...And Still Yet Again...
The Ghost of TourCo Auditions Past (pt 4)Just a month later, in February 2005, SC-Chicago held another audition.
" I'm blanking out, but I think this upcoming SC Audition will be my fifth or sixth for SC (two in Detroit, two or three in Chicago). SC supposedly tracks your progress from audition to audition, so if anything, I just hope to put in a good audition and that's that. Auditioning for Detroit and auditioning for Chicago are such different beasts for me--Detroit was my shot at going home a conquering hero while Chicago is just...I dunno...just another audition in Chicago.
You know what's hilarious? People try so hard to get to the mainstage they never think about what happens after you're done with SC...or SC is done with you. There's a performer who did SC TourCo and SC e.t.c. That person still does improv in Chicago...
...but they are now a waiter in a restuarant in my office building.
If that doesn't keep you humble, nothing else will.
* * *
It only took two days (out of four) to fill up all the audition slots--several hundred audition slots.
* * *
I left work early and caught a cab up to Second City.
I hit Old Town Ale House and slugged down a Guinness while chatting with Shelby and Kara (who just auditioned) and then swung over to the theater. After checking in, I chatted and bitted with some of the folks I knew. I forgot how fun pre-Audition bits can be. Andy St. Clair called the 3:25 pm group over and took us to warm-up. Of the 7 other folks I'd be auditioning with, I knew 2--Steve Waltien and Piero Procaccini...my roommate. Hilarious. Of the hundreds of people I could audition with, I end up in the same group as my roommate.
After a few brief warm-up games, we went back outside and soon Beth Klingerman called us into the Skybox. And away we go.
Line up on stage.
Say name and one non-theater fact about yourself.
Quick slew of scenes.
Longer two-person scenes.
Done.
In the slew, Mick would call your name, you'd start a scene and someone would join you. Scene would go on until Mick calls it. I just went in, did a few different characters and that was that.
When the two-person scenes rolled around, Mick had us sit down and told us he'd call two folks up to do a longer scene. I could have swore he said they'd be about "a minute long." In past years, they didn't really quantify it. A minute? It turned out to be more "as long as Mick wants to watch your scene"--but at least you had the knowledge your "longer" scene might not actually be all that long.
Mick called the first pair up. OK. Six left. Who could I be paired with? Please let it be Steve or Piero. Nah, that won't happen.
Mick called the second pair up. Huh. Still have a shot at doing a scene with either Steve or Piero. That'd be nice.
Mick called the third pair up, with Steve being one of the two. Well, there you go, I rarely see Piero at home and have never done a scene with him ever, and now our first scene together will be at SC TourCo auditions. Dig it. Sneaking a look at Mick, scribbling notes on a sheet of paper, I wonder if he put us together on purpose.
Mick finally calls Piero and I up. Instead of a location like the three other pairs, we get a relationship. Piero drives the scene with some great choices and I go along for the ride.
And like that, it's done.
We head out of the theater. I say howdy to a few folks and then go back to the Old Town Ale House for the traditional post-audition drink up. Shelby, Kara, Steve Waltien, Marc Ovies, Erin Davidson, Dunbar Dix, Josh Chamberlain, Katie Neff all end up over there.
So, another year, another audition.
Now back to the improv trenches!"
(Piero is currently my roommate and does a ton of directing work for SC. Katie Neff is the girlfriend of my and Piero's ex-roommate, Steve Kaminski, and she currently performs with SC-Las Vegas.)
I hit Old Town Ale House and slugged down a Guinness while chatting with Shelby and Kara (who just auditioned) and then swung over to the theater. After checking in, I chatted and bitted with some of the folks I knew. I forgot how fun pre-Audition bits can be. Andy St. Clair called the 3:25 pm group over and took us to warm-up. Of the 7 other folks I'd be auditioning with, I knew 2--Steve Waltien and Piero Procaccini...my roommate. Hilarious. Of the hundreds of people I could audition with, I end up in the same group as my roommate.
After a few brief warm-up games, we went back outside and soon Beth Klingerman called us into the Skybox. And away we go.
Line up on stage.
Say name and one non-theater fact about yourself.
Quick slew of scenes.
Longer two-person scenes.
Done.
In the slew, Mick would call your name, you'd start a scene and someone would join you. Scene would go on until Mick calls it. I just went in, did a few different characters and that was that.
When the two-person scenes rolled around, Mick had us sit down and told us he'd call two folks up to do a longer scene. I could have swore he said they'd be about "a minute long." In past years, they didn't really quantify it. A minute? It turned out to be more "as long as Mick wants to watch your scene"--but at least you had the knowledge your "longer" scene might not actually be all that long.
Mick called the first pair up. OK. Six left. Who could I be paired with? Please let it be Steve or Piero. Nah, that won't happen.
Mick called the second pair up. Huh. Still have a shot at doing a scene with either Steve or Piero. That'd be nice.
Mick called the third pair up, with Steve being one of the two. Well, there you go, I rarely see Piero at home and have never done a scene with him ever, and now our first scene together will be at SC TourCo auditions. Dig it. Sneaking a look at Mick, scribbling notes on a sheet of paper, I wonder if he put us together on purpose.
Mick finally calls Piero and I up. Instead of a location like the three other pairs, we get a relationship. Piero drives the scene with some great choices and I go along for the ride.
And like that, it's done.
We head out of the theater. I say howdy to a few folks and then go back to the Old Town Ale House for the traditional post-audition drink up. Shelby, Kara, Steve Waltien, Marc Ovies, Erin Davidson, Dunbar Dix, Josh Chamberlain, Katie Neff all end up over there.
So, another year, another audition.
Now back to the improv trenches!"
(Piero is currently my roommate and does a ton of directing work for SC. Katie Neff is the girlfriend of my and Piero's ex-roommate, Steve Kaminski, and she currently performs with SC-Las Vegas.)
posted by Sammy @ 4:45 PM
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