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Rent-a-Cast

"Excellent! Thank you. Next." By Michael Stabile Inside the audition room, it's all about the ticket. If you've made the cut, or at least the cut for the initial call back, you get a ticket stapled to your résumé and are sent to see either Dan or Gloria or Shane or whoever it is that is looking for people like you. The ticket separates you from the rest of the dramatic hoi polloi, who stumble around the outer waiting area contemplating a next move or--accepting rejection with final resignation--the ascent to the depressing rain outside and facing the mob that still has a chance. Inside the audition room, one woman takes your head shot and résumé, looks it over and asks you what you've chosen to sing. She listens politely, she smiles. She may ask you to sing something a little more upbeat, more "rockish." She may ask you to sing the first verse of "Amazing Grace." She may ask you nothing at all. She may say, "That was great. Thank you" and send you away without the golden ticket. Or she may say the same thing and hand you your résumé with a golden ticket and say the exact same thing but followed by "Go see Cindy" or whomever. Despite her repetition of the droll closing phrase, she seems really sincere. Inside the audition room, single performers make bad choices. While the flier called for 16 bars of a song that was upbeat and "rockish" (and explicitly discouraged songs from Rent or any other musical), an easy majority seemed to think that their creative juices led them to a higher understanding of what was wanted. They would be distinctive, they would stand out. They generally wouldn't get a ticket [ San Francisco | MetroActive Central | Archives ]