IMPERFECTLY ME

...And Yet Again...

The Ghost of TourCo Auditions Past (pt 3)

In January of 2005, SC-Detroit held auditions for Mainstage/TourCo. I scheduled a slot, rented a car and made my way back home...

"By 7:15 am, I had picked up the car, rounded up a fellow improvisor and was on the road towards Ann Arbor. My friend sacked out to Dar Williams and I drove us into the misty Michigan morning.

During the long quiet drive, I stared out into the thin mist shrouding the countryside and briefly imagined this was my metaphorical crossing into the Underworld. I was the archetypal improvisor with a thousand faces.

Then I laughed at how stupid that was.

Then I considered it some more.

Then I yawned and forgot all about it.

Sleep deprivation and stress does weird things.

I cut it close, but I managed to park and make it to the theater by my check in time--almost 12 on the dot. A sign pointed me up a steep flight of wooden stairs to a space above Improv Inferno (Dan Izzo, owner of the Improv Inferno and former Chicagoan, had graciously donated his space for SC Detroit auditions). A few people were scattered around the cluttered room, although there was an area for us to warm-up, the space was under renovation. I checked in with a pair of ladies at at folding table and found I had a few minutes to kill, so I jaunted across the street to Starbucks for a water and a mocha, chatted with some Chicago people and came right back.

My group was small. Only 5 people! (In Chicago, your SC audition group would probably be 8 folks.) Not only that, I knew Jen Malinsky, and was introduced to another Chicago improvisor Josh Eakright. Since we all were from Chicago, we yapped a bit about things going on back home. I found it funny because the CIN boards were quiet about the audition--no one really has brought it up and I hadn't heard much around about other peeps heading out for this audition, so to have a couple of performers from home in the group was nice.

Kathy, one of the check in ladies, warmed us up in with quick rounds of stretching, Eights and a circle warm-up that combined name games and passing the clap. While warming up, the previous audition group came clambering up the stairs to collect their belongings. I spied yet another Chicago performer, Thea Lux, and an old Detroit face, Ken Wood. Kathy left us with the note that the auditors specifically mentioned they wanted to see character work and that playing any favorite characters you had in the audition was A-OK.

Sidenote: One of the things I noticed as the day wore on was the interpretation of the "show clothes" directive for the audition--the Detroit folks I knew really dressed up for the audition with dress pants, dress shirt, tie and jacket (TourCo/Mainstage standard) whilst most of the Chicago peeps seemed to stick with simple black clothing or business casual (comfortable but classy IO/PG standard).

We walked downstairs and entered the Improv Inferno proper. It's a long, narrow space but definitely had a cool vibe about it--even empty on a Tuesday at 12:30.

We took to the small, elevated wooden platform and lined up. Marc Warzecha introduced himself. He would be leading this audition. We were told to step forward, introduce ourselves, say where we were from and then tell one non-improv, non-theater fact about ourselves. For my intro, I mentioned how my dad was a Sunni muslim from Palestine and my mom a Roman Catholic Filippino and, surprise, they are divorced. While everyone else did their intros, I scouted the auditors. Even though they were in the dark, they were only about 15 feet away from us. Hello, intimate. I recognized Kirk, a former SC-Detroit Mainstager, was pleasantly surprised to see Beth Klingerman from SC-Chicago. The fourth person, I think was a lady and I'm guessing that's the new executive producer for SC-Detroit.

I did a super-quick auditor check off in the my head--I know 3 of 4 the auditors, 2 of which have only seen me at Chicago auditions and the third who hasn't seen me perform since I left Detroit. While it didn't affect my approach to my audition, it did make me comfortable level by knowing who was there watching.

I also knew that this slot was the last audition of the morning and the auditors were going to have lunch next. Theoretically this is the slot to avoid because the auditors are probably burnt out and thinking about getting some grub. Since choosing an audition slot was out of my control, all I can do is simply acknowledge that I have to work a little harder to make an impression...and with any luck be a pre-lunch highlight.

We started out with a quick slew of scenes--Marc would call out someone's name, that person initiate a new scene and then somebody else would join them. My scenework itself was meh, but I made sure the instant my name was called I would say something, ANYTHING, as I came off the backline and strode downstage--long, deliberate pauses at the top of a scene during a slew come across as stalling or fear, so I made sure I seized the stage. I also did my best to mix it up when I could. A few bits and a few characters later and that was that.

Then, we switched on over into longer two-person scenes. We were paired off by Marc and did our stuff in turn. The suggestion of "Art Fair" was given to me and my partner. I made a quick decision that I wanted to break beyond the boundaries of the small stage, so I walked off the platform at the top of scene. But instead of pushing and furthering the choice I made, I rooted myself to one spot just offstage. Blergh. Follow your instinct and follow through with your instinct. Other than the strange staging, I thought scene was alright.

Usually to wrap up a typical SC audition, you close with Freeze Tag if you have time, but Marc instead hit us with Conducted Story. I was a little surprised but absolutely game for it. I was lucky and blessed with "Jack Kerouac" as my style for storytelling. I say blessed because while I don't read much beat poetry, but I love spoken word. So, still miffed for not following my instincts in the two-person scene, I pushed and pushed hard into stream-of-consciousness freestyle associating. I committed my balls off and it felt great. It felt even better being the story teller that closed it out. Hopefully it was a nice high note for the morning audition session to end on for the auditors.

* * *

During the lunch break, Dan Izzo gave a couple of us a tour of his theater and we chatted improv/theater biz. (Again, it's an awesome space I'll do my best to get some pix.)

* * *

That afternoon, we ran into Brett Lyons and Erica Noschang and decided to grab a quick dinner after everyone's Erica's auditions. It was great, just fucking great, to have a solid audition and then go and bullshit over food with funny folks. 240 miles from home and we're doing bits, being silly and cracking our shit up, all after an audition that could really be a stepping stone in our improv careers.

To be honest, that dinner was the highlight of the trip.

Screw the audition.

* * *

* * *

At 4:17 pm on Thursday, January 6th, 2005, the Corner Man of my ego threw in the towel.

The Corner Man had held onto towel, against his better judgment, from 1 p.m. until 4:16 p.m. Knowing my battered ego could take no more, the Corner Man finally let fly and watched the bloody towel arc onto the canvas.

The Contender was no champ, not this time, the Corner Man thought, but he was still a fighter...and there are still many other fights on many other nights yet to come.

But this fight was over. This night was done.

And no matter what lessons were learned, what wisdom the Corner Man would spout, the Contender would only think that a loss is still a loss...and some hurt way more than others."


(Erica Noschang would go on to perform at Boom! Chicago. Strangely enough, tonight, September 10th, is the last night the Improv Inferno will be open at that space. The landlords jacked the rent up on Dan Izzo and he decided to relocate elsewhere.)

posted by Sammy @ 4:41 PM Comments: 0