Confessions of a Casting Director
Page 7
AUDITION STORIES
EPIC FAIL
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I was auditioning for a revival of Gypsy that would be directed by the legendary author-director Arthur Laurents, who was about ninety years old at the time. I was excited just to meet him, much less audition for him. I finished my audition and there was a very long pause as he looked at me and just sat thinking. I wondered if I was supposed to leave or not. Finally, he said, “I see what you’re doing . . . but I don’t want you to do it.” Fortunately, he respected my choice enough that he gave me adjustments and let me try again!
—TONY FREEMAN
Open Calls for Broadway Shows and Tours
Every Broadway show is required by Actors Equity Association (AEA)* to conduct open calls once every six months. The audition information is listed on the AEA website, as well as www.playbill.com and www.backstage.com. The musical director (or someone from the music department) is required to attend the audition. AEA actors will be given priority for an appointment slot. If you’re nonunion, stick around; you may get seen if there are available time slots left in the day. Getting seen depends on how many AEA actors show up. If you can’t get seen but feel strongly that you’re perfect for the show, keep an eye on the open call listings and keep coming back to the open calls. It may take several attempts, but hopefully you’ll get seen at some point.
Once you get into the audition room, plan to sing either an up-tempo show song, a ballad from a show, or a pop/rock song. Choose a song that’s right for the style of the show and is age appropriate for you. I’ve seen little boys sing “The Impossible Dream,” from Man of La Mancha, and grown women sing “I Enjoy Being a Girl.” The song should fit the show but also needs to fit you.
During a day of open calls, I usually make three piles of photos and résumés: yes, no, and maybe. Many actors end up in the no pile because, despite their dreams, they’re just not vocally strong enough for a Broadway show. If you end up in the yes pile or maybe pile, that means we’ll keep you in the files for the future and will call you in for an appointment when a role opens up. Many actors have gotten cast in their first Broadway show from attending open calls, so do not give up!
AUDITION STORIES
EPIC SUCCESS
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One of my first really big jobs was playing Val in the twenty-fifth-anniversary national tour of A Chorus Line. So when the Broadway revival was announced for 2006, I was very excited to see if I might somehow fit into that production. I went to the initial auditions and danced myself to death, but they were apparently on the fence as to where I fit in this time around. After my first audition, however, I unfortunately had to have knee surgery due to cartilage damage. Of course, just weeks after the surgery, my agents got a call that they were calling me back for A Chorus Line to possibly cover Cassie. There was to be no dancing at this audition, since I’d already proven myself there, but they wanted me to sing and read again.
Several people told me I was insane to even consider it, but I felt that I had earned that callback with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Also, the show didn’t start rehearsals for months, so I learned the material and limped my way to the callback. On crutches! Even more than that, I had a brace on my leg from hip to ankle. And you know what? I sang and acted my face off. I pretty much knew I wouldn’t get the part, but I showed them my tenacity and what I was made of.
Fast-forward two years. Lots of rehab later, I was finally in elite dancer shape again and I got another audition for the show. I went in and danced as if I had never been injured. Then I sang and read. And when I delivered the line “I haven’t worked in two years, not really,” as Cassie, the line had new meaning, because I had not worked in my real life due to complications from that knee surgery. Thanks to all that hard work, I landed a slot as a vacation swing covering Cassie and Sheila in the Broadway company of A Chorus Line (which eventually became a permanent standby position for me).
—KIMBERLY DAWN NEUMANN,
www.kdneumann.com
ASK THE
VOCAL COACH
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What is a musical theater audition binder, and what should a singer put in it?
Any standard three-ring binder can be used for your audition music. Preferably, your binder will have stiff covers so that it stays open on a music stand, and have a ring size of between 1 and 1½ inches. Whether you choose to use plastic page protectors or holes punched in heavy paper, it’s important to make reading your music as easy as possible for the accompanist. Be sure to have the pages of music back to back, to minimize the number of page turns.
I also recommend using at least three different binders for music:
•A main one for current, performance-ready songs
•Another for songs you’re working on
•One more to store music you’d like to learn eventually but are not planning on performing at present
The contents of the binders can be arranged in any order that makes sense to you and enables you to locate what you need quickly. Consider a contents page at the front of each of your binders to keep you organized and able to find a song quickly during an audition. Each song should be marked for sixteen- and thirty-two-bar cuts.
Songs in your main performance binder need to demonstrate your versatility in a variety of styles. These would include:
•Broadway up-tempos (fast songs)
•Ballads (slow songs) from both traditional and contemporary shows
•Any specialty types of songs that you’re comfortable with, such as jazz, country, or classical. Nowadays, many auditions ask for non-Broadway pop, rock, or R&B (rhythm and blues) songs, so be sure to include one or two of those. In addition, a Disney-type song is also good to have prepared.
Finally, although all your music should be clearly marked for the pianist, you’ll want at least one of your songs to be somewhat “pianist-proof” (for those times when you have doubts about the accompanist’s ability to sight-read well).
