If you want your sun to shine...

 

I love April. It’s my birth month. Everything about Spring is amazing to me. The days get longer the sun shines brighter. It all makes me feel so renewed and revitalized. I feel ready to conquer the world.

However before going out to conquer the world, I need to look inward and conquer me.

The other day we were having a discussion at my day job. One of the guys was saying that his roommate is perfect for In the Heights, the Broadway musical about Latinos living on the upper UPPER west side of Manhattan. This guy was saying how his roommate’s voice is perfect for one of the main characters and that she should audition for the show, even though she’s not Latina. In his opinion he believes that his roommate could pass for Puerto Rican. Those of us who don’t know her asked to see a photo.

She looks like a shiska, a blonde haired blue eyed WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant). There is not one ethnic thing about her.

This of course kept our discussion going. We talked about ethnics in theatre and how there aren’t a lot of job opportunities for those actors. The skiska’s roommate then went on to say that there are plenty of jobs for ethnics in theatre. He went about naming the few shows currently playing on Broadway that have an “abundance” of ethnic people in them.

Oh by the way, he’s not ethnic.

You may think you know where this blog is going. But trust me it’s not going there today. Keep reading...

I got on my soap box about ethnics in theatre. You all know the deal. You’ve read it before. However at this point Heinrich speaks up.

I met Heinrich at my day job and subsequently cast him in a show. He’s super talented, super cute and super short. He’s short enough to be cast as 16 and 17 year olds. Even though he’s well older than that he looks young enough to pull it off. And this is his “problem”.

Last year Heinrich signed with a new agent. This agent was doing his job and sending Heinrich out for all the stuff he thought Heinrich was right for, the 16 and 17 year olds. Heinrich feels that he is too old to be playing these roles. He also feels like he wants to have more challenging subject matter. Very valid points. However Heinrich was signed to an agent to fill a need in the agency, a gap in their roster if you will. The agency needed some “young” talent to send out and try to gain access to this niche. Heinrich was to be this young talent. He, however, was upset at how they were perceiving him and he didn’t want to do it.

We talked about this before, once. I told him that if he didn’t want to be sent out for “children’s roles” he should have had a conversation with the agency prior to signing.  Both his expectations and the agency’s expectations should have been put on the table and worked out. (But that’s another blog about agents and agencies). He didn’t have that conversation with them. So the agency went about doing their job as they saw fit.

I agreed with the agency decisions. This wasn’t to Heinrich liking. He then announced he wasn’t listening to me. He went on to declare that he takes everything I say “with a grain of salt” (which means to consider something not to be completely true or right).

I never spoke to him about this again. In fact once he started telling other people to take all that comes out of my mouth with a grain of salt, we stopped speaking all together. Imagine my surprise when he joined the conversation about the shiksa and ethnics being cast in shows.

Heinrich voiced that he has a difficult time being cast because of his height. We all knew that. He also said that he feels people don’t take his struggle seriously. This is partly true because it’s mostly self-imposed. He feels guilty complaining when ethnics start conversing about not being cast. Yet he feels he is in the same boat. I disagree with him.

If you’re an actor reading this I want you to do an exercise:

Find a full length mirror.

Take off all your clothes. (If you’re a stage actor you can leave your undergarments on. If you’re a screen actor go completely nude.)

Study every aspect of your body. Study it for at least a full 10 minutes. I’ll be here when you get back.

K? Ready? Go.

[Insert Jeopardy music here]

Did you do it? You really should before continuing on.

Go do it now...

[Replay Jeopardy music]

Okay...

Marketing people around the world have realized that the wrapping that encases a product is just as important as the product itself. Sometimes more so. They take classes and seminars on how to push a product on to the unsuspecting public simply by what the product is wrapped in.

As performers we are selling a product. What you just stared at is part of it. We sell our talent as well as our look. That reflection in the mirror is the wrapping that delivers your talent, your wisdom and the wonderfulness of you to the people behind the table.

