For thirteen years, I coordinated the state college auditions for the Georgia Thespians. Not only did I maintain contact with all of the colleges who attended and set up the audition materials and procedures, but I also sat in the audition room for hours making sure everything ran as smoothly as possible.
Throughout the years, I learned a lot from the students who auditioned and from the college reps who auditioned them. Let me share one of those stories with you now.
I’ll call this Little Girl Blue
I’m sure you’ve heard the advice to avoid profanity in audition pieces. Most refutable resources will confirm that obscenities, while high effective in certain circumstances, are best avoided during an audition where you are a student auditioning for a room full of adults. Shock isn’t necessarily your audition friend.
So one time, many years ago, I called the number of a sweet-looking, petite young girl who walked up to the performance space, introduced herself and started into her 90 second, well-rehearsed monologue.
The first sentence contained a word so obscene I can’t even just write the first letter and follow it with stars and asterisks. The next sentence contained two more of the really big, bad ones - words so naughty I knew Santa had never visited her. Ninety seconds, folks, and she had managed to dirty up the room with a string of profanities, and no one knew who the character was or what the situation was in the selection.
When the 90 seconds were up, mouths were hanging agape. Bodies were frozen. The room was silent. She said “Thank you,” twirled around and walked out of the room.
The college reps and I were somewhat shell-shocked. One commented that she felt the need to bathe – immediately. I felt sorry for the student who had to audition next as if nothing unusual had just happened.
But we all forged on, like you do when you walk into a friend’s house and it has a peculiar smell but you don’t want to embarrass your friend by pointing it out. We all pretended the room didn’t stink. And the rest of the students auditioning helped restore the air of nervous excitement that had been present in the room prior to Little Girl Blue.
I was curious when call-backs were posted. I didn’t see her name or number on any list. Shame. She wasted her opportunity.
Word to the wise…