Catch up

It is audition season. Well, in theory it is always audition season but this is the time of year that the medium to large Equity theaters hold open calls for their summer 09 - 2010 season. Mostly these happen in NYC. Sometimes a company comes to Philly. Sometimes one needs to go to the company. These are sort of catch-all auditions. I am certain that someone out there has been cast by one of these companies from such a call. I strongly suspect, however, that these companies are merely fulfilling a union requirement. I suspect that they know who they want to hire and I'm fairly sure that it is usually the actor(s) who are already the local celebrities of the town the company works in. I don't mean to be overly cynical, just realistic. I've attended a few of these open calls and followed up to see who was cast. Sometimes there is someone from out of town but more often the cast are residents of that city and have appeared more than a few times at that theater. Or they are all from out of town but basically work there several shows per season. In other words, if they don't already know you, if they haven't called you to set up a private /invited audition then you probably won't work there.

So why go? Because it is like buying a lottery ticket. Realistically you aren't going to win, but someone will. And you can't win if you don't have a ticket. Like I said, I'm sure there are folks who do get cast from open calls. I think it is more realistic to view these as opportunities to be seen and not necessarily cast. That is, if I can blow the auditor away with my work I may not get cast but I may make it into their files. I get seen by auditors and even if I never see them again there is always that 'lottery possibility' that that person ends up in Philly or nearby and I get to connect with them again. Also, there are a handful of small companies that actually do use these open calls to cast. They aren't usually the big names, the ones listed in American Theater Magazine or the main tourist attraction in the large cities. They are hard working artist-entertainers, so there's more than just luck of the draw when auditioning for those companies. Lastly, auditioning is a unique skill. Yes, it is performing, but the stakes are high and the environment is quirky and you are essentially selling your wares to someone who may or may not even be interested long before you enter the room. So I go for the practice, and the off chance that this time I'll get that break.

In other news, I got a bike workstand for Chritsmas and hope to do some basic maintence on my bike and Diane's. I have her's on the stand now so I can put on a new back tire (Kimba likes to use the tires for scratching posts...grrrr. BAD KITTY!) and put on a new saddle and bar tape.

There is a charity ride April 19 sponsored by Girls with Gears I plan to do. It is in support of educating women about heart disease. There are a lot of mile option choices. I thought I'd try the 25 mile but I haven't been on the bike for so long I think this time I'll do the 10 mile option. Plus it's still freaking cold here in April so I want to get in sooner than later.