Last year, I proposed a class in how to audition for improvisation. The class works on two fronts. For those uninitiated in auditioning for a Second City or a ComedySportz, it takes the mystery out of it. For those just plain new to the audition process, it provides information and an application opportunity to give yourself more of a professional edge. If I am auditioning for a show and I narrow a choice down to two people of similar qualities, I'm going to go with the one who came across the most professional.
Here are a list of audition guidelines compiled from my own experience on both sides of the table...
- Unless given specific instructions on when to arrive, arrive fifteen minutes early. Too early, and you might be an unintended inconvenience for the hosts. Too late, and it's disruptive. If you stroll in right on time, you have not allowed for any information sheet you need to fill out or any processing they might need to do with your headshot and resume. Most adjudicators like to have a chance to look over your headshot and resume before you enter the room.
- Make sure you have a contact number for the people you are auditioning for. If you are going to be late, CALL! If you are unable to make the audition, CALL! Nothing worse than scheduling a slot and not showing up. Even if you have just changed your mind about auditioning for that particular group, CALL! You don't have to tell them why, just that you are no longer available.
- Improv auditions are often held in groups. Connect with the people you are auditioning with. This may mean simply meeting them, but could also mean playing a quick circle game before going in. Another reason to arrive early.
- Bring a good pen. More than likely you'll need to fill out an information sheet and more than likely the pen they'll provide you is a piece of crap ballpoint with toothmarks. And fill out the info sheet honestly without trying to be funny. The audition is your opportunity to show you can get laughs through quality improvisation.
- Bring a calendar in case they need to consider your availability.
- Bring a current headshot and resume. The headshot should look like you. A pleasant smile is fine, no need for your headshot to be wacky. The resume should clearly state your name, contact information, and stage experience. Make sure plays are separate from improv. Don't lie and don't joke on your resume. Your headshot and resume are a little piece of you.
- Dress like you care. Business casual is always a good way to go. You look nice and comfortable. Make sure you are wearing something you feel at ease moving around in and, crawling on the floor in, if called to. Avoid ratty jeans, big heels, noisy shoes, flashy clothing of any kind, t-shirts (period) and hats. NO HATS! It hides part of your face, reads like you are uncomfortable and lacking confidence and, for women especially, it means you are probably a nut.
- If you don't know, ask. Improv games come by many different names. If you are asked to do a game you have never heard of, ask about it. And then jump in big. Even if it is a game you have never heard of or played before.
- If you are asked a question about yourself, just answer honestly. No need to try to be funny.
- This goes without saying for most of you who read this, but don't bring props. Yes, this has happened to me.
- Don't try to socialize with the adjudicators. If you know one of them, a little smile or nod is fine, but keep your demeanor friendly and professional. Come in, do your best, then leave. Don't hang out afterwards! And definitely don't ask how you did!
- If you run into the people that ran the audition later, don't ask about the audition. If they have information to tell you or ask you about, they will. If it's at a bar or restaurant, give them their space and privacy.
- Take care of yourself after the audition. You didn't do as bad as you think, but you also didn't do as well. Some retrospection on how you did and could do better is fine, but don't dwell on it. Go hang out with friends, go to work, go to a movie. Move on with your life. If you do have a relationship with one of the persons who ran the audition, it's okay to graciously ask them for feedback, but wait a few days.
Ultimately, what the judges are looking for is subjective. If you show up like a pro and demonstrate solid, basic improv skills, you have a better shot than most.
Let me know in the comment section if you have an addendum to this list.
THE BS NEWS QUIZ OF THE DAY
Yesterday, I asked...
"David Binner of Doylestown, PA almost had a disorderly conduct charge added to a $5 parking ticket when he did what?"
33% said "wiped the ticket on his ass"- If I were the cop, I would then make him eat it.
22% said kept "cursing at his grandmother"
- You never know. She may have deserved it.
No one said "plowed into the cop's car as he sped away"
45% got it right with "wrote an obscene message on his check"
According to the AP, a man who wrote a vulgar message on the memo line of a check he used to pay a $5 parking ticket has apologized in writing, leading police to drop a disorderly conduct charge against him. Clerks were offended by the message, and the disorderly conduct charge was filed because the comment was obscene, police Chief James Donnelly said. Yep. David dropped the F-bomb on his memo line. I always wondered what people used that for. I wish those people in the VISA check card commercials would insist on paying with a check and use the memo line to tell all those Busby Berkley shoppers to fuck off.
3 comments:
While other people are auditioning, don't constantly stare at the adjudicators. They can sense it, and it makes them uncomfortable. Let them watch the people who are performing. You are an annoying and creepy distraction.
Do what the people running the audition say to do. I've been in auditions where we were doing two-person scenes (they said "Now we're going to pair you up to do two-person scenes, after playing freeze tag.) And someone from the back line jumped into our scene. We went with it but it was so irritating ... and it was like, dude, you're going to get your own two-person scene in a moment. If they wanted people to jump in, they would have said so!
Your words...
"...and, for women especially, it means you are probably a nut."
That you teach ANYONE is frightening. These are word choices that construct a thought on uour art which is indicative of a sexist. There. How do you like being maligned, hypocrite? You have NO business teaching, clearly especially, young women or any women for that matter, about any aspect of theater and/or production. You sound like an old school prude and no one is interested in nor willing to tolerate this archaic, parochial, patriarchal nonsense anymore. The modern stage has no further roles for men of your ilk. This sexist nonsense is a blight and abusive to actors, as it is to people in the world that exists outside the cocoon of your decided self-importance. Beware Joe ol' boy, the Youngs of mind and/or heart; the truly progressives and dangerous artists,(and REAL 'artistes' are ALWAYS dangerous to the status quo and stagnating 'rule sets' of air kissing, self-important twits like yourself), are who are breathing life back into the theater that your generation had neither the vision nor talent to anything but suck at it, draining it of Life. Little drama vampores who hid in the theater while it creaked under the weight of its former glory years, and did NOTHING to enliven it or move it forward. You know, because, hats.
You soul sucking, parasitic little twat. You know how when you walk passed people, students maybe, and hear them giggle or snicker and for a brief, embarassing moment wonder to yourself if they domlt actually respect you and might even be laughing at you?
They are Joe. And you deserve it. What you DON'T deserve Mr. Afraid-of-women-in-hats, is the opportunity to instill the tired old bigotries and boring, supercillious, horse hockey your decrepit old teachers taught you. Strike that: 'taught' is the wrong word. Because you don't teach. What YOU do is wrest the hope, dreams, and idealism; some of the most beautiful traits of any artist, out of them with your jealous, greedy, duplicitous soft hands and for THAT, if there were a theater Hell, I'd wish you and your kind to burn in it. You make me sick. Your contempt for the female actor is clear and made plain by your own words and you have no right - none! - to be so apathetic about your own miserable career that you take your neurotic angst out œn them.
So I'll ask you again, Joe: how does it feel to be called names? To have things assumed of you? Hmmm? Well, your reply can only carry the most trivial of considerations because most men that are bald and wear glasses are also incompetent.
Yes, I was tempted to write 'nuts', but uh, I think I'll let you just go ahead and hang on to your uber-insight as your own. You know, because, hats!
Idiot.
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