Worst Audition Ever
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Acting
Forum Discription: Q&A about auditions, character development and other aspects of the craft
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2119
Printed Date: 11/22/24 at 3:51am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Worst Audition Ever
Posted By: eveharrington
Subject: Worst Audition Ever
Date Posted: 11/10/06 at 6:42pm
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I'm sure this has been talked about before but the acting board was getting a little slow so.......
What is the worst audition story you have? As an actor, director, innocent bystander, whatever. ------------- "If nothing else, there's applause... like waves of love pouring over the footlights." |
Replies:
Posted By: falstaff29
Date Posted: 11/12/06 at 9:17am
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The very first play I auditioned for (in middle school), I got called
back to read for a bunch of parts, and thought I did pretty well.
The cast list was up on the teacher's door first thing next
morning. I looked, and looked, and I didn't get a role. So,
I went home dejected while my friends stayed after school for the
readthrough. What had actually happened: there were two sheets
for the cast list. I'd landed a medium-sized role, so I was the
first name on sheet two. The teacher accidentally covered my name
when he taped the sheets together. Mind you, I was eleven, so this was pretty traumatizing! |
Posted By: Nanette
Date Posted: 11/12/06 at 10:08am
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I once had a singing audition for Disney World. I left my home (2 hours away) at 4am and was given audition number something like #1843 when I arrived for the audition. They were calling people in 20 at a time so it was well into the afternoon before I was finally called. I sang 4 bars and then .... "Thank you. NEXT!" How depressing! ------------- In a world of margarine, be butter! |
Posted By: DWolfman
Date Posted: 11/12/06 at 11:04am
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Have been thinking about this thread and my auditions. I HATE'em! Even now as a seasoned actor (and director), I realize there are thousands of variables in casting a show and knowing that even my best may not be what the director wants (sometimes for reasons valid only to the director) makes it even worse. However...even my worst audition turned out to be my best: When I was an unseasoned newcomer to this craft, with only a few roles done, I auditioned for a part in "Whose Life is it Anyway" and realized even then that I was not what the director had in mind. With the fervor (and idiocy) of youth and inexperience, halfway home from the auditions I turned my car around and went back to discuss it with the director. Of course, they had already locked up. Rushed home, got on the phone and called the director's number and expressed my thoughts that I had not done well and would really like another chance to show what I could do. He replied, "I thought you did well and I was really considering you for the part, but we have to do something about your Southern accent. The setting is New York. I don't want a New York accent, but I can't have Alabama either. If you will consent to a line by line working to discuss it, I will be glad to give you the part since you obviously want it so dearly." Still new and looking for ways to improve my chances and never having worked with this director before, I agreed immediately. After the read-through, my first rehearsal was a half hour session one on one with him where we "cleansed" the accent from my delivery. I learned extremely valuable lessons in diction, line analysis, accent, and having a proper "ear" for acting. Since that time we have worked many shows together, me learning all the way. Once I decided to be a director, much of what I use came straight from this remarkable craftsman and friend who took a chance on my worst audition ever. ------------- Even a man who is pure of heart... |
Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 11/12/06 at 11:08am
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Nanette - you got four four bars further than my audition for the Broadway
production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" - I walked out on the stage (after the requisite 9 hour wait), and juuuuuuust as I slowed down to stop, they said "thank you". I hadn't even come to a complete stop yet. LOL And I SO wanted to be in that show LOL. |
Posted By: teridtiger
Date Posted: 11/13/06 at 1:36pm
