technicolor present
is anyone else deperate to see "The Science of Sleep"? Potentially the Autumn's creative equivalent "Little Miss Sunshine"?
Me: “Once I turn 20…you’ll be my little teenage fling! I’ll be the OLDER woman you’re dating.”
D: (insert hissing noise) “But I’ll still OWN your 20 year-old ass…”
Lately the time I’ve spent with D has been some of our best… some of my best in gerneral. I'm so enchanted by him and I don';t care WHO it upsets (cough, JEREMY< cough)I just really trust him now and he’s changed so much it’s remarkable…he compared the memory of our first time together to black and white single frame photography stills… it’s so peculiar how long ago that all seems. Trendy restaurants, Woody Allen flicks, star gazing and submission in union square park and intensely talking about some of our darkest moments.
Yesterday I had the best fricking audition. Even if I don’t get it I’m excited that I was even asked to read for the part in the first place.
I got a call on Monday from the casting director of the Tennessee Williams project I’d submitted to a while ago. He wanted me to come in to read for sixteen year-old baby doll-esque Gladys for the one act "These Are The Stairs You’ve Got To Watch” in the edition called "Mister Paradise"(it’s one of six newly discovered plays by the late Williams and this will be the New York premiere. (They were once put up in Washington D.C) He assured me that it’s quite an honor for 13th Street Rep Theatre and that he’d received exclusive rights from Tennessee’s literary agent in London. He said there would be press involved and that this would be a month long benefit production in order to save the struggling classic theatre.
He also informed me that he almost never calls performers in from self-submissions because they are rarely right for the part and delusional of their own actual age range (he clucked pragmatically that a 35 year-old woman had came in to read for adolescent Gladys and he was more than infuriated…could I guarantee him that I was the right age (approx) did I look exactly like my headshot?) He noted that the aging artistic director Edith O’Hara (more on the incredible woman later…I have a meeting to get to with her in 20 minutes) had specifically wanted to see me because of our shared last name (theatre people are superstitious) and she had remarked , after noticing “Hair: The Musical” as a credit on my resume, that her own daughter Jill or Jenny O’Hara had starred in the original Broadway Production… it was serendipitous it seemed.
I was terrified. This was kind of a big deal and I’ve never done Williams’s before. Sure I’ve obsessed over Streetcar and one day dream of playing dear Blanche… but nothing like this…and further more my audition for fellow classic ‘Antigone’ had gone horrendously and I still hadn’t fully recovered. But like I said: this was big!
Of course I took my sides to Pete’s class for some much needed outside perspective. he’s so brilliant at text analysis it's scary and I needed all the help I could get. But it was the most depressing practice. He all but assured me that I had no chance. I needed to drawl more…be MORE silly, flighty and provocative… and I’m apparently just not mentally “young” enough and I'm too grounded. He said that even though sixteen was not long ago for me, I was probably writing my fourth academy award acceptance speech at that age (he’s right… I was.) so I would need to go back to age… FOUR! I was up for it though so I went home and hit the books.
Well once I was dressed the part the rest kind of fell into place and I’m proud of my audition. The inspired director seemed more than satisfied and got me to try it a few different ways. He complimented me several times but pointed out that I could drop the “teen act” because he was looking at me and BELIEVED me to be the right age, so I could just read the material without the girly affectations. What a relief!
On the way out he stopped me as if he was going to tell me something but then changed his mind. He told me to keep his directions in mind and that he’d really enjoyed my reading…
All you can control is whether you did the material justice and whether you felt you lived up to your own potential… I think I did that so I won't beat myself up either way. D says I do that far too much without reason and perhaps he's on to something. Though obviously I hope I get the call.
P.S: DWARF IS THE COOLEST BROAD/IMP IN THE WHOLE WORLD! My coming of age would not be complete without her INCREDIBLE thoughtfulness and the 9 (so far) insanely creative birthday cards (with cool doodads like the sweet but loathsomely God-awful tasting “Chuckles” candies, a #1 Artist Award, authentic dwarf “pubic” toe hairs, and sparkles galore! All the way from Sprytown, N.S. What can I EVER do for her?!?!? I OGRE Love Karen Elizabeth “Zarf” Myatt. My 20th year shall be dedicated to her
Me: “Once I turn 20…you’ll be my little teenage fling! I’ll be the OLDER woman you’re dating.”
