Tag: Mark Russell Gray

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Callbacks for Barefoot in the Park

To my surprise, I received a callback for Barefoot in the Park at Button Theatre. If you read the previous post you will remember that I discussed not having a beard during auditions. So I did something stupid for the callback… I shaved.

My thought was that if I shaved, I would appear younger, and the director would read me for the younger role. Had I spent just a few seconds and thought, I would have realized that I was being called back for the part I read for, which was the older male role.

Now I have cut myself out of a role because I did not look the part. I knew this and was just being stupid.

In discussing this with my friend Mark Gray, who acts in Atlanta, you should even where the same cloths you work for the initial audition.

Of course if I had just did a little research before the audition I would have know the age range of the character that I wanted.

I am still going to shave before auditions.

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Audition Notice: Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Onstage Atlanta will hold non-equity auditions for Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf on Saturday June 24, 12 pm. – 3 pm. Cold readings from the script. Please bring a head shot and resume. A stipend will be paid. Call 404-897-1802 for an audition appointment. Auditioning for the roles of Nick and Honey only. Tom Palmer will direct the show.

My friend Mark Grey is the lead in this one.

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Jest a Second is a No Go

Tammy and I went to see a play Saturday night at the Stage Door Players in Dunwoody. The play is Blithe Spirit. Mary Sittler, who was in Beau Jest with me, and my friend Mark Grey were in this play. And by chance the director of Beau Jest, Lane Teilhaber also attended Saturday’s show.

As you may recall, Jest a Second is the sequel to Beau Jest. Lane was hoping to do Jest a Second at Kudzu Playhouse, with the same cast as Beau Jest, and at the same time next season. Well it turns out that Kudzu does not want to do Just a Second.

The story of Beau Jest was that SARAH created a fake boyfriend to please her parents because, they did not approve of her real boyfriend. So in Jest a Second, JOEL, divorced parent of two, is afraid to introduce his significant other, RANDY to his parents. The impression is that RANDY is female when actually RANDY is JOEL’s boyfriend.

What Kudzu has an issue with is not the potential controversy, the same controversy Stage Door experienced with a homosexual relationship in Deathtrap just recently, but that it would not draw the audience or even chase away the audience when they call to find out what the play is about.

Well keep that a secret. Say something like: “Jest a Second, a sequel to Beau Jest. In Beau Jest, SARAH has problems and hilarious consequences over the issue of presenting her boyfriend to her parents. A year later, JOEL is faced the very same issue.”

See. Let the audience assume whatever they want. Jest a Second, like Beau Jest is about family and family relationships and not about sexual preference. And after seeing the play, I would hope the audience would see it the same way. It is a very good play and I hope one day to be able to be in it.