...threat of Hell...

 

 Usually there is an onslaught of auditions that happen in the months of September and October. This year there has only been a smattering. For a while I was only averaging one audition a week and even that has dried up now. Luckily that gives me ample time to pursue other things.

 

With so much free artist’s time I decided to work on the musical that I’m writing. I found a composer and off we went. We worked feverishly for weeks writing and re-writing music and script. The script and half of the music was finished. I decided with all the free time I had I was going to do another table read of the project.

 

A “table read” is just what the name implies. A group of actors each take a role and sit around a table and read a script. The writers and anyone associated with the project sit and listen. They make judgments as to what works and what doesn’t. Then the project goes back to being reworked or completely rewritten. This is usually the first step in getting a new show on its feet (produced).

 

A brother of a friend of mine, Rhett, had written a one act and wanted to hear how it turned out. Rhett contacted me to see if I had an interest in reading a role. Of course I said yes. But the role was written with someone else in mind, someone a little different than me. The role was for an Italian actor, with references about it in the script.

 

The play was quite good and interesting. Afterwards we, the actors, the writer and Rhett (who I assumed would be the director) sat around the table and discussed the play. We each had our particular opinions about the piece and the characters we played. We shared them and thus sent Rhett’s brother away with some valuable information and insight into his new piece.

 

It was more of that outside insight that I was looking for. So I went about arranging my second informal table read. First I contacted people to play the roles. There were about 25 to be filled. We, the composer and I, decided that it would be best if we got singers to sing the songs and readers to read each role. This way the amount of material would be split between actors. This would give them a chance to really focus on their particular piece of the puzzle.

 

I went through my Facebook friends list and selected people I thought might have an interest in dong a table read of new material. I invited them to participate. Once there were enough people confirmed I went about assigning parts and songs. I set a date and arranged for a space. My day job, which has lots of gigs at the moment, provided me the opportunity to pay for the space.

 

I was working one of the many day job gigs when a guy comes over to me. He starts talking about how the evening was progressing. He looked very familiar. After talking for a bit we discovered that we were both in musical theatre. We had seen each other at auditions and at readings.

 

The guy, while working at our day job, then lamented on how many readings he had done. Jokingly he had said that Equity should offer a production contract for every twenty readings an actor does. More seriously though he was frustrated because one of two things happened to him with all of the readings he took part in.

 

Many of the readings that he was in didn’t make it to fruition. For whatever reason, maybe their bad, or ill-conceived, or there’s just no interest in or money for the project, these pieces went nowhere. No one ever heard of them again.  Thousands of projects end up like this, tossed in the trash bin.

 

When a project was good or well-conceived or had interest or financial backing, it went on without him.

 

With my cast list in tow I set off to do my second informal table read. Friends and colleagues such as Bruce, Donalda, Arthur, Teagan, Ann, Lisa and Phineas (who I cast in an Equity showcase a few years ago) were invited to read.

 

Donalda couldn’t participate. Her life was crazy. This is the second time I’ve invited her to do something and the second time she’s declined.

 

Bruce agreed to help but got an important audition at the last minute. Understandable, frustrating but understandable.

 

Ann is an understudy in a show and had to go on that night.

 

Arthur showed up as did Teagan.

 

Phineas accepted the invitation. Then later, unbeknownst to me, declined it. After sending the script, and music, and numerous updates he never bothered to send me a quick note to say that he had dropped out of the project. When it came time for his part in the reading there was nothing but silence.

 

I sent Phineas a text simply asking “hey where are you?” I didn’t hear from him that night. In fact to this day I’m still waiting for an answer. I know he’s okay because he has posted on Facebook since and even updated the invitation to his one man show.

 

For Rhett’s brother’s play there were no rehearsals. There never are for table reads. I had an opportunity to work on my craft and that’s what I did. I invested my own personal time in becoming very familiar with the play. I investigated how my character related to the others and what it is the character wanted and the conflict that it gave rise to. I went in prepared with my choices. I wasn’t paid for any of it, my time or the reading.

 

Rhett came to me after and told me how impressed both he and his brother were with my interpretation of the role. Both wanted me to continue with the project. Next after doing some rewrites they wanted to do a staged reading. The part I read was mine if I wanted it. And I did want it.

 

The piece I wrote is quite complicated and intricate. It’s a thinking man’s musical. As an audience member, one has to really pay attention to the character relationships, what’s happening between them and the underlying meaning of it all. It’s the actor’s job to communicate all of this to whomever is paying attention, whether it’s paying audience or the director at rehearsal or just a writer at a table read.

 

How is this done? In a word: home-work.

 

Whether during an informal table read, a showcase, a rehearsal or a full blown production on Broadway, an actor has to show up prepared and ready to work. Lisa, whom I invited to come to the second table read couldn’t make it. She was going to be out of town in rehearsals for a new show. However before she left she was stressing. She still had 20 more pages to become familiar with, so familiar that she would be almost memorized.

 

Lisa knows that to be an effective performer she has to be prepared from day one. She doesn’t wait for rehearsals to begin to start memorizing or working on her character, or accents or any of the other requirements needed for the piece or her part. She knows that the majority of the information is written in the script. What isn’t written in the script will have to wait for the creative team to dictate, things like over all concept, costuming and blocking.

 

Lisa was at home, prior to the start of rehearsals, working on the script. An award nominated actress was doing Home-work. She’s talented, yes, but she’s also smart. She knows that to be successful, to be nominated takes work. Work that needs to be done at home. And she knows that work will continue every day, outside of rehearsal.

