Day Eight- Love and Hate

Subway still screwed up, had to pay for a cab at 4am to my destination of camping out in front of the Equity office for the coveted "agency auditions."  It's brilliant, every two weeks or so, talent agents from up to three  NY agencies come to the Equity office and actually watch new talent deliver their monologues (In LA, unless you have a friend recommend you to the agents, you can't even say hello to them).   I read somewhere online that they can only take the first 54 actors for the audition, and that even though the sign-in is at 8:30am, the line would be over-filled by 4:30.  So I brought a pillow and my clothes for the three subsequent chorus calls and parked myself on the sidewalk, first in line.  ....crickets....(actually, small rats and big bugs)...nobody else even came till 5am.  Found out that this was because only one agent (Atlas- a mostly commercial agency) was coming to the audition and the actors thought it was a waste of time. Can I just take a moment to point out how RIDICULOUS that is?  Auditioning for three agents might be a time-effective way to NOT get an agent, but how in the world can you have ANY sort of conversation that resembles a traditional "agent meeting" when there are two other agents sitting there watching?  Impossible.

Anyhow, met an awesome veteran actor in the line, we chatted for the entire 3.5 hours (no sleeping, but it's for the best, who would protect me from the rats??)  Signed in, got a 7:20pm appt, and dragged myself into the AEA dressing room for a complete makeover from homeless lady to glamorous actress from the fifties (my first ECC of the day was for Sunset Blvd.)  

Chorus call sucked, I was wayyy too tired and didn't leave time to warm-up. And they were asking for a song in the style of the show (what exactly IS the style of "Sunset Blvd.," besides strange?). Anyhow, it ended and I was too late to make it to any other call. Took forever to get home and it was the hottest day and I had soooo much heavy luggage to tote around.  By the time I neared the apartment, I had my first moment of "Wish I were in California." (I surprise myself;  I imagine me as the type who would have had that moment way sooner- like sometime on the sidewalk with the rat.)

I think my favorite part of today  began when the Equity monitor at the Agency Audition said, "Remember folks, louder and bigger does not mean BETTER," followed by "You know, you don't HAVE to do a Classical monologue if you don't want to."    Never in LA would you hear those words- we think a classical monolgoue means something from a movie before 1983.

Here's the part where you're maybe wanting to ask me, "So, how did it go?"

This is one of those questions that actors get from non-industry friends and family.  The question has two possible meanings:

#1 "Did you get the job?"  -this is the most common meaning of said question- Folks, the answer to that question is always going to be "I have no idea.  Most likely, no." (Or else I would have started this conversation with "GUESS WHAT, I BOOKED A JOB!!!!!"  I promise, I'm never going to withhold that information from you.)

or

#2 "Did you do your best and did you enjoy the experience?"  That's the question I will always answer when people ask me how it went.

Sorry for the sidetrack, but I'm glad to get that off my chest.

Anyway, the answer to question #2  is that it went AMAZINGLY WELL.  I'm very grateful for the opportunity to have met this agent, he's a very enjoyable person,  and for the incredible amount of interest he had in chatting and getting to know me (see?  I told you!  You could never do this with those other guys sitting there.)  My monologue went sooo well, but that was only like 1/10th of the experience.  I take back my grumpiness from this morning in wanting to go back to LA.  The day was totally made worth it.