audience can. She is dead serious.
• Steph is full of shit: She doesn't know what she's talking about, but pretends she does. Throw it out there.

My session with Vivian was definitely beneficial, as I was more nervous about showing my work to her than in the audition room. In this case, my nerves were directly related to knowing the person and caring about how they perceived me. I showed up 45 minutes early for my audition and, when it was my turn, I went into the room, totally nerve-free. I can't tell you how that happened, it just did (even though my teacher and mentor, Sharon, was behind the table too.)

Vivienne Benesch was lovely, comfortable, and welcoming. I slated for video, and presented my two pieces, after which she asked if I had a third, which I didn't think she would do in a million years. Note to self: always work on the backup just as much as the others. I had prepared Vivie, but flubbed a line about halfway through. After a deep breath and repeating the sentence before, I went forward with it and finished, dignity intact. She then gave me a note to work on with Joan, which was to have no fear or trepidation in showing Burgundy my opinions. We worked on it for about two thirds of the piece. Sharon assured her that I had been working on similar notes concerning freedom of body and voice and I can still go further. She had also said nice things about me when I walked in, concerning my nomination for the LMDA/KCACTF award. (Thanks, Sharon!)

In general, it was a very satisfying audition, confirmed by Sharon who suggested in an email that I consider going to Chautauqua's general audition in NYC in March. Like she said, it's a long shot, but "everything is in place, you just need to try to free yourself up and "play" more...You might try doing your pieces outdoors, singing them, dancing them." If nothing else, I have had a very heartening start to the new year and my life post-graduation.