Call me irresponsible
A very very very full couple of days. What a crazy week this is! It almost feels like being back in school, which is the only time I can remember having such a full schedule.
Tuesday was a loooooong day. Worked at 8, and then I was reminded by Shannon that we were hosting a dinner at the Ronald McDonald House for the families staying there. That was at 4:30, which meant I was going to leave work at 3, run home, stuff my face and lounge for half an hour, and then head right back out to work some more. All of this was followed by tech/dress rehearsal 7-10:30. LONG DAY. Although the Ronald McDonald event was really rewarding and cool. They house families with terminally ill kids who need to travel out of town for hospital care. What a great program. So we got to cook for them and talk to them about some of their stories and experiences, and it just felt great to do nice things for people with no strings attached. And rehearsal that night was really crazy, if only because we did a full run with two people missing and it's three days before the show opens! I hope this thing goes well! (crosses fingers)
Also, I have a new reason that my boss is the greatest ever: I'd mentioned something about finding monologues to Shannon last week in some tiny side conversation. This Tuesday, she gives me this stack of books to use to find things. She just said, "And if you need any more, just let me know. I have tons." Nicest boss EVER!
Wednesday didn't start out so hot. I awoke early as usual to do yoga, but I was just too tired for it. I got through my first mountain, and my body just wouldn't take any more. I need to sleep more is what it comes down to. My yoga teacher always said that a lack of sleep can kill your practice, and I'm finally seeing that she's absolutely right. But since I was already up, I decided to do all my laundry tp be productive. That's when I see the message on my phone from a 314 (St. Louis) number! "Perhaps it's about auditions," I say to myself. "Callbacks! Hurray!" I check said message, and it turns out that the director from Upstream Theater has called just to tell me that he really enjoyed my work at the audition, but that he's "going in a different direction" and so can't use me. But he is going to pass along my resume to the other main director at the theatre, which is nice of him and I suppose says something good about me.
Tiny rant, just for a moment: I know that directors and producers and all other casting entities are being nice, good people when they say, "You do great work. You're just not right for this." I just don't know how many more times I'm going hear that before I spontaneously combust. How about I do good work at this audition, and so you cast me, Director Man? How about that? I think there are a number of reasons this keeps happening. One is that my audition skills are not nearly as developed as my rehearsal and performance skills. But I know that at least since moving down here, I've been on top of my auditions like never before. I was so proud of that Shakespeare monologue, and the contemporary pieces I have right now have been pretty solid. And the sides and cold readings I've done have been great. The other large factor in all of this, I think, is that I haven't auditioned for anything where I was the appropriate age, weight, or body type for what these people are looking for. I'd be a lot more castable if I lost 30 pounds, I'm sad to say. I don't know if that is ever going to happen; I've been this body type or close to it my entire life. But I do know that the yoga is helping. My body hasn't looked like this since I dropped those 10 pounds during the Riverside internship, and I can feel my strength and endurance improving, so I just need to keep at it and hope it does something for me in the long run.
Point being, I don't want to be one of those actors that is cast for being a "good fit." I want to be good enough that people see me, and they forget about what they thought they wanted in the role. I want to be so good that they can't help but call me back, expectations be damned. And what was really frustrating about the Upstream show is that it's the first thing I've auditioned for here about which I thought, "Wow, there are no restrictions on this part. She's 20 and she's a nun, so my body won't matter. And the auditions itself went really well. I should be able to get this." And then not even a callback. Not even a callback when all those annoying casting factors are taken away. That really bums me out. Because here's the audition body count as of now:
Repertory Theatre of St. Louis: a dozen shows, no callbacks (but it's the freaking Rep and they cast out of NYC)
Quilters, Avalon Theatre: got a callback, no casting offer
Mother Teresa is Dead and The Good Times are Killing Me, Mustard Seed Theatre: called back for one show (which went amazingly well), no casting offer
Romeo & Juliet, St. Louis Shakespeare: no callback, but we got Casey in! YAY!
Three Tall Women, Muddy Waters Theatre: no callback
The Starry Messenger, Upstream Theatre: no callback
And the show I'm in now I got into on a headshot and resume. And who knows if I'd have gotten this job if I'd had to audition for it. Blech. I gotta lift this curse. CAST ME, ST. LOUIS!
