In just a few short days all of my seniors will pack their bags and fly off for a week in NYC to audition for a collection of colleges known as the Unified Auditions. This creates a very tense air outside of the Blackbox. Seniors are changing their minds every minute opting to go with monologues that they just read over lunch. They are feeling like they need to break rules: why not do a gender break on a play – Why? – “because every one will be expecting a woman to play this role – so this will really impress them.” Catch their attention it will – – impress them it may not. I am always a bit surprised to find they have lost hope in those precious monologues that we have been working on since the beginning of school. It is as if they and the monologue have been dating so long that the magic has worn thin and the next monologue that comes walking down the hall looks oh so more attractive than that “old one from first quarter.”
Just because the shrink-wrap is still on the new monologue does not make it better than the one that we have taken DAYS to develop. Sometimes I think that young actors do not see the value in having lived with the monologue for a span of time and the value of having that monologue “percolate” for a bit. But, I get it – – they are nervous – seriously, really nervous. For many of them this will be the first time that anyone out of their circle of teachers, parents, and friends have ever seen them. A big, most important blind date has been set up for them in a city a thousand miles away. They will be packing their best clothes and the first winter coat that many of them have never had. But will they be loved . . . .?
I too am nervous. Has all of my advice been on point? Did I match the right material to the right kid? Am I seeing the talent level from the same vantage point as these college adjudicators? Perhaps if I just had one more rehearsal in the Blackbox . . . perhaps.
But as I tell the students, “ENJOY, damn it, ENJOY this set of auditions. It truly is your first ‘performance’ in New York City” – – and with a bit of love and luck, it will not be your last.
2 comments on “Blind Date”
Could not agree with this post more. From year 1 as freshmen I tell them to keep all their monolgues (and songs) in an audition binder, so when college auditions roll around they have a stock pile of monolgues that they have done successfully. But they all panic and go looking for something brand new the week before, the day before, the hour before (contrary to everything I have ever taught them). I give them roots, but they grow wings and…c’est la vie.
It is so great to hear from someone out there that they too face the same issues. I too have “root” issues. I so value your feedback on the blog and do hope that you will join me here again to talk of the wonderful/terrible world of teaching high school theatre. Thanks again!