Audition report:
Aug. 23rd, 2006 09:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fancycwabsI left work yesterday a little before five and zipped downtown to the FedEx Forum, where they'd told me to just show up and they'd squeeze me in. Arrived, parked, walked across Beale Street at Pat O'Brien's and the Hard Rock Cafe and tried about ten doors on the FedEx Forum before I found one that opened.
I actually took this shot as I was leaving, but we'll pretend otherwise. Inside, I filled out the really quick simple application, stapled my theatre resume to it (as my PA experience is nil), and was told to go downstairs and wait. I was twelfth on the waiting list, and they were squeezing us in two or three at a time as they got ahead in their scheduled appointments.
Downstairs was actually courtside. Twenty or thirty young-to-middle-aged men sat on the west end of the court, chatting a little and listening to the previous auditionees take their turns at the mic.
The audition set-up. There's actually someone at the table, but he's hard to make out with his black shirt and khakis.
They'd sit at the table, do a three-second check for levels, and then they'd cue the music...Five, four, three, two, one--Boom boom boom boom jingle jingle ALL RIGHT MEMPHIS... You've heard the rest of the script, just not echoing through the FedEx Forum. All this was recorded, I'm sure, and videotaped. Finished, polite applause, and you're free to go. We'll call you tomorrow morning if we want you to come back.
There were people who had no energy, people who couldn't enunciate, people whose hands shook so violently that you could see the script flutter from halfway across the court, people who got tongue-tied halfway through the read, people who added "Ladies and Gentlemen" at the beginning out of nervousness, people who added their own voice effects ("Mi-Mi-Mi-MIKE Mi-Mi-Mi-MILLER!!!"), people who had false starts and had to be reminded to hold down the button on the mic, one guy who looked like Snoop Dogg (although he didn't sound like Snoop Dogg), and at least one Elvis impersonator. All varying degrees of good, but none that I would immediately peg for the job without some additional training or practice. Myself included, probably--although I have no idea how I actualy did, as once I hit the button on the mic the adrenalin took over and we were done before I'd realized what had happened. I remember a conscious decision to slow down and project some more energy about halfway through the read, but that's it.
I walked off the court, and re-introduced myself to Jon Sparks, who was also there auditioning, sitting courtside (we'd previously been introduced one evening at the Belmont Grill after Measure for Measure. He'd come to see Oliver! a couple of days earlier (don't know if it was in his official capacity as a sometimes reviewer for the Commercial Appeal), and told me that I was mean, whcih I took as high praise. We chatted for a bit, he did his audition, we talked for a few more minutes, he took his leave, and so did I.
I suppose I'll hear something, or not, in the next few hours.
I actually took this shot as I was leaving, but we'll pretend otherwise. Inside, I filled out the really quick simple application, stapled my theatre resume to it (as my PA experience is nil), and was told to go downstairs and wait. I was twelfth on the waiting list, and they were squeezing us in two or three at a time as they got ahead in their scheduled appointments.
Downstairs was actually courtside. Twenty or thirty young-to-middle-aged men sat on the west end of the court, chatting a little and listening to the previous auditionees take their turns at the mic.
The audition set-up. There's actually someone at the table, but he's hard to make out with his black shirt and khakis.
They'd sit at the table, do a three-second check for levels, and then they'd cue the music...Five, four, three, two, one--Boom boom boom boom jingle jingle ALL RIGHT MEMPHIS... You've heard the rest of the script, just not echoing through the FedEx Forum. All this was recorded, I'm sure, and videotaped. Finished, polite applause, and you're free to go. We'll call you tomorrow morning if we want you to come back.
There were people who had no energy, people who couldn't enunciate, people whose hands shook so violently that you could see the script flutter from halfway across the court, people who got tongue-tied halfway through the read, people who added "Ladies and Gentlemen" at the beginning out of nervousness, people who added their own voice effects ("Mi-Mi-Mi-MIKE Mi-Mi-Mi-MILLER!!!"), people who had false starts and had to be reminded to hold down the button on the mic, one guy who looked like Snoop Dogg (although he didn't sound like Snoop Dogg), and at least one Elvis impersonator. All varying degrees of good, but none that I would immediately peg for the job without some additional training or practice. Myself included, probably--although I have no idea how I actualy did, as once I hit the button on the mic the adrenalin took over and we were done before I'd realized what had happened. I remember a conscious decision to slow down and project some more energy about halfway through the read, but that's it.
I walked off the court, and re-introduced myself to Jon Sparks, who was also there auditioning, sitting courtside (we'd previously been introduced one evening at the Belmont Grill after Measure for Measure. He'd come to see Oliver! a couple of days earlier (don't know if it was in his official capacity as a sometimes reviewer for the Commercial Appeal), and told me that I was mean, whcih I took as high praise. We chatted for a bit, he did his audition, we talked for a few more minutes, he took his leave, and so did I.
I suppose I'll hear something, or not, in the next few hours.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-23 03:07 pm (UTC)That's the reaction I usually have when I get in front of a live mic. I have the material in front of me, I've done my rehearsing and worked on problem words and phrases, but then the time comes and I just go into Go Mode and do what I gotta do.
Often times I don't remember what I did until I hear the playback. It's oddly liberating, really; I'm not constantly checking and double-checking myself because there's seriously no time to do so.
But if the adrenalin propelled you, you did a self-check to make sure you were clear and giving energy, hell, it sounds like you did a professional job. All that matters now is if they feel you had a good voice fit.
I'm sendin' the rocking-out vibes out Memphiswards in a major way.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-23 03:15 pm (UTC)Thanks for the positive vibes, and keep 'em coming--'cause it looks like I'm doing it again at 7:15 tonight.