Late last year Jeremy interviewed one of his clients on the realities of auditioning. The client had recently graduated from a musical theatre course and had already had a number of auditions in the West End, including two that day. Here is the second part of our interviewee's audition experiences:

Jeremy: Can we talk about agents? How does the interface between the actor and the agent work? What happens?

Client: Okay. The casting directors will send a casting breakdown to all the agencies who they want to - are interested in seeing their actors. So, my agent will receive a piece of paper saying, “Debbie O’Brien is casting for Grease. We need people of this description, of this ability, to do this.” The agent - or whoever’s agent - will then send off my headshot and my CV back to Debbie. Debbie will then look at a pile of CVs and, I don’t know how, somehow select who she wants to see and who she doesn’t. She will then call the agent to say, “Right, we want to call your client in for an audition at x time, at x place.” He will then call me and say, “You’ve got an audition to Grease at 12:00 tomorrow at x place.” So, you say “yes” to the audition. You go to the audition and then more often than not you don’t hear anything. If I wanted feedback, I could talk to my agent and he would try to get feedback for me. Otherwise, they don’t let you know. Even if you get down to the last round, they don’t let you know. If you haven’t got it, you don’t know anything.

Jeremy: I can understand about not letting a hundred people know. But when you’ve got down to the last round, I find it very odd.

Client: Yeah. And then if you get a job - so I’ve been offered a couple of cruise things recently, two different companies, and so if they do want you, they then talk to your agent again, your agent then talks to you. And then you have to make the decision. It’s up to you. And you always have to remember that they are working for you. Because they can be tough. It’s their jobs to be tough because they have - I mean, my agent I believe does have my professional well being, you know, he takes it very seriously and wants to do the best for me, but I really did not want to do a cruise job, for various reasons. And I had quite a heated discussion with my agent about that. And, at the end of the day it’s my decision.

Jeremy: If you hear, on the grapevine let’s say, that a show is coming in that you want to be seen for, can you go to him and say, “I really want to be seen for this.” and get an audition?

Client: Yes. But more often than not he would have put me up for it. And will then give me a hard time for pestering him. Because, this happened, actually, not long ago. I heard about some things I hadn’t heard about the auditions through him, and I was like, “Ooh, I wonder, I wonder if he put me up for it.” And so I did email him and say, “I’ve heard about this show, I’ve heard about that show, could you please put me up for them if you haven’t already?” And he sent me back an email saying, “I couldn’t possibly tell you how many shows I put you up for on a daily…” You only get seen for a fraction of the number of shows they actually put you forward for. So, his point was, you know, he puts me up for so many shows, he can’t spend his days telling his actors on his books what shows he’s putting them up for, because ultimately it’s not helpful. Because it’s up to the casting director whether they want to see you or not. It’s not as easy as just getting the audition.

But then like the show I’m auditioning for tomorrow, which is a fringe theatre, because I’ve worked with the director before, same venue, different show, the director called me directly about getting an audition. And, I actually couldn’t go. So I spoke to my agent who then, because he knew I had the relationship with the director, said “I’ve heard a lot of good things about this show, so therefore, please would you see if you can get an audition?” Because he knew that him calling up and pestering would actually be less effective.

Jeremy: Because you’ve got the direct contact.

Client: Yeah. So, it’s kind of a two-way thing. I don’t think it hurts to sign up for the odd casting call thing or there’s internet. You know, sort of networking.

Jeremy: CV and photograph. Because obviously from what you’ve said, the CV and the photograph is the first port of call for the casting director. But, in fact, no, the first port of call for the casting director is the agent. And, the agent - the casting director will usually rely on the agent’s reputation to know that the agent will choose from his coterie

Client: Definitely, definitely. And he will assess, and he will chat you up. You know, the agent won’t just send you details, the agency I have doesn’t actually - he will follow up with a phone call saying, “My girl is great, you must see her because of xyz and she’s just done this.” And gives it the chat as well. CV and photo plus chat from agent.

Jeremy: The whole business of CV and photo I think is so fascinating because it gives a snapshot of who you are and where you are and what you do and what sort of things you do. And I know that, for me, one of the most problematic things with CVs is that usually, the agent has the say over how your CV looks because there’s a sort of house style.

Client: Yeah. And what goes on it. Because if they want to sell you in a certain way, they might take some things off and put some things on, which is, you know, has certainly happened with mine. Because he wants to sell me as character female, so then the character stuff goes on and the less character stuff comes off. He’s kept on my academic degree, which I find quite interesting. And actually that kind of - I’m sure it wasn’t their reason, but in the last round audition I was trying out for Grease, the director, after I finished singing my song, just started chatting with me, just general chit chat. And out of the blue starts quizzing me about my psychology degree. And it was the strangest thing in the world. Because suddenly found myself having an intense conversation with this guy - it was a panel of 12 - about the fact that I have a Psychology Masters. And I was thinking, “Why are you asking me about this? This has got nothing to do with what I’m doing.” And then actually the feedback I got from that - because there was quite a hoo-ha about who they were going to choose, “Well, she might be too intelligent for the role.” And I thought, “Well don’t bloody ask me about my psychology degree then.”

And I’ve had to have head shots since I joined the agency. Um, and the weight thing, you know. You get hassled for weight a lot. Unless you’re one or the other. There’s no middle, there’s no being in between. You have to be thin – thin-thin, not just normal; slim, thin. Or you have to be totally the other side. And it depends on the shows. But head shots are worth working on because it does make a difference. And if you go into agency websites and just have a look at what head shots, you quickly see what’s a good one, what draws your eye or what doesn’t. I think it takes a couple of times to get it right. And again, it’s a fun experience, having your head shot done.”

We will be publishing the final instalment of this interview in a future eZINE

If you have any questions on vocal or performance solutions, or auditioning techniques, email us at yqa@vocalprocess.co.uk

Jeremy has just finished his season with the Scarborough Spa Orchestra, and will be updating his blog from October. In the meanwhile, click the box opposite to read his blog archive.
http://www.singingcoach.blogspot.com