Audition Question (about aea website)

Question,
If you're looking at auditions on the AEA website and you click "Eastern" then "Non-Required Principals" and then you find open auditions, what does it mean if it says under contract, "Production (league)" ? Can a non-equity union member go to this audition (since it says open audition?) What does production (league) mean?

Under 'other' it says "Always bring your Equity Membership Card to auditions." so does this mean that only Equity members are allowed or is this just an automatic statement that they put on their posts? Thanks!

Erik

So then if doors open at 10, what time do you think I should get there? Doors close at 12, so that means that no one can sign up after 12? Or does that mean that no one can audition after 12?

Cool--- On the site it also says a monitor will NOT be provided. I'm assuming this is because it is not equity so they don't need an equity monitor, but I guess producers still like to see the union members first. i'm going to get there probably an hour early just because I'm patient, don't mind waiting and if they happen to take me early then cool .

What does it mean if it says "Typing will occur."

when they say "typing will occur" they mean that they will either group people by type or eliminate people by type (without seeing them read/sing-- purely based on visual--and perhaps vocal-- type).

in nyc, even for non-equity (and non-paying) open calls, people show up early early early. if you're trying to "crash" an equity open call, it's best to be as early as you can possibly stand-- i mean, it is not unheard of for actors to show up at 7am or earlier for a 10am call-- think the rush line for the color purple except more people and usually earlier in the morn.

at this call, if they do decide to see equity first, then it's likely that only the very first people in the non-equity line will be seen if any are seen at all. that's new york for you.

but i don't mean to be discouraging, i've just had experience with this, and want you to be prepared. don't forget to bring a book or something to do, because regardless you will be waiting.
break a leg!!!!

it's great that you're doing this-- you have to start somewhere!

since it's at ripley-grier, you can check their white board up front or ask someone at the desk what room the ave q audition is in. you will probably not be the first non-equity person there, so someone will have most likely already started a list. if no other non-eqs are there, then just take a piece of paper put Non-Equity list at the top and then your name after #1. Oh I just realized, depending on how early you get there, ripley-grier may not be open so you may very well be waiting outside-- it's difficult to say exactly what the whole situation will be like-- you'll just have to go and see.

as for the character voice, i definitely think you should do it. after all, you want to make a strong choice and show them what you can do in a short period of time. particularly for a show like this where you will most likely have to do more than one character "voice."

Sigh.

Auditioning for the sake of getting experience auditioning really defeats the real purpose of an audition. Particularly when there are hundreds of people serious about the specific roles being offered - and many of whom, alas, probably won't be able to be seen due to time constraints.

Having myself sat on the other side of the table for many years,
I can assure you that casting people do not take well to people who obviously are wrong for a role and are just there taking up space and time from people who ARE appropriate for the particular audition.

This is not a criticism of you personally - perhaps you are the right type for Avenue Q...and have the specific required skills in puppetry, etc. -but to audition just for the sake of auditioning is unfair to everyone else involved.

Auditioning (particularly under the Production Contract) is not a game and not a workshop set up for you to learn how to audition - and you will have plenty of opportunities to get experience in the audition procedure by auditioning for jobs you are really there to get not just to use as a test case or to hone your auditioning skills.

Again, this is not a criticism of your own specific case...but I have seen 75 year old women come in to audition for the role of a teenager, people who could barely even walk demand to be seen for arduous dance roles, roles requiring foreign language skills draw auditionees who didn't know a single word in that language, and people who couldn't sing at all actually want to be seen for opera roles....... and on and on like that. Some people are just deluded, others make it a policy to audition for EVERYthing no matter what the role or their suitability for it. Some audition just to audition!

If you have hundreds of people to see and you can only see a fraction of them, it is unfair to every one involved to play games like this.

However, as I assume is the case here, if you are saying that you think you might be right for one of the roles but lack auditioning experience and would like to try out auditioning for this - that is totally valid and a completely different story. Hence, again emphasizing - this is not a criticism of you or your intentions specifically - just a general comment about auditioning from viewpoints on both sides of the table.

Updated On: 7/28/06 at 08:01 AM