#117: They’re Stopping Rehearsals
Tuesday 12/10/24
A common thing I hear from other actors and my college audition students is that they were asked to prepare something for an audition but weren’t asked to perform all of it in the audition itself. It’s frustrating and, in a lot of cases, more expensive to prepare extra things. People want coaching and need to find time to rehearse (perhaps losing money by calling out of work) so the costs add up.
It can be INFURIATING to be asked for prep 10 pages of sides, 3 songs you never heard before, only to be asked for 1 side and a song from your book. Or, in a college audition you get asked by 1 school to prep a Shakespeare monologue - you take time and money to find it, coach it, rehearse, memorize, etc, and then they never ask for it. ALLLLL that work for what ends up being nothing. You could’ve used those hours to review your other material or even just work!
And i’ve been there too. It just happened to me last week.
Trying to figure out why that happens is a waste of even more time. In the arts we are never going to figure it all out. The earlier we stop trying the better lol. Yes, producers and teachers can do better and honor their requests. But outside of that, we, as the performers, have to chalk it up to more practice. You had to learn another piece over time or overNIGHT, and that is a skill. You got coaching and coaching isn’t done in a vacuum. Coaching applies to all things - coaching one piece coaches them all.
This has been on my mind as students are prepping additional musical theatre songs, pop songs, and extra monologues for their college auditions - material that is in addition to what they already rehearsed & filming for prescreens. The reality is that the time, energy, and money it takes to prep extra pieces is extensive and could result in never ever being used.
We have to view the time/energy/money we use to work material as an investment in our ongoing training. While the pieces in question may not be seen EVER, the work you did makes you a better performer all around. It’s frustrating but isn’t actually for nothing!
Dreams Don’t Die
Julie