I went to the "Little Women" open call at Pearl Studios today and experienced my first bout of typing.
I have no particular issue with typing, myself. Some actors complain about it to no end, but my feeling is that if they're not even going to consider me, why bother waiting around all afternoon and getting all worked up over it? I might as well spend my time doing something more productive, like auditioning for a smaller production or sending out more headshots.
The curious thing to me, though, is why they choose some people and not others. I always wonder what they were looking for when they choose certain actors and not others. Sometimes it's obvious: they only want fresh twenty-somethings and half of the people there are 35. Today, though, I couldn't figure it out. I personally think my look is perfect for "Little Women," but I got typed out. And I ran into one of my friends from Hofstra at the audition, who was also typed out, and we saw several girls get in who looked exactly like her. Curious, indeed.
Another thing I question at big open calls is why some people feel the need to get there before dawn when the audition isn't until the afternoon. There were people there who had shown up for a 2 PM call at 5:45 in the morning just to be first in line, only to be sent home before even auditioning. I know, I know, everyone wants to get seen, but wouldn't showing up at 10 (4 hours early!!) have been sufficient? I love that actors are among the most ambitious people I know, but sometimes it frusterates me how exaggerated their efforts get. It just makes everyone have to get there earlier and sit there longer.
I know! Typing is perplexing sometimes, isn't it? My guess is that something on that those that got in had something on their resume that made the difference.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was just out of college I went to an audition for Les Mis, and they were typing people out. They called us into a room in groups of 20 and lines up up in a row. They laid our headshots on the table 20 across, matching those of us in line. When they got to my headshot, they considered me for a bit and then pushed my headshot aside, declining to bring me in. So close! Another girl who looked just like me and who had a very similar resume (experience/background) got typed in. The difference that I found? I neglected to put my voice type on the resume, and they were looking for Cosette's in particular. I am a first soprano but hadn't mentioned it specifically, and this other girl did. I assume, then, that they wanted to know (up front) that the girls had high notes and I hadn't made that clear. You'd better believe I ran back home and added it to my resume that night!