AUDITIONS, AGENTS, AND ANGELA’S STORY

Here we tackle two subjects that all serious performers will want to know more about. Auditions can be painful, but they don’t have to be. And it is impossible to have a career without auditioning. It is worth it to learn how best to approach the process.

Agents can be invaluable, but before you rush out to get one, it helps to know when it is best to get one, how to find a good one, and what to expect when you have one.

The information in this chapter, as well as the story of Angela (the daughter of one of the authors) and her journey to Broadway and beyond, will be of particular value to actors. But as with all parts of this book, the insights here can be adapted to the needs of any performer.

AUDITIONS AND HOW TO HANDLE THEM

Auditions are an essential part of every performer’s work. The key word in that sentence is work. Auditions need not be approached as stressful, unusual experiences or life-or-death trials. They can be seen merely as necessary tasks to be completed in the course of your career as a performing artist. In fact, if approached with the right attitude, auditioning can be an enjoyable and rewarding activity its own right. For actors especially, auditioning has to become part of your routine.

But having a good attitude about one of the most notorious parts of the performer’s life is easier said than done. Here are a few tips to help you cultivate the right attitude and avoid some common mistakes.

We owe most of these insights to Dustin Flores and Paula Poeta, agents at the New York–based boutique talent agency The Mine, as well as Diane Wittry, who has heard countless auditions as the conductor of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra.

DON’T TAKE AUDITIONS PERSONALLY

An audition is not a judgment of your total worth as a person or even as an artist. An audition is a job interview. It is a professional meeting where those in charge of a project or performing arts organization determine if you can meet their needs at a particular moment in time. It is possible to be talented and disciplined and give a near-perfect audition and still not be the right fit for a particular job.

In the case of an acting audition, the director, the producers, and the casting director have a huge job on their hands each time they try to put together a cast. It is like fitting together a jigsaw puzzle composed of the budget, the parts already cast, the production deadline, and the particular vision of the director and his creative team. As an auditioner, you probably won’t see the whole puzzle and where you might fit in. All you can do is show up and do your best. Take this as a comfort rather than a source of anxiety! Just keep the focus on doing your own work and you’ve got nothing else to worry about.

TAKE AUDITIONS SERIOUSLY, BUT DON’T FREAK OUT ABOUT THEM, EITHER

Sure, that person on the other side of the table might be a huge Hollywood or Broadway producer, movie star, or virtuoso, but as far as the audition is concerned, she is just a businessperson looking to solve a problem. Movie stars and moguls are not gods but people with jobs to do, just like you. Help them do their job by showing up and giving them the best, most authentic audition you can give them.

By an authentic audition, we mean one in which you are totally focused on the work but also relaxed enough to let who you really are as a performer shine through. An audition usually consists of about two to three minutes of work, reading lines or playing notes in front of the people evaluating you. (Dance auditions can be longer and are partly undertaken in groups.) Don’t give in to the temptation to dismiss the audition because it is only a few minutes of your life or, alternately, to imbue that short period of time with so much significance that you buckle under self-imposed pressure.

Don’t be an over-rehearsed presentational robot, but don’t let yourself get distracted or uninvested, either. Do everything you can to prepare for the audition, but once you are in it, relax and trust yourself. As Daniel Talbott discovered (see Chapter 7), a good actor always has a light touch. If you’ve done the work of preparation, you have nothing to worry about. In fact, in the moments of your audition, worry itself is your biggest enemy. Whatever the source of your worry, those who might hire you are likely to interpret worry or anxiety as signs of desperation or lack of experience. As with any job, people want to hire somebody who is dependable and unhindered by anxiety.

Focus on auditions as opportunities, not judgments. See them as sources of possibilities, not unpleasant trials. Confidence in your own preparation and a genuinely positive attitude toward the experience puts everybody in the room more at ease, starting with yourself. The better your performance, the more likely you are to stick in the mind of the casting director, even if you don’t land the particular role in question.

BE ON TIME

This might seem obvious, but being late for auditions is a mistake that many aspiring performers actually make. Being on time is a huge part of the work of an audition. If you’re late or cutting it close, you’ll arrive flustered and not at your best. Worse, lateness is a signal to the people sitting on the other side of the table that you don’t respect them or the work you’re doing together. Remember, an audition is a job interview. In the corporate world, lateness would automatically remove you from the pool of candidates. Why should the performing arts world be any different?

So take some simple precautions and eliminate unnecessary worry from your experience. First, give yourself plenty of time to get from where you are to where the audition is taking place. Look up the directions the night before. And tack some extra time onto however much time you think you might need (or that an app says you might need) to get there.

