Rookie Mistakes and Beginner's Luck

Several times a year, Actor's Equity arranges auditions in order to help members find agency representation. You sing/or monologue for three agency representatives in the room, in the hopes of finding one who is interested in working with you. Obviously these auditions are coveted by actors in the city, and competition is fierce. There were only 50 appointments available. There are a lot more than 50 non-represented actors in New York City.

Sign up for appointments is at 8:30am, but many people wait outside the building as early at 6am. My last experience with this audition, I did the super-early-wait-outside-on-the-pavement-for-two-hours thing. A friend rolled in after 8am and had the same appointment group as me, without the painful early-morning wait.

This time I decided to take a page from his book, and come in a little later. I thought that for sure I'd get an appointment, because it was cold and rainy and who wants to wait outside in that kind of weather?

Wrong!

I was the very last person in line and was assigned a number high on the alternate list. In order to be seen from the alternate list, someone with an appointment must miss their time, and all of the people ahead of me on the alternate list must be seen.

I was feeling a little discouraged, but happened to be in the neighborhood at the time of the audition. A friend suggested I check in and see how I felt from there; whether or not I'd stick around in hopes of them calling my number.

In a stroke of luck, the 1 train was severely delayed, causing over thirty people to miss their audition appointments. Over 30 of the alternates also did not show. I had a thirty minute wait and was seen right away.

I felt good about my audition, and mostly, felt extremely lucky!

PS: I had forgotten how much walking you can do in just one day in New York City. Add onto that my heavy audition bag; my body is so sore today.