Rejection stories

Hey all.. question. What's the worst rejection you've ever experienced while trying out for a role?? I can now say I have 2...thanks to last night's audtion >;(
My first...
Audtioning for Arsenic and Old Lace
I....walked on stage. I heard "Thank you, that's all" from the director.
Runner Up
Rehersal for Murder
Last night my request to read a scene was refused because (quote) "um..you're not exactly the leading lady type". keep in mind, this is a high school production with 15 kids going out for 11 roles..

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That's SO cold, dude...seriously. A couple years ago i know that our school was in an "uproar" as it were because they cast an African-american as peter pan.....but people NEED to get a life. Get over your petty racisms and look to what really matters.

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I hate that...they call you back then squash your dreams.

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I auditioned for The Sound of Music a couple years back to be one of the Von Trapps. I got cut and got over it, then a few days later I get a call saying I had been called back. So I went to the call back and there were about 16 kids there total, the director said he was casting the seven kids and understudies for all seven. At the end of the audition we were told we would be called either way. Turns out there were only two understudies for the girls and no one was called to find out they weren't cast, so we all found out once rehearsals started and we were at the studios for classes held by the company. Annoying. I wouldn't have minded as much if I didn't have to be rejected twice for the same show, I was already over it by the time the callback happened. Oh well, better things came later.

For a touring production of "The Sound of Music" a year and a half ago my agent sent me out on an audition. Now for some reason, they kept on thinking i was like 10 (i was 13 during the audition) because a few months earlier they sent me to audtion for the role of Young Guido in the Revival of "Nine" (Right before I turned 13). So I go, and they ask me to sing Edelweiss in a range that i could only be able to sing if I was kicked in the groin. And not to mention, my dad was driving me there and he had the air conditioning on which dried my voice and I had no water with me (BIG mistake!) So I go. And I start to sing, and...nothing comes out! So I ask to start again, swallow a few times. And start to sing again, this time i'm actually singing and it's good but you cna't hear because im so quiet. They say "Louder!" and I belt my head off. They stop me after the song "good, but, you're supposed to be like, 12, can you tone down the belting?" I said "sorry, no" they say "That will be all."(Then in a harsh voice, practically braying) "NEEEXT!" I thanked them. ANd they gave me a smile and pointed towards the door. I was so embarassed.

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I auditioned for my college's show last semester. First, they mis-advertised, the night I went was supposed to be callbacks, but they listed it as a regular night of auditions. So, instead of singing what I had (What You Own), I had to sing something from the show. Normally, this would be fine, but there was no music. The guy sang the song for us twice, then had us sing it for him. I apparently didn't do so bad, as they had me stay to read lines. Everyone they had stay read two lines each. I got cut (and not to sound conceited or jealous or anything, but after seeing the show, I'm baffled as to why).

Just how you can cast a show by having the auditioners sing a song without music and by reading two lines is beyond me, but whatever. Ah well, its better this way: I've heard working on the show was a NIGHTMARE

A non overweight person can play Tracey.

Marissa's original understudy (forgot the name) wore a "fat suit" when she went on.

So..anything can happen.

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Oh, some of these are awful!

My worst was last year, in Honk! tryouts. I did the best audition of my life, got called back, did a fabulous dance audition, and then was asked to read for Penny. I do a really good read, and the director tells me, "We're giving you the part." I'm on air for the rest of the day.

Then he casts someone an inch shorter than me as Ugly, and gives the part to a very pretty, petite girl who can't sing. Not only that, she does the character and even the blocking exactly as I had during my audition!

I was crushed.

*sigh*

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rejected as "Gavroche" in the broadway company of Les Miserables, twice. Obviously, this was quite a few years ago!

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I've had a few terrible rejections, but who hasn't, right? The two that come to mind happened when I was younger.

The first time involved a production of "The King & I". I was contracted with another show (in a very small role) when the director for "King & I" calls up and pleads with me to break my contract and play Louis for her. We chatted for a bit about the character and I decided to accept. So I gracefully bowed out of the other production and committed myself to playing Louis. I was called in to sing with the Anna hopefuls and everything was going well. Then...I get a not-so-pleasantly worded e-mail from the director explaining that I should beg the other company to let me have my role back because she decided that her niece should play Louisa, following in her father's footsteps (he had played Louis for this company many years earlier.) Not only was I out of a job, I was humiliated by the fact that I was replaced by a girl in a role clearly written for a boy just like me. Not to mention, how do you just rewrite history? It's not like Anna and Louis weren't based on real people! Anyway... (I swear, I'm over it )

The second time came a few years later. I had just finished a lengthy, award-winning run as Hero in "...Forum" and was contracted to reprise my role for a different company the following year. At the closing performance I was approached by the director of another theatre company that was about to begin rehearsals for their production of the show. He explained that he didn't have a Hero cast yet and that he would be thrilled if I would do it. Of course I said yes and we began to work out the details of the contract. Everything seemed perfect and I was genuinely excited to play Hero for this director. A few weeks passed with no word on rehearsals, so I finally contacted the director to ask him when I needed to be there. He then informed me that he had decided to go with someone who "isn't really very good, but he's Pseudolus' roommate and he's a lot cheaper." I couldn't help but laugh even though it really did hurt.

So; the moral of the story, boys and girls, is that you shouldn't get your heart set on something until the contract has been signed!

Take care and love to all,
Joshua

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yeah, being fat can be a problem. I was auditioning for a hs production of west side story, and while the director pulled me aside and told me "you have one the strongest soprano voices i've heard in a very long time" I didn't even get a call back for a main part. Her reasoning to all the rejects? "right now we are just calling back people with strong voices" ha!

whatever, I ended up playing "margarita" one of the non-speaking sharkettes, and I sang "there's a place for us" during the "dream sequence"

off stage

and i wasn't even in the program under my name...it was my character...so if you actually took the time to see who was who...

yes it's been five years


and yes i'm still bitter

and yes i know that that's pretty sad

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"That doesn't mean that it's right... like a skinny person could understand being fat."

Yup and I guess I will be an awful Hannigan in my revue because I don't beat kids.

I must have been awful in the show that took place at the turn of the century because I just don't know what being poor or having tb are like.

And just because skinny people arent fat, doesnt mean they don't have pathos or understanding! There are similar situations where people have been discriminated based on their looks - where weight isn't involved.

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hurumph, believe it or not, this one time i got turned down for this play because i didnt have enough chemistry with a tea pot...

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