I’m in Memphis, TN… and I love it here. .. Well at least the 2 mile radius I have experienced in downtown that includes the famous Beale St. – a strip of blues clubs and restaurants filled with proud locals and lots of tourists.
I’m here for UPTA – the United Professional Theatre Auditions… Over 800 actors have gathered to audition for about 100 theatres, cruise ship casting agents, traveling shows. I’m casting The Confession – the musical I wrote with Martha Bolton last year – for the summer and fall of 2011. Some of my colleagues are casting hundreds of people for their Norwegian Cruiseline ships… amusement parks… and regional performance venues. I am looking for 15 or so…
It is a remarkable process… from 9 to 5 during the day, talented professionals walk on the stage – one at a time - and spend a remarkable 90 seconds trying to convince us to call them back. A usual audition consists of 45 seconds of singing and a 45 second monologue… if they go over, a time keeper in the theatre front row yells “TIME!”. Think about American Idol… without the feedback. The gatekeepers in the audience may laugh… if it’s really, really funny, but we will NEVER clap. And if we like what we see and think we might have a place for them in our 2011 shows, we put their number (oh yes, they all wear a number so that we can clearly see it) on a piece of paper. That paper is collected every hour and posted in a big room back at our host hotel. The actors anxiously search for their number under each of our theatre’s names. If they find it, then they have to go to the hotel room where we host auditions, and sign up for a 7-10 minute slot. My call back auditions start at 7:30 pm – I finished at about 1:00 am on Friday night (Sat. morning). OH>> don’ t want to forget the dance auditions… from 5 to 7:30… the actors all have to change into dance clothes, learn a little routine and march in to a hotel banquet room in groups of 8 or so and perform the dance for all the theatre agents… they are divided into groups based on whether they call themselves dancers, really good dancers, or just ‘movers’ – a nice word for “I don’t really dance.”
So…. up and down the stairs and elevators actors rush to get to the next room where their employment opportunities rest. They walk in the room, I greet them with a big smile and handshake, they hand me a head shot and resume, I have them sing a few bars of a song, tell them about the theatre, ask a little about them, might have them do 30 seconds from a different monologue, shake their hand, send them on their way, and then try to discern if I should offer them a position in my company for several months… it’s crazy!!! And they are crazy….crazy good! They come in the room and lay their talents and souls on the table… sing with all their hearts to the top of their lungs. If I ask for a funny monologue or a serious one, they whip it out like it’s no big deal. There in that 400 square foot room filled with a king size bed and lots of wholesale purchased furniture, they literally make that space their stage. It’s awesome! They are awesome…. and I find myself sympathetic to their job interview process wanting to offer them all jobs. But I can’t. So I go home with stacks of head shots trying to rememer what I thought about each one of them with gentle reminders from shotty notes I took on their resumes. And they go home and wait for a call! They are so vulnarable and I am so impressed and thankful that I get to experience their talents in such an intimate way. Thanks to all the actors for considering being a part of what we do at the little Blue Gate Theater in Shipshewana, IN… I look forward to working with many of you in the near future.
And now… the important stuff… a big thank you to the Rendevous Restaurant in a little alley – best dry ribs on the planet… and to the Blues City Cafe… the best wet ribs and tamales… and to the Flying Fish… the most wonderful fried shrimp I’ve ever had… Tonight I will eat Marriott pizza with friends and watch the Super Bowl between Sondheim and Shakespeare performances. Hey Memphis, thanks for the good time!!!! Wally