Auditions - 5

of those auditions

• Ads - 4 (self-tapes)
• Theatre - 1 (in-person)

Moving is the most stressful thing you'll ever do.

This month I auditioned for a panto for the first time in a few years. Not being a musical theatre performer means these auditions don't come along too often, but when they do I relish them. I might not be the best dancer or MT style singer in the world, but when it comes to over-the-top characters and larger than life villains, I know I can deliver.

What made this opportunity extra special was it was going to be based relatively near where I grew up, and starring a bunch of performers I hadn't seen since I was an usher in my teens.

The audition called for two scenes, and an unaccompanied up-beat pop song. The sides I was given were excellent; the characters were very well defined and I found myself coming up with idea after idea for the character I was reading. Some of these ideas ended up striking a chord with the writer/director who told me he "hadn't thought of it like that before." The song was fun too. I picked out a song that I felt showed my voice off best and became quite fastidious about breaking it down and practicing each line to make sure I was intonating the lyrics correctly. Again, with me not being much of a musical theatre guy, I approached this more as a textual analysis challenge than anything else, but I think it stood me in good stead.

The time in the room went well too. The director remembered me from all those years ago and we struck up a great conversation. We were both clearly excited about the project and the prospect of working together. And yet a week later I heard they had gone in a different direction. I don't blame them. Not to toot my own horn but I do think I would have been a great choice from an acting perspective, though it wouldn't have been at all surprising for another performer to walk right in after me and blow them away with an unbelievable singing voice.

More adverts followed this month which came with their own challenges, namely getting them done in time among the chaos of moving. It's an odd trend I've noticed; fairly sizable parts in TV shows or stage plays have audition requirements that respect the performers time; They don't overload you with sides because they want you to spend as long as you need working to provide the best performance possible for the tape. Adverts on the other hand, are more than happy to throw you the entire script and say "eeh, film something like that" and leave it up to you to essentially film a proof of concept for the ad on your own.

All in all, a fairly succesful month given what else we were dealing with. I'll try to make some kind of post about the house fairly soon, particularly one about the new office/studio I'm making for myself. That's going to be really exciting.

Also, I just wanted to say thank you for reading. I know posts have been spotty over the past couple of months, and whilst I can blame my inconsistency entirely on the move, the truth is I have had time to write, and have instead chosen not to. It's not a decision I'm happy with, and is one I want to reverse, but I must admit I have appreciated the rest. Hope you don't hold that against me.