Ok, so that was more than a tiny rant. My apologies, especially since I've been whining about that for a while. I just need to shake it off and get a show and I'll be fine.
So, the day got significantly better when I had my date! Kassi was as great as I could have hoped. She's a swing dancer, which was the weirdest conincidence ever. She even went to live in Dallas for a year to be on the Dallas swing team. She's mostly blues dance and lindy hop, which made Amy and Casey particularly happy because apparently everyone in St. Louis triple-steps instead of lindy-ing, so we now have a connection to the lindy world! It also means I should probably learn to swing dance. Teach me, roommates! I need your dancing skills to pick up ladies!
But the lunch date was great. We have the same taste in sushi, she used to do theatre in the area when she was younger, she loves the art museum (Amy and I are going Friday!), she likes scary movies and haunted houses (which means I have a partner in all things fearsome), she's very pretty and seems like a lot of fun, which will be really nice. She's going to Texas for a wedding this weekend, but I hope we'll do date 2 when she gets back. She told me about the Thursday swing nights that happen at Atomic Cowboy, so Casey and Amy are going over tonight when he's out rehearsal, and maybe I'll do it next week once my show is open.
After the date, I came home and was satisfactorily lazy until making tortilla soup for dinner. SO DELICIOUS. We will have to invest in a lot of Bear Creek soups, because that stuff was fantastic. Then off to dress rehearsal, which was happily not a trainwreck (yay for the crazy show coming together!), and then home for lots of gymnastics viewing. Can I just say how evil gymnastics announcers are? I mean, for crying out loud, people are FLYING through the AIR, and you're really going to sit at your little table with your little microphone and talk about how "disappointing" the evening was for you? I will throw you into a pit of fire, Announcer Man. You leave the gymnasts alone! Especially Jonathan "The Tree" Horton! And "Scissors," who will cut you with his scissory legs! And any of the women, who will beat you senseless just because they can! Seriously, though, I freaking love watching gymnastics, though none of us know how the hell scoring works and why we can see amazing things in each event and then have the gymnast get a 15.1 or something. Boo, gymnastic judges and announcers. YAY, GYMNASTS!
Why do I write such long posts in the morning? Weird.
Tuesday was a loooooong day. Worked at 8, and then I was reminded by Shannon that we were hosting a dinner at the Ronald McDonald House for the families staying there. That was at 4:30, which meant I was going to leave work at 3, run home, stuff my face and lounge for half an hour, and then head right back out to work some more. All of this was followed by tech/dress rehearsal 7-10:30. LONG DAY. Although the Ronald McDonald event was really rewarding and cool. They house families with terminally ill kids who need to travel out of town for hospital care. What a great program. So we got to cook for them and talk to them about some of their stories and experiences, and it just felt great to do nice things for people with no strings attached. And rehearsal that night was really crazy, if only because we did a full run with two people missing and it's three days before the show opens! I hope this thing goes well! (crosses fingers)
Also, I have a new reason that my boss is the greatest ever: I'd mentioned something about finding monologues to Shannon last week in some tiny side conversation. This Tuesday, she gives me this stack of books to use to find things. She just said, "And if you need any more, just let me know. I have tons." Nicest boss EVER!
Wednesday didn't start out so hot. I awoke early as usual to do yoga, but I was just too tired for it. I got through my first mountain, and my body just wouldn't take any more. I need to sleep more is what it comes down to. My yoga teacher always said that a lack of sleep can kill your practice, and I'm finally seeing that she's absolutely right. But since I was already up, I decided to do all my laundry tp be productive. That's when I see the message on my phone from a 314 (St. Louis) number! "Perhaps it's about auditions," I say to myself. "Callbacks! Hurray!" I check said message, and it turns out that the director from Upstream Theater has called just to tell me that he really enjoyed my work at the audition, but that he's "going in a different direction" and so can't use me. But he is going to pass along my resume to the other main director at the theatre, which is nice of him and I suppose says something good about me.
