Weekend Wig Out

I love weekends, but they always seem to go so fast, don't they? This morning, I slept in a bit (9:30 AM), then did some laundry and cleaned my disastrous room and desk. I picked up a $5 tuna sub at Subway and headed to Capitol Hill for another sci-fi film audition. This one is called "Mission: Escape" and I heard about it via the performers callboard as well as through Topo. I had the foresight to bring my handsfree phone headset with me for the first time, and a friend actually called me while I was driving, so it was nice to not have to worry about cops pulling me over.

While en route to the audition, I ended up getting VERY lost with the Mapquest directions and decided to just use my logic to find the street address. Good thing I didn't have a specific audition time, as it was just open auditions from Noon to 5 PM. When I got to the Washington Ensemble Theatre, I walked past a group of 20-somethings that were in front of a neighboring cafe. As I entered the space, there was no one there, but one of the men I walked past poked his head in and told me to make myself comfortable and they'd be right with me. Oops, I didn't realize they were the crew...

As I sat around and waited, I chatted with my cousin over the phone and two other actors arrived. I thought perhaps it was a group audition, but when the director(?) came back in with his crew, he brought me in alone into the audition room where another man and a woman were waiting. I handed in my headshot and took a seat on the solitary chair on the stage. "What character are you here to read for?", the director asked. "Tae", I replied, remembering the character name from the synopsis I saw, adding "He seemed the most interesting to me". (Tae is described as a brilliant young scientist hungry for fame). "Do you have the scene memorized?", he asked. Surprised, I replied, "No, I haven't seen anything". Since no one had responded to my initial e-mail submission of my headshot, I presumed it was going to be a cold reading, but when he asked, it indicated to me that they did send sides to other actors.

The director handed me a side and I looked it over for about 30 seconds. "Are you ready?" he asked. "Sure" I said. He then gave me some useful info about my character being on a drug-induced "high" during the scene, which was great because it allowed me to just go for it and do some stuff that I think was much more interesting that playing it straightforward. It seemed like I really got their attention and impressed them, particularly since I hadn't seen the script until that moment. "That was a cold read, eh?". "Yeah", I chuckled, "that was interesting". There were no notes, direction or request to do it again. The director looked at my resume and said with familiarity and respect, "Oh, you're from Topo". I think I represented well. We thanked each other and I walked out of there. It was a nice, quick audition. There was a pile of about a dozen headshots on the stage from actors who had auditioned before me, so there will definitely be competition for the paid lead roles. If I get cast, the film will shoot in November, which would work out well since I still have several projects lined up that should wrap before then.