Callback No More

I auditioned for Sleep No More Saturday morning before my flight to left for Detroit to work the auto show. I haven't seen it, but Sleep No More is probably the #1 thing I want to be in in the world. The audition was very artistic and engaging...and you hardly had to do anything. The best auditions are the ones that seem the least like auditions. The problem with monologues is you rehearse them so much and then you are judged on how you do them in a very short time. Some people get really good at it but actually are shitty actors. Vice versa is also true. Plus, monologues aren't the best test of the mind of the actor...how good is this person at breaking down a script and how well do they collaborate? Wouldn't it be better if an audition showed how actors did those things?

Anyway, back to the Sleep No More audition. They brought a group of twenty actors into the lobby of this old hotel. The task was to explore the space and find a few areas or objects that spoke to you. Then, over roughly seven minutes, you would organically creat a mini etude for yourself and go over it a few times. Mine was entering the lobby looking for someone I was supposed to meet. I didn't see them, but I did spot a suitcase belonging to the girl I was traveling with under a dresser. But she wasn't supposed to be here because I got rid of her.

It wasn't the most successful etude I've done and I was rewarded with getting to go home instead of staying for the callback. These things happen. I didn't reach and try to overact...I just didn't have the stakes needed to create a big enough change in my behavior.

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I'm really craving a creative outlet. Either directing or devising....or God forbid I actually perform in a modern play. It's been 5 years since I've performed in a script that takes place anywhere near modern day. Cider House Rules was kind of close, I suppose.

As far as the devising and directing, I know what I need to do with that. I need to stop talking and start doing...but it would be nice if someone else took the initiative for once. Again, my generation needs permission to create...at least most of us.

But let's start here. What's my next project? What do I want to write about or what do I want to do?

I would like to try something like Sleep No More. I need to see that next month so I can get some inspiration. I want to alter it a little bit and make it more my own...but as Michael Caine and so many others have said, "Steal from the best."

I need to answer this question: What would I want to see? If I answer that, then I have a starting point.