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At my first audition for the Southern CA New Playwrights Festival ("The Fritz Blitz" as it's known in San Diego), the Artistic Director apparently was so impressed with me that he spoke to the Artistic Director for a major regional theatre here and arranged for me to go and read for their upcoming production of "Proof". I went and picked up the sides two days before, and promptly went home and studied. Audition day rolls around. It's a very hot Southern CA day. I wore jeans and a white t-shirt and brought along a lightweight jacket. Parked in the downtown parking structure - which is attached to a shopping center (the theatre is located underground). Stopped at Starbucks to get my parking validated and to pick up some water. On the spur of the moment, I bought an iced double shot. Drank it while walking to the theatre. I showed up expecting a ton of people waiting to read. No. Just me. Based on the Artistic Director's recommendation, they had made a special audition for me BEFORE they even started seeing people in San Diego!! They had just came back from Los Angeles auditions. Off I went into the giant theatre and read with the Artistic Director (who was pre-cast as the father), with the show's director sitting halfway back. By this time, the caffeine had kicked in - along with my nerves. Pressure!!! I started sweating profusely, soaking through the white t-shirt. Couldn't remember one damned line without reading directly off the sides. I fumbled and bumbled and generally made an ass of myself. I felt completely out of my element. A community theatre actress auditioning for the BIG TIME! And a "special" audition at that! Hanging my head in shame, I skulked out of the theatre. I totally blew it. THEN... with my adrenaline soaring from the audition and added caffeine, I proceeded to the confusing parking stucture. COULDN'T FIND MY CAR!!! Wandered around for 20+ minutes. Finally found it. I was parked right next to one of the elevators. Got in my car, started it up, felt ill, opened the car door, leaned out and then threw up - just in time for the elevator door to open letting loose a stream of people. Yeah. I didn't get the gig. Danica McKellar (from "Wonder Years" fame) ended up with the role. And she was great. |
Posted By: B-M-D
Date Posted: 11/22/06 at 12:31pm
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These are all great stories! Mine was in the 1970's and I can't even remember the play. I was in my early to mid 20's at the time. I waited almost forever to read and was getting extremely annoyed that many people had read multiple times while I had yet to read. Finally my chance comes, I read and then without missing a beat while I'm up on stage I say "you can take this show and shove it up your I've mellowed a bit since then. ------------- BD 
"Dying is easy, comedy is hard." |
ing aPosted By: JShieldsIowa
Date Posted: 11/22/06 at 1:14pm
| B-M-D - but did you get the part?!? |
Posted By: B-M-D
Date Posted: 11/22/06 at 5:56pm
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LOL!!! No, but I mysteriously disappeared to Sicily after that. ------------- BD
"Dying is easy, comedy is hard." |
Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 11/30/06 at 5:59pm
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Beware the Music Director that thinks he's funny. I went on stage to sing my audition piece for our latest show. The accompanist played the intro, I took a deep breath and the Music Director yells "Next". Great ice breaker for the auditions but boy did it take the wind out of my sails for a second or two. PS, I did get the part. The director really wanted me to build and the costume was already built to my measurements. ------------- Patrick L. Davis Fort Findlay Playhouse |
Posted By: ilove2act
Date Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:17pm
One of the kids in my children's theater production asked to skip a rehearsal in the week befor Hell week so she could go to an audition at the local TV station. I granted her the request and joked with her if she made it big she had to thank me. It was down from 100's of kids to a select few and the director was asking them all the same question when the were in a line up on stage. I have always told my kids, "Don't be first, Don't be last, Be UNFORGETABLE in the middle." So there she was in the middle, thinking of a great answer to the SAME question he was asking all the other girls. He got to her, asked the question and she delivered a wonderful answer and instead of moving to the next girl he asked her another question. She was silent as she thought, she then answered and he complemented and thanked her and she ended it right there when she said "Thank you Mam" Needless to say, she didn't get the part and she blames me for being in her head. All I had to say was, "I can only take you so far honey!"LOL
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Posted By: POB14
Date Posted: 12/11/06 at 9:36am
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Hey, at least she was unforgettable! ------------- POB Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard |
Posted By: ComebackKid
Date Posted: 3/11/07 at 10:06am
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My worst audition was not for a show but for a university program...and it was not just one audition, but an entire day of humiliation.