You just spent 10 minutes staring and dissecting that wrapping. What did you think? How did all of what you are make you feel? Were you happy? Does the outer match the inner? Did your reflection say Leading man but your talents/audition material say side kick? Did you consider yourself to be fat or thin? Lanky or muscular? Tall or short? Bold or maned? Did you applaud yourself because the extra set of crunches you added to your routine is paying off? Did you want to scream or cry? Or were you relieved?

Your audition is merely your pitch to sell a product: you. The response you had while studying yourself in the mirror is part of a subliminal message you’re sending to the people behind the table. Together these emotions with your choice of material and the way you dress make up your audition. If while looking in the mirror you yelled at yourself for eating Hagen Daazs last night, going into an audition and singing “Vanilla Ice Cream” from She Loves Me has a completely different connotation...one that can subliminally come across to the people behind the table.

You as the auditionee send thousands of messages about yourself through your body language and emotional state. People behind the table that have been casting shows for a while can instantly assess you and how you feel about your product. Some of them may not be able to express it in words, but they know whether they like your product or not even before the sales pitch.

When you step into an audition room you bring your entire life with you. Everything goes on display.

There are those actors who are adapt at masking a less than desirable message. That’s great. There are those casting people who can misread even the best of messages. That’s not so great. We all have to deal it. We all have to deal with these unforeseen, unspoken things while auditioning. We all have to deal with an ever fluctuating mental state. That's Life: the only constant is change. But in the performing arts there is something that doesn't change.

Upon reaching a certain level in this Business everyone is talented. Everyone has something to offer a potential project.  What makes you different, what makes you stand out from all the rest is what you just studied in the mirror, how you personally feel about it and how that comes across to the world.

Heinrich is not comfortable with his product’s wrapping. He wants to be taller and he wants to look older. He does everything he can to do so, including wearing a full beard. Now I ask you, what “Rolf” in The Sound of Music has a full beard? Imagine “Peter Pan” with a full beard. It goes against everything the character of “Peter Pan” is at his core. Both are roles well suited for Heinrich. Yet he sabotages his chances of working by not being honest about where he fits in the scheme of theatre.  He distracts from his product by wrapping it inappropriately.

Would you buy orange juice if it were sold in a bottle that said “bleach”? I don’t think so. The same applies to marketing yourself in show business.

If there were things in the mirror you saw that you want to change, change them. Lose some weight, gain some muscle, dye your hair, have your boobs done, get a tummy tuck. Whatever. Just make sure it looks natural. By “natural” I mean make sure it looks like you could have been born with it. Above all else you must head these two caveats. First and foremost do it because you want it. Secondly do it healthily.

Everyone saw things in the mirror that they can’t change. I have them and I can name them. And I’ve accepted mine. Heinrich hasn’t.  Growing another 5 inches is not an option. He hasn’t come to grips with the situation of his height. But the situation of his height is his money maker. Because he lacks those five inches and because he looks so young people will see him as a high school kid or a very young adult. He’s castable in this niche. And there are plenty of roles for him to play. 

Instead of fighting against it, Heinrich needs to exploit his shortcomings. He should make his wrapping reflect the product the people behind the table want to buy from him.

Pretty soon Heinrich will finally get his wish, not to be taller but to look older. His wrapping will no longer be conducive to selling his talent. His height will then truly become a detriment. Ask any former juvenile of the stage. They’ll tell you once you age, the opportunity to work will stop coming. And let’s face it, that’s the one thing we all want: work.

You are a work in progress. Endeavor to change the things you can and want to change about yourself. However love and accept yourself as a whole now. An actor needs to be comfortable and secure in the fact that at this moment he or she is the best version of themselves that there is. Hell it’s the only version out there, so just by virtue of uniqueness it’s the best. Use that uniqueness to its full extent and go out and book some gigs.

I myself am currently in the process of changing some of the things I can change so I can better market myself and feel better about myself in my personal life. Looking into that mirror I came to a realization. While I’m becoming the best me I can be, Life keeps moving on. Show Business keeps moving on cranking out hits. At any given moment I could be cast in one of those hits if I realize who I am, be thankful for what I’ve been given and work with all that I am at this moment in time.

The principle is simple:

You gotta use what you got to get what you want, before what you got is gone.