auditions…
I had my first commercial audition since being “back in the saddle again” on Thursday afternoon last week. It was with Kim Petrasky which was nice. I hadn’t seen her in a number of years. She actually cast me as an extra in my first ever on-camera job a million years ago. We had a little moment of reminiscence and then got on with the audition. After nearly two years of being out of the loop, it felt great to be back in front of a camera again…even if it was only for an audition. I was afraid that I might have been a little rusty and, I must admit, there was a little bit of anxiety going in, but those are the breaks.
The lesson there is that acting is like working out. If you don’t use your acting “muscles” at every opportunity you can, those muscles will atrophy. I’m just glad I didn’t wait any longer to really get going again. If you got into (or are thinking about getting into) this business, you’d better make damn sure you love it, because it’s a hard one. But, then again, nothing worth doing in life is ever easy is it? It’s just not for most people.
Tom Stoppard had it right. Actors are truly the opposite of people.
In other news, I’m on campus today doing the interview portion of the auditions for the Tennessee Governor’s School of the Arts. Since I’m not from Tennessee originally, I never got a chance to take part in it, but I do know that it’s a good thing. It’s a statewide summer fine arts (theatre, music, visual arts, etc.) camp for high school students and the quality of the work (at least so far) seems very encouraging. It’s something you don’t ever hear too much about, but I’m glad that Tennessee has not given in and cancelled this very worthwhile project in the light of their recent budget problems. The Governor’s School remains strong. It’s a good feeling.