Yesterday I auditioned for this play that follows three Japanese pilots being recruited to become kamakazies. The wierd coincidence is that yesterday was the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. That aside, I feel pretty good about the performance I gave. I still could have been more relaxed, but I feel good about the choices I made in the scenes. I’m hoping I book this production. I think the story is really interesting and I also haven’t performed in a play for years. We’ll see what happens.
Tomorrow I have an audition for a Bud Light commercial. This is the kind of job that pays the big money. It would be a REALLY nice Christmas gift to book this gig. So right now that is my Christmas wish. Two Christmas wishes: that I book the play AND the commercial.
dude, see i told you so that whether you admit to a pan-asian-american identity or not you’re pigeonholed into one; and that you’d gone to auditions that call for “asian” (as in imperial japanese) rather than specifically half-chinese/filipino.
yeah, i went to this audition as well and hope i’d get casted since it’s a very strong script. what roles did you read for and what were the choices you made? i know they say to not think about your audition after the fact, but face it we actors are forever insecure in that way. any news from caroline liem on when the callbacks will be held?
i’ll let you guess which role i read for since it required somebody who’s extremely ticked off and angry and the scene fit me perfectly.
I was given the sides for Kage, Miname and Tanaka. I ended up reading for Miname and Tanaka. While waiting for my turn to audition, I heard a couple of people reading the Tanaka sides. In the last part of the sides, I heard a lot of yelling and anger. I feel like that choice is one-sided. Tanaka is suppose to be a witty playboy. So it’s not about the yelling and screaming. It should never be about the yelling and screaming. Anyone can do that. But a good actor will show the subtext behind the anger.
i definitely agree with you on the tanaka character choice. in fact, i read the whole script and tanaka came off as cold and cynical so a screaming session is not called for. however, i don’t think they can expect somebody to know about his character as most people don’t read the whole script beforehand. i thought auditions were just supposed to be to see if an actor can make choices and take directions.
i’d agree with you that watching a screaming session is about as much fun as watching a train wreck — okay maybe not as exciting as a train wreck — and actors should make more interesting choices. however, i do believe there are times when anger has to be expressed thru yelling. there’s a difference between trying desperately to be interesting and yelling at every opportunity vs alread interesting and yelling to emphasize the scene. the great toshiro mifune usually belted out a few in his movies and nobody ever complained that he’s not interesting whether he’s screaming or not.
BTW, i read for hanai and i felt the scene i did required some screaming as he’s drunk and on the verge of loosing control with chopping the guy’s head off. i got the vibe from the director and producer i made interesting choices but was told to tone it down for a second time thru.
what was your choices for your reads? did they give you any feedback? it’d be interesting to actually get casted together in this same show…
There’s definitely nothing wrong w/ anger and yelling. If that’s a choice you make, then that’s fine. My choice was just different. I wanted my interpretation to be different - to stand out from all the screamers.
Anyway, I read for Miname and Tanaka. My basic character choices were informed by the breakdowns. I think I did better with the Miname character. Throughout my read for Miname I could see people smiling and nodding their heads. What does that ultimately mean? Of course, I don’t know. For all I know they could be nodding and thinking to thenselves, “Yup. This guy really sucks. I knew we shouldn’t have called him in.” But it’s done and I’m pretty pleased with my audition.
Good luck to you. Let me know if you get in the show!