Another audition down.
The subject makes it sound as though I've had a few auditions lately, but the last one I did was in November of 2005. So it's been awhile.
Peter got me into the Brisbane Actor's Network, and that basically consists of this guy called Mark who plays as Charlie Chaplian on Queen St Mall sending us out e-mails regularly letting us know what's going on in Brisbane's drama life. I haven't been getting these e-mails for very long, but it's already sent one of my best mates Kasey to an audition for a musical theater gig, and myself to a theater audition at Griffith university.
Which brings me to my story!
I knew Mt Gravatt was a fair trip from Chermside, but it wasn't until I was out on a highway in the middle of no where that I got a bit worried. Fortunately my bus driver was pretty cool and let me know when we reached the university (although by that stage I had figured it out from the big university signs and whatnot, but hey!). I wandered around a bit until I found the building I was looking for (M10) and sat down for 20 minutes until I realised I was meant to be down a level. But I'd gotten there early so I was still ten minutes early to the audition by that stage.
Not long after, two female students walked out of a door and asked if I was there for the audition. Their names are Molly and Lauren. We got chatting and it turned out that the other girl coming in at three had bailed, so we had a bit of a wait until anyone else was going to show up so we just got chatting about the play, home lives, our formals, teachers, etc, basically anything that came up in conversation. They're pretty cool girls. Forty minutes later or so Lauren goes, "Well, you've got the part!" which, while I was pleased, it was a bit of a cop out because I hadn't done anything.
Two other girls, Amy and Mary, showed up shortly after and we hunted down a spare room and got stuck into the audition process. I was the only one that had prepared a piece from the play (two, actually..) whereas Amy hadn't really read the play at all but had another piece prepared and Mary read from the script. We did some tongue twisters to warm up (I was like what the hell, who does this before an audition...), then Amy used Mary as someone to act out to in her piece, then Mary got me to read from the script along with her.
I said I wanted to do my piece the way I had rehearsed it (because Zoe, the character I went in for, didn't have any long monologues as such I'd strung together a page of the play with pauses and reactions and speaking bits. It sounds a bit dodgy but it works, trust me, we do it all the time). And I didn't stuff up, so I was all "Woo!" and I didn't talk to quickly so double "Woo!" because I have a habit of speaking really quickly so I don't forget anything. I'd been drilling "DON'T RUSH DON'T RUSH DON'T RUSH!!" into my skull all day. And rather than have another actor stand up to direct my acting towards, I used Lauren and Molly because they were sitting in front of me. I don't know if that's a good or a bad idea, but when I auditioned for QUT they asked me to direct my acting towards the student that was sitting in front of me, beside the lecturer or whoever he was, rather than just speaking to the air.
Anyway, I do think I did well, and they clapped and Lauren laughed and said it was funny or whatever, which works because the scene ends with "By the way, don't call me babe. Dickhead." which I think I nailed, ha ha ha.
Then the three of us did an exercise together that Molly and Lauren provided.
A: Well
B: Well I'm here
A: So I see
B: Yes
A: Well
B: Is that all you can say
A: What do you want me to say
B: Nothing
A: Nothing
B: You don't trust me
A: It's not that
B: Then what
That's ALL we got to work with, and from that we had to try to make the scene and the characters and what was going on obvious. Pretty cool I thought. We made it as an employee who had tried to crack onto her boss and then was bailing on the idea. Mary and Amy acted that out.
After that, we did a group reading, all playing different characters than we had auditioned for. (I should point out that when Amy and I introduced ourselves and got chatting she said she was auditioning for Zoe, like me, but said she didn't care.) We read through it once together, then went and did it. We all seemed to click very well. Again, I thought I did a good job because I made distinct differences when I changed characters whereas I don't think Amy did it quite as well.
But maybe I'm just completely up myself, lol, I don't know. They are both definitely good actors. After we did that reading and we were finishing up I said I'd been happy to play any of the female characters. I didn't think that before the audition but after doing the reading I think I need to give myself a little bit of credit and realise that yeah, I could probably do them as well.
Afterwards I went to my friend Tim's house and gave him the play because he said he was interested, and he's going to audition tomorrow. It'd be so cool if we both got in!! I assume I'll find out tomorrow or Wednesday. I'm not taking Lauren's initial yes as offcial.
I'm pretty excited though at the prospect of being in a production. It's been awhile. Plus, one of the women who will be watching and assessing the performance is one of the women that is apart of the audition process to get into Griffith. I'm applying to go to university there next year, so maybe if I do a good job this will all work in my favour a little bit better than just experience. Not that experience alone wouldn't be a great thing!!
