Truths

A New Kind of Audition

          Sunday began a week of a never-ending flurry of auditions, all of which were fruitless. I had tried out for roles ranging from a schizophrenic patient to the best friend of a seventeen year old scientist. My performances weren't terrible per say; rather, they were unmatchable to the large pool of more talented adolescent actors and actresses.

          By Thursday, my hopes for a start in acting deflated like a tire. Jeremy told me not to give up just yet, for he had a secret something hidden in his sleeve. I had not known what he meant by that, but I trusted him well enough to accept one more audition before taking a break and returning to train with Ms. Grietsev.

          After being convinced by Jeremy's clever arguments, I wound up in the front of a polished, grey building titled Suite 301 that Thursday evening.

          I entered the building and found myself standing in a gymnasium-sized room with a cement floor and plaster walls. As professional as the suite looked on the outside, the interior countered it greatly.

          Foldable chairs lined up in sets of ten occupied most of the room. There were about twenty other people in the area along with myself, all of which were scanning their librettos and memorizing their lines. To my right was a plastic picnic table with stacks of script books. I took one and sat beside a well-groomed boy, no older than fifteen, who had been writing notes on the side of his libretto with a pencil.

          An hour away from my audition and I had yet even learned what the plot of the movie was. Jeremy only mentioned the basics about an orphan teenage girl who encounters a wealthy businessman and then something about a forbidden romance.

          I flipped open the script to the first page. There had been post it notes to mark the scenes we were expected to memorize, one of which being the opening scene.

          "What role are you trying out for?" asked the sandy-colored blond boy beside me.

          "Um," I uttered, "the lead female." The male chuckled.

          "Okay," he said doubtfully. "Do you even know the name of the lead character, let alone the storyline?" I opened my mouth to speak, but found myself at a loss when I had to look down at my script to determine the character's name.

          "Her name is Anastasia," he spoke. "She's an orphan who meets this one forty-four year old businessman who chooses to adopt her. Everything is turning up until she discovers that her adoptive parent has a son near her age. And like all cheesy Hollywood Rom Coms, she falls in love with him."

          "Oh. Right," I offered a thankful smile. "Thanks."

          "No problem," the boy returned his glace at his own script, then faced back to me. "Look. I can obviously tell you're new with the way you haven't done any research on the movie itself. It's a rookie mistake. In order to get into character, you should familiarize yourself with the character and, before the actual audition, convince yourself to act like that person so that it starts to feel natural."

          "That's really good advice," I responded. "Thank you. I'll keep that in mind."

          "I was once in your position. When I was five," he mentioned, causing my confidence to wilt. "If I am to be blunt with you, it would be best to try out for a minor role, like Anastasia's orphan friend Cherrie. She seems like she would suit you."

          "That doesn't sound like that bad of any idea, actually," I replied. He took the libretto on my lap and flipped through chunks of pages before stopping at a particular page marked with a yellow post it note. He handed the book back to me and said, "Here's the scene with Cherrie if you decide to audition for her role."