—BOB MARKS,
vocal coach, www.bobmarks.com
Preparing for a Broadway Audition
When you get an appointment for a Broadway show or tour audition, you’ll be e-mailed the material in advance. It will likely include sheet music for a song or songs from the show and an audition scene. Go ahead and place the current audition material into your audition binder. You may be asked to bring dance clothing too. It’s helpful to meet with a vocal coach or a voice teacher to help learn the songs. It’s also a good idea to meet with an acting coach to go over the scene. Look at the punctuation. Make a list of what the character wants in the scene and note the obstacles in the scene. What is the problem and what’s the solution? Most scenes can be broken down that simply.
Be prepared and you’ll give a great audition.
AUDITION STORIES
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The Audition That Changed My Life
The audition that changed my life was probably when I auditioned for the musical How the Grinch Stole Christmas for the third time. Every other time, I had gotten to the final callback but just missed getting cast. For the third time, I was at the final callback. I went through all the rounds of cuts and they even took measurements for costumes. I was sure I would get it this time! Later, I learned that I didn’t get the role and was absolutely devastated. I was eight years old and I remember lying down in bed with my mom and crying about how I wasn’t good enough and how I was never going to get anything. Really a life changer. At that moment, I thought my life was over, but I went on to do four national tours and then Broadway. The experience made me realize that it’s all about timing.
—CAMILLE MANCUSO,
age thirteen, www.camillemancuso.com
Making Mermaids Sing
In January 2009, I conducted a ten-city, two-week search for a replacement Ariel for The Little Mermaid on Broadway. I auditioned six hundred actresses, all of whom had dreams of playing Ariel. My first stop was Cincinnati. The auditions were held in a dingy hotel conference
room. A freshman from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (CCM) volunteered to help out and accompanied the actresses as best he could on his keyboard. We were in a drab room with poor lighting, tepid air, and no real piano. All the girls who sang for me were mediocre. No one was ready for Broadway. I was feeling sleepy, and about to send one of the volunteers out to get me a double espresso when a junior at CCM named Megan Campanile walked in. Megan impressed me immediately. She was a petite redhead with a strong singing voice and many years of dance training and gymnastics. I uploaded her audition to the YouTube channel I’d created for Ariel casting. After my ten-city, two-week casting search, Megan was one of six actresses out of six hundred invited to attend the final callback in New York and ultimately got cast in her first Broadway show.
With my mermaid, Megan Campanile, at the final performance of The Little Mermaid on Broadway, 2009. (JOE ABRAHAM)
We hired Megan to play one of Ariel’s sisters and to cover the role of Ariel. At that moment in time, Megan was hirable for Broadway. Not only was she a triple threat (equally proficient in singing, dancing, and acting), she was also in the right place at the right time. As for the other 599 actresses who auditioned in cities such as Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Boston, and Philadelphia, they either couldn’t hit the necessary high E in “Part of Your World” or just didn’t look right for the role. They simply weren’t ready for Broadway.
Megan thanked me in her Playbill bio, calling me her “Jewish fairy godmother.” We’re still close today, bonded from that day when we met in Cincinnati and her life changed forever.
AUDITION STORIES
EPIC FAIL
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I once got really, really sick with a virus, but I was determined to go to this audition because I knew I was perfect for the role of a beauty pageant contestant from Poland. Despite the fact that I was very dizzy and could barely breathe, I was doing well. Until they asked me to do the sides again, this time with a Polish accent. I was completely caught off guard, and what came out of me was a mixture of all sorts of accents, primarily sounding more Chinese than Polish. The embarrassment must have caused my already high fever to go up a few degrees.
—ANNA LAKOMY
Under the Sea: Replacing Sebastian in The Little Mermaid on Broadway
“Under the Sea” is the showstopping song in the Broadway production of The Little Mermaid. Tituss Burgess had originated* the role on Broadway and often brought the house down when he hit those insanely high notes every show. When he left the show in order to play a lead role in the Guys and Dolls Broadway revival, he left very big shoes to fill.
We began a search in earnest for a replacement and engaged in weeks of auditions. We needed a performer with humor, vocal chops, and warmth. We saw every actor available at the time, but my boss, Thomas Schumacher, didn’t sign off on any of our choices. So we continued the casting search.
At the 2009 Broadway closing of The Little Mermaid with Rogelio Douglas Jr., who starred as Sebastian, and my niece, Emma.
That weekend, I took a group of campers from Stagedoor Manor to see a matinee performance of the Broadway musical In the Heights. It was my fifth time seeing the show, and at this particular rainy Saturday matinee, the actor playing Benny was out of the show, home recovering from a stomach bug he’d contracted on a recent vacation to Mexico. His understudy had recently left the show to star in a Broadway revival of Godspell, which had just been postponed. So that day, it was up to the swing actor,* Rogelio Douglas Jr., to perform the role of Benny. From the moment he first sang, I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. I met him after the show, gave him my business card, and told him to call me on Monday.
