Sunday I had my very first audition. Crystal Day lives in Charlottesville, which is much closer to the Shenandoah house than our Maryland house. We were scheduling an audition for Monday night when I discovered this, so suggested she visit while we were still at the weekend place. Crystal initially applied for Kayla, but I thought she’d make a really good Velma as well, so asked her if she’d consider that role as well.
I’ve been allocating a half hour for each audition, since all my research indicates 10-15 minutes is the norm. I learned that keeping to that schedule will be a challenge for me.
I found Crystal to be very informative and helpful. She’s a pro actress, meaning that’s how she pays the bills (though she does some part-time work in sales to help smooth her earnings out), and we talked shop a while. Of course, I also droned on (and on (and on)) about my hopes/dreams/fantasies, which she dutifully smiled and nodded at (my wife only nods ;-). I wanted to hear her sing, but ran out of time (my wife was giving frantic wrap-it-up gestures as they were already packing to leave) and also totally forgot I wanted to test her directability (basically, ask the candidate to shift their emotional tone/goals for the scene and see if they respond). She did a monologue from Bull Durham, one of my favorites (when Annie talks about the church of baseball), and another from Contact, which I liked, though I’ve never seen the movie. She did two more, which I felt spoke to the characters, but I didn’t recognize the source so they didn’t stick in my memory. I’m glad my first experience was with an experienced actress, but wish I had better control over my babble.
On Monday I had three auditions. ‘Shockingly,’ each ran long; the first two only ‘ended’ when the next candidate arrived. One yesterday, which also ran long. This is going to be a real challenge for me on Thursday, as I’m meeting a candidate at the local Panera Bread (so far, the only one not comfortable meeting at my house) and have another one scheduled a half hour later. Can I keep my damn mouth shut and keep the focus on the actor? Don’t change that channel! Find out after the break…
Damn that babble!