D: (insert hissing noise) “But I’ll still OWN your 20 year-old ass…”
Lately the time I’ve spent with D has been some of our best… some of my best in gerneral. I'm so enchanted by him and I don';t care WHO it upsets (cough, JEREMY< cough)I just really trust him now and he’s changed so much it’s remarkable…he compared the memory of our first time together to black and white single frame photography stills… it’s so peculiar how long ago that all seems. Trendy restaurants, Woody Allen flicks, star gazing and submission in union square park and intensely talking about some of our darkest moments.
Yesterday I had the best fricking audition. Even if I don’t get it I’m excited that I was even asked to read for the part in the first place.
I got a call on Monday from the casting director of the Tennessee Williams project I’d submitted to a while ago. He wanted me to come in to read for sixteen year-old baby doll-esque Gladys for the one act "These Are The Stairs You’ve Got To Watch” in the edition called "Mister Paradise"(it’s one of six newly discovered plays by the late Williams and this will be the New York premiere. (They were once put up in Washington D.C) He assured me that it’s quite an honor for 13th Street Rep Theatre and that he’d received exclusive rights from Tennessee’s literary agent in London. He said there would be press involved and that this would be a month long benefit production in order to save the struggling classic theatre.
He also informed me that he almost never calls performers in from self-submissions because they are rarely right for the part and delusional of their own actual age range (he clucked pragmatically that a 35 year-old woman had came in to read for adolescent Gladys and he was more than infuriated…could I guarantee him that I was the right age (approx) did I look exactly like my headshot?) He noted that the aging artistic director Edith O’Hara (more on the incredible woman later…I have a meeting to get to with her in 20 minutes) had specifically wanted to see me because of our shared last name (theatre people are superstitious) and she had remarked , after noticing “Hair: The Musical” as a credit on my resume, that her own daughter Jill or Jenny O’Hara had starred in the original Broadway Production… it was serendipitous it seemed.
I was terrified. This was kind of a big deal and I’ve never done Williams’s before. Sure I’ve obsessed over Streetcar and one day dream of playing dear Blanche… but nothing like this…and further more my audition for fellow classic ‘Antigone’ had gone horrendously and I still hadn’t fully recovered. But like I said: this was big!
Of course I took my sides to Pete’s class for some much needed outside perspective. he’s so brilliant at text analysis it's scary and I needed all the help I could get. But it was the most depressing practice. He all but assured me that I had no chance. I needed to drawl more…be MORE silly, flighty and provocative… and I’m apparently just not mentally “young” enough and I'm too grounded. He said that even though sixteen was not long ago for me, I was probably writing my fourth academy award acceptance speech at that age (he’s right… I was.) so I would need to go back to age… FOUR! I was up for it though so I went home and hit the books.
Well once I was dressed the part the rest kind of fell into place and I’m proud of my audition. The inspired director seemed more than satisfied and got me to try it a few different ways. He complimented me several times but pointed out that I could drop the “teen act” because he was looking at me and BELIEVED me to be the right age, so I could just read the material without the girly affectations. What a relief!
On the way out he stopped me as if he was going to tell me something but then changed his mind. He told me to keep his directions in mind and that he’d really enjoyed my reading…
All you can control is whether you did the material justice and whether you felt you lived up to your own potential… I think I did that so I won't beat myself up either way. D says I do that far too much without reason and perhaps he's on to something. Though obviously I hope I get the call.
P.S: DWARF IS THE COOLEST BROAD/IMP IN THE WHOLE WORLD! My coming of age would not be complete without her INCREDIBLE thoughtfulness and the 9 (so far) insanely creative birthday cards (with cool doodads like the sweet but loathsomely God-awful tasting “Chuckles” candies, a #1 Artist Award, authentic dwarf “pubic” toe hairs, and sparkles galore! All the way from Sprytown, N.S. What can I EVER do for her?!?!? I OGRE Love Karen Elizabeth “Zarf” Myatt. My 20th year shall be dedicated to her