Theater Or

Back in May, I auditioned for Denver Center Theater Company. I wrote up a post about how they rarely hire from within Denver Metro and implored all cities everywhere to wake up to their local talent. No, DCTC did not call and, as far as I know, I still haven't pissed anyone off with that particular blog post. I'm just not that popular or powerful.

On the other hand, someone is out there listening, watching, and taking notes. Let this be a lesson to actors everywhere. (And to blogging actors, especially!)

The audition for DCTC went fine, all things considered. When I walked in the casting directors made polite faces, but were obviously exhausted from seeing 250 hopeful faces in the course of two days. Aside from the casting directors and the accompanist, there was a woman sitting in the audience. I assumed she was timing the auditioners since DCTC made it clear that they would be strict about time constraints. I did my monologues, sang my 16 bars and made a swift exit.

The next day, I got an email from a casting director at Theatre Or, Diane Gilboa. It turned out, SHE was the woman in the audience and she liked my work. I was invited to audition for Theatre Or's upcoming production of "Apples from the Desert". How about that? Someone was listining, watching and taking notes!

For the audition I was asked to read for the role of Rivka, an 18 year old, 5'9" tall, skinny Sephardic Jewish girl in Israel. Needless to say, I did not actually get cast in the role seeing as how I'm a 30 year old, 5'3" short, curvy gentile. But, days after the audition, Diane called to apologize for not giving me the role, explaining they even talked about putting me in high heels but knew that I'd look too petite when I sat down!

There are two lessons to be learned from this experience:

• The first lesson is that no matter how amazing your audition, no matter how prepared you are, no matter if you're the most talented actor on the face of the planet, if you're not right for the role, you're not right for the role. End of story.


• The second lesson is that someone is ALWAYS watching.

Actor beware--this works both ways! Don't sabotage a career by talking bad about your fellows, writing scathing blogs (*note to self) about how you didn't get the role, and just generally being an ass. There will be someone listening, watching and taking notes on you when you least expect it so make sure the notes they take are good ones.

Thanks, Diane, for the invitation to audition. I had a great time and look forward to seeing the show. Thanks, too, for using local talent and for producing innovative, thought provoking theatre.