Giving yourself plenty of time allows you to center yourself or calm down before it’s your turn. You might even get a chance to do some chatting or networking beforehand with the other auditioners or members of the production or organization. Or you might need that extra time to make sure your instrument is in tune, find the right part of the building, or solve those other annoying problems that sometimes crop up.

Lay your clothes out the night before. For actors especially, showing up in clothes appropriate to the role can be a huge help. Don’t wait until the morning of the audition to ask your agent or your coach about what outfit might enhance your chances of landing the part. This applies to dancers and instrumentalists as well. Choose clothes that let you be comfortable but also appropriately dressed. All of this preparation frees up your mind to focus on the important work at hand.

FOCUS ON AND ENJOY THE WORK— DON’T JUST TRY TO LAND THE JOB

Just because you’ve chosen to respect an audition as work doesn’t mean you can’t also find fun and enjoyment in it. This is the performing arts, after all! Take pleasure in your two to three minutes of embodying the character, hitting the notes, or moving your body. Enjoying the actual work of performance rather than worrying about landing the job relieves some of the pressure and probably helps you perform better.

It also removes a potential block that many performers have toward auditioning in the first place. Statistically, any successful career is going to include a lot of auditioning, not all of it successful. It’s best if you find a way to enjoy doing it, or better yet, even love doing it. It might not seem as enticing as performing before an audience, but auditioning is still a way for you to be of service to your chosen art form. Every audition, no matter the outcome, is valuable. It adds a little to the reservoir of your total personal experience. The more you love it, the more you’ll do it. And the more you audition, the better your chances of getting work.

By enjoying the work, you’re more likely to make a better impression on casting directors, who by their nature have long memories. It is their job to keep a mental catalog of all the performers who might someday be the right fit for a role in question. The first time you encounter a casting director, it’s vital to make a good impression. Plus, the notes he is jotting down on the back of your head shot might be filed away and read weeks, months, or even years after the date of the audition. You want those notes to be positive.

As talent agent Paula Poeta says, “Book the room, don’t book the job. The people on the other side of the table want you to do well. They are there as potential friends and fans, even if it turns out that you’re not right for the job of the moment.”¹

DON’T TRY OUT NEW MATERIAL

An audition is not the place to workshop new material just because of the opportunity to get professional feedback. Use trusted friends, peers, a coach or agent, or your teachers for the job of evaluating your mastery of new material. An audition is always the place for your best work, period.

TREAT YOUR FELLOW AUDITIONERS AS COLLEAGUES, NOT ENEMIES

There is nothing wrong with using competition as motivation to do your best, but seeing your fellow performers as enemies rather than colleagues is a rookie mistake and likely to put you in a negative mindset. Any subset of the performing arts is a small community, and respecting all the people in it—whom you are likely to run into many, many times during your career—is always the best policy.

All of the talent agents, producers, directors, managers, and performing artists we spoke to in the course of writing this book articulated their own version of a “no jerks” policy. All things being equal, the performer who is going to make it out of the talent pool and into a job is going to be somebody who either has a reputation for being easy to work with or who radiates that mindset during her audition. There are enough competent and even exceptionally talented performers out there to make showing kindness and respect a serious edge. Plus, making friends with your fellow auditioners can sometimes pay off. During the final round of auditions for the TV show The X-Files, eventual costars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson had an edge because they had struck up an acquaintance before the audition and offered to run lines with each other while waiting. The extra amount of ease and chemistry they established before the audition helped them land the roles that launched both their careers.²

SEE EVERY AUDITION AS A FRESH START

As a performer, there are no professional certifications or degrees that you can rely on to ensure your next job offer. Even that plum role in a movie or on a TV show, that seat in an orchestra or ensemble, or that time in a first-rate company is bound to end, and you will find yourself back in the audition pool. This is the nature of the performing artist’s life, and it’s best to find a way to embrace it rather than resent it.

To get that next job, you’re going to have to prove yourself again! Try to see it as a fresh start rather than just having to start over. It can be scary to start over, but one of the joys of being a performer is that you get to start on one adventure after another. You’re not chained to a desk and you don’t have to show up at the same place, year in and year out. A life of frequent auditioning is a small price to pay for that freedom.

AGENTS: WHAT THEY DO AND HOW TO GET ONE

Agents are professionals whose job is to find you new work opportunities as a performer. They can also help you develop your talent and learn how best to market yourself. Having one can enlarge the number of opportunities available to you as a performer and accelerate your career and income level much faster than you could on your own. But it’s important to remember that an agent is not a magical ticket to a life of sudden fame and fortune. In fact, an agent is unlikely to be interested in you unless your career is already under way to some degree. Agents need to see at least some economic activity that they can enlarge upon and monetize. That means that you need to do the initial work of finding an audience and promoting yourself. An agent can fan the flames of your career, but you’ve got to provide that initial spark.

