I just auditioned for membership with One on One. Like Actor's Connection and The Network, they function as middlemen between actors (sellers) and casting directors, filmmakers, agents, managers and producers (buyers), but their audition process is not just a formality.
I was rejected, but they invited me to try again, and I thought I'd share the feedback I got -- feedback I found constructive, solid and professional.
The audition is two monologues: I did Gabe from Dinner with Friends and Vanya (adapted by Brian Friel). The main criticism I got was that the monologues probably would not get me cast in anything that I'm likely to audition for, which is mostly TV and film projects: on purely practical grounds, the auditor didn't think they were the best monologues for me, so he wants me to come up with more appropriate monologues and then come back and audition again.
He gave me some guidelines: he sees me getting cast as the goofy best friend, the weird eccentric guy, the crazy scientist, the artistic, etc. All this, he said, was based on my look and the sense of my 'personality.' Monologues in line that those types of characters, he thought, would more likely fly with the "buyers" than Gabe or Vanya. He thought they would be good choices for theatre -- and definitely Vanya for an audition that requires a classical monologue -- but the "buyers" at 1-on-1 aren't looking for it and wouldn't know how to cast me in anything specific they were looking for if they saw it.
In short, I thought it was valuable feedback. I'm also assuming my audition technique could be stronger -- that could always be better (though he didn't say anything about that).
So -- 1-on-1 strikes me as a pretty focused 3rd-party casting agency, and they seem to have a pretty good idea about what their "buyers" are looking for and the type of actor who's likely to book jobs there.