Among other schools, I auditioned for the Cincinnatti Conservatory of Music, both for the musical theater program and the voice program. My musical theater audition was early in the morning, and the first thing was the dance audition (two hours long, which consisted of about an hour of ballet class, followed by learning and performing a dance combination).
At the end of the dance audition, they started cutting people and invited only some of the people to come back to sing and act. I did not make the cut, and I had a complete meltdown (I prefer to think of it as a "diva moment"). I stormed up to the judges and shrieked at them that I had flown all the way across the country for this audition, that singing was my real strength, and by God they WOULD hear me sing! (Hey, this was something like 30 years ago...give me a break!) In retrospect I think it was a combination of stress, fatigue and disappointment. Surprisingly, they let me stay and sing...and not surprisingly, I did not get offered a place in the program.
My voice audition was later that afternoon, and I was still rattled from my musical theater audition (which was the program I really wanted). The first song they asked to hear was an opera aria with a loooooong piano introduction and then starting on a very difficult high note (okay, it was "Una Furtiva Lagrima"), which had never given me problems before. The pianist played the introduction, and I sang the first note....in the completely wrong key. I stopped dead in my tracks and asked if I could start again. Same loooooong piano introduction, and once again I croaked out the wrong first note, this time even further off. At that point I burst into tears and started blubbering about how this never happened and I didn't know what was wrong.
They were very nice about it and told me to take 15 minutes and go outside for some fresh air and then come back. When I came back, I was somehow able to get the first note right, but I was certainly not at my best. Would you believe I didn't get a spot in the voice program either?
The story has a happy ending. I did get into the BFA musical theater program at far less prestigious university, and it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. I got terrific roles and tons of experience that I'm sure I never would have gotten at Cincinnatti.
Comeback Kid
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Posted By: theactordavid
Date Posted: 5/23/07 at 11:57am
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Another worst is best story:
At the age of 13, I accompany a friend to an audition as we are on our way to a party. He wants to audition for a youth production of 1984 for our local arts council. I want to go to the party. I sit in the corner waiting. Many friends and schoolmates there. The director has no script, so he chooses sections of dialogue from the novel. Everyone reads. Very dramatic, you can imagine. He turns to me. "What about you?" "I'm just here with my friend, we're going to a party." "Well, you're here now, why don't you read?" "Oh, no, I'm just waiting for my friend." "Yes, but while you're waiting, why don't you read?" "I don't think--" "Oh, come on, you ---" "Alright, jeez, already." I read. I make jokes, ham it up, mugging, totally not what Orwell had in mind. Hey, what can I say? Never been in a play, never auditioned before, had no clue about acting, didn't even want to be there, just wanted to go to the party. Got the lead, my friend got supporting role. Stayed friends anyway. When the applause died down, I thought, "yeah, I like this". Nearly forty years later.... ------------- There are no small roles, only roles with a low line-load and minimal stage time. http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com |
Posted By: AngelSong76
Date Posted: 6/22/07 at 9:41pm
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Hmm... I just had my worst audition ever only a few days ago. Then again, I'm pretty new at this, so there haven't been many. My community theatre is doing Hamlet right now and auditions were Monday. It rained and I was soaking wet when I entered the theatre, not to mention the rain had practically washed my contacts out of my eyes. So there I was, trying to read the page they wanted for audition, and one of my contacts folded in my eye. I couldn't see a thing! I had to look down at the paper with one eye just to read it, and then when I looked up at the actor who was reading Hamlet and I know he thought I was winking at him or something! Not being able to read property, I messed up most of the lines and left the theatre feeling pretty stupid.
Needless to say, I didn't get a part. But it is going to work out fine because I wanted an opportunity to work backstage, so here's my chance!
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Posted By: sparkingdiamond
Date Posted: 8/27/07 at 2:11pm
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hahahaha my worst audition was in middle school, we did Seussical. The director told us we could either audition in the morning with the pianist or in the afternoon with a CD. I decided to be a smartass and audition in the morning with the pianist so it would be like a real audition.
