They're either too young or too old. They're either too gray or too grassy green The pickin's are poor and the crop is lean. So go Frank Loesser's lyrics to an Arthur Schwartz melody in the 1943 film, "Thank Your Lucky Stars." And the sentiments could well serve as the perennial theme for the stage actor's audition.
Is it by merit, through contacts, or by way of a plain old miracle that actors get work? Imagine any corporation -- even the largest one you can -- that has no openings to fill but is compelled by union regulations to acknowledge all resumes submitted, and to personally interview as many as 450 applicants for positions that do not now -- or may never -- exist? It only happens in the world of professional theater.
For almost a century, the goal of Actors' Equity has been to support, protect, and defend its membership. Although Equity seeks to insure that fair and equitable means are used in the process of employing actors, its requirements are often perceived as ineffectively obligatory if not downright counter-productive. The New Jersey Theater Lottery Auditions may be one such requirement.
No actor needs to be told how difficult it is to land a principal, featured, or even a bit-part in a play or musical at a professional theater company. Whether you are a member of the non-Equity theater community (perhaps a recent graduate of a college acting program), or whether you are a seasoned, card-carrying, dues-paying member of Actors' Equity, getting an audition is a pain. Ask most actors, and they will say getting an appointment to be seen is next to impossible.
Enter the New Jersey Theater Lottery Auditions -- custom-made for the gambling actor who has nothing to lose and presumably everything to gain. Inaugurated 11 years ago to benefit both the actor and the state's professional theaters, the lottery auditions, given in February and August, give approximately 450 actors each year an opportunity to impress representatives from over 20 theaters. These theaters include Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn; George Street Playhouse and Crossroads Theater, New Brunswick; McCarter Theater, Princeton; and the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Madison.
Under the aegis of the New Jersey Theater Group, an alliance of the state's professional (Equity) theaters directed by Laura Aden, the New Jersey lottery is an outgrowth and localized refinement of the lottery system required by a form of Equity contract with the League of Regional Theaters (LORT). New Jersey member theaters were previously required to participate in Equity's lottery auditions in New York City. Because it was "not run particularly well in the city," says George Ryan, NJTG's director of artist services, the decision was made to reform it as a collective endeavor, "to not only mirror but to fulfill the requirements of Equity, and do it within our own state." In addition to a day of Equity auditions, NJTG elects to also provide a day of auditions for non-Equity actors.
While the concept and execution of the lottery varies in different regions and cities to comply with Equity rules, Ryan sees the New Jersey Lottery as primarily fulfilling a need of the New Jersey Theater Group's member theaters to get a broad picture of predominantly local and available talent. Before the state lottery was inaugurated, individual theaters were required to hold their own open calls. New Jersey boasts that it is the only statewide lottery audition. Although the exact audition sites change to prevent those actors who are not picked from crashing the already-packed slate, New Brunswick will host the August (1999) auditions. One-hundred-fifty Equity actors will be seen on Monday, August 30, and an equal number of non-Equity actors will be seen on Tuesday, August 31. This selection comes out of the 2 to 3,000 resumes and pictures sent in for each lottery. The February auditions are held on one day allowing for 75 Equity and 75 non-Equity spots. Notwithstanding that every professional theater is expected to participate if they don't have their own open call, the point and purpose of attending the auditions vary with each theater.
The representative for Princeton's McCarter Theater is Grace Shackney. However, in her capacity as administrating producing associate, Shackney oversees only local casting. She makes it quite clear that significant casting for the main stage season is not a practical consideration with the lottery auditions. "We would only be seeking non-Equity actors to fill in as extras in the annual `Christmas Carol,'" she says. However, McCarter maintains an up-to-date pool of area actors available for in-house play-readings, an activity crucial to the workshopping of new plays.
Confirming that all major and featured roles are cast through McCarter's two New York casting agents, Shackney believes that smaller theaters that do not have casting agents use the auditions as a means of seeing and selecting talent. To her knowledge, no actor has ever been significantly cast at McCarter through the lottery audition. Shackney, in fact, views the auditions as "basically non-productive" and would prefer to attend these "two hard days with only two 15-minute breaks, only when we are looking for someone."
Wendy Liscow, associate artistic director of George Street Playhouse, sees the statewide auditions as having the potential for filling smaller roles, especially for non-Equity actors who do not have agent representation. Aware of the reality, she says "However, between our New York casting director and David Saint, George Street's artistic director, we rarely have the need to hold auditions for major roles, although this season we will have them in New York for our upcoming musical."
Joe Discher, artistic associate at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, has been attending the auditions for the past seven years. In contrast to the McCarter policy, he affirms that 10 to 20 actors are singled out each year by the festival to read for upcoming roles. "One or two may actually get cast," says Discher. "Because New Jersey is our home community, the festival would like to find talent from the state. It's a way for us to give something back to the state."
"There is definitely more value for us in the non-Equity rather than in the Equity part of it," says Brian Platt, a producer at Madison's Playwrights Theater of New Jersey. Although small in comparison to many of the state's other professional theaters, Playwrights Theater employs a New York casting agent. However, Platt can readily remember two actors he noticed at the non-Equity auditions and whom he subsequently cast in five plays.
