Show up for your Auditions

So, after a full work day, I had a commercial audition and had to forgive myself for the technical lack in my performance. These days I always show up. I am fully me and fully available when I go to auditions. I'm mostly free of the head trips I used to take. I don't think about the other actors...except the usual things that people think like...oh she's pretty or he's animated...things like that. But I'm no longer competing with anyone any more. I believe that if a job is mine, then it's mine. If it's not, then I'm not going to get it no matter what I do. So, where does that leave my auditions? Well, it leaves me building a body of experience, continually developing my craft and hopefully creating relationships with the casting directors and crew.

I was happy and had fun and was free both before and in my audition. However, I failed on the technical. I was supposed to be talking to my teenage son (who was not there)...who would sit about my height...but I looked (when speaking to him) to his plate on the table in front of us instead of where his head and eyes would be. It's ok. I do have training. And they saw my resume before they called me in. And I've auditioned for this CD in the past. I thank them always and the staff who actually held the audition.

I can't even say that my audition was off...lol....it's more like it was free of technical qualities...which of course does not create a callback, but that's ok. Now, I know I should probably jump back in to Carolyne Barry's commercial class and brush up on my skills...get some of the cobwebs out. I've been working quite a bit this year...compared to the relatively quiet 3 years past. So, time to sharpen the craft and step back in to class or somewhere where I can get in regular acting workouts.

So, thought for the day....always show up for your auditions. The technical can help, but not if you are not fully present. If you're showing up and dropping the technical, then get back in to class or go find a play in which to perform.

If fact, life feels better all the way around when you just show up!

Reply to the Actor's Studio

These emails were part of the process in auditioning at the Actor's Studio. I've added links to information in IMDB and on the web. The letter from the Actor's Studio was in response to my resume and headshot that I sent to them upon their request (Sarah Jean Fry).



The email from the Actor's Studio read:

Date: Tuesday, April 13, 2010, 10:09 AM
Subject: RE: The Actors Studio - reply requested



Dear Sarah,

Thank you for sending this information. Could you please specify how long (years/months) you studied with each of the teachers you name below?

Thanks,
Rachel (name changed for privacy)



My reply to the Actor's Studio:

Date: April 13, 2010 12:31:06 PM PDTTo:

Subject: RE: The Actors Studio - reply requested



Dear Rachel,

I go by Sarah Jean not Sarah having been named after two people. Thanks.

My acting course of study is long and full of variety. I performed in a play in junior high school, and then in college took acting as a minor, and studied under Jenna Worthen at SMU. She was an amazing teacher and was the one under whom I developed a passion for acting.

After completing an MS in another area, I returned to Dallas and took a marketing job and then rediscovered acting and have been acting ever since.

I worked in the theatre as a stage manager for several years (while working full-time as a marketing professional during the day) and then the artistic director at the time I was heavily involved in with one theatre, Mark Hawkins, challenged me by putting me in a publicly held play reading. From there, I studied under Gail Cronauer at STAGE for a year or so. Then I studied under Grant James and Jeff Alexander (simultaneously) for about 4 years. In the meantime, Allan Miller began coming to Dallas to teach quarterly. I began studying with him on a quarterly basis and proctored and acted in his class for 2 years. During the 5-6 years of acting in Dallas I was always in classes and did a lot of non-union work, mostly industrials and commercials. I often participated in showcases through STAGE, Pazzo Mente, and later another venue before moving to LA.

When I moved to LA, I studied with Allan another year or so also assisting him with a play that he was directing at the time call, "The Great Genesha." Then feeling the need to expand and develop my career, I took all of Carolyne Barry's commercial classes and all of her improv classes (one-by-one, more or less back to back) . I also took a variety of seminars and short term stints with Susan Lanier (1 year), Steve Carpenter (an 8 week course) and others who suggested they had a different method that I might explore. I was thrillled to discover Zina Provendie and studied with her for about 2 years, the last 6 months of which she taught me in the retirement home to which she moved. She died a year or two after that. I was sad to know another great teacher who had passed.

I then studied for a few years (off and on) with Jeramiah Comey. I took a year off and then discovered the Ivana Chubbuck Studio last year (2009). I studied with Deryl for about 6 months and had to take time off for surgery.

All this time I have had talent agents, represented by Marquis (and later Linda McAlister in Dallas) and since 1998 in LA by the Jana Luker agency. I still audition commercially having recieved callbacks for McDonalds and other national commercials recently. My Wells Fargo commercial ran for 3 years.

In February and March of this year, I played a mother in Life with Kat & McKay (webisode not yet released, although some episodes can be found in IMDB) and a waitress for a short film, shot in assocation with NYU, called Broken Mirrors.

I am an actor and will always be an actor, however, I don't have the luxury of not having a day job. So, I also work full-time at NBC Universal...always networking and always keeping an eye out for an acting opportunity in an otherwise shrinking universe of acting jobs. So, in total not counting high school or college, I've been studying acting for about 16 years and continue to audition for commercials and occasional TV/film parts when the opportunities arise.

I would love to audition for the Actor's Studio. Please let me know what other information you may need.

Thank you for your interest.
I appreciate it very much.
Sincerely,
Sarah Jean

Auditioning for the Actor's Studio

I'm blessed to have the uncanny life that finds me when I forget to follow my heart. My day job consumed most of 2009 and much of the first quarter of 2010. In spite of my lack of attention to my acting career, I had the wonderful good forture of doing a couple of webisodes in Q1 including an episode of "Life with Kat and McKay" and a couple of episodes in "Broken Mirrors." And then I was asked to audition with a friend at the Actor's Studio. And that's how it happened that I found myself auditioning for the Actor's Studio (LA) today. It was fun working with Mikhail and it was a beautiful spring LA day. It was thoroughly enjoyable and felt like another day in the life of Sarah Jean - busy, interesting and fun.

It reminded me of my ride with Allan Miller back in Dallas. He would come to Dallas quarterly and teach. The last year before I moved to LA, I proctored his classes and the last time I took his class, I drove him from the studio back to North Dallas where he was staying.

I remembered that he had a given me a task in a scene that required specific actions. He was tough and often looking for more, but in that particular scene, I found the zone. I knew it, he knew it and he knew I knew he knew it. It was the coolest thing. So, when we were driving to North Dallas, he asked me,"So, how do you feel about today's work?" And I said,"You know. It just feels good. It feels like a good day." He and I chatted about things other than acting that day, because there was nothing more to discuss about acting. The work was done and we decided to savor it and chat about life.

Driving back to Studio City today, I remembered my ride with Allan back in Dallas that day. It was one of the many days that led up to today's audition. And the many days and auditions and work are all part of the journey. Auditioning for the Actor's Studio was a land mark moment in my journey, and lucky me, today was another good day.