HOW TO FIND AN AGENT

If you’re serious about mastering your craft as a performer, working hard to pursue opportunities, and doing your best to maintain a positive, professional attitude, that makes you very desirable to an agent. While the supply of people with ambitions in the performing arts is large, it is not infinite. Agents need new clients to keep their work going. And agents want to work with good people just as much as you do. So don’t fall for the trap of thinking that you have to work with the first agent you meet or the first one who approaches you. Take the time to find the right fit.

The best place to start is with your fellow performers, both those who are at the same stage as you in your career and those who are farther down the road. Find people whose careers you admire and look to see who represents them. Take a look at each agent’s roster of talent. If you see somebody you know, ask her what it’s like to work with that person, and if you like what you hear, then don’t be afraid about contacting the agent. (See below for tips on approaching an agent.)

And don’t dismiss networking events that are explicitly designed to pair up agents with new talent or that are designed to help performers develop their careers. In the early stages of your career, keep an open mind about every opportunity to meet people and learn.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN AN AGENT

Like any profession, the performing arts world is a community as much as it is a mass of people trying to make a living. When looking for an agent, seek out people who care about being a contributing member of that community. The work of an agent depends heavily on personal connections, so look for people who have a big network and whose work is happily integrated into their full life. Having an agent who just sees his work as a 9 to 5 obligation isn’t going to get you nearly as far as somebody who derives real pleasure and meaning from his work. Look for somebody who has a passionate concern for your art form, who gets excited about helping bring great art into the world.

HOW TO APPROACH AN AGENT

An agent wants to work with people who are dedicated to their work and enthusiastic about their career. As we’ve said elsewhere, in a field crowded with talented prospects, attitude makes a big difference. It’s something you can control, and it can really give you an edge.

Don’t worry about having the perfect head shots, bio, and work portfolio. Those are all things that a good agent can help you develop. But not having these things at all sends the wrong signal. Do your best to work up these things on your own. It shows that you’re serious.

The same goes for having a sense of your personal brand—what you do well and where you might fit into your field. An agent can help you refine this, but the more information you can give on this front, the easier it will be for the agent to picture how to market you and what contacts might want to work with you. When the all-male vocal quartet New York Polyphony (see Chapter 7) first started working with the classical music talent agency Opus 3, the agency had trouble differentiating the group from Chanticleer, another all-male vocal ensemble. The members of New York Polyphony had already established on their own that their repertoire was more classical and more devoted to early music than Chanticleer’s. They even described themselves as a “vocal string quartet,” in contrast to Chanticleer’s description of itself as an “orchestra of voices.” Having a clearly differentiated brand ready to go made it much easier for Opus 3 to promote New York Polyphony in the United States and around the world.

HOW TO WORK WITH AN AGENT

Remember that having an agent is, above all, a personal relationship. Just as with a friend, hopefully you have somebody with whom you can have a positive, long-term connection. This will make it easier to work together over time, and it will make the agent’s work a pleasure rather than a chore. That’s something you’ll both be grateful for.

Treat your agent as a colleague, not as somebody providing a service. If you feel that your agent isn’t living up to his end of the bargain, don’t let your relationship get gummed up with negative emotions like resentment or a sense of entitlement. It’s okay to be assertive about your needs, but don’t give in to negativity. And if you feel your agent is doing great work and helping you, don’t be afraid to let him know.

Be open and authentic with your agent. If something is happening in your life that might prevent you from pursuing a job—like a sick relative, a medical issue, or anything else that might seem personal— don’t be afraid to let your agent know about it. This can stop her from jumping on an opportunity that you might not be able to pursue. The same goes for challenges in the moment. Always do your best to be prepared, but if you’re in a jam and need something at the last second, don’t be embarrassed to pick up the phone and call for help. Your agent wants you to succeed just as much as you do! In order to get the most from any relationship, the other person has to know what your needs and desires are. So open up and don’t be afraid to make a real connection.

ANGELA’S STORY

by William F. Baker

Since the material elsewhere in this chapter is perhaps most useful to actors, I thought it would be worthwhile to tell the story of my daughter’s journey in the world of live theater in New York City.

This is a true story. There are many amazing, successful actors on Broadway and in films who have made it. But we rarely hear of the great percentage of those who didn’t and decided to move on to other careers. This is one part of the business of the performing arts that we have not gone into elsewhere in the book. It is maybe not a happy story for a person seeking a career as an actor or as any kind of performer, but it is still one we can learn from.

