I have officially been typecast as the sexy, snarky maid, apparently.
I went to my first professional audition Monday night (not counting lotteries/cattle calls), at 1st Stage in Tyson's Corner. The casting director had seen me at the Actors' Center Lottery Auditions in June, remembered me, dug up my headshot, and decided to call me last week to see if I could audition this week for the first show of their second season, The Game of Love and Chance.
They were mildly pleased with my Silvia and then I read for Lisette (yet another similarity to my character in The Illusion) and I killed it. They were erupting in laughter. When I was done the director kept going on and on. All of them were grinning and continuing to chuckle and the director said, "Wow, thank you so much Nevie, you have perfect comic... everything. You are the whole package." I couldn't believe how immediately gratifying they were. So, needless to say, I'm pretty excited about how that experience went. I don't know what it was but before my audition everything fell into place. I was not nervous, but excited to play. It seems like all the moments in my life I should feel the most pressure, I feel none, and all the times I should have total confidence, I feel none. I had so much fun during my readings Monday. So they did too. :-)
Tuesday morning I had an email in my inbox from Jane Kalbfeld, 1st Stage's casting director, asking me if I could come back to read that night. I agreed and at 7:45 I showed up to find just one other girl there and she being the only other girl on the callback list, and reading for Silvia. Her name is Beth. Mark, the director, called me in and had me read another scene, one that I had had no time to prepare for, and my first reading of it, they were visibly disappointed. Mark said, "Yesterday you were a lot sexier." (The day before, the scene had been Lisette being her natural self. This day, the scene was Lisette pretending to be Silvia, so I was essentially making her too good of an actress in trying to act refined.) He gave me an adjustment, I went for it, he said it was still too refined and he wanted more baseness. I read it again and he was much happier. He commented on a few things on my resume, and my availability, and they told me they'd be in touch with me the next day.
I left feeling like I'd let them down for some reason, I guess because they weren't as energized and laudatory as they had been on Monday night after I didn't nail it right away. But I took comfort in the fact that I'd showed them I can take direction and make the adjustments. I called Rebecca, we hit Chipotle, and I reminded myself if I didn't get the part, I wouldn't have to cancel my birthday party, I could go see all the shows I wanted to, I could take my yoga class, and I could relax.
So by the time Jane called me this morning, I was actually kind of hoping it'd be a no. But it wasn't. I got the part. I immediately started to worry and stress but after the initial nervousness about stress and time management, I'm now much more excited. I can't wait to jump in and dig into the text and get into rehearsal. I know traveling is going to suck and I know once classes start my first three or four weekends of school will be pretty lame with double performances on Saturday and Sunday, but I'm excited to do the actual work. When I picked up my finalized script from Jane today, she kept telling me how energized and alive they felt after my audition, and how excited everyone is to have me. Everyone seems so excited about the newness of the company and everyone is so nice. I know it will be an unplanned for stress until October 4th when the show closes, but I'm feeling more and more confident it will be a good experience.
And I'm getting paid around $100 a week, which is a nice little plus. At least it's enough to cover gas money.
They were mildly pleased with my Silvia and then I read for Lisette (yet another similarity to my character in The Illusion) and I killed it. They were erupting in laughter. When I was done the director kept going on and on. All of them were grinning and continuing to chuckle and the director said, "Wow, thank you so much Nevie, you have perfect comic... everything. You are the whole package." I couldn't believe how immediately gratifying they were. So, needless to say, I'm pretty excited about how that experience went. I don't know what it was but before my audition everything fell into place. I was not nervous, but excited to play. It seems like all the moments in my life I should feel the most pressure, I feel none, and all the times I should have total confidence, I feel none. I had so much fun during my readings Monday. So they did too. :-)
Tuesday morning I had an email in my inbox from Jane Kalbfeld, 1st Stage's casting director, asking me if I could come back to read that night. I agreed and at 7:45 I showed up to find just one other girl there and she being the only other girl on the callback list, and reading for Silvia. Her name is Beth. Mark, the director, called me in and had me read another scene, one that I had had no time to prepare for, and my first reading of it, they were visibly disappointed. Mark said, "Yesterday you were a lot sexier." (The day before, the scene had been Lisette being her natural self. This day, the scene was Lisette pretending to be Silvia, so I was essentially making her too good of an actress in trying to act refined.) He gave me an adjustment, I went for it, he said it was still too refined and he wanted more baseness. I read it again and he was much happier. He commented on a few things on my resume, and my availability, and they told me they'd be in touch with me the next day.
I left feeling like I'd let them down for some reason, I guess because they weren't as energized and laudatory as they had been on Monday night after I didn't nail it right away. But I took comfort in the fact that I'd showed them I can take direction and make the adjustments. I called Rebecca, we hit Chipotle, and I reminded myself if I didn't get the part, I wouldn't have to cancel my birthday party, I could go see all the shows I wanted to, I could take my yoga class, and I could relax.
So by the time Jane called me this morning, I was actually kind of hoping it'd be a no. But it wasn't. I got the part. I immediately started to worry and stress but after the initial nervousness about stress and time management, I'm now much more excited. I can't wait to jump in and dig into the text and get into rehearsal. I know traveling is going to suck and I know once classes start my first three or four weekends of school will be pretty lame with double performances on Saturday and Sunday, but I'm excited to do the actual work. When I picked up my finalized script from Jane today, she kept telling me how energized and alive they felt after my audition, and how excited everyone is to have me. Everyone seems so excited about the newness of the company and everyone is so nice. I know it will be an unplanned for stress until October 4th when the show closes, but I'm feeling more and more confident it will be a good experience.
And I'm getting paid around $100 a week, which is a nice little plus. At least it's enough to cover gas money.