Actors are weird enough on their own...but imagine 1,000 of them getting together in one weekend to audition for 70-80 theatre companies with only 90 seconds. Crazy, right?! You only get one audition for the whole day that determines how good the companies think you are, who you will be called back for, and if you even get to attend the dance audition later that evening. So...no pressure, or anything...
Then, you have the lovely actors who go around yelling how many call backs they got, posting it on Facebook, and proceeding to ask you how many you got.
In the call back room (and by the call back room, I mean hotel room where there's one chair and a bed), the companies can ask you to do anything. I think my favorite was when a company asked my friend to just run around the room and act like she'd had too much sugar. I've had to sing songs I've never heard of to a karaoke track with no indication of where the song even starts...and somehow make it amazing! Some companies have even asked me to tell them about my family...?
All day, it's an emotional roller coaster. You go into a call back and think they love you. You think that you are the perfect person for them, but then you realize they are dating hundreds of other people. I'm on The Bachelor and I didn't even know it. Companies are hot tubbing with other people (figuratively) and when you don't get a phone call, you don't get a rose.
I'm happy to report that, thanks to SETC, my Gypsy Life will continue to the "heart of Northern Indiana" at Blue Gate Theatre this summer. I couldn't be more thrilled and grateful to play Katie in their musical "The Confession."