We set him up to audition for Sebastian a few days later. Later that week, we presented Rogelio to Thomas Schumacher, who immediately signed off on this casting decision. Rogelio crossed Forty-Sixth Street from a swing contract at the Richard Rodgers Theatre to a principal role at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and played the role of Sebastian until The Little Mermaid closed in August 2009. Every time Rogelio did a talk-back with audiences following a performance, he mentioned timing—how you never know who’s in the audience, and that he got discovered one rainy day by Jen Rudin at Disney because the star of the show was home suffering from Montezuma’s revenge.
ASK THE
ACTOR
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What’s one of the biggest mistakes you’ve made at a Broadway audition?
Sometimes taking a big risk in an audition works, and sometimes it doesn’t. When I first auditioned for Hair on Broadway, I decided to steadily undress as I performed, thinking that this would show the producers that I was comfortable with my body and free, since I felt that was what the show was about. I sang “Donna” from the show and rocked it. When I finished and looked at the silent and blank faces of the people behind the table, I knew they had not seen my vision. Finally, after what felt like an hour, the director very flatly asked if I would put my clothes back on.
—MANLEY POPE
DOS AND DON’TS FOR MUSICAL THEATER AUDITIONS
DO be prepared on all the material (songs and scenes). Go through the acting scenes and figure out what your character wants and needs in the scene. Then figure out the conflict in the scene.
DO spend money on a ticket to see a show if it’s currently playing on Broadway and you’re auditioning to join the cast. You would be shocked at how many people came to audition for Mary Poppins having only seen the movie. If you can’t see the show, there are many resources online now where performers can get a feel for a show or even see clips or hear the soundtracks for free. Do a search on www.spotify.com and www.youtube.com and see what’s posted if you can’t get to see the show live.
DO work with a vocal coach to learn the vocal material correctly. My top recommendation: www.bobmarks.com, or get referrals from friends.
DO organize sheet music in your music binder. Dividers can help. Make different sections for your various songs: up-tempo, ballad, contemporary pop-rock. A good vocal coach can help you organize your binder properly.
DO bring dance clothing if they ask you to. You may be asked to stay and dance if they like your singing voice.
DO be realistic about your talents. If the role calls for a five-foot-nine tenor who taps, make sure you’re actually five foot nine and a tenor and can really tap. I’ve sat through many dance auditions over the years and watched many dancers fake their way through tap routines. Not fun for the dancers or for the creative team.
DO know your type. Are you an ingenue, leading man, character actress?
DO remember that a dance call is not a dance class. You need to show us you can learn choreography on the spot.
DO keep going to open calls.
DO keep up your vocal training.
DO take a musical theater audition class or workshop, so that you get comfortable practicing how to audition in front of people. You can’t be rusty when you go in for the real audition.
DON’T sing a song that’s out of your vocal range.
DON’T use an audition to try out a song you’ve never sung before.
DON’T call yourself “an actor who moves.” Hone your dance skills. Grab a friend and take a dance class together. It’s more productive (and fun) then spending an hour on the treadmill at the gym watching CNN. So many actors say they’re a “good mover.” That’s not good enough.
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JEN’S LAST WORD
Remember those famous lyrics from the song “What I Did for Love” from A Chorus Line? “Won’t forget, can’t regret what I did for love”? I sang that song for my first audition at Stagedoor Manor in 1982 when I was nine years old—completely inappropriate in subject matter and also completely out of my vocal range. Regardless, if you love performing onstage and dream of Broadway, go for it. Train consistently with classes so you are ready to show your talents when you get to the Broadway audition. Then, when you get the role, make sure you can handle eight shows a week and the toll it can take on your voic
e and body. The audience has paid a lot of money to see you. Remember that every time you step out onto the stage, feel the lights of Broadway, and open your mouth to sing your show-stopping number!
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CHAPTER SIX
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GOING VIRAL
REALITY TV, WEBISODES, AND BECOMING A YOUTUBE SENSATION
When I was a child growing up in the 1980s, a person could become famous overnight by starring on a hit TV series or winning a popular television game show. But today, thanks to reality competition shows and videos gone viral, there are many more opportunities for instant celebrity. Anyone can become famous overnight. Just look at Honey Boo Boo. In most cases, instant stardom is less about talent than about personality.
The Reality of Reality Shows
Michael Warwick, the director of casting and talent development for A. Smith & Co. in Los Angeles, has been involved in reality projects since 1994. Warwick’s first job in this medium was on an MTV special, Real World Vacations, based on MTV’s hit franchise The Real World. He continued in the evolving field, first as a researcher on a hidden-camera show for MTV and then working his way up the ranks to being a producer on many projects for various British and American production companies. “In those days, there was no casting director,” says Warwick. “Field producers or researchers just found the subjects for the projects on their own through phone calls, faxing, and handing out flyers.”