A Pregnant Pause

Yesterday's workshop was with Abby Marateck, an associate from Schiff/Audino, the office that casts The Starter Wife (Which I haven't seen - shame on me!), and Mad Men (Which, in my opinion, is one of the best things on tv).

Ms M. was very pregnant (By "very", I mean her due date is in two weeks). So between the fact that she's going to be out on maternity leave for who-knows-how-long, and they're down to shooting the last couple episodes of The Starter Wife for the year (And Mad Men is already done), I'm not sure how worthwhile this workshop will have turned out to be.

But who knows? Hopefully, she'll go back to work, and the very first thing that crosses her desk will have a role perfect for Yours Truly.

We read with her - which she seemed to think was going to be weird for us, but it's something other casting people have done as well(As opposed to pairing actors up), to make it "more like a real casting session".

But she did do some other things differently; she moved things around so she and the actor reading the scene were perpendicular to the rest of us; so instead of watching the actor onstage from her perspective, we were watching her run a "casting session".

And when people were done, if she had a re-direct, she gave it to the person, moved on, then had all the people who'd gotten re-directs take another couple minutes with their scenes, then go again (Typically, the casting person gives a re-direct, if they've got one, and has the actor do it again immediately).

I had a nice scene from Starter Wife, as an agent - it was fun, and I immediately felt like I knew what to do with it.

Even so, I was more nervous than usual when my time came. Not sure why, but I was.

But my first instinct was right - I knew the scene was fun, and I knew what to do with it, so I didn't have any problem; when I finished, the casting person said I'd made "strong, clear choices", didn't have a re-direct for me, and put me in "the good pile" (I'm not sure she used that phrase, exactly, but basically, the people who weren't getting re-directs were the people she would have put through to the producers in a real casting situation. Which to me makes it "the good pile").

It was interesting to watch the other actors going up with a more critical eye (Which I think may have been Ms M's intent). And I guess I have a pretty good eye for casting, because of all the people I watched, I was only "off" on one or two (That I would have put through, and she gave re-directs to, or vice-versa).

If you're a young actor reading this, the biggest thing I notice, in general, with scenes that don't "work", and I've seen a lot of them at this point, is that usually the actor is going way too slowly - either speaking too slowly, pausing for way too long, or both. It drains the life out of a drama, and absolutely kills comedy.

I want to write about that at greater length (why scenes "work" or "don't work"), cause I think it's interesting (And may be interesting to you as well, particularly if you're an aspiring actor), but my weekly Weight Watchers meeting is calling.