Well, as everyone knows, it's not always your best performance in the morning, especially when you decide to sing I Dreamed A Dream for SEUSSICAL. Long story short, I got a tiny supporting role with 3 lines, and my younger sister got the lead. Never doing THAT again...haha |
Posted By: whitebat
Date Posted: 8/27/07 at 8:37pm
| "Twelfth Night" at CSU. Nobody told me "Twelfth Night" was a musical. Everyone else there has major theater or at least English background. I chose what must be one of the most obscure monologs in Shakespeare. And I had to dance, which I just try to avoid, and I had cowboy boots on, and when I took them off my sock had a huge hole in it. But I learned how they run a musical audition for real, and I hope I made the other people at the audition feel better. |
Posted By: SherrieAnne
Date Posted: 9/09/07 at 4:38pm
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In college, I got a call from a friend that there was an audition for THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK...in ten minutes. My first audition. Mind you, this is the mid-1970s, & I was just planning to be hitting the library that afternoon - I was dressed in a long t-shirt & jeans with the outseams split to the knee, with hand-decorated sneakers & Marsha Brady pigtails. No time to change - the theatre was on the other side of campus. Now, I've always been a large gal, so the part for me is Mrs. Van Dann. As I read the part about still having good legs, I stuck mine out...and my jeans leg fell away, revealing knee socks with wide red, white & blue stripes. I was mortified. And needless to say, I didn't get the part. ------------- There's a little bit of diva in all of us. Some just have a larger helping than others. |
Posted By: biggertigger
Date Posted: 9/20/07 at 9:56pm
I had just moved to California (I was going to be a star  ) and went right down to my first audition there. I had a monologue all planned, a musical number all planned and arrived with my Polaroid head shot (hey, I was poor). Needless to say, they handed everyone a new song to sing (which I never heard) so instead of wowwing them I fell flat with all this wonderful training I had.
Well, like everyone has mentioned "needless to say" I didn't get the part, but the director was really kind to pull me off to the side and tell me that he felt I had potential and that I needed to learn how to audition better.
I stuck it out and ended up auditioning for him again a few years later, I didn't get the part, but I did make a good friendship with him after that. He keeps encouraging me to move back out to California again. ------------- The two greatest days in a theater persons life, the day you start a new show and the day the damn thing closes. |
Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 9/21/07 at 10:03pm
But do you really need all that Sun, Surf 'n Ssss ? {wots the word again??? Oh yes! Ssus.. su.. sunsceen  }The Glam 'n Glitz of gold bricks would be  though!------------- Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |
Posted By: biggertigger
Date Posted: 9/26/07 at 10:01pm
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Joe, You do live closer to the Gold Coast then I do.
------------- The two greatest days in a theater persons life, the day you start a new show and the day the damn thing closes. |
Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 9/26/07 at 10:39pm
I'm not sure? I think we are over 7000KM's? away from Ozywood on the Bananna coast? {which is further then from London to Moscow} The only difference between there & here, besides the glam 'n glitz, is our Surf meets the Sun at night!  ------------- Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |
Posted By: RoseColored Gla
Date Posted: 9/03/08 at 4:28pm
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I was auditioning people for Drakula: the rock opera. Its one that nobody had ever heard of, so i just asked people to sing a song from a rock opera, or an original song. So i get a guy who thinks he is gonna wow me. He does some song from JCS. If he was good, I would have remembered it. He does it in a cape. He ends it by turning his back to me, then turns around with a flashing smile. and i do mean his smile was flashing. red, blue, green, sparkly. Would YOU have cast him? ------------- Dennis Dippary Artistic Director Songs for a New World http://rosecoloredglassestheater.com - RoseColored Glasses May Dionysus smile upon your every performance! |
Posted By: TonyDi
Date Posted: 9/04/08 at 7:47am
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Gosh where to begin - I've had so stinking many bad auditions...!! Well the MOST prominent ones in no particular order.... 1) Auditioned for JCSStar AND they were auditioning another theater company's play at the same time at the same building location (a paying gig). I REALLY WOULD have been given the part I wanted in JCSS BUT had to consider the $$. Took the money. Turned out to be one of the worst experiences of my life with a director who was a High School theater teacher - BAD BAD experience. Not that HS Theater directors are bad - just this one WAS.
