Not alot to send out this week. Two emailed and one mailed, all for films/video work. I did find an open call for tomorrow though (a theatre company casting it’s upcoming season), which will mean that I’ll have had an audition every day this week. Wicked good Karma, I think.
Just got back from Brooklyn from the callback for the thing I auditioned for on Tuesday. I read for two plays. The first one was a two person play which could be really interesting to work on. The second one I’m less sure about. (Both the play and whether I’d be right for either of the roles I read for.) We’ll see how it goes.
The audition yesterday came about from one of the emails I sent out last week. She originally wanted me to audition this coming Saturday, but when I said I couldn’t do it she fit me in yesterday afternoon. It was just me and the person who was auditioning me in a small rehearsal room. It’s very different doing the monologue in that type of space and to only one person. (Like M. said, it was more like I was working in front of a camera.) I didn’t feel like the monologue had the same energy as the day before, but we’ll see what happens. They were casting for future as yet unnamed productions.
One thing about the small space was that I was very aware that I need to firm up my choices for this particular monologue. I’ve been using all these auditions as an opportunity to put the piece on it’s feet and get a sense of which choices work and which choices work. I think this has been a helpful move, but I need to make it more consistent now.
I’ve decided to tell them at the callback tomorrow night that I’m not available for shows the weekend of June 16. M. & I have had this weekend planned for months and I’ve really been looking forward to seeing Cirque du Soleil with her. Backing out on that if I was offered a show that weekend would be the wrong thing to do. Making this decision before I go into the callback is the right thing to do for alot of reasons.
Heck, with any luck I’ll get offered a show the weekend of the 23rd. It’d suck to not be able to do my club date on the 10th, but I think I’d take the hit if I was offered something. (But would I make the trek out to Brooklyn? That’s another question entirelly…) I also still haven’t heard from the folks I read for on Monday. That’s also something that might be possible…
And honestly, I might not be offered anything, which would mean that all of this angst would be for nothing.
Oh well! : )
Well, things sure do move fast here in the big city. I just got a callback for the show(s) I auditioned for this evening. It’ll be on Thursday evening.
They seem to move pretty quickly at this place (the auditions were very well run… I was in and out in an hour). I may send an email to the place that I auditioned on Monday just to get a sense of when they’re deciding who to cast. Would be good to talk to T.M. on Thursday afternoon as well to get an idea of how to deal with multiple offers in case it comes up.
And I still have to audition tomorrow afternoon.
Oi!
I had an audition way out in Brooklyn this evening. It was a bit of a test getting myself out there, to be honest. My day got started late and I was very tempted to just say the hell with it. I made my way out there though, and I’m glad I did. I thought the monologue went pretty well, and every time I’m up on my feet in front of an audience I realize more and more how much I love performing. I love the energy of the room and being up in front of people. I had a pretty big rush after finishing tonight… almost giddy. It reminds of the feeling I had when I did “The Show” those couple of times. It’s something that I definitely want to pursue and do more and more of.
It was a big audition panel tonight… Probably about 10 or more directors and such in the room, maybe more. They seemed to enjoy the monologue, and I’m learning where I can use the energy of the room if it’s there in the piece. I didn’t finish the whole thing as they were making a point to everyone that they were cutting folks off after one minute, but fortunately my piece has a nice breaking point. (I have enough time to get the sock puppet on my hand… It’s been getting consistant laughs the last couple of times.) I was even able to get through some of the rant tonight before they cut me off. They seemed to like the piece.
It’s also very interesting to me all of the mind games I was going through as I was trekking way the hell out to Brooklyn. The brain was going “Ah, this is probably just community theatre…”, and also “Would I really want to make the hour-plus trip all those nights for rehearsals and the show?”, or “Can I afford to miss the two club dates to do this show?”. It’s amazing how easy it is to sabotage ourselves before we even have a chance to shine. It’s something that I need to constantly be on guard for.
Anyway it’s out my hands now. Onward to my next open call which is tomorrow afternoon. We’ll see how it goes!
Something to meditate on for the coming week. From Jim Rohn’s weekly e-zine:
Forging Your Character by Jim Rohn (excerpted from Leading an Inspired Life book)
Personal success is built on the foundation of character, and character is the result of hundreds and hundreds of choices you may make that gradually turn who you are at any given moment into who you want to be. If that decision-making process is not present, you’ll still be somebody—you’ll still be alive—but you may have a personality rather than a character, and to me that’s something very different.