Platt also expresses his feelings about certain of the state's larger theaters that decline to send personnel with real casting clout to the auditions. "Maybe if they sent somebody with a genuine eye for casting, they wouldn't feel the way they do about attending," says Platt, who feels that no producer or casting agent should rule out the possibility of finding an actor this way.
The lottery audition format allows each actor 2 and 1/2 minutes to do anything he or she wishes. For the ambitious actor, this could mean reciting a few lines from Medea, performing a time step to eight-bars of 42nd Street, and concluding with a fast segue into one chorus of Memories. But, as George Ryan suggests, for the actor who "torn between Medea and a comedy piece, do the comedy piece." However, he adds, "If the actor is well known for his comedy roles, then by all means choose the serious piece."
Actors who sing or need musical accompaniment must give the auditioners advance notice. Because the actors auditioning are not up for specific roles, Ryan stresses the need for the actors to showcase themselves in the best possible light. Although New Jersey actors are encouraged to enter, the lottery is open to actors from every state.
As a former actor, Ryan recalls with pleasure a New Jersey actor who told him "I'm so glad I got in this year, because this is my sixth year trying." When an actor sends in his picture, resume, a copy of his Equity card (if he has one), whether an accompanist is needed, and a stamped self-addressed envelope, he will definitely get a "no" or a "yes" reply and an appointment time. Ryan explains the process of placing actors into the different categories for the lottery. Men and women are subdivided into four categories that include Equity singers, Equity non-singers, non-Equity singers, and non-Equity non-singers. Depending on the number of responses in each category, each fifth or ninth entry is blindly picked from each group.
An Equity actor who wishes to remain anonymous, remembers his own experience of auditioning in the non-Equity category, that is "packing your food and camping out with everyone for a whole day. You do your 2 and 1/2 minutes and notice that some of the people there may actually put your picture and resume in their folders. It probably won't get you work, but it's fun.
"It's probably harder for the people who have to watch you," he continues. "Can you imagine how hard it is after listening to 149 hair-pulling shows and then having to listen to number 150 do Lady Macbeth?"
Although this actor has been cast by some of the New Jersey theaters, he says "nothing ever came as a result of the lottery audition. The actors who stand a good chance are the really young and really old people and talented ethnic types."
Asked whether auditioning is, by definition, good for the actor, this actor's response is informed. "Professional actors don't feel the need to put on a show -- unless they're just out of college, and have been working for the past four to six years on contrasting monologues. No professional actor is ever asked to do that. Usually `sides,' (i.e. pages of the script) from the play are sent to the actor to learn the day before the actor reads for the director. That's the only audition that counts. What really counts is if your friend from college gets a break and wants to work with you again."
While many non-Equity actors continually face the enormous odds of getting picked for a role by type-casting out of what is euphemistically called a "cattle call," the younger ones consider it a coup if they are selected for an apprentice program at one of the many professional companies. While technically nurtured at the theater, it can take an apprentice two years before he or she finds themselves on stage and before being eligible for an Equity card. And unless the theater is willing to pay for services it used to get for free, or for non-Equity wages, the actor is out on his own.
Out on his own, the actor soon finds that the casting at professional companies and for individual plays, locally and nationally, are the playground of agents, casting agents, and directors. Unless a director or an agent champions an actor, his chances of being seen are remote. Except for the slim pickings found in Back Stage magazine and similar publications that display casting notices, the actor has no way to find out what roles are being cast by whom and where. It is almost unheard of for an actor without agent representation or without being submitted to a director by a casting agent to read for a role. The specifics of the various roles in a season of plays are called "break-downs" and are only sent to licensed agents. While the selected actors get their chance to be seen by all the representatives of 20 or so theaters, there are no guarantees. And actors lucky enough to win a spot to audition are not eligible to apply again for two years.
Ryan sees one advantage of the audition over being submitted by an agent for a particular role: that the actor can be seen in a different light from the one he or she may have been typecast in. Whether the actor is a child, a mature adult, or an actor of color, typecasting remains the bane of the actors' experience. It is true that an actor who has regularly worked at a particular theater may not have to audition there. "But, this is the opportunity," says Ryan "to showcase your work for theaters that don't know you.
"Although this audition is a long way from actually being cast in a show, this is the most actor-friendly audition I've ever seen. I've got a very generous file of happy letters from actors who wrote what a wonderful experience it was," says Ryan. He tries to dispel the idea that the potential is only for bit parts and that it may be seen as a waste of time for an actor used to landing principal roles. Ryan recalls a time, five years ago, when Peter Loewy, the artistic director of the Forum Theater, Metuchen, found a last-minute replacement for an actor in a leading role who had to leave on short notice. When Ryan concludes by telling me that he can't think of any theater that hasn't benefitted from the auditions, I find myself wishing he had said, "I can't think of any actor who hasn't benefitted from the auditions." Whether or not a few get call-backs, most of the actors will inevitably come away from the auditions singing a slight variation on that great old tune, "We're either too young or too old..."
Note: The New Jersey Theater Group Lottery Auditions were held in New Brunswick, August 30 and 31, 1999. For information call 973-593-0189 or E-mail njtg@nj.com.
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