2) Then the time as director I had almost 100 women in 2 days to audition for Steel Magnolias. I had a GREAT stage manager who was totally organized and kept things flowing well. BUT I was exhausted by one woman who kept begging me to do Truvy's role as therapy to help her forget that she had just buried her teenage son (for real) who had died. I NEVER promised her a thing. BUT she GOT the role and was great in it so I luckily made the right choice. My Shelby was the very very last, should have been the first then the rest could have gone home who wanted that role. But she was patient. I cast her, SHE was great.
3) Oh God, the time I went through Fiddler auditions for Tevye. No-one else auditioned for the role, I was qualified, knew the role front to back, kept reading with all kinds of people in the other roles. I had been publicly and privately promised the role for almost two years before many times (people still to this day come up and tell me they thought I was supposed to do that - this has been about 18 years ago). After auditions people thought I was a shoe-in, I mean, ONLY one auditioning for Tevye....you'd think. THEY HAD PRE-CAST THE ROLE two weeks prior and didn't tell anyone. Offered me Lazar Wolf. Devasted!! CHEATED? LIED TO? Oh yeah, but I TOOK the role, blew the Tevye off the stage at every performance (he was drunk at EVERY show), saved his butt (and the show) on many occasions, was heaped with praise by everyone, including the critics, was told by the guy who played Tevye that had HE known I was promised the role he would have never accepted it (yeah right). But it cemented MY position in our theater community and he never did another show in town. Go figure.
There are many more - but too long now. Oh the memories, some fond, some not too fond at all. But the good out-weighed the bad I must say.
TonyDi
------------- "Almost famous" |
Posted By: greenphoenix
Date Posted: 2/04/09 at 4:12am
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One that stands out is when I was about 19. I must say that I HATE auditioning with a monologue. I am a GREAT cold reader--just give me a script. But I had prepared a piece from a movie monologue book. My monologue was from The Breakfast Club! What was I thinking? There were about a half-dozen auditors (why?), and they kept asking me to do my silly monologue in different ways. "Do it in slow motion." "Sing it like an opera singer." It was so awkward and strange. Then they had all the actors gather onstage together for an acting exercise. We all had to pretend to be parts of a machine. I guess this was to judge us on teamwork. It was very "Improv Class 101", and I was quite bad. Again, just give me a script to read!! ------- Another bad one is when I had a callback for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", and the director grouped us with scene partners. He specified to NOT attempt the fight choreography, just to focus on the lines. My partner insisted on flinging and spinning me about the stage, scripts in hand, while I was trying to keep my place and not fall down. An example of how a scene partner can make or break you. |
Posted By: Linda S
Date Posted: 2/04/09 at 3:53pm
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The worst for me is when people audition for me in public places. They see me in the grocery store and start singing. One guy followed me through the Mall singing at the top of his lungs. I mean really . . . Do they honestly think that I will cast them in the frozen food aisle!
Linda
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Posted By: Nanette
Date Posted: 2/04/09 at 10:51pm
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I think I had a couple of the "worst auditions ever" tonight! God bless those kids, but they do try!
EG: The shy, soft-spoken child who auditions monotone EVERY TIME who wants to play the wicked queen. When asked to "show me the queen" gives me exactly the same thing. She's a dwarf now. :o) We'll be working on expression and character development a little more. ------------- In a world of margarine, be butter! |
Posted By: ooliemartha
Date Posted: 3/18/09 at 8:12am
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okay. I know you wrote this a YEAR ago, but wow, I HATE when people bring props to an audition. Totally sad. Sorry you had to see that! ------------- |
Posted By: TonyDi
Date Posted: 3/19/09 at 7:10am
OR how about the actor who comes to auditions in full costume and makeup for the role they THINK they're good enough to walk right into....just because they have the costume and did the makeup? Yeah, that's happened more than once. I am just too scared of people quite like that.