Tiny rant, just for a moment: I know that directors and producers and all other casting entities are being nice, good people when they say, "You do great work. You're just not right for this." I just don't know how many more times I'm going hear that before I spontaneously combust. How about I do good work at this audition, and so you cast me, Director Man? How about that? I think there are a number of reasons this keeps happening. One is that my audition skills are not nearly as developed as my rehearsal and performance skills. But I know that at least since moving down here, I've been on top of my auditions like never before. I was so proud of that Shakespeare monologue, and the contemporary pieces I have right now have been pretty solid. And the sides and cold readings I've done have been great. The other large factor in all of this, I think, is that I haven't auditioned for anything where I was the appropriate age, weight, or body type for what these people are looking for. I'd be a lot more castable if I lost 30 pounds, I'm sad to say. I don't know if that is ever going to happen; I've been this body type or close to it my entire life. But I do know that the yoga is helping. My body hasn't looked like this since I dropped those 10 pounds during the Riverside internship, and I can feel my strength and endurance improving, so I just need to keep at it and hope it does something for me in the long run.
Point being, I don't want to be one of those actors that is cast for being a "good fit." I want to be good enough that people see me, and they forget about what they thought they wanted in the role. I want to be so good that they can't help but call me back, expectations be damned. And what was really frustrating about the Upstream show is that it's the first thing I've auditioned for here about which I thought, "Wow, there are no restrictions on this part. She's 20 and she's a nun, so my body won't matter. And the auditions itself went really well. I should be able to get this." And then not even a callback. Not even a callback when all those annoying casting factors are taken away. That really bums me out. Because here's the audition body count as of now:
Repertory Theatre of St. Louis: a dozen shows, no callbacks (but it's the freaking Rep and they cast out of NYC)
Quilters, Avalon Theatre: got a callback, no casting offer
Mother Teresa is Dead and The Good Times are Killing Me, Mustard Seed Theatre: called back for one show (which went amazingly well), no casting offer
Romeo & Juliet, St. Louis Shakespeare: no callback, but we got Casey in! YAY!
Three Tall Women, Muddy Waters Theatre: no callback
The Starry Messenger, Upstream Theatre: no callback
And the show I'm in now I got into on a headshot and resume. And who knows if I'd have gotten this job if I'd had to audition for it. Blech. I gotta lift this curse. CAST ME, ST. LOUIS!
Ok, so that was more than a tiny rant. My apologies, especially since I've been whining about that for a while. I just need to shake it off and get a show and I'll be fine.
So, the day got significantly better when I had my date! Kassi was as great as I could have hoped. She's a swing dancer, which was the weirdest conincidence ever. She even went to live in Dallas for a year to be on the Dallas swing team. She's mostly blues dance and lindy hop, which made Amy and Casey particularly happy because apparently everyone in St. Louis triple-steps instead of lindy-ing, so we now have a connection to the lindy world! It also means I should probably learn to swing dance. Teach me, roommates! I need your dancing skills to pick up ladies!
But the lunch date was great. We have the same taste in sushi, she used to do theatre in the area when she was younger, she loves the art museum (Amy and I are going Friday!), she likes scary movies and haunted houses (which means I have a partner in all things fearsome), she's very pretty and seems like a lot of fun, which will be really nice. She's going to Texas for a wedding this weekend, but I hope we'll do date 2 when she gets back. She told me about the Thursday swing nights that happen at Atomic Cowboy, so Casey and Amy are going over tonight when he's out rehearsal, and maybe I'll do it next week once my show is open.
After the date, I came home and was satisfactorily lazy until making tortilla soup for dinner. SO DELICIOUS. We will have to invest in a lot of Bear Creek soups, because that stuff was fantastic. Then off to dress rehearsal, which was happily not a trainwreck (yay for the crazy show coming together!), and then home for lots of gymnastics viewing. Can I just say how evil gymnastics announcers are? I mean, for crying out loud, people are FLYING through the AIR, and you're really going to sit at your little table with your little microphone and talk about how "disappointing" the evening was for you? I will throw you into a pit of fire, Announcer Man. You leave the gymnasts alone! Especially Jonathan "The Tree" Horton! And "Scissors," who will cut you with his scissory legs! And any of the women, who will beat you senseless just because they can! Seriously, though, I freaking love watching gymnastics, though none of us know how the hell scoring works and why we can see amazing things in each event and then have the gymnast get a 15.1 or something. Boo, gymnastic judges and announcers. YAY, GYMNASTS!
Why do I write such long posts in the morning? Weird.