Audition: “Tropicana” @ Judy Elkins Casting. A great way to start off a bright Saturday morning. It went well, so we’ll see.

This afternoon I attended a workshop @ The Actorsite with 4 associates from 4 different casting offices. Usually, the guest will bring their own scenes to distribute, but when they have multiple guests’ actors, sometimes, bring their own scenes. This was a perfect opportunity to present a scene from the script I’m writing.

I’d already discussed it with a particular actor to read the male role. He had previously read a couple of others things I had written. I had two females in mind for the other role, but neither one of them were on the list for this particular event. Then I chose someone else who played a bit older than the character, but was a very, very talented actress, but she didn’t show up either. Soon as I found that out I ran into another actress, Erica, that I see at actorsite from time to time. Immediately I knew that she was perfect for the part.

I forget to tell the male actor not to tell her I had written the scene. I didn’t want her to get in her head about “the writer” being in the room. Anyway, she found out and was a bit nervous. I was nervous too, but I said “just have fun”. I resisted the urge to explain the scene and just let it go as written. I had re-written, re-written and re-written this scene; so I felt it was ready to be read. I knew that these actors are paying hard-earned cash to attend this event and I didn’t want to let them down.

When they hit the stage I was sweating bullets!! OH SH*T!!! None of the 30 people in the room knew I had written the scene, so I wouldn’t get any courtesy support. Here it goes, the first time anything I have written is being read for an audience. IT WENT GREAT!!!!! The audience was listening, laughing and they stayed in the moment. Talk about “waiting to exhale”? I don’t think I took one breath the entire time. I was so pleased with how it went. The actors really brought life to it. They nailed most of the beats that were there and showed me new things that I didn’t know about. I was so, so happy. Joe and Erica, thank you for trusting me.