TonyDi ------------- "Almost famous" |
Posted By: Scott B
Date Posted: 3/19/09 at 3:25pm
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Guys ... gals ... stop it ... you're scaring me. This will be my first time directing a larger cast this summer and auditions are in 6 weeks for Bye Bye Birdie. Please don't let these things happen. ;-) |
Posted By: lalunabella
Date Posted: 4/06/09 at 4:22am
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Oh my goodness, these stories are priceless!
------------- "Yes I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one that can find his way by moonlight and sees the dawn before the rest of the world." ~Oscar Wilde |
Posted By: eveharrington
Date Posted: 4/18/09 at 9:01pm
that's so funny, I just came back on this board after being gone for a while and was browsing around when I saw this thread was back at the top of the page. Apparently I've discovered the never ending thread.  ------------- "If nothing else, there's applause... like waves of love pouring over the footlights." |
Posted By: GracieGarland
Date Posted: 4/21/09 at 9:11pm
I auditioned for the lead church lady in The Best Christmas Pagnant Ever. What was required was one song. I sang that song over and over for weeks, and on the twenty-five minute drive to the auidtion. I stand before the director and begin my song Kick in the Head ala Dean Martin. My lip ala ELVIS! I was horrified. The director stopped me half way thru and then asked for my joke. Joke?! Without missing a beat--"So, this mushroom goes into a bar and asks the bartender for a drink. The bartender says, "We don't serve your kind here." The mushroom replies, "Why not? I'm a fungi " I got the part and had the time of my life.
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Posted By: John Luzaich
Date Posted: 4/24/09 at 5:32pm
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When we produced The Wizard of Oz we had a million girls audition for Dorothy. We all have favorite roles we'd like to play just once in life and I'm sure many, many girls have dreamed of playing that role. Anyway, Dorothy is supposed to be 13. We had girls from age range of 7 to about 30 audition. You see people get up to read and you think to yourself "what are they thinking?" A woman in her late 20's was also big and tall??? We ended up with a wonderful age appropriate girl in the role, but it's funny how people view themselves.
We had the guy in his 50's audition for the George Bailey role in It's a Wonderful Life.
For a musical, we provide a pianist to play for auditions. We've had some people bring their own pianist, and of course some people have no book or sheet music and just want to sing acappella. After the third un-prepared guy sang "Happy Birthday" as his song of choice, the director stood up and said "OK now, no more happy birthdays, pick something else.... a real song!"