 

Getting a show off the ground takes collaboration. It takes hearing the piece outside of the writer’s head which is why there is such a thing called a “table read”. It needs living breathing people to make the words come alive off of the page. Any show needs to be heard to see what works and what doesn’t, to see if all the elements are congruous.

 

Before making my second table read happen, I had to make cuts in the script. There were too many characters and the plot was muddy.  Everything that happened still needed to happen, it just had to happen faster with less characters doing it. When it came down to it five roles were cut, while one role was expanded. Why was one particular role made larger? Because during the first table read Teagan invested so much and was so prepared in his portrayal that he inspired me. Teagan made me, as the writer, see the possibility to use that character more. And as a result and use him more.

 

Rhett and his brother finished their rewrites. They moved to the next step in the process, the staged reading.

 

A staged reading is the second step in the process of getting a work produced. It’s where a new work, or a reconceived work, is presented to an audience. It’s so important that Actors Equity (the actor’s union) has a specific contract which allows union actors to participate in such an event. Because of this there are some strict rules which include:

 

No sets, props, wigs, make-up, or costumes.

 

No advertising or reviews.

 

Book in hand, no memorization, only minimum staging with no choreography permitted

 

For invited audiences only. (If Programs are provided, the names of all AEA members in the production are to be designated by an asterisk (*) with the indication that Actors and Stage Managers so designated are members of Equity)

 

There may be only one use of the Stage Reading Guidelines per project within a six-month period without the express written permission of Equity.

 

And...

 

There is a set number of rehearsal hours, 29, in which the company must completely rehearse and perform the piece. The number of hours actually gives rise to the name of the contract: The 29 hour staged reading contract.

 

The 29 hour staged reading contract's name is a misnomer. For musicals you actually only get 15 hours of rehearsal and for straight plays 10. Imagine trying to learn Sweeney Todd, all the music, all the blocking and all the character development in 15 hours. Since an actor is now being paid that’s exactly what’s expected. How do they do it? They work on it at home. Any actor knows that his or her reputation is on the line. Future employment is on the line.

 

After an actor has been working with a show through the different stages, he or she can become legally tied to that show. Should the show continue towards being a full production, the creative team must use this original actor in the production. If they want to replace the actor, he or she has to be bought out of their contract. Meaning the actor will get paid to leave the show. Now that replaced actor has the “privilege” of having to watch someone else perform a role that he or she has already performed. They now get to watch someone else possibly get nominated for awards for that role and that show.

 

For an actor this is tantamount to being banished to the ninth circle of Hell.

 

I was asked to participate in Rhett’s staged reading. Unfortunately I had already committed to my day job for the duration of rehearsals and the two performances. Not working these important dates would have meant losing that day job.

 

Rhett told me afterwards that the person who replaced me was different than I was. There were changes and rewrites made that suited what I did for the role. He didn’t do what I did. He didn’t fit with what had been envisioned for the role. Both Rhett and his brother want me back. Doing my work at home paid off.

 

Since Phineas didn’t show up to my second table read, I ended up doing the part myself. Good thing I wrote the piece and didn’t have to read it blindly for the first time. Unfortunately this is what some of the people who volunteered their time for me actually did. What they gave was of no help to me as a writer and no help in the collaborative process.

 

Actors who aren’t prepared are of no use to the writer, no use to the composer or director or choreographer and no use to the other actors involved. The people who didn’t do their homework, who came seemingly unprepared, or didn’t come at all are actors who are not valuable to this piece.

 

In fact anyone who participated without being prepared did a two-fold disservice to their career.

 

First, a good majority of the actors who were reading my piece do other creative things in the industry besides acting. In attendance were several directors, writers, producers and choreographers. One of the readers was a woman who a few years ago started her own company which produces several pieces every year. Rhett, a working actor, was also there. He had just directed and produced an extremely limited run of a new musical. The musical actually made money and has partial backing to continue to a full production. This was a prime opportunity to impress and network.

 

Secondly actors who weren’t prepared won’t have the opportunity to continue with the development of the piece. I hope to one day take the show to Broadway, or at least regionally produce it. Then I can offer contracts, paying jobs, to the actors who contributed valuable insight, who volunteered their time, talent and effort to make the show work. It’s these actors who’ll get the privilege of creating an original role.

 

Being the first to play a role in a recognized production is not something that happens every day. In fact some actors have very long prosperous careers without ever having originally created a role. But it is something that most actors covet. That lucky actor who creates a role will become the standard for that role. Everyone who comes after will be held to what he or she originally created.

 

Remember the guy I met at my day job? The one who was lamenting over how he never gets to progress with a reading when it does move on? Perhaps the problem is as simple as he doesn’t do his work at home. He waits. He waits until the director or writer tells him what is what. He waits until he has the time, or he waits until rehearsals to do any work at all. And then it’s too late. He gets replaced. He then becomes a mere memory, a ghost of what once was.

 

Now has to wait to audition just like the other 5 million nameless and faceless zombies in New York City. He’ll be auditioning for roles that are most probably already filled by the actors who did their work at home, who continued on with the production from its table reads and staged readings.
 

To be successful, an actor has to use every creative opportunity available. That’s what table reads and staged readings are, an opportunity. It’s during these times an actor can impress the people behind the table and make creative teams want to work with him or her.

 

Talent isn’t everything in Show Business, which is a scary thought. That just means you have to be smart. As an actor you have to do work at home. And...

 

"...if you’re smart, you’ll learn your lessons well".