It was 20 years ago when my daughter Angela, after having performed in a number of local high school and church plays, announced she wanted to go to Broadway! I was running a large public broadcasting station in New York and had many friends in the management and ownership of Broadway theaters, so I thought I knew what she was in for. It turns out I was only slightly knowledgeable. I knew it would be hard, but I didn’t expect it to be as hard as it turned out to be.

With the full support of me and my wife, Angela applied to and got into one of the top New York universities with a world-famous theater program. I attended most of her public performances there and watched her grow while always wondering about her future. I knew this school was excellent and saw her grow in skill and confidence, but I also saw some pretty strange, experimental plays during that period. I’ll never forget the one with a naked girl in a cage groaning for a half hour—that was it! I wasn’t too sure about the value of that.

After her top-of-class graduation (and $250,000 in tuition money), I wondered what was next and offered to help. I explained that I knew most of the theater owners and producers, which meant that at least they’d be willing to take a look at her. My daughter said she was grateful for my intention, but she wanted to do it on her own, so “no, thanks.”

Next came the endless auditions and literally hundreds of rejections. At the start, there were a few successes here and there, but nothing major. It was enough, however, for her to start building a résumé and get into the theater and film unions, which gave her the possibility of major success.

Keeping a roof over her head and food on the table was very expensive in New York City, so she did what most actors do and waited tables. It turns out she was very good at it and did quite well economically. But she hated the work, and it wasn’t sustainable in the long term.

Meanwhile, it was a year or two more of rejections until she landed a spot in a new Broadway repertory company in which she had small nonspeaking roles. She got to work regularly with and befriend many major name actors. They were often very kind and caring people. And they were eager to help her. Far from being cutthroat, the theater community turned out to be very close-knit and sometimes selfless. The problem for Angela, who was clearly talented, was that there seemed to be very few major parts for 20-something actors. The stars were all in their 40s and 50s, even older.

So even after joining the unions and getting a place in a repertory company, it was still waitressing and the immense frustration of not doing what she was trained to do.

Finally, after about five years, she came to me and said she could use my help. I was delighted to hear that and was sure I could pull some strings and make something happen. I fired both barrels and called all my friends in the business and asked for their help. Surprisingly the usual comment was, “I’m in no position to help your daughter.” I was aghast. These guys owned the theaters or were the producers of the plays! “Couldn’t they do something?” I thought. In many ways, though, I was happy to hear that they couldn’t do anything. The acting world, despite rumors to the contrary, turned out to truly be a meritocracy. But that alignment of talent and opportunity continued to elude my daughter. Every director has something specific in his own mind and relentlessly seeks somebody with the look and feel that matches that vision. And that’s okay. After all, it’s art, not science! But it didn’t make it easier for Angela.

Despite the challenges, she kept chalking up credits and getting her name in Playbill. After a while, she had a real résumé, but still no financial success! So even with professional credits, it was back to the restaurant, night after night.

After seven years, she did what she said she’d never do, and she threw in the towel.

My wife and I were in fact happy. We had seen up close what a hard and brutal life an actor faces, and we were not sure we wanted that for our daughter. She had grown a great deal personally in the process. She was beautiful, had poise, and was very intelligent and fun to be around. She would have a bright future in whatever career she chose.

Her next career was following my wife into psychiatric nursing. She became a nurse practitioner. At her first job at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, she said she was worried about being a great nurse in such a high-stress, high-demand environment. I told her that she might not be a great nurse yet, but she was a great actress, “so act like a great nurse!” As a nurse, she has gone on to great success. She loves her work and is beloved by her patients, who are as great and grateful an audience as she could ever have hoped for.

KEY NOTES

Questions to Ask Yourself

• •What is my attitude toward auditions? Am I afraid of them? Do I fear them as judgments of my self-worth?
• •Do I have a way of supporting myself while I build up steam in my career?

Tips

• •The personal relationships made in the theater community (and all communities of performers) are critical, and often friends who are actors and directors are the ones who will make your career possible. When you rub shoulders with your peers, famous and obscure, don’t be afraid to say hello.
• •Look for agents who are passionate about your art form and who are enmeshed in the artistic community. Do they show up to events outside of working hours? Do other actors and agents know them and speak about them positively?

Exercises

• •Search your community for organizations or regularly held events that are designed to bring new talent together with agents, and attend one.
• •Make a list of five to ten performing artists whose careers you admire. They can be anybody from people in your community to superstars. Find out who their agents are, and see who else those agents represent. Do you know any or can you get an introduction to one? Is there a common element to their careers?