One of my favorites was when we produced the play Steel Magnolias and the guy showed up for auditions. All of the press releases listed the SIX WOMEN'S PARTS in the show. We asked him where he heard about auditions, he said he saw the info in the press release! We had to tell him again, it's six women, no men. (he was a professor at a college in his 60's) ------------- John cfct@cfu.net http://www.osterregent.org http://www.facebook.com/osterregent |
Posted By: iamadramanerd
Date Posted: 6/19/09 at 9:55pm
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Story #1
I was having auditions for Annie and a women came in with the costume and make-up on to play Miss Hannagan. Only her make-up was more on par with Betty Davis in Whatever happened to Baby Jane. She scared me with her reading, really chewed up the scenery, so I didn't cast her. #2 I just finished Peter Pan and at auditions I had boys and girls from 6 to 30 there to try for the part of Peter. My fault, if I had known I would have published an age range and sex. (Boy! Peter Pan is a boy!) Anyway, I had a "girl" that I couldn't figure out if she was a she or he the whole time she was singing and reading. Yeah, she didn't get the part. ------------- Wove, true Wove. |
Posted By: Tallsor
Date Posted: 6/20/09 at 12:16pm
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Well, http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/member_profile.asp?PF=1997&FID=19 - iamadramanerd , you do know Peter has been played (successfully) by a woman - Mary Martin and Sandy Duncan included ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan_%281954_musical - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan_(1954_musical ). |
Posted By: Rorgg
Date Posted: 6/23/09 at 2:39pm
| Kathy Rigby, too, unless I'm mistaken. In fact, the most memorable live stage productions of Peter Pan have been by women. |
Posted By: iamadramanerd
Date Posted: 6/23/09 at 8:52pm
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Wow, I never thought I would get a lecture on this board. I know that mostly women have played Peter Pan! That is why I made the comment I made. In my research for directing the show I watched every taped version of the show and attended five live performances all with women playing the part. But, each time Peter would make an entrance and talk, all the little kids in the audience would turn to their mom's with puzzled looks on their faces. You could see their thought process. "That boy is a girl!" Soooooo..... I made a deliberate decision to cast a boy. Thanks for the schooling on theater anyway. ------------- Wove, true Wove. |
Posted By: Miss Sara
Date Posted: 1/29/10 at 12:32pm
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I had decided to take some time off of acting in community theatre (by time off, I meant one show), and went to an audition for a revue to give my friend moral support. On the first day of auditions, I chose not to go for the show, but being absolutely addicted to theatre as though it were a drug, I couldn't keep myself from auditioning the following day. For the audition, we had to select our own song, something that other auditioners had done weeks in advance. The night before, I dug through some recordings of myself singing different songs, chose the one I thought I sounded the best on, and rehearsed it for a few hours that night, then again before auditions the following day. Forgetting my insane fear of singing publicly without insane amounts of preparation, I launched into my song. According to those who witnessed it, I nailed it (the uptempo bit from "Every Story Is a Love Story" from the musical Aida), but what ended up happening was me rushing off the stage as soon as I was finished, making my way to a chair where I pretty much folded in on myself, then shaking violently for a quarter of an hour. We were then asked to read, as there was still some dialogue in the script, and I obliged. One of the sections was for narration and a 'monologue' of the female lead. I watched as every other auditionee was called up to read, and then the director, who I knew well, never called my name and started to move on to the next part of the audition. Upset, and still traumatized from the music audition, I loudly exclaimed, "Stupid b*tch didn't call my name!" She apologized to me, and I proceeded to read the bit, then shaken, quite horribly. For reasons unknown to me, I somehow still managed to get cast as one of the featured soloists in the revue. I will never understand how I pulled that one off, and still cringe when I think of that audition experience. |
Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 1/29/10 at 7:36pm
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Gawd I don't remember my last audition as it was back in 1960 at some school hall in I think Islington London, for a new musical called 'Olver' which was headed to be done in a West End proeatre.
All I can remember becoming a 'Workhouse' urchin & swept along as part of a group of fellow raggy arse orphans, doing the show, untill I was transported as a 10 quid POHM, on my Todd from Tillbury Docks to Vandeamonland.
I have never done an auition since!
though here being a bloke there is no need, you'll get a part by just fronting up!
I suppose the unworst & funniest audition I was involved in was back in the 90's. We were bumping in 'Bran Nue Dea at a regional venue here in the south west.
They were attempting to audition local Aboriginees as warm props to bolster the cast & trying to set the lighting at the same time.
The LD was finding hard to focus lighting because of the venues maskings of borders & legs.
I can't remember who actualy blurted it out, but he brought the audition to a halt in stone silence by screaming out "can't anyone one just hang these bloody blacks properly?"
After a very long silence Ernie Dingo [star of the show] burst out laughing, cacking himself & then nearly everyone in the venue was almost reduced to tears with laughing.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/5789334/bran-nue-dae-dawns-on-film/ - http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/5789334/bran-nue-dae-dawns-on-film/ ------------- Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |