FAIR WARNING FROM THE CASTING DIRECTORS

I just came from a meeting of Austin Alliance at which casting directors Donise Hardy and Beth Sepko reiterated to the agents and acting coaches the problems they are having with the lack of professionalism of Austin actors at auditions.

This has become such a problem that they are often embarrassed in front of their film and commercial clients. I thought I would pass some of their concerns on to you as a public service.

First of all...Austin actors are being routinely outperformed at auditions by Dallas and Houston actors, not to mention L.A. actors. This is bad, because we are trying to attract work here. But, more discouraging is that huge numbers of Austin actors can’t seem to focus on the most basic rules of auditions, such as:

*bringing headshots with resumes attached

*accurate resumes that list special abilities without lying

*being punctual

*bringing friends and family with them to auditions

*knowing how to stand on the mark, slate, do profiles,

handle scripts and accomplish the basic nuts and bolts of the business

*at film auditions, not preparing with the sides, bringing the wrong sides, not reading the script when provided

*at commercial auditions not knowing how to present themselves, relate to the camera, smile and be personable

The list goes on and on. They talked for two hours about how frustrated they are with the acting community here. The upshot is, Beth and Donise have decided, with unanimous backing from the equally frustrated agents, to “red card” actors who commit these and similar offenses. They are no longer going to baby actors who are unprepared, even for walk-on roles or commercial looks.

So, Fair Warning... develop a professional demeanor or forget about it. That’s the message our local casting directors sent us home with.

Most of the acting coaches feel that we routinely teach these basic audition techniques to people who take our classes frequently, but we want to help because a professional acting pool attracts business and the opposite, well...is the opposite! We want to work too!

I strongly urge you to learn audition skills. All of the acting coaches in town will help you. Donise Hardy has a commercial workshop you can sign up for. I am dedicating my workshops on Thursday July 26 and Saturday July 28 to auditions: how to get a good headshot, resume, and all the details of commercial auditioning as well as film auditioning.

Let’s raise the bar in this town so we all get more work!

Thanks.

Marco Perella