Auditioning is Fun!

Today I had an audition with two other actors. We were 3 CEOs discussing business around the water cooler. In a matter of 3 minutes, we covered money, profit, revenue, avoiding layoffs, and profit sharing with shareholders. Having been in business for years and having worked for one of the largest companies in the world, I thoroughly enjoyed a our repartee. I’m not sure if the director and casting decision makers will enjoy hearing all that, but it sure was fun. The other actors were consummate professionals so they appeared to have fun, too. Hope they had as much fun as I did.

Auditioning is particularly fun because it offers freedom sometimes in the form of improvisations. Often, we are given basic guidelines and asked to improvise. This means we create or get to play new characters every week, sometimes more than one in the same day. Actors have the rare quality of being able to work until they day they leave the planet. And in the meantime, while we’re here acting, are constantly expanding and delving deeper and more fully in to our experiences. It never ends.

Auditioning is great fun, keeps skills sharp, our craft ever expanding, and occasionally results in jobs! Two books I recommend for auditioning are Audition by Michael Shurtleff and Breaking into Commercials: The Complete Guide to Marketing Yourself, Auditioning to Win, and Getting the Job by Terry Berland and Deborah Ouellette.

Another great book I recommend (that I saw while looking for the two above) is Acting is Everything: An Actor’s Guide to a Successful Career in Los Angeles by Judy Kerr.