Since my acting class that I was supposed to start taking fell through, I took my first acting type of class since I have been back to Los Angeles, (actually the first acting class I have taken since going to AADA) this last Tuesday.  It was really a casting director workshop, but they worked on scenes and auditions with us, so I pretty much considered that an acting class.  They also picked apart our resumes and headshots and told us (what I already know) that in order to survive and get ahead in this industry if you are not already doing co-staring roles on television shows and leading roles in big budget indies, that you need to pigeon-hole yourself into a character type that you do/look/play well.  I am always the “girl- next-door” but even that is too generic.  So, I play often the “troubled girl-next-door” or “quirky girl-next-door”. 

I also found out that the headshot I was using in Seattle (again, I knew this) made me look older, worked well in Seattle, but not so well in LA.  In LA, they like my younger looking, straight hair headshot, but they suggest that I take pictures (which I knew) that fit the characters that I am going for more… such as “troubled girl-next-door” or “quirky girl-next-door”.  Now, to only find a headshot photographer who will not charge me an arm and a leg and who will produce those amazing, look exactly like me, headshots…

When we first got to the Casting Director Workshop, after Casting Director Dan talked for awhile, they broke us up into pairs and gave us scenes.  I had a scene with this guy named Trent and honestly I think we had the best scene out of all three.  We were also the last of the three to go (I always prefer to go first, but it didn’t quite work out that way, or second).  The first scene was a little bit of a pain to watch, but the fact that the casting directors were brutally honest made it a million times better.  They stopped the pair several times to try and get them in the moment of the scene and to listen to each other instead of just speaking the lines in their own form. 

The second pair goes up, just as unevenly paired as the first.  One started off strong, but then got weaker as the critiques happened; the other was HORRIBLE, but got better with each critique.  What made me laugh, was the fact that when the casting directors were being brutally honest and telling one of the actresses that her acting was bad, but when she focused it was good, she made the excuse of, “my acting is NEVER bad, I’m tired”.  Really?  Wow!  The casting director was actually complimenting that she could take direction well and that once she realized she was doing bad acting, she quickly started to get out of her head and do a great job, vs. the actor that can get away with out doing character/scene work, get through the scene with a decent performance, but without being attached to the scene.  Both girls were confused, but I totally understood what the casting director was saying about both performances.

Finally it was mine and Trent’s turn.  We were two people at a rehab facility, waiting for our parents to visit on family day.  His character had a thing for mine and vice versa.  We actually had some chemistry which was great, and I had a few things I was working on (character quirks, anxiousness, writing in my journal).  Those three things helped me get out of my head and react to what Trent was saying.  We got to go through our scene once, then the second time, we were stopped at the beginning because they wanted Trent to really focus on where he was coming from.  Then we worked the scene again.  The casting director told us that she would have brought us in for a callback off of that audition.  They didn’t have many notes for us except that they enjoyed watching our scene, which was awesome, but also kind of a bummer since I was hoping to learn something.  Although, I guess I accomplished my goal, which was to get out of my head, be open minded and focus on my scene partner. 

They then opened up for questions from everyone, which again, took away from our scene.  They also seemed to like my resume (minus the older looking picture), they even used it as an example for the other actors, yay.

Overall, it was a great class, I feel like I got a lot out of it, especially since I have a passion for casting.