Character isn’t something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. It’s something you must take responsibility for forming. You build character by how you respond to what happens in your life, whether it’s winning every game, losing every game, getting rich or dealing with hard times.
You build character from certain qualities that you must create and diligently nurture within yourself, just like you would a plant and water a seed or gather wood to build a campfire. You’ve got to look for those things in your heart and in your gut. You’ve got to chisel away in order to find them, just like chiseling away rock to create the sculpture that has previously existed only in the imagination.
But the really amazing thing about character is that, if you’re sincerely committed to making yourself into the person you want to be, you’ll not only create those qualities, you’ll strengthen them and re-create them in abundance, even as your drawing on them everyday of your life. That’s why building your character is vital to becoming all you can be.
I fell asleep on the couch again last night. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but there… it’s out in the open. I started out o.k. I was in bed by 1 a.m. Somehow though, the silence became deafening and I got up to watch t.v. and boom… I eventually fall asleep on the couch. Without getting too much into the depths of my childhood, let just say that not wanting to go to bed at night is something that I’ve struggled with for a long time. When you’re a kid you don’t have much choice in the matter. When you get out onto your own though, you have more options. You can stay up as long as you like. You can watch television. You can surf the internet. When you were in college there were probably always friends that were also up. No one to say otherwise. No one to tell you to go to bed. Woohoo! You’re out on your own and footloose and fancy free. Slowly but surely this builds into a habit that really can mess with your brain. Literally.
This is what I’ve slowly come to realize. Erratic sleep patterns literally mess with your brain. Chronically not getting the restorative REM sleep that you need affects your moods. If affects your outlook on life. Things seem worse than they really are. This has got to stop for me. It has got to become Public Enemy Number One if I’m ever to move forward and create the kind of change in my life that I want.
So what now? Well, hopefully just admitting that this is a habit that I must marshall all of my resources to change is a good start. I’ve known it for some time. (One of the benefits of this blog is that I’m able to look back and see what I’ve posted on this previously). I’m not certain what to do next. Maybe change comes slowly, and breaking habits that you’ve had for a long time takes alot of “two steps forward, one step back”. I know that Tony Robbins says that change can happen in an instant. Maybe the final change does happen in an instant. It doesn’t mean that there won’t be alot of starting an stopping beforehand. This habit has been on my radar to change for a while now. Maybe I’ve had just enough of feeling bad to make the change permanent.
I had a callback tonight for the thing I auditioned for last Monday. The biggest thing that I’m getting used to is the variables in the audition room. Each time I’ve auditioned it’s been different. Tonight there were bright stagelights in the theatre, and the person I was reading with was in the front row of the audience. Perhaps it’s not uncommon to have the person you’re reading with not be on stage with you…. This is the second time it’s happened. The first time it happened my scene partner was downstage right (basically offstage). I could barely see her, which made it very difficult to connect with her. At least this time she was in the front of the audience, though with the lights in my eyes it was still difficult to see her. For the second scene I read tonight my partner was ontage with me, which was alot easier.
It also seems like once you get onstage the added stimuli makes it challenging to make the same choices for the character that you’d planned while working on the scene. I’m thinking that this is an area where I just need more and more experience taking auditions. The more I get used to doing this the better I’ll be.
We’ll see what happens. I’m practicing taking a very “laissez faire” approach to these auditions once they’re through. I keep reminding myself that once it’s over, I’ve done all that I can do and that it’s out of my hands. I have no way of knowing why I may not get any particular audition, so there’s really no use in speculation.
I’m going to try the same thing for my weekly exercise that I’ve been doing with my weekly practice. I may tweak the format in coming weeks.
Core / Strength / Cardio / Flexibility
M: pilates – modified flow
T:
W:
Th:
F: ball crunches – 2 sets
Sa:
Su:
In bed by:
M: c
T: 12
W: 12
Th: 1
F: 2ish
Sa: ungodly late because of gig
Su: c
Exercise descriptions can be found here.
–Update: 5/28/06–
I’ve decided that weekly posts aren’t the best way to track my exercise and sleep patterns. As of this update, I have about 6 weeks of “sleep tracking” posts that I’ve deleted, and aggregated into a single page. Fitness tracking is now here.