How we Audition

So, I figured since I didn’t go to much into the auditions in my last post I’ll tell you guys exactly what we did.

I posted auditions by appointment only. Actors were required to provide a headshot and resume. Actors would email me and I’d set them up with a time. I gave actors the option of emailing an electronic copy of their resume and head shot as well. Almost every single one of them brought in a head shot. As I said before, about 40 actors of the 70 that signed up showed up. When they first arrived at the room where they were told the auditions were being held they were given a form and a questionnaire to fill out. The form was generic. Name, date, phone, email, etc. the questionnaire had questions like “are you willing to shave your head?” and “are you comfortable portraying sexual acts for comedic effect” over all there were about 25-30 questions in that nature. We wanted to make sure actors knew what they were getting into and also we wanted to make sure we knew what actors were willing to do if we were interested in offering them a part. Then when, we were ready (the auditioning panel that is) we would radio in to the waiting room and call the actor(s) in. one of our staff would walk the actor(s) to the back room with their forms and headshots and resumes if they had them with them. The actor would come in and if there were two we’d have them read together and if there were one we’d have Linnaea Kimble, our production designer, read with them. I would introduce everyone by name and job to the actor(s) and then I would have them slate for the camera. They would say there name, their audition number, and do a left and right profile for us. Then we would have the actor read the scene twice. First time I told them to read it how they thought it should be read. The scene was two actors telling a story to someone and at the same time talking to each other, kind of like hosts on a morning talk show. If the actor presented the information in a positive manner I would ask the opposite. And if the actor initially presented the material in a negative manner I would again ask the opposite. After that we would go through there forms, ask them some questions about the answers they gave or anything on their resume, and then let them ask if they had any questions for us. And that was it. The actor(s) would then leave and we’d talk about them. Some people we know right away and other’s we’d have to think about. At the end of the day we spread out all the head shots on a table and I had note cards with character names and the whole staff would look at the headshots and we’d debate about who should play who. Over all it was a great, successful weekend and we accomplished a lot.