I had a cold-reading audition tonight, and they cast me on the spot: I was cast in a stage adaptation of the film Angel Heart, directed by Alan Parker.
The stage adaptation and direction is by Christopher Dames. Angel Heart one of my favorite movies from the 80's -- click on Angel Heart link to see the trailer.
I'll be playing two parts in two short scenes -- Dr. Albert Fowler (using my normal wild hair as Albert is a also a junkie) and Ethan Krusemark (a "respected" businessman, so I'll just slick my hair back and do a small change in costume).
It's a relatively short run, but a great opportunities because 1) the story is strong, 2) the original screenplay is great, and 3), it's a first for me: to play two different characters in the same play. (Actually, I'll be working on 3 different characters between now and the end of the year because the second cast for the Jewish Theater of New York's production of The Last Jew In Europe goes into rehearsal the first week of November).
My cold readings have gotten better -- all I did was what I've been learning in Deborah's class and what I've been teaching myself: I first took a few minutes to understand what was going on the scene. I didn't know the character's "back stories," and I didn't have the full context -- but I didn't worry about that. I just paid attention to what could be objectively known, and that was fairly simple, as it usually is.
Next -- rhythm and sense: the "character," "objectives," "actions," all the things I would have normally tried to do, all the things I would have tried to "figure out" before EVEN starting to read, all those things just happened on their own, and it all fell directly out of the text (and I reminded myself to mean what I'm saying, as best I can, and paying attention to the rhythm and the "journey of the thoughts" seemed to slowed me down enough to give me time to mean what I said).
Anyway, if there was some "strong choice" to make, I don't know what it could have been -- this is the usual advice one hears: perhaps where was a strong choice I could have made (see the section on this page called when you don't get the sides in advance), but I think that the effort and attention one puts into figuring out and then executing a "strong choice" too often comes at the expense of simply doing the scene . . . Deborah's class is definitely making me a much better/smarter actor!
Post-script: I got this from Deborah about the "strong choice" advice:
. . . there is no Strong Choice to make; the author made the choices and by being ON the text you made HIS choices automatically! Congratulations!