PS: SO EXCITED ABOUT SEEING PHANTOM OF THE OPERA AT THE LYRIC THEATER!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!
Peter got me into the Brisbane Actor's Network, and that basically consists of this guy called Mark who plays as Charlie Chaplian on Queen St Mall sending us out e-mails regularly letting us know what's going on in Brisbane's drama life. I haven't been getting these e-mails for very long, but it's already sent one of my best mates Kasey to an audition for a musical theater gig, and myself to a theater audition at Griffith university.
Which brings me to my story!
I knew Mt Gravatt was a fair trip from Chermside, but it wasn't until I was out on a highway in the middle of no where that I got a bit worried. Fortunately my bus driver was pretty cool and let me know when we reached the university (although by that stage I had figured it out from the big university signs and whatnot, but hey!). I wandered around a bit until I found the building I was looking for (M10) and sat down for 20 minutes until I realised I was meant to be down a level. But I'd gotten there early so I was still ten minutes early to the audition by that stage.
Not long after, two female students walked out of a door and asked if I was there for the audition. Their names are Molly and Lauren. We got chatting and it turned out that the other girl coming in at three had bailed, so we had a bit of a wait until anyone else was going to show up so we just got chatting about the play, home lives, our formals, teachers, etc, basically anything that came up in conversation. They're pretty cool girls. Forty minutes later or so Lauren goes, "Well, you've got the part!" which, while I was pleased, it was a bit of a cop out because I hadn't done anything.
Two other girls, Amy and Mary, showed up shortly after and we hunted down a spare room and got stuck into the audition process. I was the only one that had prepared a piece from the play (two, actually..) whereas Amy hadn't really read the play at all but had another piece prepared and Mary read from the script. We did some tongue twisters to warm up (I was like what the hell, who does this before an audition...), then Amy used Mary as someone to act out to in her piece, then Mary got me to read from the script along with her.
I said I wanted to do my piece the way I had rehearsed it (because Zoe, the character I went in for, didn't have any long monologues as such I'd strung together a page of the play with pauses and reactions and speaking bits. It sounds a bit dodgy but it works, trust me, we do it all the time). And I didn't stuff up, so I was all "Woo!" and I didn't talk to quickly so double "Woo!" because I have a habit of speaking really quickly so I don't forget anything. I'd been drilling "DON'T RUSH DON'T RUSH DON'T RUSH!!" into my skull all day. And rather than have another actor stand up to direct my acting towards, I used Lauren and Molly because they were sitting in front of me. I don't know if that's a good or a bad idea, but when I auditioned for QUT they asked me to direct my acting towards the student that was sitting in front of me, beside the lecturer or whoever he was, rather than just speaking to the air.
Anyway, I do think I did well, and they clapped and Lauren laughed and said it was funny or whatever, which works because the scene ends with "By the way, don't call me babe. Dickhead." which I think I nailed, ha ha ha.
Then the three of us did an exercise together that Molly and Lauren provided.
A: Well
B: Well I'm here
A: So I see
B: Yes
A: Well
B: Is that all you can say
A: What do you want me to say
B: Nothing
A: Nothing
B: You don't trust me
A: It's not that
B: Then what
That's ALL we got to work with, and from that we had to try to make the scene and the characters and what was going on obvious. Pretty cool I thought. We made it as an employee who had tried to crack onto her boss and then was bailing on the idea. Mary and Amy acted that out.
After that, we did a group reading, all playing different characters than we had auditioned for. (I should point out that when Amy and I introduced ourselves and got chatting she said she was auditioning for Zoe, like me, but said she didn't care.) We read through it once together, then went and did it. We all seemed to click very well. Again, I thought I did a good job because I made distinct differences when I changed characters whereas I don't think Amy did it quite as well.
But maybe I'm just completely up myself, lol, I don't know. They are both definitely good actors. After we did that reading and we were finishing up I said I'd been happy to play any of the female characters. I didn't think that before the audition but after doing the reading I think I need to give myself a little bit of credit and realise that yeah, I could probably do them as well.
Afterwards I went to my friend Tim's house and gave him the play because he said he was interested, and he's going to audition tomorrow. It'd be so cool if we both got in!! I assume I'll find out tomorrow or Wednesday. I'm not taking Lauren's initial yes as offcial.
I'm pretty excited though at the prospect of being in a production. It's been awhile. Plus, one of the women who will be watching and assessing the performance is one of the women that is apart of the audition process to get into Griffith. I'm applying to go to university there next year, so maybe if I do a good job this will all work in my favour a little bit better than just experience. Not that experience alone wouldn't be a great thing!!
PS: SO EXCITED ABOUT SEEING PHANTOM OF THE OPERA AT THE LYRIC THEATER!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!