Casting Director Roundup!

This past Monday night ended an extremely busy week for me having met and auditioned for five casting directors in the course of one week. ACTeen's Casting Director Seminar was a great experience. The short time frame with which I had to prepare sides for each meeting was a small window of opportunity and I often found myself walking down the sidewalk and on the subway reading and memorizing my sides, mumbling to myself.

Our first guest was Daryl Eisenberg from "Gossip Girl" casting fame. Because I don't watch the show, I had to do some quick last minute prep watching some clips online to get to know the characters and the overall feel for the show. I enjoyed auditioning for Daryl as I did a scene and recieved some direction from her, and then went for another go round. Daryl was very honest and open to answering any question and it was a good way to start the week.

Guest number two was Christina Wright from The N network. I read sides from a TV pilot in which I was a snooty film student with Oscar winning connections. I loved reading this scene because I really got to play up and verge on going overboard with this character. Then, Christina had us read hosting sides and do a mock interview with another classmate. It was my first time reading hosting sides, but I tried to be my spunky self, and I interviewed fake Jonas brother. I had to calm the audience (my classmates down) when the fake Jonas touched one of their hands....I went to commercial immediately.

Last Friday we met with Jodi Angstreich from the CW and I read a scene from a "West Wing" type young adult pilot. My character was kinda like a young Jodi Foster/Clarice Starling with a little more flirtaciouness in her. Jodi's direction after my first shot at it were very specific in my relationship to the character and she was very helpful. It's interesting to see how much direction casting directors give after your first try, sometimes they say very little.

Saturday was the audition I was gearing up for all week, Claire Traeger with "Law and Order". I met with Claire last year and did the same scene again this year. It was obviously a very intense scene (my character helped her boyfriend murder a girl). Claire was the only casting director to read opposite each of the actors, so that added a slight twist to all of the performances.

Lastly, we met with Erica Palgon of Liz Lewis Casting. Erica was extremely informative and obviously loves actors and the process which is always refreshing when your nerves are in a twist and then you find out, "Oh wait, Erica wants me to do well and....wait....yeah, she's really nice." I read a scene from the sit com "The Big Bang Theory" which was extremely difficult because there were four characters in the scene that I was interacting with the whole time. It was tough to transition between all of them, but I pulled it off the second time.

Overall, I really enjoyed working with my fellow ACTeen classmates in this type of environment. The other students are friendly and supportive which makes the entire experience that much better. I hope to stay in touch with these casting directors and hopefully a part will be right for me that they are casting!!